after talking it out....

.....I've figured out my (white) relationship to (black) history.

Looking at Royce who talks about community being defined by a shared historical moment crucial to self-identity and a shared goal for the future, I was trying to figure out to what extent DuBois was telling me something about my community. After talking about it with some folks (and, I kinda suspect, looking a bit clueless), I realize that I was missing a key aspect of Royce.

Having a shared historical moment doesn't mean that we all have the same relationship to that moment. Thus, the experience of Black folk that DuBois is talking about is a part of my history but I have a different relationship to that experience than, say, Black folks do.

So, perhaps I am a bit clueless for it having taken so long to get to this, but, in my defense, it was that I was working with less than ideal reading of Royce.