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Moreover, in such a context even whites in less comfortable circumstances could find a measure of psychological gratification by identifying with the racist self-referentiality of European peoples and cultures which posed themselves as superior and uniquely civilized. Du Bois points out that the white working class had become complicit in the exploitation of the people of color because of the promise of wealth, power and luxury previously unseen. He notes that they ""have been asked to share the spoils of exploiting...," the peoples of color of the world. And the exploiting class was enlarged to include the whole nation bound together not simply by "sentimental patriotism, loyalty or ancestor worship," but rather by "increased wealth, power and luxury for all classes on a scale the world never saw before." Du Bois concedes that "the laborers are not yet getting, to be sure, as large a share as they want or will get, and they are still at the bottom large and restless excluded classes." But he asserts, "the laborer's equity is recognized and his just share is a matter of time, intelligence and skillful negotiation" (1915: 363f). Thus is created the propaganda and process of racializing work and workers, not only distinguishing them by color but assigning different kinds of work and different levels of monetary and other benefits for this work. It is both a domestic and international process that will have a profound effect not only on the history of the labor movement, but also on race relations throughout the world.

Certainly, the current globalization thrust recalls Du Bois's insight about the ruling race/class's building of a racialized consensus around the reputed benefit and need of the project. And, of course, this consensus is reaffirmed in the post-9/11 context in which not only white economic and political interests, but also the security of the country, are posed as under threat. With a heightened sense of vulnerability and trauma as a result of the attack on the U.S., the American population is called upon to sacrifice rights and liberties, support ill-defined and unjust wars, and reduce dissent in the interest of country and cause, i.e., "the war on terrorism" (Chang, 2002). In any case, in spite of the call to all races to join in, the core of the project is racialized although it is most often camouflaged under religious, cultural and even national designations and discourse. The profiling and criminalization of Arabs, Muslims and certain nations of these peoples in this so-called security initiative by the state, recalls the criminalization and mass incarceration of another people of color, the Japanese, and the call for the country to accept it in the interest of national security and the war effort.

Civilized Savagery. Here Du Bois introduces another paradox of color-line thought and practice-the paradox of "civilized savagery" or savagery in the midst of claims to civilization. Having appropriated for themselves the self-congratulatory status of "civilized," Europeans -continental and diasporan-easily assign the opposite categories of savage, uncivilized, etc., to people of color. This, of course, can be found even in modern times in repeated references to the "civilized world" which one must assume applies essentially to European peoples and others fortunate enough to receive this honorary status having faithfully embraced the European paradigm. Du Bois, however, is not so much concerned with the exclusivity of the European claim as he is with the savage character of its practice in regard to the people of color of the world. He notes how "lying treaties, . murder, assassination, mutilation, rape and torture have marked the progress of Englishman, German, Frenchman and Belgian on the Dark continent" (1915: 361). Moreover, he notes that as a result of their "war-engendering jealousies" and struggle for imperial advantage in Africa and the rest of the world, they have launched "this unspeakably inhuman outrage on decency and intelligence and religion which we call the World War." (367f). Thus, despite Europe's claim to civilized status, its actual practice¾its barbaric treatment of peoples of color and the brutal destructiveness of World War I, which Du Bois calls "the present holocaust"¾ problematizes the claim.

In his article titled "Mexico" in the Crisis magazine (1914: 409), Du Bois criticizes the U.S.'s threat to declare war on Mexico for a minor incident. He sees it as another effort to subdue and exploit a country of color, masked like classical imperialism as a "civilizing mission." He asks, "how much civilization can we teach the world, anyway?" And "are we civilized," ourselves? Noting the brutal character of the so-called civilizing mission of classical imperialism, he asserts that "We may blunder into murder and shame and call it a Mexican War. But it will not be war. It will be crime."

Again, Du Bois calls our attention to the tendency of those who claim to be most civilized to act with savage intensity in race and class suppression, insisting that they have a duty to impose their paradigm and interests on the rest of the vulnerable world. Certainly, discussions such as Huntington's "clash of civilizations" (1997) and the need to defend European soi-disant civilization against the devalued peoples of the world represent a continuing pattern of racialized interpretations of the world and European peoples' assertion in the world. This brutal interpretation of white people's role as bringers and protectors of "civilization," democracy, freedom and a host of other self-congratulatory claims is clearly expanded and made more urgent in the so-called "war on terrorism." And the racial aspects of the campaign in the U.S. and around the world are clear even with the camouflage of religious and cultural discourse (AbuKhalil, 2002).

In the midst of the white or European nations' globalization of racism as an adjunct and essential aid to the political, economic and cultural domination in the world, Du Bois embraces three major initiatives reflective of his commitment to freedom, justice and equality of the peoples of color and humanity as a whole. These are socialism, the peace movement, and Pan-Africanism.

The Socialist Initiative. Du Bois's road to socialism lies in his critical grasp of the intersection between race and class in the calculus of imperialist expansion. He recognized that imperialism was at its core an economic project, i.e., for acquisition and control of the resources of the world. But he also recognized that fundamental victims and workers in this process, "consist overwhelmingly of the dark workers of Asia, Africa, the islands of the sea and South and Central America." "These," he notes, "are the ones who support a superstructure of wealth, luxury, and extravagance" for the white nations of the world (1939: 283). And it is this intersection of racial domination and economic exploitation that defines the central problem of the 20th century for him as the problem of the color-line.

His assumption is that given the all-consuming profit motive which stands at the heart of capitalism, a socialist alternative focused on issues of common human good was imperative. In a commentary on socialism in the Chicago Defender (1948: 353), he defines socialism as "the attempt to regulate the activities of men for the good of the mass of people, instead of letting government or industry be run for the benefit of certain individuals." He calls communism "the most extreme proposal of socialism" and notes that it is "socialism based on dictatorship and force, and designed to introduce immediately the complete socialistic state." His interest is and remained in a democratic socialism, in spite of his defiant joining of the Community Party USA to assert his self-determination and right to dissent after decades of government persecution and harassment.

Du Bois, in this brief article, lays out other essential elements of his democratic socialism rooted in the principle of political economy directed toward the common good. These elements include: (1) governmental intervention in planning and regulating "to a certain degree" of corporate activity; (2) public ownership of "a considerable part of capital"; (3) a limit on profits; and (4) limit private "initiative and enterprise whenever they interfere with the common good." For him the critical question that arises from this vision of common good is whether the demands of social justice are served best by greater "democratic control" of the corporate process or by private control. The recent corporate scandals tend to highlight the importance of Du Bois's call for government intervention and a more democratic participation, ownership and decision-making in the corporate process.

Du Bois also argued the centrality of Africans in this historical movement and project. The centrality of Africans lies in two areas: as a test of the authenticity of the socialist project, and as a vanguard in the movement given their social location in the race/class hierarchy of the nation and world. Actually, the social location of Africa in the national and international race/class hierarchy is the hub and hinge on which Du Bois's concept of African centrality in the socialist project turns, given that in the racist scheme of things, Africans, as argued above, are assigned the lowest human worth and social status and are what Du Bois calls "the Excluded class." In his article "Socialism and the Negro Problem in the New Review, he states that "the essence of Social Democracy is that there shall be no excluded or exploited classes in the Socialistic state" (1913: 339). Thus, "I've come to believe that the test of any great movement toward social reform is the Excluded class." And given that Black people are indeed the definitive excluded class, "The Black Problem then is the great test of American socialism." This assumption is also made in the world context for the people of color of the world who are "the excluded" in the globalized imperialist project.

Here (338f) he raises a series of critical questions to test the authenticity and viability of the socialist project: "Can the problem of any group of 10,000,000 be properly considered as 'aside' from any program of Socialism? Can the objects of Socialism be achieved so long as the [African American] is neglected? Can any great human problem 'wait'?" Clearly, the answer to all these questions is a resounding "no," and Du Bois thus reaffirms the essentiality, even centrality of addressing the Black and race question, to creating a just and good society. And it is essential not only because of the condition of exclusion, but also because of the revolutionary potential of those at the bottom of the social ladder. Moreover, added to this is the history of heroic resistance that African Americans would bring to the socialist project. Again, Du Bois stresses the world-historical aspect of this struggle for shared wealth and common good. He states that "All humanity must share in the future industrial democracy of the world." And "of course the foundation of such a system must be a high, ethical ideal. We must really envisage the wants of humanity. We must want the wants of men." Indeed, he concludes "these disinherited darker peoples must either share in the future industrial democracy or overturn the world" (1920: 59, 58)

The World Peace initiative. Du Bois's discourse on peace has a long and instructive history. From the beginning he had contended peace was a central goal and good of humankind, but that it must be based on justice, mutual respect, freedom and other shared goods of the world. In his credo in Darkwater (1920), he states "I believe that war is murder. I believe that armies and navies are at bottom the tinsel and braggadocio of oppression and wrong, and I believe that the wicked conquest of weaker darker nations by nations whiter and stronger but foreshadows the death of that strength." Again, key to his struggle for peace was his insistence on mutual respect, freedom and justice in the world. In his article on "The Races in Conference" (1910), he notes that "The Races Congress is the meeting of the World on a broad plane of human respect and equality. In no other way is human understanding and world peace and progress possible." What is called for, he states, is "real democracy of races and nations" (407f). Appreciating efforts by the peace movement, moral reform and social uplift efforts to win the hearts of peoples, he adds that we must put forth. above all, efforts that aim at shared goods for the world, "efforts which aim to make humanity not the attribute of the arrogant and the exclusive, but the heritage of all men in a world where most men are colored."

In "Prospect of a World Without Race Conflict" (1944), Du Bois is not sanguine about the prospect of a quick resolution of racial conflict and war. But he finds hope and possibilities in the rising struggles of peoples of color. Of special interest is his reference to the triple heritage of Latinos-Native American, African and European-and the role white racism played in dividing the peoples and yet the promising "signs of an insurgent native culture, striking across the color line toward economic freedom, political self-rule and more complete equality between races" (1944: 417). Currently, Latinos' stress on "mestizaje" as a defining feature of their identity and the basis for a more inclusive multicultural struggle recalls Du Bois's aspiration that Africans and other peoples of color would recognize a shared human heritage and pose a new paradigm of how humans ought to build and share the world (Karenga, 2002a: 399-405).

The Pan-Africanist initiative. Du Bois is clearly one of the founding fathers of Pan-Africanism (Walters, 1997; Ajala, 1973; Padmore, 1971). His interest in Africa and African liberation and African peoples' contribution to the forward flow of human history evolves early. His interest and commitment begin with his identification of himself as African and his stated belief "in the African Race, in the beauty of its genius, the sweetness of its soul, and its strength." (1920: 1). Moreover, in this same credo he reaffirms his "belief in pride of race and lineage and self, in pride so deep as to scorn injustice to ourselves, in pride of lineage so great as to despise no man's father, in pride of race so chivalrous as neither to offer bastardy to the weak nor beg wedlock of the strong."

Du Bois's conception of Africa is multidimensional and his works on Africa reflect this, i.e., The Negro (1915), "The African Roots of War" (1915); The Gift of Black Folk (1924); Black Folk Then and Now (1924) and The World and Africa (1946). First Du Bois approaches Africa as the place of origin of the basic culture of African Americans, and in Souls of Black Folk and elsewhere he seeks to identify the defining characteristic of this cultural legacy. It is, of course, a deep spiritual, ethical and artistic legacy above all (Du Bois, 1925). Also inherent in his description of the people is their communal approach to life which he later argues offers an important contribution to the socialist vision.

Secondly, Du Bois sees Africa as the place of origin of world civilization, flourishing "when Europe was a wilderness" (1920: 32), and thus a place worthy of critical study for models of human excellence and possibility. Here it is important that only in some areas can Du Bois be said to have been Afrocentric in the Asantean sense of the concept (1998, 1990). For Asante (1998: 2), "Afrocentricity.means literally placing African ideals at the center of any analysis that involves African culture and behavior." Du Bois is more of a "race man" in the sense of his credo, defiantly proud of his own people and self, but not constantly concerned to speak from an African-centered perspective. At times, he seeks to achieve a synthesis of the best of African and European. But in most cases, he is thoroughly steeped in European concepts. It is a reality he recognizes early, as noted above, but from which he cannot entirely disengage.

Du Bois is not grounded in classical African culture and its contribution to world culture through the Nile Valley civilizations (Karenga, 1996). Nor is he grounded in the profound moral anthropology and ethics of the Odu Ifa, the sacred text of ancient Yorubaland which teaches that "humans are chosen to bring good in the world" and that this is the fundamental meaning and mission of human life (Karenga 1999). Indeed, he is ambivalent about Egypt's Blackness although he concedes some African input, especially in later writings. Especially important here is his lack of grounding in that aspect of classical African culture, especially Egypt, which gave the world its oldest social justice tradition, taught that humans are bearers of dignity and divinity, the oneness of being, the sacredness of life and the ethical obligation to constantly repair and restore the world (Karenga, 1996).

It is this ancient social justice tradition that is raised up and reaffirmed in the historic Million Man March/Day of Absence in October 1995. The Million Man March/Day of Absence Mission Statement appeals to this ancient and ongoing social justice tradition and calls on African men and women of the world to uphold and struggle to defend and promote this tradition. It offers public policy initiatives Du Bois would have embraced and announces as its core obligations the "reaffirming the best values of our social justice tradition which require respect for the dignity and rights of the human person, economic justice, meaningful political participation, shared power, cultural integrity, mutual respect for all peoples, and uncompromising resistance to social forces and structures which deny or limit these" (Karenga, 1995: 2).

In the absence of knowledge of this ancient and ongoing tradition, Du Bois borrows from Europe many of his concepts and assumes European origin for some that are not necessarily derivative. But one must hasten to say that as a radical intellectual he reshapes these concepts in more human and meaningful forms and in the process makes a seminal and enduring contribution to Black intellectual history. Thus, this does not in any way diminish the value of his work, it is only noted to distinguish different ways one can be committed to one's people. And it is always important to make this delineation for those who through theoretical clumsiness or categorical imprecision use the category Afrocentricity recklessly and/or without the rigor that critical analysis requires.

Another way in which Du Bois views Africa is as a continuing battleground for white nations in their constant quest for resources, as noted in our earlier discussion of "The African Roots of War" (1915; also published in Darkwater [1920] as "The Hands of Ethiopia"). In this essay, Du Bois combines his commitments to Pan-Africanism, peace, and the socialist alternative to war, exploitation and oppression.

Finally, Du Bois also poses Africa as a land of possibility and paradigms. He understands it as a focus and generative force for a Pan-African ideal of solidarity and common struggle of African peoples all over the world. His aspiration and his life work were to see Africans united in a common struggle not only to free the continent but, in Fanon's phrase, to "start a new history of humankind." He stated that "when once the Blacks of the United States, the West Indies and Africa work and think together the future of the Black man in the modern world is safe" (1954: 403). Linking the Pan-Africanist and socialist projects, he said, "As the world turns toward Africa as a great center of future activity and development and recognizes the ancient socialism of Africa, [African Americans], freed of their baseless fear of Communism, will again turn their attention and aim their activity toward Africa" (402). They will, he states, see the capitalist exploitation of Africa, led by the U.S., and will dare struggle to aid in Africa's liberation and development and join other progressive peoples and forces to build a just world.

In the last section of "Africa and the Roots of War," Du Bois assigns a special and unique role for Africa and especially African Americans in the larger sense of the descendants of Africa who are "spread though the Americas and now writhing desperately for freedom and a place in the world." It is these Africans in the diaspora who with their brothers and sisters on the African continent, must imagine and pose a new paradigm of human freedom and human flourishing and engage in a common Pan-Africanist and socialist struggle with other progressive peoples to bring it into being.

He says, as Fanon would later reaffirm, that the world is waiting for something new from African peoples, a new paradigm of human society and human relations. And he asks, "What shall the end be? The world-old and fearful things, War and Wealth, Murder and Luxury? Or shall it be a new thing-a new peace and new democracy of all races: a great humanity of equal men? 'Semper novi quid ex Africa!' [Always something new out of Africa]" (1915: 371). And here he means Africa not simply as a continent, but as a world community rooted in a rich and ancient and ongoing history, culture and struggle to expand the realm of human freedom and human flourishing in the world, and through this, to pose and bring forth the best of what it means to be African and human in the fullest and most promising sense.

References

AbuKhalil, As'ad. (2002) Bin Laden, Islam and America's New "War on Terrorism," New York: Seven Stories Press.

Ahmad, Nadia Batool et al. (2002) Unveiling the Real Terrorist Mind, New York: Students for International Peace and Justice.

Ajala, Adekunle. (1973) Pan-Africanism: Evolution, Progress and Prospects, New York: St. Martin's Press.

Asante, Molefi. (1990) Kemet, Afrocentricity and Knowledge, Trenton, NJ: African World Press.

____________(1998) The Afrocentric Idea, Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Barber, Benjamin R. (1996) Jihad vs. McWorld, New York: Ballantine Books.

Blum, William. (1995) Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World Ward II, Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press.

Butler, Johnella E. (2000) "African American Studies and the 'Warring Ideals': The Color Line Meets the Borderlands," in Manning Marable (ed.), Dispatches from the Ebony Tower: Intellectuals Confront the African American Experience, New York: Columbia University Press, 141-52.

Cabral, Amilcar. (1973) Return to the Source: Selected Speeches of Amilcar Cabral, New York: Monthly Review Press.

Césaire, Aimé. (1972) Discourse on Colonialism. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Chang, Nancy. (2002) Silencing Political Dissent, New York: Seven Stories Press.

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1900a) "Address to the Nations of the World," in Foner (1970), 124-27.

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