racial uplift
{{Short description|Term}}
Racial uplift is a term within the African-American community that motivates educated black people to be responsible in the "lifting"{{clarify|date=June 2024}} of the race. This concept traced back to the late 1800s, introduced by black elites, such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and African-American musicians like Florence Price, who were significant contributors.{{Cite book|title=Racial Uplift and American Music, 1878-1943|last=Schenbeck|first=Lawrence|publisher=The University Press of Mississippi|year=2012|isbn=978-1-61703-229-5|location=United States of America|pages=3–5}} During the beginnings of racial uplift, hymns and negro spirituals played a vital role in shaping the spiritual culture of African Americans. Although these musical selections are mainly prevalent inside the black church, contemporary gospel music has been utilized for the liberation and uplift of the oppressed black race. Aside from music, African-American leaders have used concepts such as Du Bois's double consciousness that describe the idea of blackness and the complexities of identity in the various lens in which the black race envisions themselves in American society.{{Cite journal|last=Chresfield|first=M.|date=2013|title=To Improve the Race: Eugenics as a Strategy for Racial Uplift}}
The talented tenth is a primary example of racial uplift for African Americans. Du Bois was one of the black elites that steered the talented tenth to become prevalent and of importance.{{Cite book|title=Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the struggle for racial uplift|last=Moore|first=J.M.|publisher=Scholarly Resources|year=2003|location=Wilmington, DE}} Struggling to make racial uplift become relevant,{{Cite book|title=Uplifting the Race: Black middle-class ideology in the era of the "New Negro" 1890-1935|last=Gaines|first=Kevin|year=1991}} he believed that the black leaders that were sent out to be representatives of their community did not always return to their communities.
Connection with eugenics
Eugenics is seen throughout the time of racial uplift due to the control that was placed on people of African-American descent. Eugenics play a role in how racial uplift is viewed, which includes how people are made to think, look, and create community.{{Cite journal|last=Barrett|first=D|date=2004|title=Globalizing social movement theory: The case of eugenics. Theory and Society}} Some African Americans, both then and now, are said to take on roles which are prevailing in other cultures, making them alter the way in which they choose to live their life. In W. E. B. Du Bois's book, The Souls of Black Folk, he discusses his view on how African Americans are perceived both to themselves and to the ones who are around them, with the term double consciousness.{{Cite book|title=The Souls of Black Folk: the Unabridged Classic|last=Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963, author.|isbn=9781945186646|oclc=1099525108|date = 2019-05-28|publisher=Simon and Schuster }} Du Bois himself is known as the father of sociology and pan-Africanism, the idea of all people from African descent becoming unified across the world.{{Cite book|title=The Pan-African connection : from slavery to Garvey and beyond|last=Martin, Tony, 1942-2013.|year=1984 |version=1985 printing|publisher=Majority Press|isbn=0912469110|edition=1st Majority Press|location=Dover, Mass.|oclc=10833862}}
Other African-American authors such as Nathan Hare have written books which attest to eugenics not only being seen in the African-American community but also its promotion of liberation through racial uplift. In Nathan Hare's The Black Anglo-Saxons, he writes about how African Americans had begun to conform with other races and abandon their own cultural identity.{{Cite book|title=The Black Anglo-Saxons|last=Hare, Nathan.|date=1991|publisher=Third World Press|isbn=0883781301|edition=2nd|location=Chicago|oclc=25043432|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780883781302}} Although they are now seen as a higher class, these individuals do not engage in racial uplift to guide other African Americans to where they are. Like many other Nathan Hare books, this book has caused African Americans to realize that not everyone who succeeds in life is willing to come back and give to their community. Nathan Hare himself has written many books which deal with the concept of racial uplift and how African Americans operate in a society where eugenics exist.
Beauty culture
With racial uplift being seen as "self-help" for black people, other aspects focused on which African Americans were able to receive an education.{{Citation|last=Peebles-Wilkins|first=Wilma|chapter=Washington, Booker Taliaferro|date=2013-06-11|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Social Work|publisher=NASW Press and Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199975839|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.815}} The beauty culture played a role in who was sent out as a representative for the African-American community. In W. E. B. Du Bois's book The Souls of Black Folk, he discusses how hair type, color, and attitude determined who was capable of receiving an education and could return to help the black community with racial uplift.{{Cite book|title=The Souls of Black Folk: the Unabridged Classic|last=Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963, author.|isbn=9781945186646|oclc=1099525108|date = 2019-05-28|publisher=Simon and Schuster }} If the "wrong" individuals are sent out, then the community will be considered doomed due to that individual's incapability to perform at a certain level. Touching on eugenics, many African Americans were unaware of how the way they look, their mannerisms, and how they interact with those around them affected their capability to be well educated. With the color of a person's skin being the first physical feature people saw during this time, this led to rising colorism, a contradicting approach to racial uplift.
= Colorism =
Colorism, sometimes known as shadism, is when someone is treated differently due to the color of their skin by someone in their own race.{{Citation|chapter=Globalization, Indian Beauty Nationalism, and Colorism|date=2015-09-16|pages=52–72|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781315733432|doi=10.4324/9781315733432-4|title=The Global Beauty Industry}} People of light shades are said to be more favorable and according to W. E. B. Du Bois, these were the individuals that would have an easier time with receiving an education and passing that knowledge on to their communities.{{Cite book|date=2017-07-05|title=The Souls of Black Folk|doi=10.4324/9781912282593|isbn=9781912282593}} During this time, a test known as the "brown paper bag test" was used to assess the shade of an African American.{{Citation|chapter=Blue Vein Society/Paper Bag Test|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Human Services and Diversity|publisher=SAGE Publications, Inc.|isbn=9781452287485|doi=10.4135/9781483346663.n68|year=2014 }} This test was not only used to determine who could attend historically black colleges during the late 1800s and early 1900s, but also to be seen as a leader or relevant to their own kind.{{Citation|last=Miller|first=Tara D.|chapter=The Significant Value of Historically Black Colleges and Universities|date=2016-04-28|pages=113–123|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781315648859|doi=10.4324/9781315648859-10|title=Graduate Education at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)|s2cid=159017961 }}