Booker T. Washington Response

Booker T. Washington gave a terrific speech called the Atlanta Exposition Address. This address spoke of the unity that all blacks dreamed of and all the ways we can progress. His review of the events afterwards was very interesting. The reacts of the people proved that many were moving away from segregation. This should have never happened though. Washington gives us an explanation of the stupidity of the disunity of the human race. With the many literary methods he used he got through to the public and left the subject to the people to decide.
Washington gives simplistic examples of the people’s idea of separation themselves from their brethren. He uses a mind-boggling simile that is so simple and refers to us in every way, “We can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things,” (Washington 2). Like the hand, it has its individual fingers. Each finger has its own structure, its own space, its own differences, its own height, size, skill, etc. and no one finger is perfect while the others are flawed. Yet they are all a part of the same thing. They are separated but at the same time unified in all that they do. The hand is not complete or functional if there is even one finger that does not work with the other four. This is how our people should be; we are all from different places, know and can do different things, have different abilities but we are all human beings. Everyone on this planet is a part of the most intelligent species and nothing less. How can you change, separate, degrade, or judge those that share your very qualities. We all came from the same two human beings, Adam and Eve, making us in some way down the line brother and sister.
Washington gives another good example, a story/metaphor, about men begging for water on a ship when they are surrounded by a freshwater river. This reveals another type of ignorance within people. Why would you ignore the existence of something so important, as the men did of water, when it is vital to your existence? As water is to the men, friendship is to humans. We cannot just ignore the myriads of people around us because such a powerful force cannot be ignored. Your neighbor will not allow you to ignore them just as you will not let them ignore you. We all need friends and a friendship. Humans are not meant to live alone and they should not. It would be so idiotic to ignore the 6 billion and counting people on the Earth and near impossible. With an infinite amount of personality to choose from, the atmosphere is perfect for someone to just reach out because it will be hard for you to not catch one out of 6 billion people. Washington is just saying that the chances are on your side, the opportunity is here, all that is in your way is you.
To conclude, Washington uses stories, metaphors, similes, symbolism, and much more to discard the option of separating from people. There are too many people to just let alone and it is not right to try and isolate one group. Most animals will not harm their own kind unless they endanger their territory, family, or themselves. Humans are the most intelligent species on the planet and we are also the ones most known to kill our own kind. This is wrong; we should not kill or isolate our own people into groups because we are one group: human. We are people made under the image of God and he is colorblind, so why can’t we be?