Jared Loggins on W.E.B Du Bois and The Apocalypse

Last Friday, September 18, Professor of Black Studies & Political Science Jared Loggins of Amherst College came to Reed to talk about apocalypses, inevitable ends, and how believing in them only serves to benefit the white ruling class. This was a very relevant conversation, as Loggins brought up the current AI panic. The lecture was part of a series of lectures for the class African American Political Thought organized by Professor Tamara Metz. Loggins is most known for the book he co-wrote with Andrew Douglas of Morehouse College, Prophet of Discontent: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Critique of Racial Capitalism, but he has also written on Cedric Robinson and the inability of Western academia to understand black radical thought. Most notably for the lecture, Loggins wrote about the importance of mourning previous cruelties as a way to begin anew and how that ties into W.E.B. DuBois’ 1920 short story, “The Comet.”

With all that in mind, what was the lecture itself about? Loggins discussed various apocalypses: the AI overlords of today, Y2K twenty years ago, and Halley’s Comet a century ago. His focus was on how the idea of the apocalypse served as a white ruling class ideology that controls everyone with fear and how this establishment will destroy itself by pursuing empires. To understand the movements of the ruling class, Loggins used Du Boisian theory. To begin with, he argued that white people in power create the idea that whiteness is purer and holier than blackness in a way that is so deeply ingrained that even those who sympathize with African Americans only do so out of pity. The elite uses the dissemination of information in order to divide people along racial lines. They appeal to the white working class with these saccharine words of superiority and pit them against the black working class in order to prevent the unity of the proletariat. This picture of whiteness and elitism seems very similar to an apocalypse, doesn’t it? Both concepts sow fear via a destructive force, envelop everyone in its grasp, and are seen as predetermined and inevitable by viewers. 

Loggins uses Du Bois’ story “The Comet” to make his argument. The story is about Jim, a working-class black man who learns that a comet will be coming that will destroy the earth. His boss sends him to an underground vault to look for documents right before the asteroid hits and Jim survives, wandering alone in a destroyed world. After wandering in search of his family, he is able to find another survivor, a rich white woman named Julia. Julia begins by treating him abrasively, but through mourning together over the people they have lost, they gradually become closer and resolve to form a society together until a mob of white people comes and takes Julia outside of New York, where everything is fine. For his part, Jim is able to reunite with his wife and the story ends there. 

In his analysis, Loggins focused first on the role played by Jim’s boss, the bank president who sends Jim to his death, but ends up dying in the process. By treating Jim as a disposable possession, one without a life worth preserving, the president saves Jim’s life while getting destroyed himself. His actions show the paradox of imperialism and how the expansion of empire leads to self destruction. In addition, Loggins also looked at the solitary wanderings of Jim and Julia, and how at the end of the story they begin to be on equal ground. As Du Bois wants to challenge the inevitability of the white ruling class’ power, he also challenges the inevitability of the apocalypses they advance. This explains his allusion to Halley’s Comet, which was mythologically tied to the end of empires, but never actually brought their demise when it appeared in 1910, nor at the ending of “The Comet.” Du Bois’ story revels in the destruction of the powers which are considered inevitable and all-encompassing, beginning with life on earth and ending with life’s end. 

If you are interested in learning more, you should read Loggins’ article “Whistling Past the Graveyard” in the journal Political Theory, volume 51 issue 1. In addition, the next lecture in this series will be in Eliot 314 on Monday, October 12, at 12pm. The speaker will be Alex Harris (not me!!!!!) and it will be about challenging the axioms of equality, or how the idea that every soul is the same is rooted in a flawed interpretation of Plato. Instead, through Love is The Message, The Message is Death, Harris will argue for an equality based in the material world.