Du Bois celebrated a spiritual-psychical black uniqueness resembling feminine essence

Evidence

Although blacks usually rejected the explicit analogy between their “soul qualities” and the feminine essence, they invariably re-presented and re-constructed a group identity with qualities reminiscent of those ascribed to women. Harvard-trained W. E. B. Du Bois championed theories of racial distinctiveness. In his article “The Conservation of Races,” published in 1897, Du Bois disclosed his recognition and admiration for what he believed to be the “spiritual, psychical” uniqueness of his people—their “special gift” to humanity. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 669

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: American racial ideology gendered all whites masculine and all blacks feminine — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 667; Du Bois described the Negro as ‘born with a veil… always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.’ — Double Consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)