“Let the ears of the guilty people tingle with truth”: W. E. B. Du Bois as an original sociologist

• Published in: The British journal of sociology 2017-03, Vol.68 (1), p.31-36
• Main Author: Back, Les
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: African Americans; African Americans - psychology; Du Bois; Du Bois, W E B (1868-1963); Enslavement; Faculty; Guilt; History of sociology; History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Humans; Morris, Aldon D; Race; Sociological theory; Sociologists; Sociology; Sociology - history; Universities
• ISSN: 0007-1315; 1468-4446
• DOI: 10.1111/1468-4446.12242_1

First and foremost I'd like to thank Aldon Morris for his passionate and much needed intervention returning W.E.B. Du Bois to his rightful place as a key figure that from its inception shaped sociology. During Du Bois’s extraordinary and long life he defined a sociological vision even before the emergence of the discipline as we know it today. In the midst of the recent 100th anniversary of American sociology Gurminder Bhambra concluded that there are two enduring institutionally distinct traditions – one black and one white. Bhambra observes starkly that white sociology: ‘failed to address issues of race in the US or to make space for discussion of such themes within sociology departments in historically white universities’ (Bhambra 2014: 2). It is not just that Du Bois’s influence has been denied, as Morris rightly shows, but also, as Bhambra argues, black sociologists were largely ignored by the white mainstream even though they remained attentive readers of their white counterparts.Aldon Morris's argument is that Du Bois founded the ‘first scientific school of sociology in America’. In his account we should value Du Bois as a scientist and empirical sociologist who rejected ‘armchair theorizing’ and ‘car window sociology’. I can do no more than simply cheer this claim; Du Bois was indisputably an original sociologist. I think, though, that Du Bois’s gift to us today is much more than this. My only quibble with Morris's excellent essay is that this view of his legacy limits how his work might incite a more expanded vision of what sociology might include now.