W. E. B. Du Bois often appropriated and deployed the metaphor of “Prometheus,” drawing from Hesiod’s Theogony, Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound, Goethe’s poem “Prometheus,” and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Throughout Du Bois’s career, he employed this figure in order for the reader to better understand the racialized social order in general and White supremacy in specific. In what follows, I cover the eighteenth and nineteenth century use of the Prometheus metaphor in regard to critiques of racism and slavery. I then establish how Du Bois stepped into this tradition to advance a multifaceted critique of global White supremacy that continues to resonate today. Precisely, Du Bois rendered this character in six patterned forms: (1) as an embodiment of de jure and de facto segregation; (2) as newly conscious Black people that would soon revolt against White supremacy; (3) as the paradoxical capture and harm of White people by their own design; (4) as the prejudice, discrimination, and racism born of White supremacist politics; (5) as the struggle of Black folks against White supremacy; and (6) a Black-centered spiritual worldview of eventual liberation. Together, these six deployments signal the early manifestations of both critical race theory and Afrofuturism—two modes of inquiry that help us to reconsider not only the material repercussions of racial inequality but the pathways and roadblocks toward racial utopia.

WE Bo Du Bois经常从Hesiod的Theogony，Aeschylus的Prometheus Bound，歌德的诗“ Prometheus”和Mary Shelley的科学怪人中吸取和运用“普罗米修斯”的比喻。或者，现代普罗米修斯。在杜波依斯（Du Bois）的整个职业生涯中，他都使用了这个数字，以使读者更好地理解普遍的种族化社会秩序，尤其是白人至上主义。接下来，我将介绍普罗米修斯隐喻在18世纪和19世纪对种族主义和奴隶制的批判。然后，我确定杜波依斯（Du Bois）如何踏上这一传统，以对全球白人至上主义进行多方面的批评，并在今天继续引起共鸣。准确地说，杜波依斯以六种图案形式表现了这个角色：（1）作为法律上和事实上的隔离的体现；（2）作为新意识的黑人，他们很快会起义反抗白人至上主义；（3）由于白人自己设计而产生的自相矛盾的俘获和伤害；（4）作为白人至上主义政治所产生的偏见，歧视和种族主义；（5）作为黑人与白人至上的斗争；（6）以黑人为中心的最终解放的精神世界观。这六个部署一起标志着批判种族理论和非裔未来主义的早期表现。这两种探究模式不仅帮助我们重新考虑种族不平等的实质影响，而且重新考虑了通往种族乌托邦的途径和障碍。