Race, Economics, and Public Policy with Reflections on W. E. B. Dubois

W HEN ONE EXAMINES current dimensions of race relations, economics, and public policy while reflecting upon W. E. B. DuBois, a basic observation emerges: DuBois was not an economist in the classical sense we associate with Richard Ricardo, Alfred Marshall, or the moral philosopher, Adam Smith. Yet, DuBois was deeply interested in, and understanding of, all aspects of economics and may have been the earliest person to bring into focus the impact of economic forces on workers and people in the context of their racial characteristics. Even Karl Marx, with his disdain for capitalism and his view of the system's inevitable exploitation of labor, did not see fit to deal with the most obvious exploitation of labor in his day inherent in the system of slave trade and slavery. DuBois, in his inquiries and thoughts, coupled the problems of race with problems of the working class. He was the first to articulate in systematic fashion the problems of racial discrimination, segregation, racist brutality, and the exploitation of labor, and to show how they were determined by an economic system (in the South) based upon concepts and theories of racial supremacy. Along with voting rights and education, DuBois considered economic opportunity vital to the advancement of black people. His observation in the 1930's is as valid today as it was then. In the 1930's, DuBois made the point that in a world where economic dislocation had become so great as ours, a mere appeal based on the old liberalism, a mere appeal based on justice and further and further effort at legal decision, was missing the essential need; the essential need was to guard and better the chances of Negroes, educated and ignorant, to earn a living, safeguard their incomes and raise the level of their employment.' To him,