Booker T. Washington: controversial then, controversial now
Booker T. Washington was a towering figure. Born in slavery, he become a leader of early post-Civil War black advancement and in particular emphasized the value of education. You can read about his manifold accomplishments here, as well as the arguments and controversy he sparked and still sparks today for his gradualist and non-confrontational approach to overcoming the very serious barriers set for the black people of his time. The following is a short summary that only scratches the surface:
He called for black progress through education and entrepreneurship, rather than trying to challenge directly the Jim Crow segregation and the disenfranchisement of black voters in the South. Washington mobilized a nationwide coalition of middle-class blacks, church leaders, and white philanthropists and politicians, with a long-term goal of building the community’s economic strength and pride by a focus on self-help and schooling. But, secretly, he also supported court challenges to segregation and passed on funds raised for this purpose. Black militants in the North, led by W. E. B. Du Bois, at first supported the Atlanta compromise but after 1909, they set up the NAACP to work for political change.
Different versions of these same disagreements continued—and continued to escalate—during the 60s, and they continue to this day.
But this post isn’t meant to be an exploration of Washington’s life, fascinating though that might be. It’s about two quotes of his. Here’s the first:
I pity from the bottom of my heart any nation or body of people that is so unfortunate as to get entangled in the net of slavery. I have long since ceased to cherish any [spirit]] of bitterness against the Southern white people on account of the enslavement of my race. No one section of our country was wholly responsible for its introduction, and, besides, it was recognized and protected for years by the General Government. Having once got its tentacles fastened on to the economic and social life of the Republic, it was no easy matter for the country to relieve itself of the institution. Then, when we rid ourselves of prejudice, or racial feeling, and look facts in the face, we must acknowledge that, notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, the ten million Negroes inhabiting this country, who themselves or whose ancestors went through the school of American slavery, are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe. This is so to such an extend that Negroes in this country, who themselves or whose forefathers went through the school of slavery, are constantly returning to Africa as missionaries to enlighten those who remained in the fatherland. This I say, not to justify slavery ”” on the other hand, I condemn it as an institution, as we all know that in America it was established for selfish and financial reasons, and not from a missionary motive ”” but to call attention to a fact, and to show how Providence so often uses men and institutions to accomplish a purpose.
Interesting perspective from a man who was born in slavery. It can be found in his autobiography Up From Slavery
And this is from his 1911 book My Larger Education: Being Chapters from My Experience (Dover Thrift Editions)
There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs ”” partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.
Washington knew there were very real grievances—he had been personally subject to most of them, and much worse ones than are present for black people today. But his answer was not the same answer given by Black Lives Matter—although to him black lives most definitely did matter. That doesn’t mean Washington’s point of view didn’t have flaws (it did) and the views of his opponents some value (they did), but with the above paragraph I submit he was correct about some activists and he remains correct.
Which brings us to the present. I recommend reading this Powerline post (please read the whole thing) that draws a direct line between Black Lives Matter’s focus on what they consider racist-inspired police brutality towards blacks and the current rise of crime in urban areas, a rise that has ended up causing the death of far more black people than have been killed by police:
The virulent antipolice campaign that began with a now-discredited narrative about a police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, has made police officers think twice before undertaking precisely the type of enforcement that led to that twenty-year crime drop…
With police so discouraged, violent crime has surged in dozens of American cities, as we have seen…Homicides were up 76 percent in Milwaukee, 60 percent in St. Louis, and 56 percent in Baltimore for the year through mid-August, compared with the same period in 2014. Murder was up 47 percent in Minneapolis and 36 percent in Houston through mid-July.
But something even more fundamental than public safety may be at stake. There are signs that the legal order itself is breaking down in urban areas…
The lawful use of police power is being met by hostility and violence, which is often ignored by the press…
The irony is that the historic reduction of crime in the United States since the 1990s was predicated on police singling out African-Americans for their protection. Using victims’ crime reports, cops focused on violent hot spots; since black Americans are disproportionately the victims of crime, just as blacks are disproportionately its perpetrators, effective policing was heaviest in minority neighborhoods. The cops were there because they do believe that black lives matter.
In the recent eruption of violent crime, the overwhelming majority of victims have been black. The Baltimore Sun reported that July 2015 was the bloodiest month in the city since 1972, with 45 people killed in 30 days. All but two were black.
It is almost inexpressibly sad and ironic, and there is no end in sight. The MSM is complicit in this particular cycle of violence, as are many of the activists.
The blacks have been taught that they are victims of the evil white man and they believe it. Everyone knows that blacks commit a hugely disproportionate amount of crime but they believe they are being targeted by the police. As an example, blacks are about 13% of the population but in 2014 blacks committed 5,173 homicides and whites committed 4,367. I listened to a talk radio program where a black man stated that the only reason the police arrest so many blacks is because they are always in the black neighborhoods. If the police went to white neighborhoods they would arrest white people. He didn’t understand that the police are dispatched in response to crime reports. If no crime is reported, the police aren’t sent to investigate.
Zora Hurston, widely considered the most important black female writer produced by twentieth-century America, once wrote that “slavery is the price I paid for civilization.”
In facing discrimination, Booker T. Washington’s prescription for success closely mirrors the traditional Jewish prescription for success. In the aggregate, Jews are extrordinarily successful Americans, while blacks reside at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.
Asian Americans also embrace that same prescription and are even more successful.
All of which proves that there is indeed “no cure for stupid” and that, human beings are prone to excuses… unless raised with the cultural value of the individual’s obligation to accept personal responsibility for their actions.
‘Among Americans who graduate high school, get a job, and then get married, the poverty rate is in the single digits.’ Walter Williams
It’s the cultural values embraced, stupid.
I’m stealing that first quote. With attribution of course. Thanks.
This comment from the “Glocks v. Books” post seems apropos to Washington’s lament about self-serving Black agitators.
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The other Dennis Says:
July 14th, 2016 at 9:41 am
I think you’re all missing the point. He’s not talking to you and me. He’s talking to the underclass of ignorant democratic voters that the party has turned out of the public schools over the past 2-3 generations. Logic and facts have no interest for these people. The appeal to victim status in all of its forms is what sells, and the COIC (Community Organizer in Chief) plays those heartstrings like a fine violin.
The leftists, I think, feel that they have finally met the threshold of control of the institutions of society at the same time they have achieved the threshold of ignorance in the populace and this is the time (and its running out — 190 days) to strike to finally and “fundamentally change the country.”
Amy Chua (“Tiger Mom”) wrote a book called “The Triple Package.” in which she described three characteristics that make for the success of immigrant groups. Those she identified as most successful were Chinese, Jewish, Indian, Iranian, Lebanese, Nigerians, Cuban exiles and Mormons.
I don’t agree with the three factors she found makes for the most success – a superiority complex, feelings of insecurity, and impulse control (although I do believe impulse control is very important), but I would identify the same groups using my three factors — valuing marriage and family, education, and hard work.
Notice that most of these groups are easily identified by “racial” characteristics (Jews not so much anymore). Nigerians are the most highly educated demographic group in the US. They and other African immigrants are soaring right past native-born blacks. Obviously, they didn’t get the memo telling them that the systematic racism of the US is preventing them from succeeding.
Notice also that these are the values Booker T. Washington wanted blacks to emphasize, rather than the political activity DuBois stressed.
Finally, notice what values are missing from Black Lives Matter supporters.
Violence by police is not a molehill, but neither is it the mountain we are being currently led to believe. There are indeed some places with terrible police departments, where decent men and women have everything they can do to maintain any standards (I have heard Chicago is one), and certainly jerks in any large force. However, many of these policemen are assholes (or worse) to everyone. The value-subtracted by racism by the police is real, but not enormous.
Claiming that it is is divisive, because it neglects even hearing the counterargument that black crime is actually much higher, and the difference cannot be attributed to the usual “root causes.”
The cynical among us might suspect that black leaders and white liberals like dwelling on the differences in result and attributing them to externals because that provides more money for people to work on those “root causes.”
The inspiring and wise words of Washington, Carver and Douglass would well serve the black underclass today. Unfortunately it is the race hustlers who command the stage.
The majority of the black doctors my law firm has represented were natives of the West Indies.
“They and other African immigrants are soaring right past native-born blacks. ” I work with such an immigrant. His opinion of US blacks is very low. He came from a poor village, and now he, and his brother who also moved here, are very successful. Both with grad. degrees, married, and very committed to their families
“slavery is the price I paid for civilization.”
I assume she meant that “having to follow somebody else’s rules” is the price for civilization. Thus, she’s talking about the “Social Contract”, in which we give up some of the freedoms of Natural Man (where the rules are essentially “Jungle-Ball!! Might Makes Right!!”) and submit ourselves to certain norms and standards and laws in order to keep that Jungle at bay.
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Using the Social Contract and necessity for Law as a jumping-off point: I think a whole lot of the political divide in our country is the EXACT SAME THING as in the Bible, when Moses comes down the mountain with the Ten Commandments. “OK”, he says, “you’ve got God’s covenant – if you will keep His Law”. “Waitaminnit, hold on” says the crowd, “We need a king; give us a king.” Moses says, “I just TOLD you, you’ve got The Almighty Creator on your side, and you’ve got His Law. You don’t need some despot ruling over you according to his whim and caprice.” Still they insisted, “Give us a king.”
Same thing at work here-and-now: self-governance is HARD. Reining in those human emotions — don’t covet, or lie, or steal, or murder; understand that when bad things happen, or when “the other guy” is provoking you, YOU have the duty and responsibility to control YOUR BEHAVIOR — requires work and practice and commitment and training.
It’s much easier to have a “king” — yes, people have to obey his edicts when he’s looking, but they can slack off when he’s not. When things go well everybody gets a share of the harvest; when things fall to pieces, the people feel free to criticize his rules and policies. HE gets the responsibility, THEY get subsidized (not to mention “subsistence”) living.
Self control, “self-governance”, is much more difficult than serfdom. And yet for some upside-down reason, the half of our electorate who want “A King” (ie, a government big enough to take care of everything) seem to think they’re demanding “freedom” when they’re really demanding to be relieved of responsibility — which is to say, “enslaved”.
Western Civ depends on the notion of each individual’s “personal responsibility” to control their speech and actions, to behave according to social norms even when they might prefer NOT to. Voluntary acceptance of our culture’s Social Contract is what makes our open/ tolerant/ liberal society function. Western Civ assumes as its most-basic element that we are all people of good will, reasonable and fair and tolerant. This assumption works as long as a majority of people ARE willing to control themselves and be tolerant of others.
But this “Give us a king” mentality takes the onus of responsibility OFF the individual, and places it — somewhere else. Somewhere unenforceable. And the social contract breaks down, as more and more people decide that they’re suckers for playing by the rules when Jungle-Ball is the winning game now. And as we toss away the notion of personal responsibility (which derives from the old Judeo-Christian idea of The Created owing obedience to the Creator and His Law), we’ll find we’ve also tossed away the glory of Western Civilization. Third World, here we come!
This is not meant to say that the criticisms of BLM are invalid, but it is also the case that so many of the changes in modern culture over the last half century — such as the growth in the use of drugs — have perhaps affected the black community most of all. And that, in some measure at least, is because of the legacy of slavery.
Don’t forget the wisdom of Frederick Douglas.
“And that, in some measure at least, is because of the legacy of slavery.”
It is a legacy of nihilists in academia validating the behavior because of the thrill it adds to their morally and sexually disordered little neurotic niche seeking lives.
Booker T Washington was a smart man and deserves his fame. Since I lived in Africa as a child I can testify from personal experience to the fact that American Blacks are generally much better off than African blacks.
Lets not forget that most American slaves were slaves before they were bought by the White man and transported over here. They were enslaved either by other Black tribes or by Muslim Arabs and transported to the slave auctions.
The grievance industry is huge.
The problem is we are equally as blind when it is our own grievances.
Much of conservative media had been playing those grievances up, creating the groundwork for a man like Trump to successfully run for GOP lead.
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BLM could have done themselves a huge favor by two things:
1) Sticking to cases that are real police abuse (i.e. not perpetuating the false narratives, such as “hands up, don’t shoot”, but focus on cases like Walter Scott in NC).
2) Paying as much or more attention to events beyond police shootings (e.g. Chicago, July 4th), and proposing solutions to that (i.e. don’t all black lives matter? not just who is at the trigger end of the gun?).
Until they do, they won’t get buy-in and support from a majority, but merely from a core set of grievance based agitators and their sympathizers.
It seems that the MSM is paying way more focus on the Dallas police deaths than BLM ever received cumulatively in the past 12 months. The Dallas tragedy has probably reset their “brand” or “goodwill” way back.
Maybe they would be better called Stop Police Abuse (SPA) – probably more on mark with what their focus is, and one that is inclusive of everyone – and adjust their policy proposals accordingly. But, won’t happen, if it is merely about perpetuating a grievance.
I would like to add that Hispanic murders are included in the white murders. Hispanics are considered white, like George Zimmerman the white Hispanic. If you subtract the Hispanic murders from the white murders the disparity in murders is astounding.
Lets not forget that most American slaves were slaves before they were bought by the White man and transported over here. They were enslaved either by other Black tribes or by Muslim Arabs and transported to the slave auctions.
Dennis — More so — virtually none were free, which is why “Roots” was ridiculous. White men did not go running through the jungle or the savannah to capture slaves. They sailed up to slave ports which had existed for centuries, sat down at the auctions run by Arabs and African princes, and bought.
The transatlantic slave trade was an unprecedented abomination.