Young Du Bois framed Black suffering as submission to crushing white civilization

Evidence

In Du Bois’s rendering, Jefferson Davis, who had died the year before, represented the rugged individualism and domineering European civilization, in contrast to the rugged “submission” and selflessness of African civilization. The European “met civilization and crushed it,” Du Bois concluded. “The Negro met civilization and was crushed by it.” — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 716

Categorization

• QUESTION: What does the contrast between European ‘Strong Man’ and African ‘Submissive Man’ indicate about Du Bois’s early framing — is this assimilationist self-blame, or something more complex about his understanding of victimhood?
• SHARE: For someone interested in Du Bois’s intellectual biography — his Harvard graduation speech took Jefferson Davis as its subject, framing the Confederate leader as a symbol of European individualism crushed against African submission.