Booker T. Washington (1856 - 1915)
https://librivox.org/author/3597
Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver were two
people I looked up to as a kid.
I lived just 1.5 miles from the George Washington Carver
farm as a kid, and used to walk over there and look around.
I had an interest in these men because they found a way to
flourish in a time when it wasn’t that easy to do so.
I don’t think Booker T. Washington lived a lavish lifestyle,
but he was an accomplished man.
It has been my thought in life to respect everyone until
given a reason not to. Color of skin has never been a big
deal to me.
Now I’m supposed to be a racists based on the idea I was
born white.
LOL
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Racism is alive and well today. It’s been picked up, wiped
off, and shined up under a new label. Now it’s okay to be
a racist as long as your target is white.
The people trashing racism for the last 50 years, are now
the new racists. And they’re darned proud to be racists.
Booker T. and The MG’s....
Too bad that Booker T. Washington, with his philosophy of self-sufficiency and education (particularly in the trades) is hardly mentioned today. Washington believed that the best path to integration and acceptance was to demonstrate value, learn a trade. He believed (and rightly) that if a black man learned a trade such as brick-making, and was good at it, then people of any color would pay good money for the product.
Instead, W.E.B. Dubois is the man elevated and revered by the Left. His bitter socialist/communist views, his adherence to agitation, protest, and political activism engendered the hateful race related aspects of Leftism.
Any group of people (i.e. blacks) who willingly accept the benefits of reverse-discrimination policies such as affirmative action, quotas and other such set-asides are simply reinforcing the notion that they are inferior to whites and so need whites "brought down a peg or two" in order to make it more fair for them.
It is like a golfer accepting a handicap. By doing so, the golfer is accepting the fact that his/her golfing partner is a superior golfer and that they need a "head start" to make it fair.
Let's say your golf handicap is 20 and you score a 90 on a 72-par course. Did you really "beat" your golfing partner with no handicap who shot a genuine 71 on that same course? Does that really make you feel good about yourself?
He didn’t influence nearly enough, more’s the pity.