Tuesday Blog Post 2/26

In W.E.B. DuBois essay, The Talented Tenth, he discusses the power that lies in the hands of the top 10% of African Americans to uplift the rest of the community. DuBois discusses how African Americans have the most success in "negro schools" where there isn't a need to fight for recognition. In his essay he goes on to list just how difficult it is for African Americans to reach success and recognition in a white society that wants to keep them at the bottom. DuBois also goes on to cite the importance that HBCUs have in the uplifting of African Americans because they’re arguably the only schools to graduate high percentages of black people. Whereas when you look at the predominantly white schools in the North, there are far lower percentage rates of graduated African Americans. And, DuBois also points out that even when a black person graduates from a predominantly white school, he still has to fight to get anywhere with that degree. When putting DuBois argument in perspective to today’s culture, I tend to agree to the points he’s making. Now, to be clear I’m not at all saying that black people should segregate themselves from the white population in order to reach any sort of life and academic success. Instead, I’m going with the notion that ‘I am my brother’s keeper’, meaning that black people should be not only focused on their own success but also on the success they’ll leave behind them for the African American youth. We, as a community should be helping one another to build eachother up and take our success instead of asking for it. We need to continue to strive for positions of power so we can better help those still stuck on the ground. This every man for themselves mentality is not getting the community anywhere.

Comments

  1. Jakerra LanceFebruary 27, 2019 at 12:41 PM

    I Agree with your idea of community building not only in the African American community but society as a whole. I also affirm DuBois' conclusion that HBCUs are great for African Americans, they allow the minority to become the majority for a period of time while also allowing black people to express their culture without having to worry about some of the negative connotations of that. In my opinions though your statement that, "Now, to be clear I’m not at all saying that black people should segregate themselves from the white population", is also correct but in a slightly different sense. I Believe black people need to actively search out and go to a PWI, (Predominately White Institution), to help bring their black culture and ideas to people who in all reality may have never truly interacted with a black person that wasn't working or on a screen. We cannot break through cultural bias from a distance people, in general, have to be confronted with the actual reality of someone different than them, and have their ideas challenged and debated. If more ethnic people had the opportunity or the desire to attend a PWI and did we could expand everyone's knowledge of each others cultures and belief so that as adults we could go out into the world with a little less bias and a little more understanding of each other. So, in my opinion, I think that people need to make it a priority to explore places and ideas that are different than there own so that that they at least have the opportunity to become more knowledgeable about the world around them. then those people have the responsibility to pass on that knowledge to others to create a more informed community.

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