Race, Class and Critique of Capitalism in W.E.B. Du Bois's Black Reconstruction in America

• Grant number: 25/08516-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: August 31, 2025
• End date: December 19, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Yara Adario Frateschi
• Grantee: Heitor Moreira Lurine Guimarães
• Supervisor: Agustin Lao Montes
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Massachusetts, Amherst (UMass Amherst), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/01139-7 - Race, Coalition and Critique of Capitalism: Dialogues between Nancy Fraser and W.E.B. Du Bois, BP.MS

Abstract

In the original version of my Masters research (process Fapesp nº 2024/01139-7), one of my proposals was to draw on W.E.B. Du Bois's Black Reconstruction in America in order to understand what role racial divisions among capitalist working classes play in preventing the rise of inter-racial coalitions of workers that might challenge capitalism's own foundations. As the research progressed, however, I came across some matters concerning that book which turned out to be essential for making sense of Du Bois's critical project, and therefore for my own goals. These matters consist of three key aspects, namely: (a) Du Bois's account of slavery as specific kind of unfree working class with agency of its own; (b) his understanding on how that racialized working class brought about the possibility of a democratic reconstruction of American society which could have been emancipatory not only for black population but also to white subaltern groups; (c) Du Bois's theory on how racism provides white subaltern groups with symbolic and material advantages, thereby coopting them to reactionary political projects. In Du Bois's theorization, these three aspects correspond, respectively, to his concepts of "dark labor", "Abolition Democracy" and "public and psychological wages". In this internship period (BEPE), to be carried out in the W.E.B. Du Bois Departament of Afro-american Studies of UMass Ahmrest, my purpose is to analyze these three concepts in order to assess whether and to what extent do they converge towards a critical theory of racial capitalism aimed at fostering unity between racially differentiated kinds of working class.