The Revolution Will Not Be Theorised: Du Bois, Locke, and the Howard School’s Challenge to White Supremacist IR Theory
| Author | Errol A. Henderson |
| Published date | 01 June 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0305829817694246 |
| Date | 01 June 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Conference Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0305829817694246
Millennium: Journal of
International Studies
2017, Vol. 45(3) 492 –510
© The Author(s) 2017
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0305829817694246
journals.sagepub.com/home/mil
1. Robert Vitalis, White World Order, Black Power Politics: The Birth of American International
Relations (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2015).
2. Ibid.
The Revolution Will Not Be
Theorised: Du Bois, Locke, and
the Howard School’s Challenge
to White Supremacist IR
Theory
Errol A. Henderson
Pennsylvania State University, USA
Abstract
This article briefly examines the contributions to International Relations (IR) theory of W.E.B.
Du Bois and Alain Locke. Taking as a point of departure the recent work of Robert Vitalis1 on
the ‘Howard School’ of IR of which these two were prominently associated, I both embrace
and challenge Vitalis’ thesis on the importance of these two African American scholars to the
academic field of IR. Embracing Vitalis’ invaluable articulation of the Howard School’s critique
of white supremacist arguments prevalent in IR at its founding and well beyond, I also challenge
Vitalis’ apparent disassociation of these scholars from the formulation of IR theory. Instead,
I discuss how Du Bois and Locke provided some of the earliest theoretical arguments on the
role of ‘national imperialism’ in modern war, as well as theses of cultural change and its impact
on international relations.
Keywords
IR theory, racism, W.E.B. Du Bois, Alain Locke, diaspora
Introduction
This article briefly examines the contributions to International Relations theory of W.E.B.
Du Bois and Alain Locke. Taking as a point of departure the recent work of Vitalis2 on the
‘Howard School’ of IR of which these two were prominently associated, I both embrace
and challenge Vitalis’ thesis on the importance of these two African American scholars to
Corresponding author:
Errol A. Henderson, Associate Professor of Political Science, 229 Pond Laboratory, Dept. of Political
Science, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
Email: eah13@psu.edu
694246MIL0010.1177/0305829817694246Millennium: Journal of International StudiesHenderson
research-article2017
Conference Article
Henderson 493
3. Errol Henderson, ‘Navigating the Muddy Waters of the Mainstream: Tracing the Mystification
of Racism in International Relations’, in The State of the Political Science Discipline: An
African-American Perspective, ed. Wilbur Rich (Philadelphia: Temple University Press,
2007), 325–63.
4. W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (New York: Fawcett, 1961 [1903]), 23.
5. See for e.g. Vitalis, White World Order, Black Power Politics; John M. Hobson, The
Eurocentric Conception of World Politics: Western International Theory, 1760–2010
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).
the academic field of IR. Embracing Vitalis’ invaluable articulation of the Howard
School’s critique of white supremacist arguments prevalent in IR at its founding and well
beyond, I also challenge Vitalis’ apparent disassociation of these scholars from the formu-
lation of IR theory. Although space does not allow for a fuller examination of Howard
School scholarship, I discuss how Du Bois and Locke provided some of the earliest theo-
retical arguments on the role of ‘national imperialism’ in modern war, as well as theses of
cultural change and its impact on international relations, which not only articulate IR
theory but anticipate a ‘diasporist’ paradigm of IR. The latter goes beyond a critique of the
racist hierarchical structure of the global political system, and focusses on culture groups
as prominent units of analysis; diasporisation, as a key change agent in domestic and
international politics; and cultural self-determination, intraculturally, and cosmopolitan-
ism, interculturally, as objectives of intercultural (i.e. international) relations.
The article proceeds in several sections. First, I briefly review the centrality of white
supremacism in the origins of IR as an academic field of study, and the prevalence of
Howard School scholars, Du Bois and Locke, in critiquing such claims on practical and
theoretical grounds. Second, I provide a pointed critique of Vitalis’ marginalisation of the
Howard School’s contributions to IR theory. In the third and fourth sections, I consider,
in turn, Du Bois and then Locke’s theoretical contributions to both our understanding of
national imperialism and its relationship to both the US Civil War and WWI, and the
relationship among race, culture, development and democracy. Fifth, I provide a brief
synthesis of the theoretical claims of the two theorists and show how they can converge
in a thesis centred on the role of diasporas in world politics that anticipates developments
in world politics today. Sixth, and finally, I conclude with a summary of the main points.
White Supremacism and the Origins of International
Relations
For more than a century, social scientists have maintained that race and racism are
amongst the most important factors in world politics. Racism is the belief in, practice,
and policy of domination based on the specious concept of race.3 It is not simply bigotry
or prejudice, but beliefs, practices, and policies reflective of and supported by institu-
tional power, primarily state power. Prominent scholars such as W.E.B. Du Bois4
acknowledged at the outset of the last century that ‘the problem of the twentieth century
is the problem of the color line – the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in
Asia and Africa in America and the islands of the sea’. Increasingly – though still mar-
ginally – appreciated today is the centrality of race and racism to the core theorists of the
incipient academic field of IR.5 Their early works were firmly grounded in Social
To continue reading
Request your trial