Posted: May 13th, 2021

American History is based on many factors that have from time

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BLACK RECONSTRUCTION
Introduction
American History is based on many factors that have from time to time shown the struggles different groups especially the blacks and the poor went through to fight for their rights. These poor members were treated as second class elements because they had no property or capital whatsoever. It was because of the treatment that prompted Karl Marx’s view about the social classes that included the bourgeois and the proletariat. However, Du Bois a critic of white’s enslavement of Africans brought in a new perception. He categorized the society not as a place for bourgeois and workers but as a place whereby race determines ones position. According to Du Bois, this was the exact case as the whites treatment of the blacks was solely based on race and slavery and not about the money or capital any rich man possessed. Further, Du Bois deviates from what Marxism initially advocated for by replacing the Marxists proletariat with his own subject the African American slave as his point of reference. To add on that, the two perceptions differ in the sense that one sees the “poor workers” as slaves and the other brings out the notion that it is not about racism but about the position held by proletariats. Therefore, it is in view of these and many more differences between Du Bois and Marx’ position that this paper seeks to compare the extent to which W.E.B Du Bois agreed or disagreed with the Marxists theories about social structure and the roles played by each group. In doing so, the paper would base its argument on the book “Black Reconstruction” by W.E.B Du Bois which presents the struggle for freedom and equality in America. Du Bois contests that blacks were simply mistreated because they were workers as generalized by Marx.
According to Max, workers could not be separated whether white or black and that their oppression was uniform. However, Du Bois presents a context whereby it becomes evident that Max was wrong in the sense that he generalized workers on the basis of being employees of the bourgeois and forgot that race also played a crucial role. Marx speaks of a possible unity of workers as long as they were all oppressed by the rich capitalists and forgets that there were still considerable variables that could sabotage the unity of the proletariat. Bois on the other side speaks of the unity of African slaves. As such, Du Bois brings out the clear picture as he narrates of how some white workers could not come together with their black counterparts to unite against a common enemy because of the race factor.
Max saw the bourgeois as the common enemy to equality but Du Bois points out that racial discrimination was paramount to the achievement of equality labor-wise and politically.
Additionally, the fact that Africans were seen as people who could not do anything good with themselves no matter what opportunity they were given (Ollman 1976) also brings out the true basis of all inequalities in American history. Max also brought up the idea that the workers had to wake up and speak for themselves lest they be subjected to inhuman labor, segregation and other forms of discrimination but Bois disagree with this as he advocates for only the struggle for Africans’ welfare to reclaim their freedom and dignity in a democratic country.
When it came to education, the Marxists saw it as a system that was pro-rich. It was a system that pushed for more empowerment of the capitalists at the expense of the poor workers. There was thus need to review the education system to enable the workers to also have education to promote equality in the American society (Ollman 1976). For Du Bois however, it was not a system that was discriminating against the workers but the blacks serving as slaves. It was a system designed to deny Blacks the opportunity to become better than who they were and despite Max’s thought that all workers were unhappy with such a system, Bois negates that by making it all about African-Americans.
Du Bois in his work termed “Black Reconstruction” narrates how the blacks fought for equality in the oppressive white dominated American society. He reiterates though slightly differently, the Marxist principles by presenting a narration on how blacks lived to Karl Max’s word in their fight for their freedom not for the workers but for African slaves in the Americas.
Du Bois confirms the things Karl Max talked about by bringing out the exact manner in which the workers were being denied basic human rights. Instances whereby Africans working for the planters were denied pay and even treated as if they were nothing important to warrant a name, are brought up. All the happenings presented by Du Bois clearly indicate why it was necessary to fight for the liberation of the Africans serving as slaves in the hands of the American elite. While Karl Max believed that there was no superior race hence his campaign for equal rights to means of production and education et al, the American elites did not want that as they despised the elevation of Africans believing that Africans could not be do anything on their own.
Points In Line With Marxist Position
W.E.B Du Bois agrees with the Marxists in the sense that they both present one party as the oppressed and the other as the oppressor. In the face of Marx, he saw the controllers of the means of production as being so mean to their workers. The workers as referred to by Max were the poor employees who could not afford anything more than what their little salaries could buy. He saw the oppression as being determined by or based on who owned the capital hence the control over the entire society. According to Max if the working class could be empowered to acquire property and education, then they would be able to be better persons in the society thus contribute positively to the economic growth of the country. His advocacy for equal access to means of production and education were his most important ways of creating equality between the proletariat and the bourgeois. Consequently, it was proper to allow everyone to have equal rights to land which was considered a very crucial factor of production and other capital necessary for economic engagement of each and everyone in the society.
Points Of Departure From Marxism
While Karl Max looked at equal access to means of production and education as crucial to the equality subject, Du Bois presents a case whereby not all workers felt oppressed by the work and demeaning pay by their masters hence a clear line between race and employment (Du Bois 1935). On one side, as Max could have thought that these workers, although of different races, may have united because of their same class, Du Bois makes a strong point of reference as he brings the class conflict between these two groups of workers.
The North which was economically stronger wanted the Southerners to accept the reconstruction of democracy. Despite the fact that the white workers were literally on the same scale as the black workers, the white workers did not come to terms with the fact that they were no different from the other workers (Du Bois 1935) whom they deliberately referred to as slaves. To them, even though they were workers, they were not of the same caliber either racially, politically or economically. Their firm stand against President Abraham Lincoln’s call for abolition of slavery meant that they were not ready to settle for anything less than racial classification. As such, it is brought out that even similar levels of labor exploitation and pay inequalities could not create unity or harmonize the relationship between different races (Hartman 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online). From that point it is evident that Marx’s generalization of labor force as oppressed was misguided and thus false.
As evidenced by the foregoing, property ownership and social status alone did not provide the only basis inequalities in America. Further, inasmuch as there was social stratification of the people, control over labor and other means of production did not qualify as the sole basis for discrimination (Smith 1997). As such, a laborer’s race also played a great role in determining what class someone belonged to. To add on the preceding, while Max looked at slavery as something enforced through hard labor, Du Bois saw the oppression through other forms of discrimination such as denial of voting rights as just but a few of the many problems promoting inequality (Du Bois 1935). Further, while to Marx slavery and hard labor were related, Du Bois brought in a deeper insight into the other core factors that informed the concept of slavery and unrewarded labor. Also, while Max’s ideas concluded that all the working class were poor because of their exploitation by the rich capitalists, the working whites were okay with poverty as long as they were classified as superior to the working blacks (Hartman 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online). That notwithstanding, the two were both Marxists. The only difference between the two is that Max addressed inequalities per se; W.E.B. Du Bois brought a deeper understanding of the core cause of what Max articulated. Du Bois’s extensive research and presentation of the Constitutional struggle for freedom of the blacks in the South (Du Bois 1935) presents a deeper picture of what Max had ignored. W.E.B. Du Bois’s work further exposes the hate that was not even connected to wages or employment something that Marx believed was the core reason for classification of individuals.
By rejection of the Federal Government’s attempts to bring sanity to the warring South, the Southern whites were even ready to murder all the blacks to justify their assertion of superiority to them, they could not share anything be it schools, churches, roads, intermarry or even accept the payment of wages to slaves. At the bottom of all the hate lied the one core thing, the white race (Gordon 1929). Du Bois’s work has however been criticized as a justification of whites supremacy over the blacks. Black’s relentless struggle and hope that they would one day get the services and freedom that the whites enjoyed seemed to present a scenario whereby the blacks wanted to get the best that the whites also got. In other words, the struggle pushed for by the enslaved African-Americans was to achieve the ultimate goal which was getting to the class in which the whites occupied.
Conclusion
In conclusion, inequalities in early America were a notch higher as compared to these days. While Max thought of wealth distribution as the main cause of these differences, it can be seen that there was more to it than just slavery and poor pay to the proletariats by the higher class, the bourgeois. Max thought that equal pay and voluntary labor could bring inequality but as presented by Du Bois, these inequalities were deeply rooted beyond just labor and wages. Du Bois brings out the concept of one race (the working whites) being comfortable living in poverty than being equated to black workers. The fight for democracy to the whites amounted to the equalization of the whites in the south to their working counterparts of color. While the actions of the working class in the South proved to be more of social stratification than what appeared to be just, it is evidently shown that Karl Max underestimated the roots of inequalities in the American society.

Works cited
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1935). Black Reconstruction An Essay Toward A History Of The Part Which Black Folk Played In The Attempt To Reconstruct Democracy In America,1860-1880: Harcourt, Brace And Company, Inc.
Gordon, A. (1929). Sketches Of Negro Life And History In South Carolina. 2nd Edition. Columbia: University Of South Carolina.
Hartman, A. (2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online). Black Reconstruction And The Eclectic Marxism Of W.E.B. Du Bois retrieved from http://s-usih.org/2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online/09/black-reconstruction-and-the-ecletic-marxism-ofw-e-b-dubois.html accessed on 4th May 2017.
Ollman, B. (1976). Alienation: Max’s Conception of Man in Capitalist Society.
Smith, J.D. (1997). Black Voices From Reconstruction 1865-1877. Gainesville: UP Of Florida.

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