Had "virtue and industry" become so "bourgeois," as snidely claimed by Dr. Gary R. Kremer in his essay, "James Milton Turner and Black Masonry," as to warrant their tacit condemnation as appropriate guideposts for blacks; or to justify castigating Tuskegee, Booker T. Washington, and black Masons, their principal advocates and exemplars, in the 1902 perilous period of which he writes? I think not!
He states in his book:
"The committee also emphasized that American blacks had been loyal to their government. It recalled how 'the pages of history record no more brilliant achievements' than the role played by black men who bore arms in defense of their country from the American Revolution through the Spanish American War. Black literacy rates, the committee emphasized, had risen from 22 percent in 1880 to 46 percent in 1890 and 64 percent in 1900. In keeping with its bourgeois orientation, the Masonic committee singled out Booker T. Washington as an exemplar of industry and virtue, and identified Tuskegee as 'a magnificent testimonial to the capability and genius of the greatest Negro educator of the age."
P.93, RACE AND MEANING:THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN MISSOURI (2014).
Certain fish have and conceal sharp bones, however tasty their meat! Eat slowly and carefully! So also with all scholarship: scrutinize, analyze, and ostracize, the useful from the useless!
"Virtue and industry" are great and universal traits, as their opposites, non-virtue and slattern, demonstrate!
"Virtue and industry" are not "bourgeois" as that racially-divisive term is now commonly understood:
"Bourgeois" is derisive. epitomizing banal preoccupation with petty possessions and fatuous social affectations and climbing, whatever may be its French antecedents.
Saturday, February 7, 2015
BOURGEOIS REEXAMINED
"Bourgeois" Reexamined 
Had "virtue and industry" become so "bourgeois," as snidely claimed by Dr. Gary R. Kremer in his essay, "James Milton Turner and Black Masonry," as to warrant their tacit condemnation as appropriate guideposts for blacks; or to justify castigating Tuskegee, Booker T. Washington, and black Masons, their principal advocates and exemplars, in the 1902 perilous period of which he writes? I think not!
He states in his book:
"The committee also emphasized that American blacks had been loyal to their government. It recalled how 'the pages of history record no more brilliant achievements' than the role played by black men who bore arms in defense of their country from the American Revolution through the Spanish American War. Black literacy rates, the committee emphasized, had risen from 22 percent in 1880 to 46 percent in 1890 and 64 percent in 1900. In keeping with its bourgeois orientation, the Masonic committee singled out Booker T. Washington as an exemplar of industry and virtue, and identified Tuskegee as 'a magnificent testimonial to the capability and genius of the greatest Negro educator of the age."
P.93, RACE AND MEANING:THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN MISSOURI (2014).
Certain fish have and conceal sharp bones, however tasty their meat! Eat slowly and carefully! So also with all scholarship: scrutinize, analyze, and ostracize, the useful from the useless!
"Virtue and industry" are great and universal traits, as their opposites, non-virtue and slattern, demonstrate!
"Virtue and industry" are not "bourgeois" as that racially-divisive term is now commonly understood:
"Bourgeois" is derisive. epitomizing banal preoccupation with petty possessions and fatuous social affectations and climbing, whatever may be its French antecedents.
Had "virtue and industry" become so "bourgeois," as snidely claimed by Dr. Gary R. Kremer in his essay, "James Milton Turner and Black Masonry," as to warrant their tacit condemnation as appropriate guideposts for blacks; or to justify castigating Tuskegee, Booker T. Washington, and black Masons, their principal advocates and exemplars, in the 1902 perilous period of which he writes? I think not!
He states in his book:
"The committee also emphasized that American blacks had been loyal to their government. It recalled how 'the pages of history record no more brilliant achievements' than the role played by black men who bore arms in defense of their country from the American Revolution through the Spanish American War. Black literacy rates, the committee emphasized, had risen from 22 percent in 1880 to 46 percent in 1890 and 64 percent in 1900. In keeping with its bourgeois orientation, the Masonic committee singled out Booker T. Washington as an exemplar of industry and virtue, and identified Tuskegee as 'a magnificent testimonial to the capability and genius of the greatest Negro educator of the age."
P.93, RACE AND MEANING:THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN MISSOURI (2014).
Certain fish have and conceal sharp bones, however tasty their meat! Eat slowly and carefully! So also with all scholarship: scrutinize, analyze, and ostracize, the useful from the useless!
"Virtue and industry" are great and universal traits, as their opposites, non-virtue and slattern, demonstrate!
"Virtue and industry" are not "bourgeois" as that racially-divisive term is now commonly understood:
"Bourgeois" is derisive. epitomizing banal preoccupation with petty possessions and fatuous social affectations and climbing, whatever may be its French antecedents.