This coming Thursday, April 7th at 4PM in Leonard Auditorium, the African/African American Studies program is sponsoring a lecture by Mayor Steven Benjamin of Columbia, SC. By attending the lecture and posting a brief (one- or two-paragraph)"DuBoisian" reflection on his talk you may earn 5 points extra credit. I am not sure exactly what he is speaking on, but I am sure whatever it is it will resonate with some aspect of DuBois's life and work. Basically, I just want you to comment on how you believe his speech/message would have been received by DuBois if he were around to hear it. Please post your response NO LATER THAN THE FOLLOWING TUESDAY, APRIL 12TH.
***This is entirely voluntary.
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ReplyDeleteWhat I take from Mayor Benjamin's speech is that the youth are the future and in order to ensure the best future possible we must educate and train the youth appropriately. I was disheartened to hear that we are on track to raise a generation that is less literate than the its predecessor. Of course I already knew that our education system had its flaws but by solving the problem of children being left behind we have created another one, dragging illiterate children along. Du Bois would praise this idea of availability for the Talented Tenth to rise up to their deserved place in society but we must also notice that this creates a Naïve Ninety. We mustn’t forget about the other ninety percent that is left of this Du Boisian paradise; the “untalented.” I think if Du Bois were here he would want to reach out to this ninety and not just ignore them simply because the other tenth is doing well. That being said, we must find a way to reach this Naïve Ninety, and as Mayor Benjamin stated, the way might be to repeal this No Child Left Behind Act.
ReplyDeleteCam, Thanks for your reflections. I like your "naive ninety" idea, but perhaps it should be "naive nine-tenths". One thing I would point out about DuBois's "Talented Tenth" notion is that DuBois felt that the talented tenth, people like Mayor Benjamin, have an obligation to take the lead in addressing racial discrimination, which he seems to be doing in focusing on this education issue; and as you suggest at the end, that talented tenth has an obligation, in DuBois's view to help lift up the "naive nine-tenths."
ReplyDeleteI feel that if Dr. Du Bois had been around to hear the speech given by Mayor Benjamin, he would have appreciated the emphasis that Dr. Benjamin put on education and how that was one of his primary focuses. Du Bois definitely had his hand in education and his strong opinions about it. I do feel that Mayor Benjamin could have gone into more detail about his stance on these things, but it was nice to hear that this was so much his focus. But I also felt that, in response to Dr. Ginocchio’s question about his influence with the African American constituents, Du Bois would have felt that Benjamin needs to do more advocating for them. I also questioned how Du Bois would have felt about Benjamin’s comment on how he thinks that all the children in Columbia should be growing up to know God’s love. I know that Du Bois was not that religious of a person, and I question whether he would have approved of this or not.
ReplyDeleteBrianna, Ok. Clearly, DuBois would have welcomed his stance on education, although he might have stressed more the need for more resources being devoted to predominantly minority schools and to substantially improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods. DuBois might have been troubled by the mayor's overt religious references, but of course DuBois himself sometimes used religious references to make his arguments more appealing to the general public.
ReplyDeleteMayor Benjamin's focus on education was interesting. Like Cam, I was shocked to hear that we may be a part of a generation that are less literate than our parents. I believe du Bois would commend the mayor on his efforts and concentration of finding solutions to the educational flaws because Du Bois truly believed that education, a good education might I add, is essential in the advancement of blacks in America. We discussed in class how Benjamin sort of took the Obama approach to answering the Dr. G's question of dealing with the pressures of both minorities and whites when it comes to dealing with issues in the black community. Du Bois might have cringed in Mayor Benjamin's diplomatic avoidance. Du Bois was not one to deliver covert messages. He spoke plainly on the issues and would have preferred that Benjamin directly address the question not only from Dr. G but also from others who may have concerns of his favoritism or lack there of for solving the "Negro Problem." It would have not sufficed to answer the question by stating he attends to the facts because specifically, the facts show that the issues he discussed are primarily black problems that should be addressed.
ReplyDeleteDr. Dubois would have been very proud to see Stephen Benjamin stand before him as the Mayor of the Columbia. The fact that Benjamin, a black man, was elected to become the mayor of the capital city of South Carolina, a state with a notorious history in race relations, proved that race relations have changed. Although there was a time when riots probably would have broken out if a black man even thought about running for elected office, this did not occur. However being the person that Dubois is, he would probably celebrate this change with a critical tongue. As Dubois aged, he became overwhelmingly convinced that economic issues were creating new caste systems in America. Therefore, Dubois would want to know how Mayor Benjamin is addressing the economic issues that were facing blacks in Columbia.
ReplyDeleteI am not quite sure if I am too late to post my response to Mayor Benjamin's talk, but I do have a few comments that are worth sharing with you, Dr. Ginocchio, and my fellow classmates. I was highly impressed with Mr. Benjamin, to me he is a testament to what hard work, determination, and will power can do for an individual, especially one that is of darker skin color. Like many of classmates have said, I believe that DuBois would have been extremely proud to see such a strong example of his Talented Tenth in the 21st century. Not only that, I believe that DuBois would have marveled at the fact that Mayor Benjamin was not only using his excellent education for his own personal benefits, but for those who are not as fortunate to receive the training that he might have had. This "reaching-back," is what I think would have impressed DuBois the most. For DuBois - and I agree on this point as well - it is one thing to achieve personal success, but to share that success with others, while giving them an opportunity to do the same is astounding, and very DuBoisian. Though the dynamics of race relations has changed (not as much as some people would like to believe, however), there is still a strong need to give those who are underprivileged the opportunity to rise above their circumstances. And that is exactly what Mayor Benjamin is working to accomplish, the uplifting of a race, in this case, the human race - the only viable race there is.
ReplyDeleteOk, Arsenio, Tramaine, and Michael. I don't have much to add to your observations, all of which make sense. Perhaps the only thing I would re-emphasize is that I believe DuBois, if he was alive today, would still be quite clear in acknowledging the racial as well as the economic dimensions of the problem of education, which Mayor Benjamin seemed a bit reluctant to do.
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