Stephen Lewis History 311 Professor Sjovold Tues.-Thurs. 7:30am Booker T. Washington Booker T. Washington would have responded to John Hope’s paper, A Critique of the Atlanta Compromise, with what he felt were reasonable, rational, and logical ideals to help blacks of the post-slavery era find a path to equality without the risks associated with demanding everything they truly deserved. In The Atlanta Compromise Mr. Washington did not think it was necessary to harbor hatred and anger against the whites that had mistreated so many black individuals. He found it more appropriate to forgive them for their atrocities and move forward rather than look back. In his speech at the Cotton State Exposition he made it very clear that he wanted
Yet, while both Malcolm X and James Brown wanted Black unity, Black pride, and both had a great following, they both had different ideas of how to make the aspiration of true Black unity a reality. Malcolm X approached the situation of White oppression with an absolute Black radical perspective and followed a total separatist agenda. While the civil rights movement fought against racial segregation, Malcolm advocated the complete division of African Americans from white people and claimed that Blacks could take care of themselves if only they were given the opportunity to do so. Malcolm X also staunchly opposed the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence as a means of advocating for better treatment. Malcolm did not believe that nonviolent protest or peace marches were not the way to get White America’s attention about the plight of Black America.
At a time when the black community is being afforded a free status, but not one of equality, many leaders arise to appeal to the white governing body for social equality. The transition from the ninetieth century to the twentieth century gives birth to two of these leaders, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. Although these two remarkable men were both in search of a common goal, their roads leading to this goal were significantly different. This is most evident in Booker T. Washington's, The Atlanta Exposition Address and W.E.B.
Lee wrote was a letter to his wife about slavery in 1856. In this letter Lee talks about how “The blacks are immeasurable better off here than in Africa, morally, socially and physically.” By saying this Lee shows his willingness to accept the African American society into the southern white society. Lee isn’t necessary an anti-slavery activist but he isn’t a pro-slavery supporter either. Robert E. Lee once stated that he saw slavery as necessary but not proper. Lee concluded that slavery would help both white and black races grow equally.
The author starts the essay by reciting a quote by Cornel West who is an African American philosophy professor at Princeton. In the quote West says, “After centuries of racist degradation, exploitation, and oppression in America, being black means being minimally subject to white supremacist abuse.” In other words West is saying that black authenticity is not the same as white authenticity. He argues that although some may believe that America is a color-blind society and that we have moved beyond the segregation and racism of the past that race still matters today (Washburn, 183). The author of the essay says that race is more of a social issue rather than a biological issue in that a person can be black only within a certain kind of society. He also argues that being a member of a certain minority group develops one’s thoughts and
In the Cornel West article "Nihilism in Black America" he argues that the dilemma of African Americans is nihilism. This is somewhat parallel to W.E.B Dubois's Talented Tenth speech in 1903. Nihilism, according to West, is the lived experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness, and lovelessness. African Americans are threatened by the lack of hope and the “absence of meaning” in their lives. Dubois's philosophy not only shows nihilism in the black race during this era but it also shows the same lack of progression in the black community in 2011.
He also refers to the Caucasians as “you” to create a feeling of being an outsider and “you” can only imagine what it feels like to be an African American. Baldwin. Thoreau also uses the theme of us versus them when he compares the people to the government. Thoreau basically coveys that it is the people against the government. It is evident when Thoreau says we must be “men first and subjects afterwards”, implying that one must be a person who is governed by ones self rather than primarily being a subject to the government.
Double Consciousness In Dubois’s work, Souls of Black Folks, he presents that “the problem with the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.” (450) He produces the story of his life in relation to “double consciousness, the sense of looking at one’s self through the eyes of others.” This dualism and frustration provides the history of the Negro and the hardships that they travel to reach manhood. Double consciousness is the awareness of one’s self and also of the way that other people perceive that person. This awareness could possibly spiral into that person changing themselves into the person that other people perceive them as. The key into not falling subjective to this would be to maintain roots in their past and resist to conformity to the dominant society. Dubois examines the struggle of the difficulties between the differences of identities between being American and being an African American through the
Schlesinger examines the current attempts by black "leaders" to rewrite the history of black Americans in order to ostensibly improve their self-esteem and provide them with role models. Mr. Schlesinger argues that this sort of "compensatory history," or "underdog history" which is invented or exaggerated to soothe the wounds of the oppressed or abused, really can have no positive effect, either for those it presumes to help or for the nation as a whole. He states, "... black Americans, after generations of psychological and cultural evisceration have every right to seek an affirmative definition of their past". But he also states that, "History as a weapon is an abuse of history. The high purpose of history is not the presentation of self nor the vindication of identity ..." He points out that the reinforcement of such a separatist concept of black identity through such slanted or inaccurate history, coupled with a complete dismissal of the history of black people in America over the past 300 years, can only result in the "...fragmentation, resegregation, and tribalization of American Life".
ESSAY ENGLISH: Written Text- Nothing’s Changed written by Tatamkhulu Afrika In the poem ‘nothing’s changed’ the poet describes the cultural difference between the black people and whites. He represents this by using many different poetic techniques, he does this by emphasising that there is a cultural difference between them, he shows this by using a small village in Africa called District six. The Title of the poem suggests that when the whites destroyed District six and built a new village, for the blacks and whites to mix, it did not work. He shows this with the feeling of being unwelcome, in the village that used to be his home when he was a child. In this poem the cultures are divided because of wealth and power.