Sociology 307
African American Social Thought
Fall 2002
Dr. Scott Schaffer

Week 8/9 Discussion Questions: Washington, DuBois and responses to segregation (Washington; DuBois; CR pp. 268-277, 283-286, 290-297, 303-308, 315-325)

Due Date: For discussion in class on Weds and Fri.

1. Both Washington and DuBois have very clear conceptions of their approaches to the education of African Americans. Outline and compare their approaches to education, showing how each approach speaks to conceptions of humanity or conceptions of people as economic beings.

2. Washington and DuBois' goals for African Americans both include the development of respect; however, they have different ideas of how to earn that respect and what people should be respected for. Outline and compare their ideas regarding how African Americans should earn respect, what they should be respected for, and how these ideas reflect the big conceptions we've discussed so far in class.

3. Short and sweet: Outline DuBois' depiction of the sharecropping economy and tie it to the big conceptions we've discussed so far in class.

4. The works of Washington and DuBois motivated the earliest attempts to develop organized responses to institutions of racism in the South. Discuss the more important organized responses to institutional racism (in other words, the social movements working against segregation, Jim Crow, etc.), and show how they rely upon each authors' works.

5. Outline the ways in which the larger philosophical trends (social Darwinism, racialism) worked for and/or against social movements combating institutionalized racism. To what extent do you think these trends enhanced or limited the responses these movements came up with, and why?