Book the Future of the Race by Henry Louis Gates Jr. And Cornel West

¶ … Henry Louis Gates and Cornel West, The Future of the Race is an exploration into and reflection of W.E.B. Dubois's ideas surrounding the African-American predicament in America, from education to community life. Dubois, heralded as one of the most influential American scholars of the 20th century, emphasized the need for the educated and affluent to assist those not so fortunate. He believed that the top 10% of the race (referring to education and socioeconomic status) should dedicate themselves to helping the remainder, an idea he referred to as "The Talented Tenth." Gates and West, both admirers of Dubois, show how his ideas can be translated in a modern day context to the problems of the black community. They also, however, point out internal flaws in "The Talented Tenth." Their conclusions are not "concrete." They do not pretend to have the answers to the problems within the black community, nor do they hail Dubious' as the end-all solution. They simply engage in an examination of the African-American situation, and the modern day approaches to assisting it.

Gates and West write separate essays contained within the book. Gates focuses on his personal accounts in dealing with racial issues during his four years at Yale. He describes his years at the Ivy League school as somewhat contradictory. The environment, following many of the civil rights changes during the sixties, was becoming structured to be conducive for African-Americans and female students. However, Gates believes that behind the "good intentions" of the school was an internal push to remain the elite, white school that Yale had been. He feels as if the African-Americans at Yale were never truly able to break away from their stereotypes. Gates writes, "If we weren't crushed in the dialectic over what was 'black" and what was 'blacker,' then we were crushed by those bored administrators and jaded teachers who could not see the longing and the impatience to learn buried deep behind the particular mask that each of us chose to wear (51).

My analysis of Gates' essay was fairly straightforward. Yale, he believes, was a great opportunity for himself and his peers, but it was not the completely objective experience he believes it should have been. The color of his skin dictates the way he is judged by others, even the other African-Americans. At one point, he describes the way he is evaluated by teachers: as an intelligent individual considering his demographic. Gates does not want to hide his identity -- he embraces it -- but at the same time, he feels there is a fundamental lack of individuality applied to him and his peers during his years at Yale.

West's essay pertains more heavily to Dubious, and his idea of "The Talented Tenth." West emphasizes the idea that educated African-Americans have the responsibility to help those not so fortunate. He is a strong believer that freedom of the individual has not been accomplished until freedom of the race has. He does not necessarily criticize the African-American community, but rather the circumstances that led to its plight. West writes, "Like any other group of human beings, black people forged ways of life and ways of struggle under circumstances not of their choosing. They constructed structures of meaning and structures of feeling in the face of the fundamental facts of human existence -- death, dread, despair, disease, and disappointment" (79). He continues by saying, " (The African-American predicament resulted from) the African and American character of black people's attempts to sustain their mental sanity and spiritual health, social life and political struggle in the midst of a slaveholding, white supremacist civilization that viewed itself as the most enlightened, free, tolerant, and democratic experiment in human history" (79).