Booker T Washington Explains It All For You

I first read this quote several years ago, and have sought it out ever since. As certain recent events enter into a new chapter, it is a timely message, and a cautionary tale, for those who draw conclusions in undue haste (and you know who you are). -- DLA

"There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.

"I am afraid that there is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don't want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public."

(From his 1911 work entitled My Larger Education, Being Chapters from My Experience)