Something of a certain inferiority complex was possibly present: I was desperately afraid of not being wanted; of intruding without invitation; of appearing to desire the company of those who had no desire for me. I should have been pleased if most of my fellow students had desired to associate with me; if I had been popular and envied. But the absence of this made me neither unhappy nor morose. I had my “island within” and it was a fair county.
The author thanks all of the participants in the Du Bois and the Scientific Study of Race Conference, held March 4, 2005 at Yale University for their suggestions and questions regarding this article, especially discussants Shatema Threadcraft and Emmanuel Raymundo.
Notes
1. See CitationCrenshaw (1991) and Harris, A. (1991) for possible answers to this question in a legal context.
2. This logic is also evident in the large body of intersectional research that has been produced in the last 30 years.
3. While these two books are part of the foundation of my analysis, Du Bois's focus on structural critique certainly extends to other works not examined in this article, including The Philadelphia Negro and Black Reconstruction.