Maybe it would help to reconceptualize

When you think of the "Talented Tenth" a particular image comes to mind. That image sums up the archetypical "good Negro," doesn't it? It's been the entré to the Black upper class...the class that deals with white folks. Booker T. Washington is as much a member of that class as W.E.B. Dubois was.

Of course now there's no such thing as good and bad Negroes. Black Americans are more concerned with "rich and poor" than "good and bad."

The expression of the class war in the Black communities is a dispute over the validity of the "Talented Tenth" image and approach.

Posted by Prometheus 6 on January 15, 2005 - 4:19pm :: Race and Identity
 
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The "good Negro"... Blah! That whole "good Negro" approach hasn't got us anywhere. I would rather have had more "bad Negroes" who were more business-orientated than education-oriented. I have nothing against a college education, but it isn't the "cure" as many educated black folks try to drop on we lay black people.

Posted by  Solomon on January 16, 2005 - 4:47am.

The Talented Tenth aspired to leadership, but I think as a class they are better ambassadors.

Posted by  Prometheus 6 on January 16, 2005 - 7:53pm.