The task of comparison will be to discover differences in political programs that ideologically comprehend the role of black people and their destinies in the world. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois is an African American human rights activist and social philosopher. Du Bois was the first African American to receive a philosophy degree. His philosophical views come from the social position expressed by Booker Washington, which was based on the premise that black people should be immediately liberated. Washington believed that only by giving the oppressed peoples equality, did they have a chance for liberation, but Du Bois did not share his views. According to him, privileges should appear to the liberated people gradually and in such a way that they can feel them and manage them (Amber, 2020). It is Du Bois who owns the indication of the “talented tenth” of African Americans who are eligible for higher education in comparison with the less gifted majority.
Far less patient with the surrounding white-dominated order was the popular Jamaican political activist Marcus Garvey. This politician owns the words of the Jamaican struggle for equality before the white man, and his early death made Garvey a cult figure among black activists around the world. Garvey’s speeches are largely associated with the religious aspects of African American cultures, in particular, with the Christian version of Rastafarianism, in which at the moment he is considered a prophet. Starting as a church organ player and preacher, Garvey quickly captured the attention of parishioners with his fiery speeches. The image of Ethiopia as a promised and lost land for wandering but chosen African people played an important role in them. Garvey’s philosophy at its center contains the idea of the black people chosen by the Ethiopian god, the first Christian people in Africa. The greatness of the black race is fundamental to the philosophical concepts of the Garvents. Marcus Garvey’s utopian visionary ideas include new territories that will have gone to African Americans, who will have built a better society on them (Amber, 2020). Moreover, Garvey is Afrocentric, and separates the Western and African worlds, even promoting the idea of expatriating African Americans around the world to return them to their home continent. Garvey believes in African American selections so strongly that he distrusts Western society and encourages the African community to separate from it and exist completely independently.
The obvious difference between Garvey’s movement and Du Bois’ concepts is the caution with which Du Bois demanded the liberation of oppressed African Americans. The philosopher-sociologist proceeded not from the fact of social injustice, but from some original abilities of African Americans. The non-compliance of most of them with the Western intellectual standard was for him, not a reason for a radical revision of the existing system but a reason for its consolidation. By giving only the most gifted African Americans the right to an education, Du Bois maintained the sharply restrictive nature of the inverted pyramid hierarchy that had become dominant in the 19th century. Garvey’s ideas, on the contrary, do not seek any peace and mutual balance with the Western world, calling with pride to completely abandon it. Thus, Du Bois’ ideas turn out to be tragically insufficient for oppressed African Americans, while Garvey’s rebellious concepts turn out to be, on the contrary, incompatible with integration with Western society.
Reference
Amber, L. A. (2020). Black history matters: Civil rights movement heroes. Independently published.