Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Mis-Education of the Negro, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism and Education
Mis-Education as Social Control
Failures of Black Leadership
Business and Economic Development
Summary
Analysis
Three generations after the end of slavery, Woodson argues, Black people still live in a small world of limited concerns. They cannot engage or compete with society at large. Rather than cooperating to help the masses, the educated Black elite deceives them and fights endlessly for personal profit and “empty honor[s],” like fancy-sounding jobs with no real power. By fighting over “the little things allotted by others,” the Black elite fails to achieve anything of its own. This makes cooperation impossible. Political and religious factions fight over jobs and try to sabotage one another, rather than cooperating to make more jobs. Similarly, too many Black people dream of becoming school principals, and too few want to create better schools. The elite’s selfish bickering can stall progress for generations.
The small world that Woodson describes is really the psychologically and culturally limited world created by racial segregation. Woodson argues that Black people can either fight for power and position within this segregated world, or they can fight to desegregate the world on behalf of their race as a whole. Whereas the elite’s false education helps them win out in the fight for power, Woodson promotes a true education designed to build perspective and skills. Namely, students build the perspective necessary to understand that desegregation is possible and the skills necessary to pursue that desegregation.
Themes
Ever since the beginning of slavery, white leaders have chosen Black spokespeople to serve in prominent community positions and operate as spies. These leaders often secretly report on dissent and try to prevent people from politically organizing. Because Black leaders so often become oppressors, Woodson argues that the Black community shouldn’t count on their help. Rather, the community should organize itself to overcome exploitation. Woodson concludes that “the race needs workers, not leaders.” In other words, Black people should take action, dedicating their energies to businesses and endeavors that benefit the community. The emphasis on leadership should be replaced by the idea of service.
The key difference between leadership and service is that leaders have power over communities, but communities have power over the people serving them. Leadership implies telling communities what to do, while service implies listening to communities in order to determine what to do. Thus, Woodson thinks that the Black elite seeks to lead the Black community in order to gain power over it and use this power for personal gain. But he thinks that they ought to serve others instead, giving up their power to the community in the process. This vision of service is actually very similar to Woodson’s vision of education. He argues that effective educators must focus on meeting a student’s needs and developing their abilities, rather than imposing a predetermined model or goal on them. Thus, effective teaching is also a kind of service to one’s students.
Themes
