Du Bois’s Talented Tenth concept blended assimilationist civilizing and class racism

Evidence

Du Bois identified the Talented Tenth in another published piece in 1903 that was riddled with more assimilationist ideas and class racism. “There are in this land a million men of Negro blood … [who] have reached the full measure of the best type European culture,” Du Bois judged. It was the duty of this “aristocracy of talent and character” to lead and civilize the masses, to filter culture “downward,” and to show “the capability of Negro blood.” — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 773

Categorization

• XREF: Demonstrates that even the great antiracist theorist held class-racist, assimilationist views — relevant to reader’s discomfort that assimilationism lives in most well-meaning people, including Black intellectuals. — connects to: The Talented Tenth ideal assumed northeastern white culture as the universal standard — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 161; The Talented Tenth simultaneously attacked caste and disciplined the black masses — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 209; The Talented Tenth doctrine drew its power from a liberal-conservative double gesture. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 209