Racial Violence, American Imperialism, and Hybrid Futurism: An examination of the Writings of W.E.B. DuBois and Jose Martí

Abstract

This thesis examines 20th-century western hemispheric criticism of American imperialism as well as the hope for hemispheric cultural and racial multiculturation through education and cultural exchange. By analyzing the unique critiques of Jose Martí and W.E.B DuBois, I examine the role that United States racial violence had on international theories of race and multiculturalism, through existing articles regarding incidents of racial violence in the Southern United States. Instead of viewing such writings as unrelated musings from two prolific theorists, I propose that these two men both view the time of their writings as highly important towards the development of an American multicultural society, one that includes men from different racial and class backgrounds. These theories were internationally applied with Martí and DuBois’ positions on the war for independence in Martí’s birthplace of Cuba. I use their writings on cultural and military leader, Antonio Maceo, ultimately proposing these men’s belief that the Spanish-American War was a part of an international conflict with imperialism and colonial theories of race. In making this transnational, bilingual, multiethnic theory of multiculturalism, one observes the early development of a decolonial worldview.