Du Bois vs. Cox Essay

The essay that I am presenting today is “Strivings of the Negro People” by W.E.B Dubois. This essay was written in as an article in the Atlantic Monthly in 1987, but before I get to essay, I would like to give some background information about Mr. Dubois. Both scholar and activist, W.E.B. Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He studied at Harvard University and, in 1895, became the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard. He wrote extensively and was the best known spokesperson for African American rights during the first half of the 20th century. Du Bois co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909. He died in

Race, then, is described as a human creation and the product of the desire to categorize and diminish the potential risk of losing power and participation in society, and to continue with the expansion of territories, the exploitation of resources and the indiscriminate use of human capital with the excuse of economic development.

William Edward Burghardt Dubois was the first African-American to earn a doctorate and lived Atlanta Georgia. He was civil rights activist and historian. In 1903 he wrote The Souls of Black Folk where he disagreed with Washington because he felt the color-line was performing a disservice to the black population. While Dubois acknowledges him as, “a compromiser between the South, the North, and the Negro” : he also said,” Mr. Washington is especially to be criticized.” Dubois believed the exact opposite of Washington, he said, “Such men feel in conscience bound to ask of this nation

However, Dubois a Harvard educated black intelligent, political thinker, disagreed with Washington’s strategy. He believed that Washington philosophy would not serve the purpose of the black community, but only to continue white oppression. Dubois made political action and a forceful way for civil rights advancement by encouraging blacks to demand their rights. He felt that blacks lived in a society that has devalued them to a point that they no longer

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He was the first African American to earn a doctorate at Harvard University, and he focused on history, civil rights, and sociology. In 1909, Dubois was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The Soul of Black Folks was one of Dubois’ great works in 1903.

Racial formation theory is an analytical tool in sociology, developed by Michael Omi and Howard Winant, which is used to look at race as a socially constructed identity, where the content and importance of racial categories are determined by social, economic and political forces. Race has political, religious, and scientific components. Race can determine the treatment of certain individuals solely based on skin color, and can also determine the characteristics of a person associated with that skin color. Race is not synonymous with ethnicity or racism. Science and racism emerged during the 18th and 19th centuries as an attempt to justify the mistreatment of people of color, highlighting they are physiologically inferior to Europeans.

According to Howard F. Taylor ‘race’ is complex, therefore it cannot be defined by a single definition . The term is ‘multiply defined’; as a result, he has created a set of his own definitions which all coexist with each other meaning ‘no one definition takes precedence over another’ . They include the following categories: biological, social construction, ethnic group, social class/prestige rank, racial formation/society’s institutions and self-defined . These associations will be used to get an understanding of ‘race’ in accordance to the early nineteenth century in the USA by the ‘Christian Missionaries Oppose Removal, 1830’ and New Zealand in the extract from ‘The Letters and Journals of Samuel Marsden’ .

DuBois focused on developing education for the African American race and philosophy to develop. This is the second chapter in his book The Negro Problem. He talks about that with an educated group of exceptional leaders, the rest of the African American community would also benefit from this education. DuBois and Washington are rivals during the time that this document was written and DuBois is trying to focus on industrial education, as like Washington did in his speech. DuBois claims “to attempt to establish any sort of a system of common and industrial school training, without first providing for the higher training of the very best teachers, is simply throwing your money to the winds (3).” Whereas Washington believed in an industrial education, DuBois believed that African Americans needed a classical education. He seeks to promote, “intelligence, broad sympathy, knowledge of the world that was and is and of the relation of man to it” (33-4). DuBois, wants blacks to get a classical education so that they would be able to do something with their lives and reach their full potential. He believes they need to do this for their own self to be able to make a living. I feel like this is very important because I do not think the race of someone should affect the way they are treated in society. During this time, they were not always treated fairly, and most did not even get an education. DuBois just wanted what was best for

Washington recommended that African-Americans should start by being in the workforce first, and then after they get wealthy, gaining power through other means and equality would come. Washington thought that his way, his process of easing into society and ending racism, was better than trying to make several demands all at once. DuBois didn’t seem to be as patient with how slowly things were progressing along with the end of racism. So much so, that DuBois believed that African-Americans should fight for their rights as humans to be immediately integrated completely into society.

W.E.B. Dubois was the rivaling civil rights leader during the early 20th century. W.E.B. Dubois believed that through political action and education, full-citizenship of African Americans in America would be achieved. At first, he agreed with Booker T. Washington’s teachings, however through time Dubois realized flaws within Washington’s ideas. Dubois, in “Soul of Black Folk” writes, “The black men of America have a duty to perform, a duty stern and delicate, -- a forward movement to oppose a part of the work of their greatest leader. So far as Mr. Washington peaches

W.E.B. DuBois, a black intellectual believed that Washington's strategy would only serve to perpetuate white oppression. DuBois initially advocated for Washington's strategy, however he grew to find it unacceptable as he became more outspoken about racial injustice. DuBois campaigned for a civil rights agenda and argued that educated blacks could accomplish social change. With the belief that African Americans should work together to battle inequality DuBois helped found the NAACP. DuBois was not content with attempting to gain an economic foothold; he wanted absolute equality in all aspects of life. DuBois believed that Washington "devalued the study of liberal arts, and ignored the economic exploitation of the black masses. He believed that "The Negro Race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education then, among Negroes, must first of all deal with the ‘Talented Tenth.' [which] is the problem of developing the best of this race that they may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of the worst." He believed that the economic and political issues facing African Americans could be solved if the most talented ten

In the years following the founding of the NAACP, DuBois was introduced into controversy as he joined the Socialists Party. DuBois became a candidate for the United States Senate on the American Labor (Communist) Party ticket. He also wrote letters, novels, and opinion excerpts as well as organized the first meeting of the Pan-African Congress, the purpose of the Congress was to improve the situation of native Africans. DuBois also initiated the concept of the "talented tenth" the talented tenth was where he called for ten percent of the African American population where he lived to receive a traditional college education so they could have leadership positions and assume leadership positions within society and within their communities.

) On the short film “The Story We Tell” it gives us a clear background of the roots of race and how it has been transformed throughout time. We see how some groups are excluded or called the “other” from what white people classify as race. To have a better understanding of what a race consist of, is to understand how whites came about forming race that will differentiate them from the rest. White people believe that people of color were created to be inferior than them, and to serve them because that’s how God created the system. As spencer mentions “The simple answer is “no self”; in other words, an alien subjectivity, a being who exhibits characteristics notably different from our own, whether gender, race, class, custom or behavior.

My own conception of race (although quite broad) was that it was a concept that signified an identity. My understanding of race was that it involved ancestry, genetics, and similarities with a certain group. It was only until reading the last part of Race After Internet which mentioned that, “The possibility of understanding race at the molecular level as mappable and quantifiable is premised on innovations and developments in computing and Internet technologies as race is recreated in digital media space” where I felt that my initial thoughts on race were most aligned with. But the fact that it mentioned this statement as a possibility opened my eyes to see that race was something beyond biology and that although the reading did diverge from my line of thinking on race, it allowed me to take into account and learn more about the role that technology plays in the construction and alteration of

“Race is a social construction…” (Hwang) Junaid Rana starts her definition of race by stating it is a social construction, which in itself is mind boggling, because it is true. Race was not an issue when it came down to deciding Ozawa V. United States in 1922 or Thind V. United States in 1923. Rana then goes on to say “...In which biology and culture are often conflated as a rhetorical logic and material practice in a system of domination.” (Hwang). She says, how race is made up of both biology and culture, but is combined and used as a stamp to organize and categorize anyone person to a group. Personally, I