I'm curious what you board liberals think

[SeattleUte]

All:

I said I didn't necessarily disagree with the basic point, as made in the 21st century after the Civil War, the Civil Rights Act and other legislation, Brown v. Board, etc. But quoting Booker T. Washington to make it is downright funny it's so misguided.

[Venkman]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

All:

I said I didn't necessarily disagree with the basic point, as made in the 21st century after the Civil War, the Civil Rights Act and other legislation, Brown v. Board, etc. But quoting Booker T. Washington to make it is downright funny it's so misguided.

I'm not here to start a Booker Washington Defenders of Cougarguard club, but it's realy easy to dismiss BTW as an uncle tom and laud Dubois as a hero when the reality isn't that clear-cut. DuBois was born to free prosperious blacks, received a Harvard education and could take his hard-line stance from the relative safety of academia and the north.

Booker T. was born in slavery and was more in tune with the reality of life for southern blacks. As bad as life was for blacks in the 50's and 60's, it was much worse at the turn of the century. Booker T. was doing his best to improve the lot of his people. And being in tune to reality in the south, he knew he had to do a little going along to get along.

As I said earlier, his approach ultimately proved unsuccessful and blacks were correct to DEMAND their rights in the 50's and 60's, but then again, do you really think MLK would have succeeded back in Booker's time? I seriously doubt it.

I maintain he was the right man at the time and helped lay a groundwork for the modern civil rights movement to build upon.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Venkman

I'm not here to start a Booker Washington Defenders of Cougarguard club, but it's realy easy to dismiss BTW as an uncle tom and laud Dubois as a hero when the reality isn't that clear-cut. DuBois was born to free prosperious blacks, received a Harvard education and could take his hard-line stance from the relative safety of academia and the north.

Booker T. was born in slavery and was more in tune with the reality of life for southern blacks. As bad as life was for blacks in the 50's and 60's, it was much worse at the turn of the century. Booker T. was doing his best to improve the lot of his people. And being in tune to reality in the south, he knew he had to do a little going along to get along.

As I said earlier, his approach ultimately proved unsuccessful and blacks were correct to DEMAND their rights in the 50's and 60's, but then again, do you really think MLK would have succeeded back in Booker's time? I seriously doubt it.

I maintain he was the right man at the time and helped lay a groundwork for the modern civil rights movement to build upon.

Then I trust you won't quote Booker T. in the future to support a position that blacks should now cease demanding anything unless you want to completely undermine this position, indeed, make the opposite point. I could see someone in rejoinder to Bill Cosby saying, yeah, that's what Booker T. said too.

[RockyBalboa]

I thought Booker T, now known as King Booker was a WWE Wrassler?

[Tex]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

Then I trust you won't quote Booker T. in the future to support a position that blacks should now cease demanding anything unless you want to completely undermine this position, indeed, make the opposite point. I could see someone in rejoinder to Bill Cosby saying, yeah, that's what Booker T. said too.

Maybe I completely misunderstood Venkman, but I'm pretty sure he's not saying blacks should "just shut up and move along."

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Tex

Maybe I completely misunderstood Venkman, but I'm pretty sure he's not saying blacks should "just shut up and move along."

I agree that that oversimlifies and does not do justice to the proposition he was trying to support by citing Booker T. But I was not necessarily challenging the point that Venkman was trying to support. Just the way he tried to support it.

[Venkman]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

Then I trust you won't quote Booker T. in the future to support a position that blacks should now cease demanding anything unless you want to completely undermine this position, indeed, make the opposite point. I could see someone in rejoinder to Bill Cosby saying, yeah, that's what Booker T. said too.

My position wasn't that "blacks should now cease demanding anything". My point was simply that Booker T. summed up my feelings of Jesse Jackson. I thought it was a good quote.

As for Booker T. saying it back then, was it a good or bad thing? I don't know, not knowing the full context in which it was made.