Sharaine's Blog

After reading the selection, “The Atlanta Comprise” and “The Talented Tenth,” I chose to side with W.E.B. Dubois on his stance of educating the negro.  Booker T. Washington was simply speaking on what he thought the whites would like to hear. It was all based upon the consumer basis, and by him speaking to an all white audience, anything he would have said that would down talk the whites may have caused him his life.  He did make a few valid point though on the fact that we, as African Americans, expect too much too soon, but if we don’t expect it for ourselves who will? He attemped to cover up his badgering of the Negroes when h told  the whites to treat the negro right, because they have proven over and over their loyalty to them from  tilling their land to caring for their families(Washington, 2). W.E.B. Dubois’ argument greatly differed from that of Washington’s.  Dubois said the Negro race can and will only be saved by that ten percent of exceptional men (Dubois, The Talented Tenth).  Dubois argued that “educated” negroes have made great contributions to the race, and were leaders of a Talented Tenth (Dubois, The Talented Tenth). I strongly agree with him when he says work alone will not uplift the race, but work and “intelligence” will!