Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

W. E. B. Du Bois, born in 1868, was a pioneering African American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, and prolific writer. Throughout his life, Du Bois played a vital role in challenging the systemic oppression faced by Black people in the United States. In Black AF History, Du Bois acts as a reliable second narrator, peppering almost every chapter with excerpts from his sociological and historical works. Du Bois’s seminal work, The Souls of Black Folk (1903), articulates many aspects of the Black American experience to which white people might be blind. He talks about the struggles of internalized racism, the all-pervading, almost incomprehensible influence of white supremacy, and ultimately the brave hope and resilience of Black individuals living in a society that marginalizes and dehumanizes them.

As a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Du Bois was instrumental in the fight against racial injustice. Though Du Bois acts as a familiar narrator figure, Harriot also includes critiques of Du Bois from other contemporary activists and journalists, mainly of some of his white appeasement rhetoric and endorsement of respectability politics, advocating for Black people to change to avoid white oppression instead of singularly arguing for the disenfranchisement and punishment of violent white supremacists.

Racist Baby, an invention of Harriot’s, acts as a know-nothing antagonist to which Harriot can explain basic concepts of inequality. Racist Baby gives Harriot an outlet to express his signature biting humor, while also ridiculing the perspectives of racists. By casting a racist’s perspective as adult or complex, Harriot would be giving it credence. Instead, he constructs a five-year-old character raised by racists, spouting half-formed repetitions of racist myths about Black people and America.

Racist Baby is used to undercut the high emotions of complex issues like the mythologized identity of the South as a noble “Lost Cause.” It is difficult to reach proponents of this myth since it is emotional rather than logical in nature. By having Racist Baby defend the idealized antebellum South, Harriot showcases its ridiculous nature. Harriot also addresses the sticky issue of reparations via a conversation with Racist Baby. Harriot dismantles the arguments against reparations and the structure of the chapter implies that these arguments are infantile and half-formed. Racist Baby, despite his morally abhorrent views, is treated kindly by Harriot, who justifies his attempts to argue with the baby as trying to prevent a Racist Baby from growing up into a Racist Man. Racist Baby, though spouting toxic rhetoric, also relates to Harriot in a friendly way, showing the tragedy of inherited racist beliefs, which can poison the mind of an otherwise kind person.