DuBois" "The Conservation of Races", delivered on March 5, 1987 in Washington D. The main function was to define race. Dubois says race "is a vast family of human beings, generally of common blood and language, always of common history, traditions and impulses, who are both voluntarily and involuntarily striving together for the accomplishment of certain more or less vividly conceived ideals of life." (p. 230) In this definition and in the rest of the essay, he stresses that the races (not only Negro, but also the many races of the world) must be differentiated by spiritual and psychical difference, as opposed to physical differences of skin and blood. A common history, along with common laws, habits and religion are the deeper distinctions which defines one race from another. In the paper, Dubois shows how this ideal grew through history. Nomadic tribes condensed into city-states and then into nations. Distinctions in the ideals of life which the different cites struggled were clearer than distinctions in physical differences. I thought this parallel was very insightful, and it showed how differentiation of races by their ideals has worked in the past. It definitely strengthened DuBois" argument.
" .Great as is the physical unlikeness of the various races of men, their likenesses are greater- This quote by Darwin is used in "The Conservation of Races" to help argue the point that races must not be separated and discriminated by physical differences, but must be recognized as having a distinct culture and history. I believe DuBois made this argument for two reasons. One reason was to try and break down the barriers that society put up based on color. The other reason was to show how by accentuating the differences of races by ideals of life and spirituality, each race can benefit humanity in their own way. " race groups are striving, each in its own way, to develop for civilization its particular message, its particular ideal, which shall help to guide the world nearer and nearer that perfection of human life for which we all long, that "one far-off Divine event.
