Who is the greatest African American of the past hundred years? Who was the most prophetic about civil rights concerns for the twenty-first century? Not Martin Luther King. I would have to rank him second or third. The greatest and most prophetic figure was Booker T. Washington. To see why, we have to revisit an early twentieth-century debate between Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. Although the debate focused on black Americans, it is relevant to the question of how any group starting out at the bottom can advance in society.
DuBois, a distinguished scholar and co-founder of the civil rights organization NAACP, argued that blacks in America face one big problem, and it is racism. Washington, who was born a slave but went on to become head of the Tuskegee Institute, countered that blacks face two big problems. One is racism, he conceded. The other, he said, is African American cultural disadvantage. Washington contended that black crime rates were too high, black savings rates were too low, there were too many broken families, blacks did not have enough respect for educational achievement, and so on.
DuBois insisted that these problems, if they existed, were due to the legacy of slavery and racism. Washington did not entirely disagree, but he insisted that, whatever their source, these cultural problems demanded attention. What is the point of having rights, Washington said, without the ability to exercise those rights and compete effectively with other groups? To put the matter in contemporary terms, there is little benefit in having a right to a job at Microsoft if you don't have the skills to get and perform the job. Washington further implied that if these cultural deficiencies were not remedied, they would help to strengthen racism by giving it an empirical foundation.
The civil rights movement, led by the NAACP and later Martin Luther King, fought for decades to implement the DuBois program and secure basic rights for black Americans. This was a necessary campaign, and ultimately it was successful. The laws were changed, and blacks achieved their goal of legal equality and full citizenship. Other minorities (and I count myself in this group) also benefited from the doors that King and his fellow activists opened. Obviously issues of enforcement remain, but by the late 1960s the early civil rights agenda represented by DuBois and King had been largely achieved. At this crucial juncture, the civil rights movement should have moved to embrace the Booker T. Washington agenda.
Unfortunately this didn't happen. It still hasn't happened. Even today Jesse Jackson and the NAACP continue (in the famous words of Frederick Douglass) to "agitate, agitate, agitate" for black progress. But now there are hardly any Bull Connors and Southern segregationists to fight, and so the activists are reduced to fighting "covert racism" and "institutional racism" and "racism that has gone underground" and basically racism that is only visible to them and to no one else. Most significant, these fights do little to help the blacks who are the poorest, the group that sociologist William Julius Wilson termed "the truly disadvantaged."
Meanwhile, there is another group that is following the Booker T. Washington strategy, and that is the nonwhite immigrants. I don't just mean the Koreans and the Asian Indians; I also mean black immigrants--the West Indians, the Haitians, the Nigerians, and so on. All are darker in complexion than African Americans, and yet racism does not seem to stop them. The immigrants know that racism today is no longer systematic, it is episodic, and they are able to find ways to navigate around its obstacles. Even immigrants who start out at the very bottom have shown that they are make rapid gains. These groups are surging ahead of African Americans and claiming the American dream for themselves. West Indians, for instance, have established a strong business and professional community and have achieved income parity with whites.
How is this possible? The nonwhite immigrants don't spend a lot of time meditating about the hardships of the past, nor do they blame their circumstances on society. They recognize that education and entrepreneurship are the fastest ladders to success in America. They push their children to study, so that they will be admitted to Berkeley and MIT, and they pool their resources and set up small businesses, so that they can make some money and move to the suburbs.
Thus we find that any group trying to move up in America is confronted with two possible strategies--the DuBois strategy and the Washington strategy---and it is an empirical question as to which one works better. A century ago, when segregation was still the rule, clearly the DuBois strategy was better. In this sense, Booker T. Washington was wrong during his day. But today it's clear that the man was ahead of his time. So far the evidence is overwhelming that the immigrant approach of assimilating to the cultural strategies of success is vastly better for group uplift than the tired old strategy of "agitate, agitate, agitate."
Martin Luther King nobly led the first phase of the struggle, but he only dimly saw the next stage. At the time of his death King was peddling all kinds of impractical schemes for sharing the wealth and he also became unnecessarily involved in the anti-Vietnam movement which diluted his currency as a civil rights leader. Even so, there were moments when King was prescient about the future. At one point he said that ultimately every man must write with his own hand the charter of his emancipation proclamation. I take him to mean that we all have the right to be treated equally under the law. We have this right, but we don't have any more rights than this. What we do with our rights, what we make of ourselves, the script that we write of our own lives, this finally is up to us.
Postscript: This article has been loosely adapted from my book What's So Great About America. The issues it raises are exhaustively treated in one of my earlier books, The End of Racism.
Reader Comments ( Page 7 of 40)
91. and one more thing, tuna. Who were King's opponents? They damn sure weren't atheists, were they! To my knowledge there were NO secuar arguments against racism any more than there are secular arguments against homosexuality today. It all comes from the same place - fundamentalists!
Clif Kuplen at 2:12PM on Jan 20th 2008
92. Hey everyone,religion is not the issue here.Neither is atheisim.This is about the black problem in America and i suggest we keep it that way.
One thing that i can learn from DuBois and Washington was that they were black,but they did not let it prevent them from excelling.Many African-Americans are following their example.A good number,however,are falling for that Whiteman lie that they can't be intelligent,that they can only be a gangsta rapper,or a drug dealer,or asportsman.
Black Americans,follow a culture of excellence.Don't fall for that old whiteman lie THAT SAYS YOU DULL.
aniekan thomas at 3:09PM on Jan 20th 2008
93. Your claim that the New Testament is made up do not have any basis in fact
is a false claim,
__________________
kettyluv, if you were well versed in mythology, you would realize that the NT is plagiarized from ancient cultures and paganism. Do yourself a favor and study ancient religions and you will find that the NT is completely unoriginal, borrowing concepts and people that have existed for thousands of years before the NT was compiled. Jesus is no different from the ancient sun gods.
brandon, the agenda here is anti-multiculturalism or anti-cultural relativism. What Dinesh is really saying is the American culture is superior to other cultures and therefore does not need to attempt to understand cultural problems from the viewpoint of other cultures. What he's saying is that if African Americans are having issues adapting, it's their fault, not his. He is "proving" this point by using his own "success story" conveniently emitting the fact that his ancestors were never enslaved by this country and therefore his race has not had to deal with the label of inferiority that has been passed on through generations. The book he quotes at the end (wouldn't be DD without self-promotion) has indeed been heavily criticized and basically established him as a racist. If he could make himself white, I have no doubt he would go for it.
emma at 3:37PM on Jan 20th 2008
94. Dinesh D'Souza, why not write an article about things of which you are intimately scooled. Write about your own plight in America, and cease from pontificating about mine. While you are correct that yourself and other "darked-skinned" persons from other countries have benefited from my African American plight. These 'dark skinned" immigrants about which you speak hasten to make it clear that they are not African American, but use their skin when it is beneficial;i.e., to fill a "minority" slot for which you have NO ClAIM. Your articles are juvenile jibber and based upon employing stereotypical platitudes,for which you have NO credentials, to enhance your position to whatever role you aspire to...perhaps remaing on AOL's blog. I'm African American and do not aspire to many of Booker T. Washington's submissive philosophies. He didn't even like Jack Johnson (American History) because he dared to like as an equal man. Yes I am learned historian. Let's talk about you.....
Solomon at 3:46PM on Jan 20th 2008
95. The goddess athena,
Again, The Lord Jesus is taken out of context. Matthew 5:39 is in regard to retaliation and revenge. In no way does it insinuate to turn a blind eye to evil in order to justify your actions. You see I'm really not confused, I just don't understand why liberals are so confused, except for the fact that Satan is the author of confusion. Therefore if you pick and choose God's word as Satan did when he tempted Christ, I can certainly see why liberals are confused. Atheists too for that matter. I just hope and pray that someday you too will come to understand the truth in and about God's word.
You answered my question totally.
In Christ's love
Jerry at 3:59PM on Jan 20th 2008
96. Dinesh D'Souza, you and the "other dark skinned" immigrants might stay in your own homeland, thereby leaving my African American plight,jobs,philosophy, and history to the qualified, me. You will not because the "getting" is to easy for you in America...cloaked in dark skin for minority status for business, job fullment at someone else's expense...and then you stare the gift horse (Black Americans) in the mouth. To feel important and to maintain an, "I'm better than them" personna, one must think that someone is below them; sort of like a caste system. As you are attempting to do. Real American (Black and White) call it hypocracy. Real Americans are better at the game than you are. We know the real history. Fellow, you are your own pawn.
Solomon at 4:20PM on Jan 20th 2008
97. kulari94 at 3:32PM on Jan 19th 2008....are you an AMerican? of any color? You too need to study...a lot.
Solomon at 4:13PM on Jan 20th 2008
98. nicole,
i am impressed with the scope of your accuracy. i am also, at this time, considering giving up my citizenship in the caucasian race. you have opened my eyes - sadly - after all my years of thinking i was in the know about african americans.
may they find a way to "overcome."
thanks kindly.
Terry at 4:21PM on Jan 20th 2008
99. Nicole at post 79:
You're a freaking lunatic. You are so off base that I don't know where to start.
kulari94 at 4:54PM on Jan 20th 2008
100. Solomon at 91:
In case you did not pick up on it, I was responding to a blogger who said in America you can't make a decent living. That's why I asked her if she lives in America. Maybe I should have asked her if she has traveled to other countries and seen how people lived. If she hasn't, she ought to before she claims that people in America can't make a decent living.
I don't see how someone can't claim that a person in America can't make a decent living. Sure, there are people out there who don't, but they could if they wanted to and took steps to do it.
This is the greatest country in the world. Anyone can succeed (and make much more than a decent living) if they discipline themselves and put their mind to it.
kulari94 at 5:09PM on Jan 20th 2008
101. It is clear to me that Solomon is wiser than he imagines. Americans are living in a Hypocracy!(goverment by hypocrites)
Imagine, for a second that I'm not taking a verbal 'swing' at you, 'dear' reader, I'm simply saying that human beings are by nature, tribal.
D'Souza is simply declaring his tribal affiliation here. He can't exactly espouse 'whiteness as rightness' or (let's say) the 'opposite of that notion'.... BUT, he CAN affiliate himself with the one 'colour' that everyone loves.
That my friends, you have to admit... is 'GOLD'!
The fact is that most folk 'gifted' with cold, hard cash are 'pointable outable' by their pale complexion.
What is not so discernable(at a glance) is their tribal nature; the feeling that we all have, that our group is superior.
If you ARE white(like me), you'd probably smile at the notion that there are some 'crackers' that'd think it should BE politically correct to define others as "superiority challenged".
But even the most liberal of us are lying to ourselves if we imagine that the 'melting pot' of the New World mixes up the colours and it somehow turns to gold...
...hard work never made anyone rich...
1) making others work hard.
2)talking 'shit-for-brains' out of their cash.
3)the old-fashioned way, stealing it with a 'lawful documentation' saying, this theft is NOT stealing.
Christians, you have to laugh at yourselves, imagining the story of the widow's mite... her... giving her 'mite' to one of the richest organizations in the world, sincerely believing that she's buying her way into heaven!
What hypocrites we are... all of us... me too!
(That was my sunday sermon)
not-pboyfloyd at 5:12PM on Jan 20th 2008
102. 19. 15. Goddess Athena:
What in the world are you talking about when you say most people in America can't make a decent living at anything? Do you live in America?
kulari94 at 4:24PM on Jan 19th 2008
-------------------------------
What country do YOU live in? In your mythical land all are employed, all are wealthy, all are republicans (I bet...)
You apparently have never left your condo. My wife works for DCYF, and I hear the horrors. Kids are dying out there, and you're happily sucking on america's teat.
Brian:
You lost the bet. How much money did you put on it??
I don't think that all are wealthy and employed. There are very few wealthy people in this country or anywhere else, for that matter. However, I wasn't saying that everyone was wealthy. I was responding to a comment that people in America can't make a decent living. False, and stupid statement.
Heathen Godless whatever, when you don't have your facts straight, you only reveal your ignorance and pre-conceived notions for all the world to see.
kulari94 at 5:16PM on Jan 20th 2008
103. Clif,
you are starting to sound paranoid. Again, I didn't say anything about an atheist organization. I pointed out that W. Hays (who I based on his comments to Father John would tell MLK he should be embarrassed to be a Christian minister) gets support from some atheists here. You don't agree? Great. Stop looking in the shadows.
"King was not a proselyte - you folks tend to be"
huh? I come on to AOL once in awhile and comment on other people's comments. That's about the extent of my 'ministry work'. King was a preacher, and I'm a proselyte? ok...
Anyways, I'm glad you didn't feel preached at by MLK. I am surprised that statements like "A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God" sit well with you but if so, great.
Here are some additional sermons by the man. They are amazing.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/sermons/contents.htm
bigTuna at 5:56PM on Jan 20th 2008
104. Clif:
I think you're one cool mother fucker.
kulari94 at 6:00PM on Jan 20th 2008
105. Dinesh,
Excellent article. People like Jackson and the NAACP and others, have political agendas that have nothing to do with improving the lot of the poorest section of Americans or fighting "racism".
There is a lot of money and influence to be made by intimidating the political system of the United States. Without having honest and open communication on such issues as poverty, racism, discrimination, affirmative action and the like, nothing will change and this is what todays "representatives" want, no change, because if real change occured, how would they make their living if they could no longer suck off the very system that they continually criticize.
The very fact that new immigrants tend to rise quickly in American society is a slap at these pompous and self serving individuals, who continue to keep many of our poorest and least educated people mired in the lowest rungs of our society indefinitely. Unfortunately our politicians don't have the spine to stand up to these loathesome and despicable people.
Please keep up the good work in this area.
Stan
stan at 7:25PM on Jan 20th 2008