Chapter 2: The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

"I believe it to be a fact that the coloured people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them." pg. 403 (Ch. 2)

When the boy discovers he is black... he says he now has to deal with "forced loneliness" and as a result found pleasure in music and books. (pg. 404)

Tupac on Women

I found this Tupac quote and it fits in with the topic of women:

“since we all came from a women, got our name from a women, and our game from a women. I wonder why we take from women, why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think its time we killed for our women, be real to our women, try to heal our women, cause if we don't we'll have a race of babies that will hate the ladies, who make the babies. And since a man can't make one he has no right to tell a women when and where to create one”

Womanhood a Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race

"throughout his life and in his death he has given to men a rule and guide for the estimation of women as an equal, as a helper, as a friend, and as a sacred charge to be sheltered and cared for with a brother's love and sympathy, lessons which nineteen centuries' gigantic strides in knowledge, arts, and sciences, in social and ethical principles have not been able to probe to their depth or to exhaust in practice."

I saw this quote as saying that women are the same as men and should be viewed that way, but in the past no man has allowed the women to stretch their knowledge.

W.E.B on B.T.W (chapter 3)

I feel as though all of chapter three is Dubois proving this point.
“Mr. Washington represents in negro thought the old attitude of adjustment and submission…” (246)

Dubois wants to challenge the educational rule by whites to gain upper class status for blacks in the future instead of trying to earn “dollars” at the lower levels just to survive. Dubois names prominent black leaders who challenged the status quo like Fredrick Douglass, “Elliot, Bruce, Langston.” With these figures, blacks were closing the gap on being able to vote. But because of the submission of Washington whites do not feel obligated to listen to these men. Instead they will listen to Washington who sides with class distinction. Dubois also goes on to say that because of Washington’s appeasement African Americans have had three things occur.

“1. The disfranchisement of the Negro.
2. The legal creation of a distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro.
3. The steady Withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro.” (247)

Dubois even tells the black men of America to not follow B.T.W.
“Oppose a part of the work of their greatest leader” (252).

Chapters 1 and 2 of "The Souls of Black Folk"

"It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity." page 215

This idea of double-consciousness reveals a sad truth. The newly emancipated slaves would never feel adequate because they had no way to accurately judge themselves. The race had been set so far back by the inequities of slavery, the growth of the race so stunted, that they no longer had an identity. This feeling of inadequacy could lead to frustration which in turn could lead to a surrender against the struggle to rise in society. This phenomenon becomes a vicious circle leading no where; in order for African-americans to rise together, they needed to find their identity as a whole. 

Kind of a response to Elizabeth’s post, then some of my own ideas, might not be clear, not really as long as it looks (lots of quotes)

Based on what BTW said right before that quote. “In my early life I used to cherish a feeling of ill will toward any one who spoke in bitter terms against the negro, or who advocated measures that tended to oppress the black man or take from him opportunities for growth in the most complete manner. Now, whenever I hear anyone advocating measures that are meant to curtail the development of another, I pity the individual who would do this.” I feel as though BTW was criticizing the whites who put down the hard working black man for trying to succeed. He never wanted African Americans to sell themselves short, in fact it was the opposite. For example on page 135, BTW talks about his school and how blacks that could not afford it worked intense hours to pay off their debts to gain an education. “Any one who is willing to work ten hours a day at the brick-yard, or in the laundry, through one or two years, in order that he or she may have the privilege of studying academic branches for two hours in the evening, has enough bottom to warrant being further educated.” How is that selling a student short, this seems like he’s trying to get the most out of the student. If you work that hard to gain an education you are going to be successful academically and value education deeply. Casting down their bucket is just saying to work as hard as you can and get all the potential out of yourself.
Also I do think BTW knew the audience, mostly white. And instead of just dissing them he wanted to make them feel a little involved with the change. “I early learned that it is a hard matter to convert an individual by abusing him, and that this is more often accomplished by giving credit for all the praiseworthy actions performed than by calling attention alone to all the evil done”(p.137). So in his quote about how he doesn’t show anger with whites putting down blacks trying to succeed he just “pity’s” them he is showing how whites shouldn’t feel evil to themselves. Simultaneously though he’s cleverly putting those whites under him in society. One of a higher class shows pity.

old hw

Quote from chapters 1-2

"The wild rejoicing on the part of the emancipated coloured people lasted but for a brief period...The great responsibility of being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves and their children, seemed to take possession of them...Was it ant wonder that within a few hours the wild rejoicing ceased and a feeling of deep gloom seemed to pervade the slave quarters?"

Up from Slavery- page 40.

"Now, whenever I hear any one advocating measures that are meant to curtail the development of another, I pity the individual who would do this. I know that the one who makes this mistake does so because of his lack of opportunity for the highest kind of growth. I pity him because I know that he is trying to stop the progress of the world, and because I know that in time the development and the ceaseless advance of humanity will make him ashamed of his weak and narrow position." pg. 138

Based on our discussions in class, Washington himself was the person "advocating measures to curtail the development of another". Therefore this quotation went against his actual actions and the plans he advocated. By telling the blacks to "cast down their bucket" and perhaps sell themselves short for a life of manual labor, he is speaking against the "progress of the world".

"I was also painfully conscious of the fact that, while I must be true to my own race in the utterances, I had it in my power to make such an ill-timed address as would result in preventing any similar invitation being extended to a black man again for years to come."
page 143

I took this quote as saying that he would like to speak out against what slavery was, but felt that if he wanted to appeal to the audience and help out blacks in the future, he would have to limit what he said. I think that, like we said in class, he didn't want to get himself in a bad situation so told people what they wanted to hear rather than how he really felt.

pg 39

"they did not at the moment seem to be sad because of the loss of property, but rather because of parting with those whom they had reared and who were in many ways very close to them."

Audio file

Click here to listen to the speech. 

Eddie Murphy on George Washington Carver

An object lesson on both George Washington Carver and African-American conspiracy theories ....

Eddie Murphy ~ Black History Minute | Funny Jokes at JibJab

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