ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by examining the shift in William Edward Burghardt DuBois's thought concerning the motivations for and strategies against white racism. It turns to Du Bois's work on the gifts of black folk to show how white privilege operates through the intertwining issues of property, capitalist exploitation, and repression. The chapter argues a major problem when combating white racism is that many white people often do not see racism as a problem. The shift in Du Bois's ideas about racism did not take place all at once, and continuities across Du Bois's entire career certainly exist. Du Bois thought that African Americans had made and would continue to make distinct contributions to American culture. The gifts given by black folk help explain why Du Bois would disagree with the contemporary strategy of colorblindness for fighting racism. The chapter explains the issue of how or why exactly the gifts of black Americans have gone unrecognized as distinctively black gifts.
