The Talented Tenth: Who represent them today?

13 Apr
2010


In 1903 in the book The Negro Problem: A Series of Articles by Representative Negroes of To-​day, W.E.B. Du Bois included an essay titled, “The Talented Tenth”. Du Bois started his essay this way:

“The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its excep­tional men. The prob­lem of edu­ca­tion, then, among Negroes must first of all deal with the Talented Tenth; it is the prob­lem of devel­op­ing the Best of this race that they may guide the Mass away from the con­t­a­m­i­na­tion and death of the Worst, in their own and other races.”

Du Bois was address­ing how to cre­ate a soci­ety of élite men who would lead all oth­ers. These would be men who excelled at every­thing that they endeav­ored to do. They would be the stan­dard of men to the com­ing gen­er­a­tions. This ideal has been the sub­ject of many books as well as col­lege lec­tures. While Du Bois’ words were directed towards a pre­dom­i­nately African-​American audi­ence who would com­prise the tal­ented tenth from all cul­tures today?

While empha­sis has been put upon stu­dents of all races towards the advance­ment of edu­ca­tion there is still a short­fall of true lead­ers com­ing out of the aca­d­e­m­i­cally élite. Although many do go on to become lead­ers in their cho­sen fields they don’t typ­ify Du Bois’ per­cep­tion of the tal­ented tenth. They may be highly moti­vated and goal ori­ented men that set the exam­ples in busi­ness, but what about in the areas of moral­ity and fam­ily? Not so much.

It used to be believed that a man’s inabil­ity to be moral or fam­ily ori­ented was based on back­ground or a lack of edu­ca­tion. But today, even men who had the best of upbring­ings, raised in two par­ent fam­i­lies, who went to the best schools, and had money have failed to live up to moral stan­dards.

In recent news we have seen many sto­ries of these men who have neglected their fam­i­lies and chil­dren to pur­sue their careers and in some cases other women or dual lifestyles. In fact, they seem to be tak­ing the lead in being suc­cess­ful in busi­ness, but unsuc­cess­ful at life. We see more exam­ples of this daily regard­less of what pro­fes­sion they are in and regard­less of race.

I want to hear from you. Do you believe that in a quest for edu­ca­tion these men weren’t taught the basic tenets of love and fam­ily? Do you believe that Du Bois’ aspi­ra­tion to achieve a tal­ented tenth has been ful­filled?

Thanks for read­ing,

Literary Nobody

Toya Bryant has written 193 article(s) for this site

Toya Bryant aka Literary Nobody is a Freelance Writer/Blogger who promotes positive thinking and actions within the community and the family. She also writes about the positives and negatives of technology, internet security and social media.

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  • jed­wa­verly

    I’m not sure I’d go so quickly to “search for more edu­ca­tion” as the cul­prit. If we have lis­tened to sev­eral of the more promi­nent ones who have slipped from grace in the past few months, we have heard them talk about the power piled on to them and its abil­ity to make them feel “enti­tled.” Some of the blame for that rests on the pub­lic who so will­ingly give over that power. I sus­pect we are expe­ri­enc­ing a soci­etal prob­lem.

  • http://HighRoadism.com/ HighRoadism

    I have to say that those aspi­ra­tions have cer­tainly not been ful­filled unfor­tu­nately. Those have risen to the seats of suc­cess and power in many cases have become self serv­ing or even worse well paid ser­vants of a world built on White Supremacy and Black Inferiority.

    Jesus said in the bible that “My peo­ple per­ish for lack of knowl­edge.” Not that the knowl­edge isn’t avail­able but in many cases peo­ple are out right reject­ing knowl­edge of the Creator’s Master plan and choos­ing to live a lifestyle that is not in accord with the nature of their own pur­pose for being.

    This post reminded me of two things that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught. “Our unity is more pow­er­ful than an atom bomb.” and “We are God’s cho­sen peo­ple. He wants to use us to make a whole new world. Accept your own and Be your­self.”

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    Thank you for the com­ment Jed. I cer­tainly agree with you that a sense of enti­tle­ment has been a main cul­prit in recent cases. Some of these men become very pow­er­ful very early in life and that power seems to over­ride their com­mon sense.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    Great com­ment HR..thank you. You made a very true state­ment:

    “…in many cases peo­ple are out right reject­ing knowl­edge of the Creator’s
    Master plan and choos­ing to live a lifestyle that is not in accord with
    the nature of their own pur­pose for being”

    I truly believe that this is the heart of the prob­lem. If peo­ple did allow God to be their moral com­pass there would be no ques­tion that things would cer­tainly be dif­fer­ent. Unfortunately it seems that the very ele­ment of that knowl­edge have been removed for the “text­books” that they ascribe to.

  • pinkcrayon99

    Personally, I believe that the so-​called Talented Tenth has failed in all races and cul­tures in rela­tion to what DuBois described they would do. Many have got­ten the edu­ca­tion and the power and sneer at any­thing else like morals and fam­ily. The rea­son they can’t lead or guide their respec­tive races is because they are blinded by enti­tle­ment and glut­to­nous consumerism…and the machine known as cap­i­tal­ism.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    I agree Pink Crayon, that really seems to be the case unfor­tu­nately. Morals and fam­ily have fallen so far that they seem to not even be of any impor­tance any more. Sadly, these are the exam­ples for the next gen­er­a­tion of young men. Capitalism cer­tainly dom­i­nates.

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