Locke believed that the scientific conception of race as biologically based was specious science used to justify racist policies and practices. In the lecture series Locke offers a different conception of race as a socially constructed whereby people made affiliation among themselves according to interest and history. In his lectures, Locke makes the point that the development of a positive race consciousness was a key to development for Negroes. Social Darwinism, European imperialism, and American support of western imperialism are the targets of Locke's analysis. Locke ventures to examine the state of race relations.
Education is a critical component in the development of race pride.
Drawing on a variety of scholarly sources, Locke demonstrates that modern race creeds are aberrations owing largely to systems of political and social domination such as slavery. In American Philosophy Today and Tomorrow , edited by Horace M. Kallen and Sidney Hook. Lee Furman, 1935. This paper presents a significant philosophical argument for value pluralism. Refining and extending his doctoral thesis, Locke draws on the twin influences of the pragmatist William James and the idealist Josiah Royce.