Booker T Washington argumentative comparison

Topic: An argumentative comparison of Booker T Washington’s “Speech at the Atlanta Exposition,” and W.E.B. Du Bois', "The Talented Tenth".
Introduction
Any narrative on African American history is incomplete if one fails to examine the competition between W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington that, between the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, altered the route of America's pursuit of equality, besides ending up facilitating the rise of the contemporary Civil Rights Movement. While both rivals belonged to the very same period, were highly talented academicians, and were activists promoting African American civil rights, they differed with respect to their background and the approach adopted by them which eventually influenced the future the most (Blatty, 2015). In this paper, a detailed examination of both activists' works will be performed, and a few fundamental questions pertaining to the difference in their technique of raising African Americans to a standing equal to that of White Americans will be answered.
The perspectives
Dubois firmly believed in the idea that educating Black Americans was instrumental to elevating their status. In his opinion, this would help put an end to discrimination on the part of White Americans, in addition to safeguarding them against the “contamination and death” that Blacks wreaked upon their own community members. For thus educating Blacks, the strategy proposed was to first identify the most gifted ten percent of members of the African American racial group, followed by nurturing them in America's top colleges in every field of study. The aforementioned privileged subgroup would subsequently perform the role of leading, guiding, nurturing, and educating fellow African Americans (Dubois, 1903). While this seems exceedingly optimistic, one point to bear in mind here is that: the activist realized the tough task ahead in order for accomplishing this objective, and didn’t claim that every single African American would progress to elitism - rather, he believed in industrial training that would help create employment opportunities for those not brilliant enough to acquire a place in the top colleges attended by the abovementioned ten percent of black leaders. Despite maintaining that the sole means of uplifting the African American community was through education, Dubois clearly articulated the import of work for African Americans. His argument was: providing education to working individuals will prove more valuable to industrialism as against keeping him from obtaining education. Education is not just classroom training; rather, it entails provision of all opportunities whereby one can engage in community learning, and constantly improving and holding oneself to loftier standards. This is only feasible when African Americans have a group of leaders to look up to for inspiration and guidance. The incentive would galvanize fellow community members to wish for and actively pursue greatness, at least to a small degree.
The workmen would be enrolled in trade schools where the mentors would be the “chief support”; here, by mentors, we mean the previously mentioned top ten percent that would fill the role of instructors. Just because every African American couldn’t be an elite doesn’t mean they couldn’t receive any education at all; education, after all, is the sole means by which an individual can become intelligent rather than simply being a worker who fulfills his basic sustenance needs.
The current, extensively-employed educational model for Black Americans stresses “cohesion and focus, self-help and self-reliance”, thanks to separation from the majority white populations. Dubois supported a Black American-headed educational institute consistent with their nature. Its result in the present day is: several HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) which aided former slaves in developing their very own educational model and philosophy (Dunn, 1993). Such colleges/universities are proof that Dubois was right in recommending African-American educational institutions for educating and providing vocational training to men.
Despite being a member of the African American community and essentially fighting white racism, a few White blue-collar individuals also supported him (Hancock).
The contradiction
The key difference between Washington and Dubois was their approach for elevating African Americans to elitism. Within the context of this paper, elitism denotes a position in which African Americans were either industrial captains, capable of and allowed to elect representatives or be elected, enjoy equal treatment and respect from all, as well as enjoy all freedoms, rights, and opportunities that Whites enjoy.
Both had the same goal, though their methods were strikingly dissimilar. On one hand, Dubois claimed that Blacks could only attain equality by fighting for it and forcibly seizing it. They would have to elevate their community by equipping themselves with intelligence and knowledge to render it impossible for oppressive white supremacists to deny it. One may regard this as an elitist strategy, since Dubois raised his personal standing this way. On the other hand, Washington felt the ideal approach for Black equality was submitting to the whites whilst steadily amassing wealth through hard work, diligence, and meekly tolerating racial bias. On the whole, Washington's idea was: after amassing sufficient wealth, African Americans could then seek equality.
Washington's strategy has been labeled as “fake it till you make it” or “false democracy” as he wanted the African American community to pretend meekness and regard for whites owing to the lack of any other recourse in that period. In his view, the capability of proving their productiveness in society, and economic independence, would ultimately bring true equality; he felt the community ought to bide their time and cease their civil rights demands for the moment (Washington, 1895).
Contrarily, Du Bois insisted that civil rights and educating Black Americans was the sole path to achieving equality, and giving up on their quest would end up reinforcing the idea that their community members were second-class American citizens.
The convergence
The chief similarity between the two activists was their end goal, namely, lifting the African American community from their post-slavery position marked by repressive white elitism to a position where Blacks enjoyed equal treatment as whites. Furthermore, both believed that one means of accomplishing the above goal was through work. Whilst Dubois advocated for education followed by work, Washington supported working patiently to accomplish the above goal.
The whites preferred Washington's strategy, especially as they weren’t prepared to actually discuss black political and social equality so soon after ending slavery (Blatty, 2015). The method worked to their (i.e., whites') advantage and was thus met with tremendous enthusiasm on the part of whites, who greatly contributed to Washington's Tuskegee institute. Further, Washington was the adviser and close friend of President Roosevelt.
Conclusion
The perspectives of the activists under study were shaped, to a large extent, by their pasts. Washington, a former slave, understood how to achieve goals by working within limitations. He was able to free himself from a position of slavery all on his own. Therefore, his approach to continue working and momentarily appeasing the whites whilst covertly pursuing the black community’s agenda was shaped by his earlier dealings with whites.
However, Dubois never experienced slavery, and his first experience of racial discrimination only came during his young adulthood. Moreover, being exceptionally bright decreased the amount of inequality he experienced. Hence, he felt education was of utmost importance in gaining equality.
Lastly, while both activists adopted a different approach to tackle the very same issue, this difference caused them to unwittingly offer a solution which was better than either one. Hence, African Americans are forever in their debt.
Bibliography
Blatty, D. (2015, February 22). W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington and the Origins of the Civil Rights Movement. Retrieved from Biography: https://www.biography.com/news/web-dubois-vs-booker-t-washington
Dubois, W. (1903). he Talented Tenth. In The Negro Problem: A Series of Articles by Representative Negroes of To-day (pp. 36-43). New York.
Dunn, F. (1993). The Educational Philosophies of Washington, Dubois, and Houston: Laying the Foundations for Afrocentrism and Multiculturalism. Journal of Negro Education, 62(1), 23-24.
Hancock, A.-M. (n.d.). Socialism/Communism. In p. Young.
Washington, B. T. (1895). Speech at the Atlanta Exposition. Atlanta.