ABSTRACT
W.E.B. Du Bois’s writings on race remain relevant and contribute to both contemporary racial and educational discourse— especially the emerging field of critical race studies in education—for four fundamental reasons. The meaning of race has always meandered, as the very idea of race has consistently traveled far and wide since its inception. Du Bois’s concepts of race harbor an inherent and radical humanism that is often complex and seemingly contradictory but which nonetheless is part and parcel of his overarching transdisciplinary trajectory. Du Bois was also an early exponent of the race/class thesis that contended that, although class struggle had been a part of human history for several centuries, the modern concept of race and the insidious socio-political practice of racism— of course, coupled with capitalism and colonialism— exacerbated class conflicts among both the racial colonizers and the racially colonized. Race and racism were European modernity’s weapons of choice in its efforts to establish global capitalism.
