"I think what gets out on the street about Booker T. Washington is that he said, 'Turn the other cheek.' And that's it. That's all people know. We tend to forget how deeply unknowing people are beyond the fragment of people who went to a very good school and got a BA or beyond. The idea is that W.E.B. Du Bois said something about the souls of black folk---that phrase alone---and for most people that means something very radical and forward thinking. That realize the Du Bois probably could not have cared less what they thought. And Booker T. was a sellout because he said to just take it and work hard and show how good you are. That's the nut of it. Subsequently the idea that we are responsible for working hard and proving our worth is backward."
-John McWhorter
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