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(Note: This page represents an academic project and does not necessarily reflect my personal views. W.E.B Du Bois' audio is, in particular, not offered as any manner of an endorsement or support of the "beautiful lie" of socialism.)
After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,— a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,— an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. (Du Bois, 887)
Reading The Souls of Black Folk has been instructive on several independent levels for me. On the one hand, Du Bois' treatment of the problem of racial injustice at the turn of the 20th century is not a terribly simple thing to pigeonhole; he is more than an activist or organizer. There's also the dimension of understanding Du Bois better with regards to his relations with others--e.g. Book T. Washington. If we the African American indeed experiences something akin to a "double-consciousness," then it seems only logical that we begin to examine the character and motivation of Du Bois through the eyes and interactions of others. Lastly, as a person already somewhat familiar with the botanical brilliance of George Washington Carver (photo below) at Washington's Tuskegee University, it's fascinating to learn more about the origination of this institution--as a well as a passing reference to Carver in the article we will be exploring this week.
After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,— a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,— an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. (Du Bois, 887)
Reading The Souls of Black Folk has been instructive on several independent levels for me. On the one hand, Du Bois' treatment of the problem of racial injustice at the turn of the 20th century is not a terribly simple thing to pigeonhole; he is more than an activist or organizer. There's also the dimension of understanding Du Bois better with regards to his relations with others--e.g. Book T. Washington. If we the African American indeed experiences something akin to a "double-consciousness," then it seems only logical that we begin to examine the character and motivation of Du Bois through the eyes and interactions of others. Lastly, as a person already somewhat familiar with the botanical brilliance of George Washington Carver (photo below) at Washington's Tuskegee University, it's fascinating to learn more about the origination of this institution--as a well as a passing reference to Carver in the article we will be exploring this week.
Speaking of the scholarly article to be discussed this week, it is "Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois: The Origins of a Bitter Intellectual Battle" by Mark Bauerlein and appearing in The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. (It is available for Marylhurst student download below.) In the third chapter of The Souls of Black Folks, a vigorous criticism of Booker T. Washington is articulated. One example of this follows.
And so thoroughly did he learn the speech and thought of triumphant commercialism, and the ideals of material prosperity, that the picture of a lone black boy poring over a French grammar amid the weeds and dirt of a neglected home soon seemed to him the acme of absurdities. One wonders what Socrates and St. Francis of Assisi would say to this. (Du Bois, 893)
W.E.B. Du Bois argued that the passive and conciliatory approach advocated by Booker T. Washington was a disservice to those it purportedly sought to help; it advocated for slow change rather than fast. The previous quotation does an excellent job conveying the differences of thought between these two great minds. Booker T. Washington's negative reaction to the young child reading French betrays a practical mindset that does not necessarily place high value upon education for the sake of education. As a man of great education, Du Bois strenuously disagrees. He believed that Washington's "cult" was selling the African American's short, not expecting enough from them. He explains it further within the following passage.
In answer to this, it has been claimed that the Negro can survive only through submission. Mr. Washington distinctly asks that black people give up, at least for the present, three things,— First, political power, Second, insistence on civil rights, Third, higher education of Negro youth,— and concentrate all their energies on industrial education, and accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South. This policy has been courageously and insistently advocated for over fifteen years, and has been triumphant for perhaps ten years. As a result of this tender of the palm-branch, what has been the return? (Du Bois, 897)
Mark Bauerlein's thought-provoking article examines the history between these two men, which further illuminates their later strained behavior. One of his central points is to make it abundantly clear that Du Bois and Washington often helped and worked closely with each other--although to a lesser extent following the publication of The Souls of Black Folk.
Their intellectual visions did not jibe to be sure: Washington spread the gospel of work and managed the Tuskegee Machine, a national network of loyal graduates, donors, and lieutenants, akin to a political machine, while Du Bois executed his sociological inquiries, jumped from one research job to another, and had other expectations for his race. Yet they sometimes acted as allies, with Washington treating Du Bois, and Du Bois treating Washington as a discreet patron. Every few months, letters were posted and projects deliberated. It was a relationship of enticements, negotiations, tactical respect--and rising suspicion. (Bauerlein, 106)
Bauerlein's article recounts the complex and often divisive relationship of Du Bois and Washington, pointing out, among other things, that Du Bois had a pattern of seeking work from Washington, only to graciously decline when offered the desired position at Tuskegee. (Bauerlein, 109) It is hard to imagine this pattern not becoming distasteful to Washington, subtly coloring the relationship between the two. In 1905, Du Bois went further in an a published piece written for The Voice of the Negro.
Du Bois didn't cite Tuskegee by name, but everyone knew what he meant. Washington controlled the black press, bought loyalty, planted, spies, ostracized critics, and co-opted reform movements and let them die. His accommodations of whites had become too obsequious, but, more important, his black power had become oppressive. For 10 years Du Bois and Washington had espoused different visions but supported each other. When Washington converted this fruitful conflict of ideas into a power struggle of men, he miscalculated. (Bauerlein, 114)
Questions for Further Discussion
Please respond to one of the questions below on this week's Du Bois reading.
1. There seems an oratorical quality to much of Du Bois writing. Were there particular passages that you read that particularly evoked this feeling for you?
2. What can we learn from the friction between great minds like Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois?
3. If Du Bois is arguing that the African Americans are capable of so much more, then is there a way to apply a similar line of reasoning to a racially-divisive issue of today? (Please endeavor to keep it non-political.)
4. How could Du Bois and Washington approached things in a different, potentially more successful, way?
5. What concept or way of thinking struck you the most strongly this week from The Souls of Black Folk?
6. When you read of the poor black child reading the book on French grammar, did you more appreciate the perspective of Washington or Du Bois? Why?
1. There seems an oratorical quality to much of Du Bois writing. Were there particular passages that you read that particularly evoked this feeling for you?
2. What can we learn from the friction between great minds like Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois?
3. If Du Bois is arguing that the African Americans are capable of so much more, then is there a way to apply a similar line of reasoning to a racially-divisive issue of today? (Please endeavor to keep it non-political.)
4. How could Du Bois and Washington approached things in a different, potentially more successful, way?
5. What concept or way of thinking struck you the most strongly this week from The Souls of Black Folk?
6. When you read of the poor black child reading the book on French grammar, did you more appreciate the perspective of Washington or Du Bois? Why?
Bibliography
Bauerlein, Mark. "Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois: The Origins of a Bitter Intellectual Battle." The Journal
of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 46, 2004, pp. 106-114.
Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. The Souls of Black Folk. Ed. Nina Baym and Robert S. Levine. The Norton
Anthology of American Literature. Digital ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 885-901. Print.
of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 46, 2004, pp. 106-114.
Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. The Souls of Black Folk. Ed. Nina Baym and Robert S. Levine. The Norton
Anthology of American Literature. Digital ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 885-901. Print.
Miscellaneous Resources
| booker t. washington and w.e.b. du bois.pdf (Marylhurst University LIT 301E students.) |
