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History of African indigenous religious
Essay comparing and contrasting booker t washingtons and w. e. b. du bois responses to discrimination and goals for improvement
History of African indigenous religious
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“How does it feel to be a problem?” (par. 1). Throughout “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” W.E.B. Du Bois explains the hardships experienced throughout his childhood and through the period of Africans living in America before the civil rights movement. Du Bois begins with his first experience of racism and goes all the way into the process of mentally freeing African Americans. Du Bois describes the struggle of being an African American in a world in which Whites are believed to dominate through the use of Listing, Imagery, and Rhetorical Questioning because these rhetorical devices stress the importance of the topic Du Bois is talking about. Du Bois used the rhetoric of listing to give examples of the strife the African American population was facing. Using listing also shows an importance or exaggerates his point as shown in the quote, “But the facing of so vast a prejudice could not but bring the inevitable self-questioning, self-disparagement, and lowering of ideals which ever accompany repression and breed in an atmosphere of contempt and hate” …show more content…
What is the point of educating the African Americans if all they will be is paid slaves anyhow?, “Lo! we are diseased and dying, cried the dark hosts; we cannot write, our voting is vain; what need of education, since we must always cook and serve?” (par. 11). Du Bois doesn’t understand the issue with African Americans living among, equal to, and determined with the Whites, “Will America be poorer if she replace her brutal dyspeptic blundering with light-hearted but determined Negro humility? or her coarse and cruel wit with loving jovial good-humor? or her vulgar music with the soul of the Sorrow Songs” (par. 12). Du Bois and the African American population are determined to change the mindset of the Whites and America as a whole to be more accepting of African Americans and ultimately
Alridge, Derrick P. The Educational Thought of W.E.B. Du Bois: An Intellectual History. New York: Teachers College, 2008. Print.
W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were two predominant African American leaders, whose views on how to progress the African American community both socially and economically sharply differed. Their perception of education, its purpose, advantage, and limit for African Americans, varied greatly. Booker T. Washington believed in training African Americans to develop crafting, industrial and farming skills, while W.E.B. Du Bois believed in educating only the top 10% of the African American community. Their views polarized the African American community into two distinct groups with very different views on education and progress. Together, these two leading points of views are part of the cause of the African American low level of labor force participation, high unemployment rate, and low rate of higher education completion.
Du Bois wanted civil rights as well, but in contrast, he believe the only way to get it was through political action and demanding for equal rights. He also believed education would get the black race somewhere. “The South believed an educated Negro to be a dangerous Negro. And the South was not wholly wrong; for education among all kinds of men always has had, and always will have, an element of danger and revolution, of dissatisfaction and discontent. Nevertheless, men strive to know” (Du Bois Page) as W.E.B. Du Bois said. This quote explains how Du Bois felt about education, he thought education would put him at the top because the whites would fear the knowledge of educated African Americans. His main focus when writing was racial discrimination and the advancement of black people. His work was very broad and he combines history with proposals on how to change, like in this work “The Souls of Black Folks.” This is just a collection of autobiographies on the African American life. He mentions things like the “talented tenth” in The Negro Problem, which describes one out of ten blacks becoming leaders. He also coined several terms, including the “veil.” He says “the Negro is like the seventh son, born with a veil” (Du Bois 887). Du Bois believed a veil was being placed over African Americans so that they are not seen as they are. They are true Americans, but whites do not see that and blacks start to lose sight of that. Another important term,
(pg.292) “How dear, how soothing to man, arises the idea of God, peopling the lonely place, effacing the scars of our mistakes and disappointments! When we have broken our god of tradition and ceased from our god of rhetoric, then may God fire the heart with his presence.” There is a sharp contrast between a god of perception and the God of the universal over- soul. A god of perception is one defined by the senses or unstable, biased opinion and because of this is flawed like our senses. When analyzing Emerson’s “The Over- Soul” we must pay close attention to his rhetorical techniques because although we might not consciously see it, his rhetoric sways the audience reading his work in his favor. For example, in the preceding quote Emerson capitalization
Education is an ideological mechanism African-Americans used to enhance their social standing in the United States soon after liberation. During the period of W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington, the sort of education explored by African- Americans was the focus of intense discussion. Washington was an enthusiastic supporter of industrial/vocational education while DuBois supported both higher and industrial education, but greatly emphasized on the higher education (Ogbu 23). A lot of people in the Black society accepted DuBois’s stand on higher education remained the better proposal because it was thought to uplift the community. They thought that Washington’s approach was inefficient and left the whole race exposed to violation by White Americans.
W.E.B Du Bois strategy can be evaluated as ceaseless agitation as stated in The Niagara Movement "If we expect to gain our rights by nerveless acquiescence in wrong, then we expect to do what no other nation ever did. What must we do then? We must complain. Yes, plain, blunt complain, ceaseless agitation, unfailing exposure of dishonesty and wrong- this is the ancient, unerring way to liberty, and we must follow it." For this time period, this strategy is inefficient because he only thought about a small percentage of the Black race. As like Washington, he to wanted them to go to top colleges, get a great education, and in some way he thought that they were going to become the intelligence whole Black nation.
Here is the full text of this classic in the literature of civil rights. It is a prophetic work anticipating and inspiring much of the black consciousness and activism of the 1960s. In it Du Bois describes the magnitude of American racism and demands that it end. He draws on his own life for illustration- from his early experrience teaching in the hills of Tennessee to the death of his infant son and his historic break with the 'accomodationist ' position of Booker T. Washington..
Du Bois urged African Americans to involve themselves in politics. Gaining this power would be essential to immediate beseeching of rights. Political association would prevent blacks from falling behind because "when the Negro found himself deprived of influence in politics, therefore, and at the same time unprepared to participate in the higher functions in the industrial development which this country began to undergo, it soon became evident to him that he was losing ground in the basic things of life" (Doc I). Du Bois also directly challenged Washington when he stated "that the way for a people to gain their reasonable rights is a not by voluntarily throwing them away and insisting that they do not want them" (Doc E). W.E.B. Du Bois goes on to criticize that "that the principles of democratic government are losing ground, and caste distinctions are growing in all directions" (Doc F). All of these political demands are comprehensible but Du Bois desired a radical change; "Negroes must insist continually, in season and out of season" (Doc E). This is close to nagging, which was surely unfavorable among primarily white politicians. The effectiveness of perpetual complaining would steadily decrease. Washington avoids political involvement which in general is a neutral action neither promoting nor causing defacement of the Negro population.
From slavery being legal, to its abolishment and the Civil Rights Movement, to where we are now in today’s integrated society, it would seem only obvious that this country has made big steps in the adoption of African Americans into American society. However, writers W.E.B. Du Bois and James Baldwin who have lived and documented in between this timeline of events bringing different perspectives to the surface. Du Bois first introduced an idea that Baldwin would later expand, but both authors’ works provide insight to the underlying problem: even though the law has made African Americans equal, the people still have not.
DuBois presents the question “[h]ow does it feel to be a problem?”, introducing the attitude towards African-Americans upon their emancipation (DuBois 3). The idea of freedom for slaves meant equality, but “the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land […] the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people” (6). The challenge faced during this time was how to deal with the now freed slaves who once had no rights. DuBois states that African-Americans merely wish “to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly i...
African American people have encountered political, social and economic challenges that have, in many ways, shaped the way they think and perceive the issues that surround their race from the time of slavery to this day. As a way of fighting disadvantages and injustice, African Americans such as WEB Dubois and Alain Locke have introduced their philosophical views and studies of that African American race and the racism that has oppressed them for decades. In this paper, I’m going to introduce a short biography of the African American philosophers WEB Du Bois and Alain Locke compare and contrast their approaches to philosophical issues pertaining racism.
Du Bois blatantly told the country that the government played a role in the negative situation of blacks and had an integral role in ensuring that they achieved full citizenship. Du Bois, rightfully so, was extremely critical of the government, citing that “so flagrant became the political scandals that reputable men began to leave politics alone, and politics consequently became disreputable.” From that, comes his key connection to the negative political standing of blacks. He said, “In this state of mind it became easy to wink at the suppression of the Negro vote in the South, and to advise self-respecting Negroes to leave politics entirely alone.” Du Bois wanted blacks to involve themselves in politics and in doing so the struggle for civil rights to change that stigma and more importantly to have a voice. This desire to change the sheer corruption and abuse that came with de jure and de facto segregation was most evident with the “Coming of John.” In this chapter, Du Bois tells the story of two young men, one white, and one black, who both went to college. When the black one returns home after being in school, he no longer shares the ignorant bliss that all of his fellow blacks have. He opens up a school to try and enlighten the youth, but is told to teach them to be lesser than whites. It almost seems as though the story is a
Du Bois was a scholar activist who proposed lots of solutions for the issue of racism and discrimination. Du Bois was sort of an opposition to Washington’s ideology, as he strongly believes that it can only help to disseminate white’s oppression towards blacks. We can see his dissatisfaction based on his writing with a title On Booker T. Washington and Others. He wrote that Washington’s philosophy was really not a good idea because the white extremists from the south will perceived this idea as blacks’ complete surrender for the request of civil rights and political equality. Du Bois had a different view on this issue if compared to Washington because of their different early lifestyles. Unlike Washington, Du Bois was born free in the North and he did not receive any harsh experienced as a slave himself and was also grew up in a predominantly white area. In his writings, it is obvious that he thought that the most important thing that the black should gain was to have the equality with whites. Regarding the issue of the voting rights, Du Bois strongly believed that it is important for black people to agitate to get the right to vote. He also believed that the disfranchisement of poor men could mean the catastrophe of South’s democracy (Painter 157). In his writing with a title Of Our Spiritual Strivings, he wrote that it was significant for blacks to exercise the right to vote because there were whites that wanted to put them back in their inferior position—and it was
Throughout his essay, Du Bois challenged Booker T. Washington’s policy of racial accommodation and gradualism. In this article Du Bois discusses many issues he believes he sees
... collective consciousness of the Black community in the nineteen hundreds were seen throughout the veil a physical and psychological and division of race. The veil is not seen as a simple cloth to Du Bois but instead a prison which prevents the blacks from improving, or gain equality or education and makes them see themselves as the negative biases through the eyes of the whites which helps us see the sacred as evil. The veil is also seen as a blindfold and a trap on the many thousands which live with the veil hiding their true identity, segregated from the whites and confused themselves in biases of themselves. Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folks had helped to life off the veil and show the true paid and sorry which the people of the South had witnessed. Du Bois inclines the people not to live behind the veil but to live above it to better themselves as well as others.