Essay about Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. Dubois

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When it all comes down to it, one of the greatest intellectual battles U.S. history was the legendary disagreement between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. This intellectual debate sparked the interest of the Northerners as well as the racist whites that occupied the south. This debate was simply about how the blacks, who just gained freedom from slavery, should exist in America with the white majority. Even though Washington and DuBois stood on opposite sides of the fence they both agreed on one thing, that it was a time for a change in the treatment of African Americans. I chose his topic to write about because I strongly agree with both of the men’s ideas but there is some things about their views that I don’t agree with. Their …show more content…
DuBois was simply tired of the way blacks were treated and oppressed even though he was part of the middle class and his father was white. He believed that we should openly complain and be outspoken because to him, silence is “our greatest mistake” (Broesamle & Arthur, 65). Needless to say DuBois wasn’t to excited to simply put the past behind him, in fact, he suggested that it was essential to bring forward the dark side of the picture to show that things are bad in order for them to get better. In order to perpetuate his many ideals he helped in starting the NAACP. When thinking about Washington’s viewpoints on gaining equality, DuBois felt that Washington's plan to gain equality was only going to further intensify the oppression of African-American's in the United States and more specifically the South. Through DuBois' actions, he helped to teach America that black people were not inferior to whites simply because of their race. Even though Booker T. Washington criticized DuBois for persuading blacks that they can get what they want out of demands and cursing people, I completely understood where DuBois was coming from. He was agitated and questioned why should blacks “kiss up” to the white majority when they were being beaten, lynched and raped by them. Why should we “ cast down our buckets” when we deserve to be treated with respect and equality. To me, begging to the white majority or being submissive to them is senseless because we did too much of
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