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Du Bois v. Washington
Recent news reports have President Bush working to get the black vote. I disagree with the idea that the black vote is for either the Democrats or the Republicans, as there should be no such things as a black vote, black issues, or black thought.
The modern political polarization toward support for the Democrats is a consequence of W.E.B. Du Bois. Confronted with southern racism and absorbing the Germanic philosophies from Kant (saving faith from reason) and Hegel (nationalistic/racial collectivism), Du Bois’ ideological leadership displaced the American individualism and pragmatism advocated by the leadership of Booker T. Washington.
Under Du Bois’ collectivist ideology, educational efforts should be focused upon the elites who would lead the masses and negotiate with the superstructure (sounds like trickle down education, but it is simply Marxism). This is the ideology of the race hustlers like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Julian Bond, Marion Berry, etc. In addition, this ideology expects financial support from successful members of the collective for those with need (Bill Cosby has personally remained true to this expectation and has been recently charging that the needy have not held up their end of the collectivist bargain).
But the collective is an illusion. Many individuals continue to adhere to Washington’s ideology and live an American life instead of the collectivist African-American life. These individuals are confronted by the collectivist with name calling and (at least in the 1980s) schoolyard violence for their failure to ideologically conform. To the extent that they have accepted the collectivist premises, many successful blacks have suffered a cognitive dissonance between the Du Bois’ doctrine and reality.
Instead of engaging in a me-too bidding war with the Democrats for the black vote, Republicans should demonstrate themselves to again be the party of Booker T. Washington by advocating individualism as a counterpoint to the Democrats’ collectivism.
Image Source: Library of Congress
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9/23/08 12:56 AM