The Debate Regarding the Freedmans Bureau Essay -- African American B

The Debate Regarding the Freedmans Bureau Historians and policy-making theorists have delineated the concept of equality into two categories the competitive individualist notion of equality of assist and the egalitarian ideal of equality of results. The former is concerned with providing a level playing field for all, while the latter focuses on a just distribution resulting from the process. Richard Ellis, in his book American Political Cultures, challenges the Hartzian thesis that historically Americans favored equality of process over equality of results, making them competitive individualists. Ellis argues that what is exceptional rough America is not that it lacked a results-oriented vision of equality but that those who favored equalizing results believed that equal process was a sufficient condition for realizing equal results (Ellis 1993 44). In separate words, the egalitarian spirit was not absent from American history, but Americans believed that justice would best be served through competition. Ellis is correct in making this fine distinction, barely it is important to note that historical evidence suggests that some factions clearly emphasized equality of results regardless of equality of process. In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois recounting of the political deliberate regarding the Freedmans Bureau, clearly highlights this ideological difference.Du Bois poignantly captures the necessity for a legal equalizing measure in his description of the tragedy of slavery and the ragged, conflicted nature of the ominous consciousness that resulted. He writes, the facing of so vast a prejudice could not but bring the inevitable self-questioning, self-disparagement, and lowering of ideals which ever accompany repressio... ...ows, that disposed(p) dire circumstances, Americans indeed turn to measures to ensure equality of results rather than relying on equality of processes. Of course, suffrage left much to be desired for African American equa lity. Jim Crow laws and other forms of racism continued to plague American society for many decades to follow. Nonetheless, the legacy of the Bureau remains an important part of American political history. It may require extreme instances of human misery, tragedy, and utter inequality (such as the institution of slavery) to highlight a push for equality of results regardless of the processes. This egalitarian ideology clearly is evident in post-Civil War American legislation. Works CitedDu Bois, W.E.B. 1997. The Souls of Black Folk. Boston Bedford Books.Ellis, Richard. 1993. American Political Cultures, New York Oxford University Press.