“A Matter of Long Centuries and Not Years”: Du Bois on the Temporality of Social Change

• Published date: 01 April 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00905917231195584
• Author: Jennie C. Ikuta
• Date: 01 April 2024

https://doi.org/10.1177/00905917231195584

Political Theory

2024, Vol. 52(2) 289 –316

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/00905917231195584

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Article

“A Matter of Long

Centuries and Not

Years”: Du Bois on

the Temporality

of Social Change

Jennie C. Ikuta1

Abstract

In light of the summer 2020 protests and their subsequent backlash, questions

about the prospective timeline for achieving a racially just society have taken

on renewed significance. This article investigates Du Bois’s writings between

1920 and 1940 as a lens through which to examine the temporality of social

change. I argue that Du Bois’s turn to the role of white unreason explains

the dual temporality of his political vision and the dual strategies that ensue.

According to Du Bois, white supremacy is upheld not only by ignorance,

but also by white unreason, reproduced through generations of institutional

conditioning. Du Bois therefore turns to propaganda for transforming white

unreason, thereby making a racially just society possible. But because the

transformation of white unreason through propaganda is a slow process,

Du Bois argues that Black Americans must ensure their survival through

voluntary self-segregation. By presenting us with a framework of social

change, Du Bois models how advocates of racial justice might navigate

defeat without devolving into defeatism.

Keywords

Du Bois, temporality, social change, white unreason

1University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jennie C. Ikuta, Truman School of Government and Public Affairs, University of Missouri-

Columbia, 409B Jesse Hall, Columbia, MO, USA.

Email: jcikuta@missouri.edu

1195584PTXXXX10.1177/00905917231195584Political TheoryIkuta

research-article2023

290 Political Theory 52(2)

“No revolution happens within one lifetime so we work to capacity,

we believe in what we are doing knowing full well we won’t see the

fruits of our labor.

It is a hard place to hold.” —Audre Lorde, Dream of Europe

Introduction

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, uprisings spread

like wildfire across the nation as multiracial crowds took to the streets to

protest police killings of Black Americans. Such protests were nothing new,

of course. Since the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013,

demonstrations to protest the killing of Black Americans have proliferated.

This time, though, things felt different. Not only were these uprisings larger

and more multiracial than before, but they were also framed in terms of a

broader “racial reckoning” that went beyond challenging police brutality to

challenging the systemic racism of which brutality is one expression (Chang

2020; Horowitz et al. 2020; Shyong 2020). Support for Black Lives Matter

surged (Cohn and Quealy 2020). Protestors tore down Confederate statues

(Taylor 2020). Anti-racism reading lists were disseminated online and white

readers clamored for books such as Ibram Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist

and Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility. Corporations—including those with

lackluster records for supporting racial justice—issued statements of solidar-

ity and collectively pledged $50 billion to support efforts for racial equity

(Jan et al. 2021). Taken together, these developments were optimistically

interpreted—by journalists and academics alike—as proof that this time,

things really were different. White Americans were finally waking up to the

reality of white supremacy and were motivated to do something about it. A

racially just society seemed more nearly in reach than ever before.

Just one year later, however, support for Black Lives Matter has precipi-

tously declined to levels even lower than those prior to Floyd’s death; this

decline is the result of rapidly plummeting support from white Americans

and Republicans, despite high levels of support from racial minorities

(Chudy and Jefferson 2021; Page, Elbeshbishi, and Quarshie 2021).

Moreover, of the $50 billion that corporations pledged in support of racial

equity efforts, less than one percent has so far actually been donated (Jan

et al. 2020). Moreover, a white insurrectionist mob stormed the Capitol on

January 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn the results of a national election in

which the outcome was decided by voters in cities with substantial Black

populations, such as Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. Nor was it