Washington crosses Du Bois (the Delaware)

                                                                credits

Admittedly, this rendering is not of Booker T Washington, but rather George Washington Carver in the place of George Washington. I felt it apropos because both men are black and look the same…..

HA, got ya, I am kidding, lighten up. Besides, Carver wears spectacles (look close in the painting), and as everyone knows Booker does not, right?

It is included because I couldn’t find a pic of Booker crossing the Delaware in the place of good ol George Washington, but in the process found this wonderful painting by Robert Colescott (Oakland, 1925 – Tucson, 2009 which shows the typical stereotypes of black culture in the boat with Carver. This whole “in the same boat” mentality, speaks to the heart of the feud between Du Boise and Washington, while at the same time adds the element that there are more people in the boat, thus more responsibility to come up with plans for those people. Besides, good art, in an effort to stimulate thought and emotion takes risks at the expense of offending a few people.

I looked and looked for a blog prompt earlier this week, I thought I was having a foggy brain, glad to know that it was not cold medicine fogginess. Curious, that the prompt  ended up being pretty much what I thought it might be, a comparison of Washington and Du Bois.  The deeper twist with the prompt is the “first-class citizenship”. It seems important to realize that both men are after the same goal, they are at odds about the how and when.

Washington seems pretty straight forward. I assume that this is a legacy of being brought up as a slave. His basic premise is that the black mans salvation, now that he is saved from slavery, will come in the form of self reliance. The whole “Cast down your bucket” idea. Help yourself, the water is fine. He encourages self reliance through education (freedom of thought) as well as the cultivation of the desire to be financial free as well. Although highly educated, he believed that it was just as important to work one’s hands as it was to work the mind. “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.”

Du Bois lauds Washington by sucking up while compliments to him right before he takes a few swings at Washington’s ideals calling him “the most distinguished Southerner since Jefferson Davis.” A kind of back handed compliment if there ever was one since Davis the was President of the Confederate States of America who sought to keep black in their place. Is Du Bois saying that Washington is keeping the black man down? Of course he is. Ouch.

Re-reading both passages, I am struck by the connection that each author attempts to engage the reader. In an effort to relate, I find myself putting myself in the shoes of the downtrodden, now free, but uneducated ex-slave now worried about feeding and providing for both the present welfare as well as future opportunities presented to one’s family. Washington realizes that the typical black man in the South faces starvation and dislocation attempting to rectify that danger by encouraging the basics first. One must walk before running right? Du Bois, while right in pushing for higher more refined thoughts and education, is thinking to the future of his race. He is obviously worried that his race will stagnate.

Both rationales hold some merit, so I began reading the messages for over all content and found thus. Du Bois writes sort of like a used car sales man. There is a lot of pandering, a great deal of side ways compliments, then some zingers to get ones blood going, then a bunch of drivel. By drivel, I mean the blah blah blah, How does one argue with lines like “It is through Nature must needs make men narrow in order to give them force.” Reading that as, YOU CAN DO IT….. I have spent a lifetime listening to pitches, and I have become naturally wary of those that hold roses in one hand and a knife in the other all the while hiding behind smoke and mirrors.

Decker