Another Class

There is another 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….There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who do not want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.
– Booker T. Washington


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7 responses to “Another Class”

  1. Assistant Village Idiot Avatar

    Wow. Observant gentleman, that Booker.

  2. alphie Avatar

    If only Al Sharpton was running for President instead of Obama, eh?
    The far right might actually not look racist.

  3. M. Simon Avatar

    You have to wonder why the Rev Al and the Rev Jeremiah have an affinity to Democrats?
    As a commenter on the cross post said Blacks made a big mistake when they chose WEB DuBois over Booker T. Washington.

  4. M. Simon Avatar

    BTW alphie – Rs were the original anti-slavery party.
    Southern Democrats split from the Union to start the Civil War. Northern Copperhead Democrats wanted to make peace with the South and Southern Democrats supported Jim Crow.
    So Wright preaching reverse Jim Crow is nothing new for the Democrats. Same policy different skin color.

  5. alphie Avatar

    Times change, M.
    Up until very recently, the Republicans were for avoiding fuzzy-headed nation building exercises and large federal budget deficits, too.
    Now it’s full steam ahead on the spendin’ and killin’ foreigners for the Rs.

  6. tim maguire Avatar
    tim maguire

    So alphie, you’re saying that Booker T. Washington was a racist?

  7. M. Simon Avatar

    Alphie,
    It is just a revival of the post WW2 model. Which was bi-partisan.
    Of course you are right. I used to be a JFK Democrat:
    Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. – John F. Kennedy
    Evidently the current crop of Ds no longer has faith in the extension of liberty. That is too bad.
    Of course this conversation has been going on since the founding. Right now the extenders of liberty have the upper hand.
    I like the extension of liberty idea because it means we don’t have to make nice with as many dictators. Something the detractors of American foreign policy have always complained about.