Zone1 Did W.E.B Dubois create the "Separate But Equal" Black victim hood movement?

[MarathonMike]

In my recent discussions on Booker T Washington, an assertion was made that "he had it all wrong" and W.E.B. Dubois had all the answers. So as I will do, I researched this topic and came to the following conclusion. The clash between Washington and Dubois I believe actually formed the two distinct schools of thought for American Black people of today, opportunists and victimists.

Both are recognized as scholars and very influential men. Washington believed that education and self-reliance was the path to success and happiness for Black people. His legacy is the Tuskegee Institute that has produced many of America's most successful and influential Black citizens. Dubois believed that "separate but equal" and rejecting American values and traditions was the way to go. His legacy is the NAACP that has spawned the Negro college fund and generational Black victim mentality.

As an interesting side note, Dubois had a French Father and a Haitian Mother. He and his family never experienced slavery. Washington was born a slave and was freed when he was about 10 years old.

DuBois Area Historical Society, Inc. :: DuBois Family

History about the DuBois Family

duboishs.com

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

In my recent discussions on Booker T Washington, an assertion was made that "he had it all wrong" and W.E.B. Dubois had all the answers. So as I will do, I researched this topic and came to the following conclusion. The clash between Washington and Dubois I believe actually formed the two distinct schools of thought for American Black people of today, opportunists and victimists.

Both are recognized as scholars and very influential men. Washington believed that education and self-reliance was the path to success and happiness for Black people. His legacy is the Tuskegee Institute that has produced many of America's most successful and influential Black citizens. Dubois believed that "separate but equal" and rejecting American values and traditions was the way to go. His legacy is the NAACP that has spawned the Negro college fund and generational Black victim mentality.

As an interesting side note, Dubois had a French Father and a Haitian Mother. He and his family never experienced slavery. Washington was born a slave and was freed when he was about 10 years old.

DuBois Area Historical Society, Inc. :: DuBois Family

History about the DuBois Family

duboishs.com

​

The doctrine of "separate but equal" was a legal doctrine that allowed for racial segregation in the United States1. It held that segregation laws did not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits states from denying equal protection of the laws to any person within its jurisdiction1. The doctrine gave constitutional sanction to laws designed to achieve racial segregation by means of separate and equal public facilities and services for African Americans and whites2.​

​

​

W.E.B. DuBois​

W.E.B. Du Bois was born in Massachusetts in 1868. He received a B.A. from Fisk University in Tennessee, studied at the University of Berlin, and was the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard (1895). Du Bois argued tirelessly for complete racial equality and integration. He disagreed with Booker T. Washington's stance toward political and social inequality, believing it too accommodating toward white racism.​

​

Du Bois's insistence on complete racial equality gained even greater importance after the Supreme Court upheld legally- sanctioned segregation ("separate-but-equal") in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case in 1896. In 1905 he joined with other civil rights advocates and formed the Niagara Movement to protest racial inequality and the separate-but-equal legal doctrine articulated in the Plessy case.​

​

After internal dissension made the Niagara movement ineffective, Du Bois and white liberals formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. The NAACP sought to end racial inequality and foster integration, primarily by challenging the legal basis of segregation. In an editorial at the conclusion of the First World War, a conflict in which large numbers of African-Americans served militarily, Du Bois called on his readers to use their special gifts and talents to lay claim to political promises yet unfulfilled:​

​

By the God of Heaven, we are cowards and jackasses, if now that the war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brains and brawn to fight the forces of hell in our own land.​

We return.​

We return from fighting.​

We return fighting!​

Make way for Democracy! We saved it in France, and by the great Jehovah, we will save it in the United States of America, or know the reason why.​

 

[irosie91]

Du Bois pushed sophistry to the depths of hell to "PROVE" that blacks as a "GREAT Nation" was hopelessly decimated by the evil designs of white America----his writings rely on very narrow parameters. His ability to document and present his thesis is brilliant

 

[MarathonMike]

​

The doctrine of "separate but equal" was a legal doctrine that allowed for racial segregation in the United States1. It held that segregation laws did not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits states from denying equal protection of the laws to any person within its jurisdiction1. The doctrine gave constitutional sanction to laws designed to achieve racial segregation by means of separate and equal public facilities and services for African Americans and whites2.​

​

​

W.E.B. DuBois​

W.E.B. Du Bois was born in Massachusetts in 1868. He received a B.A. from Fisk University in Tennessee, studied at the University of Berlin, and was the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard (1895). Du Bois argued tirelessly for complete racial equality and integration. He disagreed with Booker T. Washington's stance toward political and social inequality, believing it too accommodating toward white racism.​

​

Du Bois's insistence on complete racial equality gained even greater importance after the Supreme Court upheld legally- sanctioned segregation ("separate-but-equal") in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case in 1896. In 1905 he joined with other civil rights advocates and formed the Niagara Movement to protest racial inequality and the separate-but-equal legal doctrine articulated in the Plessy case.​

​

After internal dissension made the Niagara movement ineffective, Du Bois and white liberals formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. The NAACP sought to end racial inequality and foster integration, primarily by challenging the legal basis of segregation. In an editorial at the conclusion of the First World War, a conflict in which large numbers of African-Americans served militarily, Du Bois called on his readers to use their special gifts and talents to lay claim to political promises yet unfulfilled:​

​

By the God of Heaven, we are cowards and jackasses, if now that the war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brains and brawn to fight the forces of hell in our own land.​

We return.​

We return from fighting.​

We return fighting!​

Make way for Democracy! We saved it in France, and by the great Jehovah, we will save it in the United States of America, or know the reason why.​

That's all factual but does not address my topic. It seems to me those two men unintentionally formed the the two factions that exist today amongst American Black people. Booker T Washington proved that America was the land of opportunity for everyone including Black people. Dubois was born into comfort, never experienced slavery and yet rebelled against Brown vs Board of Education and advocated for Black Americans to not assimilate into "White Society" and remain true to African heritage. And although Dubois did not specifically demand reparations be paid I believe he laid the groundwork for present day reparation advocates.

 

[IM2]

Only an IDIOT would create a thread like this. In reality, Washington was the father of black victimhood. His strategy was this: "we are inferior and we should not stand up for our rights. If we just don't complain and do what they tell us, one day we'll get respect." And that is why whites like the OP love Washington.

WEB Dubois founded the NAACP. It was the NAACP that ended school segregation. The NAACP is one of the organizations responsible for bringing us civil rights. None of that was done by "victimhood." The Booker T. Washington strategy did nothing but allow whites to burn up black property.

Whites like the OP needs to sttudy black history thoroughly before starting threads like this.

 

[MarathonMike]

Only an IDIOT would create a thread like this. In reality, Washington was the father of black victimhood. His strategy was this: "we are inferior and we should not stand up for our rights. If we just don't complain and do what they tell us, one day we'll get respect." And that is why whites like the OP love Washington.

WEB Dubois founded the NAACP. It was the NAACP that ended school segregation. The NAACP is one of the organizations responsible for bringing us civil rights. None of that was done by "victimhood." The Booker T. Washington strategy did nothing but allow whites to burn up black property.

Whites like the OP needs to sttudy black history thoroughly before starting threads like this.

I clearly know more than you do. I doubt there are any Black posters on USMB who think Booker T Washington "got it all wrong". There is nothing in Washington's writings or actions that claims Blacks are inferior. Quite the opposite. That is yet another lie you are pushing to smear a great Black American. You bash him because he blows up your phony Black victim hood narrative which you have been pushing on this site for 8 years.

You push Dubois because he is like you, he bashes the country that provided him a great life . He nor his family ever experienced slavery just like you whereas Washington was himself a slave and rose to greatness based on his brilliance, hard work and great attitude. He obliterates the Reparations Agenda which is why you are so angry at my comparision of Dubois and Washington.

Once again I have dismantled your venomous empty retort and you will no doubt run for the hills again as you always do with me. Have a nice day IM2!

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

That's all factual but does not address my topic. It seems to me those two men unintentionally formed the the two factions that exist today amongst American Black people.

You started off with several false premises - that there currently exists two "factions" within Black America and that a Black man during the 1800s had the ability to implement (or prevent) a legal doctrine nationwide, just for starters.

You then referred to Black Americans falling into two camps - "opportunists" and "victimists" which is not even a word and wrongly accused Dubois of believing in "separate but equal" and rejecting American values & traditions when neither is true. American values & tradition at that time wrongly alleged that "separate but equal" was constitutional which it was not as evidence as the fact that SCOTUS later ruled it to be not constitutional in the landmark case Brown v The Board of Education. You also falsely claimed that Dubois believed in "separate but equal" when he fought it tooth and nail which is why the quotation from him published at the end of World War I encouraging Black Americans to fight for EQUALITY not the bullshit separate but equal doctrine.

Both were very accomplished men and each brough his own contribution to the advancement of Black people, each in his own way. Neither is to be denigrated as far as I am concerned, certainly by the likes of you, especially since it is apparent that you aren't nearly as accomplished as either, nor IM2 when it comes down it.

I don't know why you are so obsessed with Black people and our business but it's not a good look.

Dubois believed that "separate but equal" and rejecting American values and traditions was the way to go. His legacy is the NAACP that has spawned the Negro college fund and generational Black victim mentality

 

[MarathonMike]

You started off with several false premises - that there currently exists two "factions" within Black America and that a Black man during the 1800s had the ability to implement (or prevent) a legal doctrine nationwide, just for starters.

You then referred to Black Americans falling into two camps - "opportunists" and "victimists" which is not even a word and wrongly accused Dubois of believing in "separate but equal" and rejecting American values & traditions when neither is true. American values & tradition at that time wrongly alleged that "separate but equal" was constitutional which it was not as evidence as the fact that SCOTUS later ruled it to be not constitutional in the landmark case Brown v The Board of Education. You also falsely claimed that Dubois believed in "separate but equal" when he fought it tooth and nail which is why the quotation from him published at the end of World War I encouraging Black Americans to fight for EQUALITY not the bullshit separate but equal doctrine.

Both were very accomplished men and each brough his own contribution to the advancement of Black people, each in his own way. Neither is to be denigrated as far as I am concerned, certainly by the likes of you, especially since it is apparent that you aren't nearly as accomplished as either, nor IM2 when it comes down it.

I don't know why you are so obsessed with Black people and our business but it's not a good look.

So you agree with me that IM2 is wrong to disparage Booker T Washington. Of course you had to take a personal swipe at me but I expect that since you are so emotionally attached to the subject.

I am no more "obsessed with Black people" than you are obsessed with Systemic Racism and Reparations. I believe you you have filtered much of Dubois history. He most certainly believed in "Separate But Equal" as he very publicly condemned Brown vs Board Of Education. He also very publicly believed that "Black folk" should never assimilate and should agitate and protest against the country trying to make amends for slavery.

Interestingly, Dubois fits the profile of many current Black activists who are often Liberally educated, grew up in comfort and enjoyed a life of privilege. In what I have read about the man he seems very confused. He fought against the NAACP which he helped create.

Here is an interesting quote from Dubois that is inciteful:

"This race talk is, of course, a joke, and frequently it has driven me insane and probably will permanently in the future; and yet, seriously and soberly, we black folk are the salvation of mankind."

 

[IM2]

Marathon Mike needs to bone up on black leadership.

Because this ain't victimhood.

 

[IM2]

Stop watching Brandon Tatumm and learn about true black leadership.



Blacks like this had whites so scared that J. Edgar Hoover went after him.

 

[MarathonMike]

Marathon Mike needs to bone up on black leadership.

Because this ain't victimhood.

Who is Brandon Tatum? I read history and I always look for root cause to a problem. I believe W.E.B. Dubois is a root cause to the problem of Black Victimhood.

 

[IM2]

Before you run your mouth, you should know what you're saying.

 

[MarathonMike]

Before you run your mouth, you should know what you're saying.

Dubois was a confused man, not unlike you.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

I am no more "obsessed with Black people" than you are obsessed with Systemic Racism

XXXXXXXXXXX none of us are obsessed with reparations but it's very obvious that the mere fact of us working towards them in any way triggers so many of you all, to the point where we've been instructed by some of you, to "stop" spending our time doing "so and so".

Systemic racism affects Black people. We're Black, you're not, so the fact that you're not concerned with something that doesn't impact you is not out of the ordinary, but you certainly are all up in a significant portion of Black folk's business and not for any good reason that I can discern.

And I will stop making things personal when you stop addressing me in a condescending manner which I suspect is because I'm female but also because I'm Black.

There are plenty of other white people on this message board who have no problem conversing with me without insulting my intelligence every chance they get.

And no, I have not seen IM2 denigrating Washington but if he prefers Dubois efforts to Washington's that his prerogative however for you to try to use that as some kind of indicator that Black people are either victims or opportunists is laughable and further shows your obsession in trying to make some stupid point.

 

[MarathonMike]

You're an ass, none of us are obsessed with reparations but it's very obvious that the mere fact of us working towards them in any way triggers so many of you all, to the point where we've been instructed by some of you, to "stop" spending our time doing "so and so".

Systemic racism affects Black people. We're Black, you're not, so the fact that you're not concerned with something that doesn't impact you is not out of the ordinary, but you certainly are all up in a significant portion of Black folk's business and not for any good reason that I can discern.

And I will stop making things personal when you stop addressing me in a condescending manner which I suspect is because I'm female but also because I'm Black.

There are plenty of other white people on this message board who have no problem conversing with me without insulting my intelligence every chance they get.

And no, I have not seen IM2 denigrating Washington but if he prefers Dubois efforts to Washington's that his prerogative however for you to try to use that as some kind of indicator that Black people are either victims or opportunists is laughable and further shows your obsession in trying to make some stupid point.

He most certainly did denigrate Washington just as he does every other Black man who rejects victim hood in it's various forms. As usual you conveniently filter out what you don't want to see.

Systemic Racism in 2024 is a fantasy pushed by the Democrats and their faithful followers. A more accurate term would be Systemic Favoritism. The last vestiges of Systemic Racism vanished in the 70s. If you disagree then provide SPECIFIC EVIDENCE of Systemic Racism against Black people today.

I use the term "opportunist" in a positive sense in that Black people in America today if they are willing to put in the work have every opportunity available to them. Both you and IM2 have benefited from living in this country yet you dredge up ugly images of America's Racist history in order to project it into present day.

As usual I will not drop to either you or IM2's level of name calling. I wouldn't do that to your face so I don't do it here.

 

[IM2]

Mike you should really concern yourself with the white community. There are plenty of problems there.. I don't have to like Booker T Washington because whites like you do. To me he hurt black progress. How in the world he came up with the crazy belief he did during Jim Crow is amazing.. Your racism has you asking about how Washington, but you missed another black man who rose up out of slavery and educated himself. Are these the words of victimhood?

“What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mock; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.”
-Frederick Douglas

 

[MarathonMike]

Mike you should really concern yourself with the white community. There are plenty of problems there.. I don't have to like Booker T Washington because whites like you do. To me he hurt black progress. How in the world he came up with the crazy belief he did during Jim Crow is amazing.. Your racism has you asking about how Washington, but you missed another black man who rose up out of slavery and educated himself. Are these the words of victimhood?

“What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mock; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.”
-Frederick Douglas

Douglas made that speech in 1852, while slavery was still well in effect and well before the Civil War and is therefore irrelevant in this post slavery discussion of Washington and Dubois.

I believe you denigrate Black men like Booker T., Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele and yes even Pastor Corey Brooks because they are a threat the Systemic Racism/Victim hood narratives pushed by Sharpton, Obama, the Democrats and their Media machine. Black people are the centerpiece of a new push to divide the country with CRT, the 1619 project, and DEI which is why I focus on it. Meanwhile these "Liberal Elites" and their followers ignore the crushing problems in Black inner cities that resemble third world war zones. No American citizen should have to live like that.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

He most certainly did denigrate Washington just as he does every other Black man who rejects victim hood in it's various forms. As usual you conveniently filter out what you don't want to see.

Systemic Racism in 2024 is a fantasy pushed by the Democrats and their faithful followers. A more accurate term would be Systemic Favoritism. The last vestiges of Systemic Racism vanished in the 70s. If you disagree then provide SPECIFIC EVIDENCE of Systemic Racism against Black people today.

I use the term "opportunist" in a positive sense in that Black people in America today if they are willing to put in the work have every opportunity available to them. Both you and IM2 have benefited from living in this country yet you dredge up ugly images of America's Racist history in order to project it into present day.

As usual I will not drop to either you or IM2's level of name calling. I wouldn't do that to your face so I don't do it here.

Mike, first of all I want to apologize for calling you an ass. Even though I fully meant it, it was still unprofessional and something that I should not have done simply because I know better than to allow others to get me to act out of character and to return in kind what I receive from them. And just FYI, I penned this before I saw your response about my comment.

Having said that, I am not "filtering" IM2's opinions. I do not see everything he posts and most of what he posts he posts for the board not to open a discussion with his colleagues here. He's vastly outnumbered and treated in the worse ways possible because of the protection offered to the worse of your group while we get chastised, punished and banned for merely speaking the truth, however unsavory it may be to some of the members here faking fragility.

Do you even understand why we disagree on your opinion that "systemic racism" no longer exists? I basically discount pretty much everything you say on the topic because you have never indicated how you arrived at the conclusion that systemic racism no longer exists in the United States. Additionally, you aren't knowledgeable enough of the topic to even offer any insight into the subject matter other than your own opinion.

This is just for starters.

I'm going to try an analogy, see if you get what I'm saying.

I can't count the number of times, I have been sleazed or sexually assaulted throughout my lifetime. And the sexual assaults that I'm referring to here is not of the nature of some creep jumping out of the bushes, dragging me in and raping me. I'm talking about what guys refer to as "coping a feel". No one has the right to put their hands on me and I guarantee you, if I do anything much more than give them a dirty look or say something to them like, "that's not cool", I will be accused of overreacting. They have attempted to explain away what they did by telling a story, denying it happened, claiming it was an accident, etc. The last time this happened was within the last 12 months and I'm a friggin senior citizen!

People who have never experienced this, including other women, will try to explain it away as something perhaps that I did ("you must have led him on"), something I misconstrued ("oh he didn't mean it that way") or just will outright deny that it happened ("there must be something wrong with her to make up something like this") or at least downplay and try to diminish the incident. They are so busy trying to excuse away what actually happened that there has never been any concern expressed for how this impacted me, the person who was victimized.

This is exactly the way you act when you start in talking about systemic racism or any racism as a matter of fact. YOU have NEVER been on the receiving end of white supremacist beliefs and policies therefore you don't want to believe that it still occurs and treat anyone who complains about the same way I've been treated when I've been sexually assaulted or sleazed - with denial or minimization or a complete lack of concern or care that it happened ("so what").

Every act of racism, no matter how small is an offense and a violation of the law, just like every act of an unwanted touch is an offense of sexual assault and a violation of the law and my person. Unfortunately for Black people but fortunately for the remaining white racists doing their best to ensure racism never dies in our country, racism in most situations is not a violation of the criminal code.

Words have meaning and you claiming to be using a negative term in a positive manner doesn't fly. An opportunistic is someone with no moral code, one who "exploits chances offered by immediate circumstances without reference to a general plan or moral principle". You're denigrating Black when you refer to us this way as well as calling us victims when you know good and damn well we as a race have been horribly victimized by the white supremacist structure that was put in place to exploit us and our lives from the very inception of this country. And it's patronizing as hell for you to be preaching to us about how we should be grateful for the opportunities afforded us by living in this country. We're ENTITLED to those opportunities because we are American citizens same as you and probably more than you when you consider what we accomplished despite living, working and prospering (within limits) given what we were ALLOWED to work with. There is no such thing as an NDA (non disclosure agreement) requiring us to never look back or mention the U.S.'s history simply because we were afforded an opportunity to improve our lives. We do this because we want our country to be better for EVERYONE but especially for the Black people who may not have gotten the same opportunities we did.

I understand that you all don't like that part of the country's history brought up, but it is YOU who is filtering out only the parts of our history that is palatable to you, not us, we don't have that same luxury to just ignore the ugly parts and only focus on the good parts. But because we've never had that luxury of choosing what WE want to focus our attention on, it has strengthened most of us in ways that you couldn't begin to understand. Just as one example, one of the other members here was posting about how he would never work somewhere where he wasn't wanted. Black people never had that option since we were not wanted in a multitude of places where we worked, at least not by another other than the person who hired us.

Ignorance is a lack of knowledge regarding a particular subject so when I again refer to your ignorance I am not trying to insult you, I'm telling that you don't have enough knowledge about the subject matter to do anything other than offer an uninformed opinion and of course people like IM2 and the rest of us are going to reject that.

I often work with crime victims. How insulting would it be if I were to discount all the things they tell me, to their faces, just because they don't have a witness or anything to corroborate the events they've experienced and the things they're telling me. There are a lot of white people in our country, just think of a group of defense attorneys as an example, who see, firsthand, the damage that the continuation of white racism against Black people wreaks but this is just one of a multitude of scenarios that Black people have to navigate where we are attacked and/or have to defend ourselves, often against people such as yourself claiming that the incidents that we've experienced never happened or "that's doesn't rise to the level of blah blah blah racism"

Is this enough information for you to understand why what you're doing is condescending and offensive?

 

[Tom Paine 1949]

It is certainly true that this OP by MarathonMike is terribly wrong in all its essentials … despite his supposed “research.”

Without reading several of the brilliant pathbreaking historical and sociological masterpieces of WEB Du Bois and studying his long life history carefully, nobody, least of all a typical white MAGA or Trump supporter, can appreciate either his great contributions, or the changes in view he underwent over his long lifetime.

Suffice it to say the contention (or implication) that Du Bois supported a “Separate but Equal Black Victimhood Movement” is preposterous.

At times WEB Du Bois respectfully disagreed with the much more accommodationist approach of Booker T. Washington — the “white man’s favorite black leader” during the Jim Crow era. Washington himself was often viciously humiliated by white men in those grim days. As an ex-slave operating in the South primarily, his activity was influenced and limited by circumstance.

Du Bois even more militantly opposed the first truly mass black working-class “Back to Africa” Garvey Movement in the 1920s, which grew up at a time when disillusionment and hopelessness with the prospect of integration into American society swept up millions in an essentially escapist fantasy. Malcom X’s mother and father were Garveyite activists and their family was harassed & destroyed as a result.

In his last years Du Bois became a Pan-Africanist and finally even an apologist for Stalinist Russia.

None of this negates the tremendous humanity expressed in his finest works, nor the contributions he made to the African-American freedom movement during his long life. As a black intellectual and political leader he stands out as unique, right alongside the earlier Republican abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who also saw his hopes for a genuine “Reconstruction” of American society go up in smoke. None of this can be understood without a much more profound understanding of the separate “black experience” in systemically racist Jim Crow America than our typical MAGA polemicists possess.

The idea, moreover, that Booker T. Washington & WEB Du Bois, or Du Bois & Marcus Garvey, or Martin Luther King & Malcolm X represent some primary axis of modern African-American political thinking … is profoundly mistaken.

Nobody should try to “box in” any racial group in such a way, especially no outsider with so little real historical knowledge or sympathy.

 

[IM2]

It is certainly true that this OP by MarathonMike is terribly wrong in all its essentials … despite his supposed “research.”

Without reading several of the brilliant pathbreaking historical and sociological masterpieces of WEB Du Bois and studying his long life history carefully, nobody, least of all a typical white MAGA or Trump supporter, can appreciate either his great contributions, or the changes in view he underwent over his long lifetime.

Suffice it to say the contention (or implication) that Du Bois supported a “Separate but Equal Black Victimhood Movement” is preposterous.

At times WEB Du Bois respectfully disagreed with the much more accommodationist approach of Booker T. Washington — the “white man’s favorite black leader” during the Jim Crow era. Washington himself was often viciously humiliated by white men in those grim days. As an ex-slave operating in the South primarily, his activity was influenced and limited by circumstance.

Du Bois even more militantly opposed the first truly mass black working-class “Back to Africa” Garvey Movement in the 1920s, which grew up at a time when disillusionment and hopelessness with the prospect of integration into American society swept up millions in an essentially escapist fantasy. Malcom X’s mother and father were Garveyite activists and their family was harassed & destroyed as a result.

In his last years Du Bois became a Pan-Africanist and finally even an apologist for Stalinist Russia.

None of this negates the tremendous humanity expressed in his finest works, nor the contributions he made to the African-American freedom movement during his long life. As a black intellectual and political leader he stands out as unique, right alongside the earlier Republican abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who also saw his hopes for a genuine “Reconstruction” of American society go up in smoke. None of this can be understood without a much more profound understanding of the separate “black experience” in systemically racist Jim Crow America than our typical MAGA polemicists possess.

The idea, moreover, that Booker T. Washington & WEB Du Bois, or Du Bois & Marcus Garvey, or Martin Luther King & Malcolm X represent some primary axis of modern African-American political thinking … is profoundly mistaken.

Nobody should try to “box in” any racial group in such a way, especially no outsider with so little real historical knowledge or sympathy.

Thank you Tom.