THE late Elizabeth Wright wrote in 1993 of how black intellectuals undermined pride in manual and non-professional labor:

A highbrow snob, [W.E.B.] Du Bois dismissed as unworthy the labor of craftsmen, farmers and business owners. In his zeal to drag all blacks through his beloved halls of ivy, he talked of “turning carpenters into men.” For, in that peculiar world into which he had assimilated, one who labored or was bereft of a college degree could hardly be considered a man. It is this pretentious spirit that was to become the hallmark of the black elite, whose overriding influence would shape the thinking and behavior of future generations of blacks.

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