Theories Of Race And Racism example essay topic

Du Bois vs. Cox Everyone has a different technique of evaluating the concept of race. The question that I wanted to ask is how these writers are using their experiences to development their own opinion. How did this concept of race develop into the immense issue we are facing now? According to Oliver C. Cox, the origin of race relations starts with ideas of ethnocentrism, intolerance, and racism. W.E.B. Du Bois said that if what want to find the truth out about race we need to look at the history of the world past the last centuries. The origin of race in my judgment as resulted from both history and the concepts mentioned in Cox's opinion. He was an African American sociologist.

He has born on August 24, 1901. From Port of Spain, Trinidad, Cox was one of eight children and was raised by his uncle Reginald who was a teacher. He came to the United States and earned a degree in history and economics in 1927 at Tuskegee Institute. The environment in Alabama frustrated him and he then joined the faculty of Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri in 1949. He stayed there until 1970, when he joined the faculty of Wayne State University in Michigan. Cox is best known for his attack on the "caste school of race relations", in later years he argued his Marxist views of capitalism and race in three books: Foundations of Capitalism (1959), Capitalism and American Leadership (1962), and Capitalism as a System (1964).

His final work was Jewish Self-Interest and Black Pluralism (1974). Oliver Cromwell Cox died September 4, 1974. Compared to Cox one can tell how W.E.B. Du Bois' life influenced the way he thinks and acts. William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Dubois was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He was one of the most influential black leaders of the first half of the 20th Century.

Dubois shared in the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, in 1909. He served as its director of research and editor of its magazine, 'Crisis,' until 1934. Dubois was the first African American to receive a Ph. D. from Harvard University in 1896. Between 1897 and 1914 Dubois conducted numerous studies of black society in America, publishing 16 research papers.

He began his investigations believing that social science could provide answers to race problems. Gradually he concluded that in a climate of virulent racism, social change could only be accomplished by agitation and protest. At the turn of the century Dubois had been a supporter of black capitalism. Throughout his career he moved steadily to the political left.

By 1905 he had been drawn to socialist ideas and remained sympathetic to Marxism throughout his life. Dubois acted in support of integration and equal rights for everyone regardless of race, but his thinking often exhibited a degree of black separatist-nationalist tendencies. In 1961 Dubois became completely disillusioned with the United States. He moved to Ghana, joined the Communist Party, and a year later renounced his American Citizenship. August 27, 1963, on the eve of the March On Washington, Dubois died in Accra, Ghana, shortly after becoming a Ghana citizen. First, Oliver Cox must have been a smart man because in all of his books he used good language.

When I read Chapter four, in Theories of Race and Racism edited by Les Back and John Solomos, I used terms such as ethnocentrism, I needed to figure what that meant. Just my luck there was a definition in the essay. Ethnocentrism is a social attitude which expresses a community o feeling in any group - the "we" feeling as over against the "others" (B&S, May 09: 71). From a fine evaluation of the essay of Oliver Cox, The essay present the point that races were developed so people could say that they belonged to one particular group. Subsequent to, intolerance began to build up.

People saw society as a way of living, like a guideline to life. As people started to change these guidelines, the world started to change their attitude about others. That is how now I can say that I am better than another. After, people separate it is hard to become one again.

History has proven again and again that racism has existed for a long time. It was mentioned in chapter five, in Theories of Race and Racism, how the criteria of race differences were in the past been proposed as color, hair, and language (B&S, May 09: 79-80). In the past nations have divided because they have different views and opinions. For example, Pakistan used to be apart of India, but because they did not get along India divided. To this day, there is still a struggle calming down the conflict between the Muslims and the Hindus in Northern India. In the middle east, there is a conflict over the holy land, as so called.

If we ask people to change their views they answer by saying they did it before in the past. What happened in the past is like a green light for people to do what they do. They just blame the past. Defining racism and figuring out how to eliminate the concept of races are to very hard things. To define racism we have to look at history and see where the idea of difference all started. In Theories of Race and Racism edited by Les Back and John Solomos, essays by Oliver Cox and W.E.B. Du Bois address the question about race.

Cox in his essay stated that ethnocentrism, intolerance, and racism are the guideline to follow to see the origin of races. However, W.E.B. Du Bois said that history presents the facts about the origin of races. I thoughts combine Cox and Du Bois' ideas if these two concepts were examined together I bet that we could find a little more about racism and races. Work Cited Back, Les, and Solomos, John, Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader, (New York: Routledge, 2000).

Lewis, David L., W.E.B. Dubois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919, (New York: Owl Books, 1994). Lewis, David L., W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century 1919-1963, (New York: Henry Holt and company, LLC, 2000). Reed, Adolph Jr., New Introduction: "The Life and Career of Oliver C. Cox", (USA: 2000). ISBN: 1-58367-006-8.