Blog for Class 02/26/2019

In the excerpt from W.E.B Dubois’ “Talented Tenth” essay, he believed that the top 10% of African-Americans who were well educated would have been inherently important in elevating the status of all African-Americans. This was contrary to the beliefs of Booker T. Washington that emerged around the same time. In class we discussed the similarities between Dubois’ ideas from the “Talented Tenth”, and what it is like to be African-American on college campuses today. In class one particular student mentioned that she feels as though the students of color on the Washington and Jefferson college were admitted to portraying a false sense of diversity, rather than to recognize their merit. The article entitled “The Nouveau Talented Tenth: Envisioning W.E.B. Du Bois in the Context of Contemporary Gifted and Talented Education” tries to get to the root of this issue by examining students of color in education, particularly focussing on their participation in gifted programs. The article mentions that while schools are no longer segregated, black students do not appear in gifted programs at the same rates as white student’s. I find this interesting personally because one argument that I hear often is that slavery and these issues of civil rights were resolved a long time ago. However, I think education is one particular example of where we still see the disparity between the races inaccessibility of quality education. Here at Washington and Jefferson College I feel like there was an attempt to solve this problem by creating the Charles West program and the Black Student Union, both groups that encourage and foster black excellence, but the issue that I see with these programs is that I don’t see them fixing the root of the problem at Washington and Jefferson. Having these programs that encourage the black student to get involved with gifted programs is important, but I don’t see how it encourages the hiring of more African-American professors, creating more classes that focus on minority groups or creates discussions on a race to the whole college population.

The second topic we had to explore for class today was personally challenging for me. As someone who is not a person of color, I do not feel that I have the right to use the N-word even if it is in an educational setting or piece of work. That word has a history that is rooted in hatred. This is a history of mistreatment with which I did not, and do not continue to, feel the hurt. However, I am also torn because as the article “ How a Dispute Over the N-Word Became a Dispiriting Farce” mentions I think having uncomfortable conversations, especially in a post-secondary educational setting does prepare students for the real world. Where I don’t believe I have a right to use that word, or similar words, I do feel like if we have a conversation about this type of rhetoric in a safe space we can have a better understanding of racial issues.

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