Exam Prep Ch.7 W. E. B. Du Bois

Test Bank

Chapter 7: W. E. B. Du Bois

Multiple Choice

1. Toward the end of his career, Du Bois shifted his focus to ______.

a. status and power

b. race and gender

c. colonialism and imperialism

d. education and the economy

2. Du Bois was primarily concerned with the nature and intersection of ______.

a. status and power

b. race and class

c. race and education

d. status and structure

3. Why did early sociologists overlook Du Bois’s contributions?

a. He prioritized understanding individuals over groups.

b. He lacked academic credentials.

c. He did not include enough data in his theorizing.

d. He focused on explaining the experiences of one social group.

4. Du Bois conducted primarily which types of research?

a. participant observation, empirical experiments, political essays

b. empirical studies, early telephone interviews, political essays

c. empirical studies, interpretative essays, political essays

d. interpretative essays, ethnographies, and surveys

5. Du Bois believed the responsibility of the Talented Tenth was to ______.

a. win freedom and justice for all African Americans

b. occupy key governmental positions

c. create and lead powerful capitalist industries

d. lead scholarship in Pan-African studies

6. Which of the following is a subjective dimension of race and racism?

a. double consciousness

b. the color-line

c. wealth inequality

d. the Talented Tenth

7. The basic theoretical orientation of Du Bois is ______.

a. nonrational, collective

b. nonrational, individual

c. rational, collective

d. rational, individual

8. To thoroughly understand the conditions in which African Americans lived, what method did Du Bois himself undertake in The Philadelphia Negro?

a. in-depth interviews

b. ethnographic research

c. city-wide survey

d. house-to-house canvass

9. The authors state that Du Bois’s concept of the color-line is theoretically ______.

a. individualistic

b. multidimensional

c. collectivistic

d. rational

10. The Souls of Black Folk solidified Du Bois’s position as more ______ compared to other Black scholars like Booker T. Washington.

a. moderate

b. radical

c. intersectional

d. nonrational

11. Why did Du Bois use a more “soulful” voice in The Souls of Black Folk?

a. He wanted to parallel the more subjective angle taken by other sociologists.

b. He believed that facts about racial discrimination were not convincing to white Americans.

c. He was paid to produce more personal essays on race in the United States

d. He aimed to demonstrate the power of the veil.

12. Du Bois defines “double consciousness” as the ______.

a. relation of the darker to the lighter races of men

b. sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others

c. experience of racism and inequality

d. essence and power of black spirituality

13. Du Bois defines the “color-line” as the ______.

a. relation of the darker to the lighter races of men

b. feeling of two-ness caused by racism

c. result of individual prejudice

d. essence and power of black spirituality

14. For Du Bois, when did race become central to world history?

a. when colonization began to benefit whites

b. at the birth of capitalism

c. during World War I

d. when a civilization first conquered another civilization

15. For black students, Booker T. Washington advocated for ______, while Du Bois advocated for ______.

a. segregated schools; integrated schools

b. integrated schools; segregated schools

c. trade schools; higher education

d. higher education; trade schools

16. According to Du Bois, what social institution constituted the “social center of Negro life in the United States”?

a. the NAACP

b. the black church

c. community neighborhoods

d. education

17. When Du Bois asks, “Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house?” he is reflecting on the ________ aspects of racism.

a. structural

b. objective

c. subjective

d. rational

18. The concept of double consciousness parallels which theorist’s notion?

a. Marx’s alienation

b. Durkheim’s profane

c. Weber’s authority

d. Simmel’s stranger

19. In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois ______ to provide a glimpse into the lives of African Americans.

a. employed his double consciousness

b. crossed the color-line

c. stepped within the veil

d. worked with Booker T. Washington

20. The Souls of White Folk differs from The Souls of Black Folk in that its tone can be considered more ______.

a. sympathetic

b. militant

c. empirical

d. veiled

21. In The Souls of White Folk, Du Bois argues that racism in America is ______.

a. unconnected to European colonialism

b. receding as whites’ souls become more tolerant

c. less oppressive than in other nations

d. oppressive in structure and practice

22. Du Bois argues that while African Americans possess double consciousness, whites have ______.

a. triple consciousness

b. false consciousness

c. no racial consciousness

d. class consciousness

23. Which of Du Bois’s works reverses the gaze of racial domination?

a. The Souls of Black Folk

b. The Souls of White Folk

c. The Philadelphia Negro

d. Phylon

24. What does Du Bois mean by “the veil”?

a. the division within society between blacks and whites

b. the ability to recognize whiteness

c. the subtle forms of racism that negatively impact blacks’ lives

d. the forces that divide wealthy from poor blacks

25. How does Du Bois use what he calls “clairvoyance”?

a. to predict the future of the color-line in the United States

b. to critique the black church for doing too little

c. to argue with Booker T. Washington about the importance of education

d. to see what it means to be white from a servile position

True/False

26. Du Bois believed that sociological research would help provide a solution to racism.

27. Du Bois enhanced his sociological knowledge by studying in Germany.

28. Du Bois believed that sociologists should be objective and value-free.

29. Du Bois used a multidimensional approach to race and class.

30. The Philadelphia Negro was the first major sociological study of an African American community in the United States.

31. Du Bois largely ignored demographic data when performing research in the Seventh Ward for his work in The Philadelphia Negro.

32. One of the strengths of Du Bois’s study of the Seventh Ward is that he surveyed residents of the Seventh Ward.

33. The color-line is an example of a nonrational factor contributing to racial inequality.

34. The Souls of Black Folk solidified Du Bois’s agreement with Booker T. Washington.

35. Du Bois was intensely critical of the black church.

36. Du Bois made efforts to avoid getting explicitly political in his writing.

37. The color-line refers to the segregated neighborhoods Du Bois studied in The Philadelphia Negro.

38. Du Bois recognized that race does not work or exist solely at the rational level.

39. The veil represents the most pressing problem for the United States.

40. The Soul of White Folks proved that Whites experience a double consciousness.

41. Du Bois argues that the color-line first emerged in the 1500s.

42. Du Bois spent many years working for the NAACP.

43. Du Bois posits that leaders of the black church have considerable power.

44. Du Bois believed that blacks’ subservience to whites would lead to greater racial equality.

45. Early social scientists had a strong understanding of race.

46. The authors include Du Bois in the reader to further challenge and broaden our ideas about theory.

47. Du Bois worked closely with another leading black scholar, Anna Julia Cooper.

48. Du Bois used statistics and ethnographic data in The Philadelphia Negro.

49. Du Bois and Cooper both advocated for better education for blacks.

50. Race and racism cannot be understood solely at the rational level.

Essay

51. How did Du Bois’s work build on other theorists, and how did he challenge contemporary understandings of theory?

52. How did racism impact Du Bois’s educational experiences, and how did those experiences in turn shape his theorizing?

53. Discuss how well you feel Du Bois’s ideas have translated into contemporary times. Are his works still relevant today? If so, explain how, and if not, explain your reasoning.

54. What does Du Bois mean by the “color-line”? Do you believe the concept is still applicable in contemporary U.S. society? Why or why not?

55. Explain how Du Bois’s notion of a color-line can be found in different areas of American life today.

56. Explain Du Bois’s concept of the veil. Show how it relates to double consciousness.

57. Compare and contrast Du Bois’s double consciousness to Simmel’s notion of the stranger.

58. Compare and contrast Booker T. Washington’s positions on racial injustice with Du Bois’s.

59. Compare and contrast Du Bois’s theory of the oppression of black Americans with Gilman’s theory of the oppression of women. What are some of the similarities (if any) and differences (if any) between these two perspectives?

60. Compare and contrast the goals and tone of The Souls of Black Folk with The Souls of White Folk.

61. Summarize the main theoretical and historical contributions from Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk.

62. Discuss the relationships between Du Bois’s concepts of the color-line, the veil, and double consciousness. What theoretical issue(s) do these concepts raise?

63. Discuss Du Bois’s term “clairvoyance” and its significance to The Souls of White Folk.

64. What does Du Bois argue about the emergence of the color-line? How was it used historically, and what were the consequences?

65. According to Du Bois, what functions has the black church served? What changes would he like to see and why?