Within my 20 years of living, I have never experienced as much racial tension as my generation is encountering in present day. Such uninterrupted racial tension has begun to awaken my race’s youth to the very stable and living institution of systematic oppression that continues to suffocate the progress, success, and equality of African American life. Similar to the times of Washington and DuBois and the Civil Rights movement, African Americans are once again faced with the question of “How to throw off the shackles of our oppressors and establish a thriving and safe situation for our race?’ In other words, what is the best strategy for black people to overcome oppression?
In the late 19th century, Booker T. Washington and WEB DuBois rightfully held opposing strategies for improving the situation of black life, considering their vastly different backgrounds. (I had the pleasure of once taking an African American Studies course that’s focus was on the comparison of these 2 great minds.) Washington was a former …show more content…
Dubois believed that Washington was encouraging blacks to gain success through submission (Dubois p. 8). He critiqued Washington for telling the African American community to give up on “ political power, insistence on rights, and higher education of the Negro Youth” (Dubois p. 8). However, Washington’s strategy did not require African Americans to abandon such elements of reconstruction, but to focus on the foundation of such aspects instead. This foundation consisted of the hard work and struggle that Washington stressed, by first being successful in industrial and agricultural work. Unlike DuBois, Washington did not feed the fantasy of Blacks making the great leap from slavery to becoming President of the United States. DuBois held an unrealistic goal of African American obtaining power that they had not yet proven themselves worthy of and had not yet worked to
In the late 19th century, Booker T. Washington and WEB DuBois rightfully held opposing strategies for improving the situation of black life, considering their vastly different backgrounds. (I had the pleasure of once taking an African American Studies course that’s focus was on the comparison of these 2 great minds.) Washington was a former …show more content…
Dubois believed that Washington was encouraging blacks to gain success through submission (Dubois p. 8). He critiqued Washington for telling the African American community to give up on “ political power, insistence on rights, and higher education of the Negro Youth” (Dubois p. 8). However, Washington’s strategy did not require African Americans to abandon such elements of reconstruction, but to focus on the foundation of such aspects instead. This foundation consisted of the hard work and struggle that Washington stressed, by first being successful in industrial and agricultural work. Unlike DuBois, Washington did not feed the fantasy of Blacks making the great leap from slavery to becoming President of the United States. DuBois held an unrealistic goal of African American obtaining power that they had not yet proven themselves worthy of and had not yet worked to