Reference no: EM132276077

Dusk of Dawn
Discussion questions

1. Explain: "when we call for education, we mean real education. We believe in work. We ourselves are workers, but work is not necessarily education. Education is the development of power and ideal. We want our children to be trained as intelligent human beings should be, and we will fight for all time against any proposal to educate black boys and girls simply as servants and underlings, or simply for the use of other people. They have a right to know, to think, to aspire" (p. 92).

2. Explain: "in the folds of this European civilization I was born and shall die, imprisoned, conditioned, depressed, exalted and inspired. Integrally a part of it and yet, much more significant, one of its rejected parts" (p. 3).

3. What does Du Bois mean by "slave heritage in mind and home" and "compulsory ignorance" (p. 5)?

4. Explain: "these matters seldom bothered me because they were not brought to my attention" (p. 18).

5. Explain: "wealth was God" (p. 26). Does this sound familiar?

6. Explain: "the economic order determined what the next generation should learn and know" (p. 27).

7. Du Bois discusses lynching (the standard Jim Crow era enforcement practice) on pp. 29, 55, 241, and 251. What was your reaction to these sections?

8. Explain: "I was pleasantly surprised when the white school superintendent, on whom I had made a business call, invited me to stay for dinner; and he would have been astonished if he had dreamed that I expected to eat at the table with him and not after he was through" (p. 31).

8. Jim Crow laws disenfranchised black citizens by three common practices-grandfather clause, poll tax, and literacy test. Do you think they might have affected election outcomes from the 1870s to 1965?

9. Why was the lynching of Sam Hose a turning point in Du Bois' life (pp. 67-68)?

10. What do you think of the principles of the ‘Niagara Movement' (pp. 88-89)? Do they seem radical to you?

11. Did you realize that the Southern States became more segregated (socially, culturally, and legally) after the Civil War? Step by step, decade by decade, state and local legislatures passed laws and ordinances to separate and distinguish ‘white' and ‘colored' in every single way imaginable-right up until the mid-1960s. Comment.

12. Du Bois suggests that if the U.S. does not follow its own ideals it might truly become "the land of the thief and the home of the slave" (which was how most countries in the world thought of-and, funny enough, still think of-the United States). Comment.

13. Du Bois recognizes that thoughts-the thoughts in our heads-are "expressions of social forces more than of our own minds. These forces or ideologies embrace more than our reasoned acts" (p. 96). Explain.

14. Explain: "that history may be epitomized in one word-Empire; the domination of white Europe over black Africa and yellow Asia, through political power built on the economic control of labor, income and ideas" (p. 96).

15. What was Harvard and the University of Berlin like for Du Bois (pp. 98-99)? Why is this important?

16. Explain: "the first thing which brought me to my senses in all this racial discussion was the continuous change in the proofs and arguments advanced... and conviction came later in a rush as I realized what in my education had been suppressed concerning Asiatic and African culture" (p. 99).

17. Explain: "I do not know how I came first to form my theories of race. The process was probably largely unconscious" (p. 100).

18. Explain: "the economic foundation of the modern world was based on the recognition and preservation of so-called racial distinctions. In accordance with this, not only Negro slavery could be justified, but the Asiatic coolie profitably used and the labor classes in white countries kept in their places by low wage" (p. 103).

19. Explain Du Bois' ‘Dark Cave' analogy of race and class segregation (pp. 130-131). What did you think of the analogy? How would you feel screaming and hurling yourself against that plate glass barrier?

20. Explain: "the majority of men resent and always have resented the idea of equality with most of their fellow men" (p. 134).

21. Have your ever met a white dude who sounds a bit like Du Bois' imaginary friend ‘Roger Van Dieman' (pp. 140-169)? How would you talk to this person?

22. Explain: "white and European... genius chiefly runs to marvelous contrivances for enslaving the many, and enriching the few, and murdering both" (p. 143).

23. Explain: "if their machines gave us rest and leisure, instead of the drab uniformity of uninteresting drudgery; if their factories gave us gracious community of thought and feeling; beauty enshrined, free and joyous; if their work veiled them with tender sympathy at human distress and wide tolerance and understanding-then, all hail, White Imperial Industry! But is does not. It is a Beast! Its creators even do not understand it, cannot curb or guide it. They themselves are but hideous, groping higher Hands, doing their bit to oil the raging devastating machinery which kills men to make cloth, prostitutes women to rear buildings and eats little children. Is this superiority? It is madness" (p. 149).

24. Explain: "lions have no historians" (p. 149).

25. Explain: "This can't be a world of saints. We have got to have wealth and servants. Servants must be cheap and willing and the mean ought not to be so sensitive. Perhaps they are not. But why not have a world of gentlemen-well-policed, everybody in his place; all the rich, courteous and generous and all the poor appreciative; propaganda for the right, love of country and prosperous business; White World leading the Colored as far as the darkies can go. Certainly despite all your democracy, blood will tell" (p. 166).

26. Explain: "I tell you what, we got to watch out. America is the greatest nation on earth and the world is jealous of her... we've got to be disciplined; a stern, severe code for the lazy and criminal; training for boy scouts and militia. We must put patriotism before everything-make ‘em salute the flag, stop radical treason, keep out the dirty foreigners, disfranchise niggers and make America a Power!" (p. 167).

27. Explain: "can you for a moment conceive a world where brown men and dagoes were giving orders to white men and women? It would spell the end of civilization" (p. 169).

28. Explain: "the mass of the colored world can't think, they can't rule, they can't direct, and we mustn't let them try. And to keep them from trying we've got to pound them back into their places every time they show their heads above the ramparts!" (p. 169).