It is in the records that racism has been a major barrier to the coexistence among various people in the world. This may cause alarm unless the issue is handled properly. The minority in various communities have resulted into discrimination and other animosities just because the majorities have voice.
In this context, slave trade that resulted into the migration of black people to America has been the center of controversy as the current black people in America face racial abuse from the whites. The American leadership has tried all the best to avert lethal consequences and the approach by W.E.B. Du Bois, King, and Booker T. Washington has yielded different results (Dubois, 2010; King, 2010).
The major focus for Booker T. Washington was to secure education facilities for the blacks to ensure that they got real life jobs instead of negotiating equality from their white counterparts. In this manner, Booker T. Washington acknowledged and was comfortable as a black person and his only problem was to be assured of assistance from the white.
However, Dubois was in the opposite perception of this idea. Instead, he embarked on gradualist political strategy. In this strategy, Dubois sidelined the capability of the black people to equate them to illiteracy. Therefore, they had to concentrate on books to achieve similar privileges as the whites. In fact, he insisted that blacks had to be book smart to compete fairly in life with the white.
Washington is in the record as a person who contributed to the fight against racism that had greatly affected the United States in the past. He embraced the black man conscious in a positive way to an extent that he believed the blacks had to work for themselves. According to him, equality was not the issue but the empowerment of the blacks.
Therefore, they continuously argued the white to help the blacks through trainings, and life situations. The knowledge acquired from books had to be exercised in the real life instead of being book smart. Effectiveness in job by the blacks was his major focus instead of concentrating in the books.
Surprisingly, Washington was not only interested on blacks but also the white. However, he intelligently talked to both in a cautious way to avoid attacks. For instance, he talked of stereotyped blacks whereas he insisted that blacks did not have to hide under the white man shadow. The blacks had to be creative instead of relying on the white. The approach by Washington was a clear focus on economic equality for the blacks.
On the other hand, Dubois was of different opinion and approach to this issue. He based his argument on the gradualist political strategy, which undermined the intelligence among the blacks. He encouraged the blacks to compete fairly with the white through smart reading because it would make them highly educated and upgrade their IQ.
According to Dubois (2010), equality could only be achieved through education to help the black to outsmart the whites. This might has contributed to the educational advancement among the blacks to compete with the white.
Economic security was not a good assurance to the blacks if there was inequality. He reiterated that the black required both opportunities and equality with the whites.
It is worth noting that Washington understood the intensified differences between the blacks and whites hence there was no need to fight it. He was assured that fighting equality was waste of time and preaching equality was the only way.
This was as well depicted in ‘The Souls of Black Folk’. Dubois said, “…as a complete surrender of the demand for civil and political equality…” (Dubois, 2010, p. 379). His critics were never taken seriously hence he resulted to jail for fighting against racism.
References
Dubois, W.E.B. (2010). The Souls of Black Folk. In K.M. Dolbeare & M. Cummings (Eds.), American Political Thought (pp. 374-385). Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.
King, M.L. (2010). Letter from a Birmingham Jail. In K.M. Dolbeare & M. Cummings (Eds.), American Political Thought (pp. 481-487). Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.