Du Bois’s Double Consciousness Versus Latin American Exceptionalism

Abstract

IT HAS BEEN TEMPTING FOR OBSERVERS TO USE W. E. B. DU BOIs’S IDEAS of double consciousness to contrast U.S. race relations with those in Brazil and Cuba. In those cases, Du Bois’s theory becomes a paradigmatic representation of the inability of the United States to accept U.S. blacks’ basic humanity, while the obvious patriotism of blacks in places like Cuba and Brazil becomes a clear sign that racial politics there differ in important ways that contradict Du Bois’s proposition (Glasco, 1992). However, I will contend in this essay that both the positions of blacks in Latin America and the United States are more nuanced both on the ground and as they relate to Du Bois’s theory of consciousness than most readings would allow. By not applying Du Bois to racial politics in Latin America we obscure the struggles of Afro-Latinos for political, cultural, social, and economic equality and misread the legacy of black U.S. politics. I propose that the elegance of the construction of double consciousness is capable of capturing the differing dimensions of inclusion and exclusion in Latin America and the United States. By invoking Du Bois’s double consciousness in relation to Latin American racial politics, we are able to reconnect Latin America to the African Diaspora and build a bridge for critical engagement of black politics in Latin America.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 8 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.