I read it a few years back, but it stuck with me. Here's a link to wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington

His patient approach fell out of favor in the mis 20th century, and I think rightly so, blacks were correct to demand their rights now since it appeared the south wasn't gonna budge. But I think his ideas of hard work, industry, and rejecting victimhood could serve well not only the black community but all people in this day and age.

Please, for the love of God. If Booker T. Washingon clones had managed black efforts to win equality promised by the Bill of Rights and that was their due per natural law, red state blacks would still be going to separate schools and being sent to the back of the bus and being regarded as second class by their religious faith of choice. Booker T. Washington's great and brilliant contemporary and antagonist W.E.B. DuBois, who wound up moving to Paris in disgust, is a worthy study in contrast to put Booker T. Washington in his proper place in history.

That Booker T. Washington would write such a thing while his fellow blacks were suffering the degredation of Jim Crow is quite reprehensible and says it all about who were his real constituents. I doubt that passage was quoted by Wikipedia in a laudatory way.

That Tex would lap that quotation up like a dog to his vomit says all I need to know about Tex's true state of mind about race issues. Venkman, you should be ashamed.

Tex, you go ahead and keep quoting Booker T., so that all whom you will encounter will appreciate immediately the content of your character. Yeah, go ahead and tell me how many black friends you have. I'm not impressed. That's what they all say.

Personally, I don't give a rat's ass about Booker T Washington's body of work, good or bad. The quote posted above is spot on.

Your spiteful confessed ignorance concerning black history in the same sentence as you pontificate about contemporary black culture is priceless.

I don't know enough about black history to understand the context of the quote. To an outsider observing today's black culture, it appeals to us outsiders.

And I believe the concept could be turned on its head to apply to most of our political leaders.

And if you are completely ignorant of Booker T. Washington why do you regard him as an authority worthy of citation on this isssue?

I'm saying that the merit of the above quote attributed to Booker T Washington should be indepedent of anything else he did in his life. It's the words, not the person.

Contemporary black culture? It hardly needs to be that expansive. We're talking about Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton here. What they have done in the name of race relations/equality is simply shameful.

If you want to take umbrage with that claim, feel free to do so.

Ashamed of what? Did you not read my post directly before yours? I said that blacks were correct to abandon his approach because the South wasn't going to budge on civil rights. I referenced his quote because it's exactly what I think about Jesse Jackson. Spare us the righteous indignation.

Any white should at least be sensitive to the possiblity that he is, by virtue of his own limited experience, potentially limited in his ability to apprehend lingering racism or effects of racism in our culture. I hadn't thought I needed to explain this: The context does matter very much in this instance because of the immediate loss of credibility on the part of any white who quotes Booker T. Washington as authority for a position that blacks should just shut up and move along, while such white admittedly does not appreciate nor care to appreciate the irony of Washington's words in light of the historical context, or how history has come to judge Washington's aquiescent approach to race relations.

I don't necessarily disagree with the point. I just am appalled that anyone should quote Booker T. Washington to make it, particularly someone who admittedly doesn't know nor care to know anything about Washington. Try Clarence Thomas or Bill Cosby or Stephen Carter but for the love of God quoting Booker T. Washington for this concept comes back at you like a bungy chord that has come loose from its mooring.

This whole personal responsibility/social injustice thing conservatives & liberals argue over is a false dichotomy. Blacks need to be more responsible, but that doesn't mean there aren't structural factors screwing them over.

Jackson & Sharpton are counterproductive, but having bad leaders itself is a legacy of slavery. It's hard to have initiative when for 300 years you're instructed not to do anything unless told. Little wonder the most prominent leaders, Colin Powell & Obama, are born of Jamaican and African immigrants.

I spent half my mission in the NYC ghetto, and I've noticed caribbean people start their own businesses, have tight-knit families, and have kids who excel in school. Same race of people as African Americans. Denial of victimhood is ridiculous.