The Future of the American Negro

This passage to me, is further motivation to stay in college. Washington's views were ridiculous and very shocking, coming from an African American man. The low value he seemed to place on education was both appalling and disappointing. Reading the passage angered me slightly because it is hard to believe that a black person could feel that way about his own people. He believed that education was second-nature to materialistic things, and the only way for blacks to gain respect and/or equality amongst whites is to work hard building and acquiring things that white people would need, forcing them to have to co-exist with black people. Washington also argued that the woes of slavery had subconsciously made black people lazy and resentful of hard manual labor. He stated this almost as if to say that the only reason African Americans would be pursuing higher education is to avoid having to do heavy labor.
The passage was ridiculous and contradictory in my opinion. Intelligence is the key to equality, and by placing education low on your list of priorities black people are still not achieving equality. With the brains to outsmart them, white people in turn would still wield some control over blacks. All the money and worldly possessions cannot replace the value of a good education. Also, by suggesting that blacks perfect manual laborious trades instead of professional careers, Washington is still treading dangerously close to the slavery mentality of black people doing the hard work, while white people reap the benefits.
This type of thinking still somewhat exists today, as most of Corporate America, and white collar jobs are operated by white people, while blacks maintain the blue collar positions. I think the only way to truly gain equality is to be able to match wits and intellect with all races. A solid education should be held as first priority, because you can always rely on an acquired skill or trade later in life, should career plans fall through. However, you should not automatically settle for less than great. Placing higher education over industrial labor is the same as the quote "reach for the stars, so if you miss you'll still land on the moon."

The Future of the American Negro

This text was very enlghtening to me about the true feelings that Booker T. Washington had about the advancement of African Americans. Learning about him in different classes, they classified him as an acqiuescer. After reading this piece I realized that Washington was just not as aggresive in his methods of progressing black's future. He did want to advance, he just took the slow approach saying that he lived in the generation that needs to lay the foundation for the next generations to succeed. He believed that becoming certified in the crafts that we were more likely to get jobs in would help blacks us rise out of poverty. He thought that just getting a paper education would not allow African Americans to get jobs and they would forever stay in their economic standings at the time. I thought that Washington came up with many interesting points, however, my only probably was that he did not completely finish his thought. He failed to say after all of the blacks become carpenters and things of that nature how exactly they were going to be able to transition into getting a "exalted position."

Booker T. Washington's The future of the American Negro

The basics that I got out of the Booker T. Washington text, was that he was a person that really believed in agriculture as the light to the golden tunnel. He basically saw agriculture as the way the Blacks at that time should have seen as the thing to invest and involve their time into. I get that black people at that time were not that independent, from they way Washington conveyed his text. I got that Blacks at that time in history were either to follow one out of to ideologies. One ideology was that of Washington's, which was use agriculture to make our way. The other was that of Dubois,who felt that education was the best way to get your way into mainstream society and stay there. I wonder how were people to act if they neither wanted to go to school, and neither wanted to work in the agricultural field? How did those people feel? Those are the biggest questions that I get out of reading both the Dubois and Washington texts and they are questions that I do not have a answer to.

Awake America

The excerpt "Awake America," by W.E.B Du Bois is a very extravagant way of denouncing the racist mentalities within America. The excerpt preaches equality for all people, regardless of race and also questions how a prejudiced nation can cite "One nation under God," in the pledge of allegiance. Du Bois argues within the excerpt that "Wherever the American flag floats today, black hands have helped to plant it." He also states how blacks have fought in wars and served to protect a country that in turn casts them out as virtually inhumane and undeserving of civil rights and liberties. The key concept posed within the argument for black rights was that America is proclaimed to be the "land of the free," and that title alone was justification "to stop lynching and mob violence, stop disenfranchisement for race and sex, abolish Jim Crow cars, resist the attempt to establish and American ghetto, and Stop race discrimination in Civil Services, trade unions, etc."
Factual points were made within in this piece, some of which I found disturbing, particularly when the author stated that 2,867 black people had been lynched over the course of thirty-one years. However, the grotesque part, is that these people were lynched without ever having being tried and/or convicted of any crimes. This excerpt helped to open my eyes to some of the harsh realities of the Jim Crow Era.
Du Bois' point was truly emphasized when he compared the savage treatments of slavery and racism, to other countries probably deemed massively inferior to the United States. "Russia has abolished the ghetto-shall we restore it?"
The ways in which African Americans have contributed to the country artistically, musically, and through literature are also mentioned. Du Bois poses valid arguments within the passage, all the while emphasizing the contradictions of the words in which Americans live by to the manner in which they behave. The point is definitely driven home at the end of the excerpt when it is written; "No land that loves to lynch 'niggers' can lead the hosts of Almighty God."

Dream

When I was about eleven years old I was sleeping and I dreamt that I was in a camping trip with my father. Throughout the dream my father and I were talking about miscellaneous things. Then as we were talking there was a bear that came up to us and was trying to eat us. My father ran to his tent and I ran into a tree. As I ran into a tree I ended up coming out of my dream into real life, where I ended up hitting the wall as I had hit the tree during the dream. I was awaken with a sore on the back of my head, and I was completely embarrassed that the bear scared me out of the dream.

Critique of The Souls of Black Folk

The author of the Souls of Black Folk is W.E.B. Dubois. The background of the story dealt with W.E.B. Dubois and how is he is an African American scholar that graduated from prestigious schools such as, Harvard. the story is written about Dubois's child that died some time after birth. throughout the whole story he talks about the death and how it would have been if the child would have lived.

"And then one night the little feet patted wearily to the wee white bed and the tiny hands trembled ; and a warm flushed face tossed on the pillow , and we knew baby was sick." That quote described one of the first foreshadows that something could have happened to the child. Also through the using of the word "veil," Dubois used an allusion to death. Dubois said"Within the Veil was he born." To make the word veil standout, he capitalized it to show the importance of the word.

Overall, the story was quite compelling because of there were great quotes that came out of his grieving situation. One quote that I find to be extremely fascinating was,"Only in the chamber of death writhed the world's most piteous -a childless mother." I thought that it carried a great imagery. The quote of "Sleep,then child, - sleep till I sleep and waken to a baby voice and the ceaseless patter of little feet- above the Veil," I thought really summed the whole thing of what Dubois was talking about when he talked about the death of his child. He used sleep as an allusion to mean to go to sleep and the was very compelling. I would recommend this story to someone that is grieving for anyone because of the way that Dubois characterizes certain parts of death that could let them feel that someone is going to the same thing of them.

The "f" word by J Morgan

First of all I picked this text to read only because I saw the title and it said the "f" word, so naturally I assumed that it had to do with inappropriate language. However, to my surprise it had had absolutely nothing to do with that. It was about the other "f" word, feminism. I thought the way that the title was written, very nicely drew me in as a reader. In essence it was a sort of play on words, or pun.
I thought it was a very interesting piece from beginning to end. Starting with the author's background information and then it leads to her original journey to discovering that she was a feminist. Even though it was written in first person point of view, I could not understand why the author did not want to be labeled as a feminist. Why she thought it was so wrong to be called a feminist, even if you truly believed in strengthening women's rights. She said in the writing that that the fact that black females call black men their"brothah" created a sense of intra-racial loyalty making it hard for her to turn her back on black men. She felt as though the feminism name was strictly for white women, because they do not do the latter.
The language in the text was very colloquial. There was a lot of slang and curse words used to ensure that the main idea was interpreted. She got the point across very well, and I liked how she showed the reaction of black men after she wrote her article. I believe that what she wrote pertaining to the rape of the lady in Central Park needed to be said, and that the black men were just threatened by their so called "sistah" turning against them.
I recommend this book for all women above the age of 18. Due to the courseness of the language it might be inappropriate for those under 18. However, it is very necessary for the rest of the women in the world to read, because it shows the intimidation women have about speaking their mind. It also displays the thought process of many men when women try to make their gender equal with men's.