Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Another Class

There is another class of colored 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….There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who do not want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.

– Booker T. Washington

2 comments:

LarryD said...

It's past time for the Black community to close up W. E. B. Du Bois's books and put them in the bookcase, and take down Booker T. Washington's books and start studying them.

M. Simon said...

Right on Larry.

Excellent point.

It is very similar to the split that ruined Islam rationality vs faith.

One wrong turn on the road to civilization and you wind up in a dust bin. Or as we Americans prefer - garbage can.