[Dinah Lord]

Courtesy of another FReeper whose name sadly escapes me.

“There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs-partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.”

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915.)

[sthguard]

And running counter to Booker T. Washington was, of course, W.E.B. DuBois, one of Gates’ role models and the namesake of the “institute” that Gates runs at Harvard. For DuBois and his intellectual/political descendants, e.g. Gates, Malcolm X, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, et al, continued grievance is both a political tactic and a way of life. Washington was far more interested in an actual functioning society, in which racism can be overcome because stereotype and polarization are no longer valid forms of identity. MLK thought along much the same lines.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

RE: "There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs-partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs."

Thank you. That's one of my favorites.

Perhaps the business has become the most lucrative industry in America.