The city is best known for its large size, population, and diversity of businesses, ideas, and peoples. Various factors, such as the impact of industrialization and the emergence of new technologies, as well as the impact of various social and political movements throughout US history have augmented these three factors, with the scale, population, and diversity of the American city even larger than before. In their respective works The Souls of Black Folk and The Cosmopolitan Canopy, W.E.B. DuBois and Elijah Anderson address the issue of interracial interactions in the city, and their implications on the development of equity and civility. In both The Souls of Black Folk and The Cosmopolitan Canopy, DuBois and Anderson agree that the creation …show more content…
However, DuBois and Anderson highlight different approaches to education, as DuBois advocates for the role of the university in the education of the community, while Anderson highlights the role of experiential learning, specifically through interracial relationships under the cosmopolitan canopy. While both DuBois and Anderson view education as means for fostering equity and civility, DuBois highlights the university and access to academic spaces, while Anderson emphasizes experiential learning through interactions between different individuals in cosmopolitan canopies. According to DuBois, the role of the university is “to be organ of... adjustment which forms the secret of civilization” (DuBois 52) through the education of the entire population, regardless of race and ethnicity. In The Souls of Black Folk, DuBois highlights the disparities between the quality and content of the education provided to African Americans and their white counterparts, illuminating the …show more content…
Through the obtainment of a university education, DuBois argues, individuals are able to generate a “union of intelligence of sympathy and cooperation across the color-line” (DuBois 113), thus fostering an environment of civility. As the core of civility and cooperation is a sense of “complete understanding and sympathy” (DuBois 111), the education of individuals from all racial groups in university settings thus reveals the link between civility and education, as universities foster understanding of social differences. The positive impact of shared understanding, coupled with the impact of education on softening interactions across the color-line, illuminates the importance of having an educated city population in maintaining safe, civil relationships within the cities. Anderson further reiterates DuBois’ argument, illuminating how, within interracial interactions under the cosmopolitan canopy, individuals are “continuously encouraged to behave courteously to one another” (Anderson 66). While Anderson highlights the reality that not all individuals under the cosmopolitan canopy may truly be accepting and tolerant of social and racial differences, civil interactions under the canopy
Elijah Anderson wrote an interesting book, The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life, which describes social settings and people interactions in different parts of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods. This book was published on March 28, 2011 by W. W. Norton & Company. Anderson has observed these places in Philadelphia for over thirty years. He uses the observations he made and the stories that people shared with him during his endeavor to answer the following questions: “How do ordinary people in this diverse city interact across and along racial lines? When and how do racial identities figure out into these encounters? When and how do city dwellers set aside their own and other’s particular racial and ethnic identities to communicate
W.E.B. DuBois was an educator, writer, scholar, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, and later in his life a communist, whose life goal was to gain equal rights for all African Americans around the world. DuBois’ writings were mostly forgotten till the late 1960s, because of his involvement in communism and his absence during the civil rights movement in America. Even though his writings were temporarily forgotten because of his tarnished reputation, his legacy has since been restored allowing for his writings to be reprinted becoming a major influence for both academics and activists. DuBois’ accomplishments include his part in the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and his support for the civil rights movement advocating for equal social and economic rights for all African Americans. His accomplishments and efforts in order to gain equal treatment for African Americans outweigh his shortcomings and failures.
More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (Issues of Our Time)
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 ideas and views are the things that will be addressed in this essay.
Many of the issues of the color line are a direct derivative of colonialism in the colonies. On one hand through the idea of the problem of the color line DuBois calls our attention to the uncultured imbalances of authority, capital, opportunity and access between whites and African Americans. It also nurtures Du Bois’ right to argue that the oppressed, of necessity, will rise up in confrontation. Certainly, he anticipated wars of emancipation like the riots in Wilmington more aggressive than the imperialist wars of conquest (which in a way is a direct imitation of the time of colonialism).
After slavery ended, many hoped for a changed America. However, this was not so easy, as slavery left an undeniable mark on the country. One problem ended, but new problems arose as blacks and whites put up “color lines” which led to interior identity struggles. These struggles perpetuated inequality further and led W. E. B. Du Bois to believe that the only way to lift “the Veil” would be through continuing to fight not only for freedom, but for liberty - for all. Others offered different proposals on societal race roles, but all recognized that “double consciousness” of both the individual and the nation was a problem that desperately needed to be solved.
Du Bois’s short story “The Souls of Black Folk” that addresses discrimination, veils, and double-concisions and its effect on the African-American identity. To combat the modern day issue of discrimination black communities have created a movement. The movement is called “Black Live Matter. This movement campaigns against violence and systemic racism toward black people. BLM commonly protests, police violence against black people and broader issues of racial profiling, and racial inequality in the United States criminal justice system”
Sprouted from slavery, the African American culture struggled to ground itself steadily into the American soils over the course of centuries. Imprisoned and transported to the New World, the African slaves suffered various physical afflictions, mental distress and social discrimination from their owners; their descendants confronted comparable predicaments from the society. The disparity in the treatment towards the African slaves forged their role as outliers of society, thus shaping a dual identity within the African American culture. As W. E. B. DuBois eloquently defines in The Souls of Black Folk, “[the African American] simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and
W.E.B. DuBois attempted to tell African Americans what they should learn throughout schooling. He thought academics were of the utmost importance in order for African Americans to exist socially in society. Through academic schooling, he thought that 10 percent of the African American society would succeed and move on to become doctors, lawyers, politicians, etc.; they were called “the talented ten.” The subject material that would advance their learning would consist of the “trivium” and the “quadrivium.” The...
Print Moore, Jacqueline M. Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois, and the struggle for racial uplift.
While essentially Pan-Africanists by definition, Garvey and Dubois had fundamental differences within their ideologies, which can make the argument that the two men were not fighting for the same thing at all. It is important to remember that the main point of black social uplift and restoration of self-dignity is at the epicenter of the men’s’ messages, and thus provides an interesting comparison between the two ideologies. Pan-Africanism, at its height, drew support from all over the world, and united the black in the diaspora; the uniting was not always welcomed by the native Africans, but achieved the goals of Garvey and Dubois’s desire for a sense of oneness throughout the black community.
W.E.B. Dubois was one of the most prolific and pioneering leaders during the early Civil Rights era. Throughout his life, he produced numerous works as a commentary on the social construct that existed between whites and blacks, including the groundbreaking collection of essays The Souls of Black Folk published in 1903. These essays detailed the historical, political and sociological plight of African Americans in society after the Civil War. In addition, the essays introduced the concept of double consciousness which referred to the challenge blacks faced in reconciling an African heritage with an American identity, a theory that would disseminate into his later works. Accordingly, his poem “The Song of the Smoke” published in 1907 is an extension of his earlier work in double consciousness, but with an emphasis on the celebration of black heritage. Embedded in these affirmations of blackness; however, is a sense of longing for the unity and equality of all races. In the poem, “The Song of the Smoke”, DuBois reflects on the past, finding grief and courage in the legacy of his slave ancestry and toward the future, hoping a new strength and dignity is formed amongst all Americans.
During the late 19th and early 20th century, racial injustice was very prominent and even wildly accepted in the South. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois were two of the most renowned “pioneers in the [search] for African-American equality in America” (Washington, DuBois, and the Black Future). Washington was “born a slave” who highly believed in the concept of “separate but equal,” meaning that “we can be as [distant] as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress” (Washington 1042). DuBois was a victim of many “racial problems before his years as a student” and disagreed with Washington’s point of view, which led
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois is a influential work in African American literature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these lasting concepts, Souls offers an evaluation of the progress of the races and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.
The above-mentioned essays are: Nihilism in Black America, The Pitfalls of Racial Reasoning, The Crisis of Black Leadership, Demystifying the Black Conservatism, Beyond Affirmative Action: Equality and Identity, On Black-Jewish Relations, Black Sexuality: T...