VI. Of the Training of Black Men"

The sixth essay in The Souls of Black Folk is "Of the Training of Black Men"

Du Bois argues in this essay that "we are called to solve the problem of training men for life".  This essay originally appeared the September 1902 issue of the Atlantic Monthly magazine.  Click on link to read the essay as it appeared in the Atlantic Monthly:  http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/flashbks/blacked/dutrain.htm

Click on link to read earlier articles Booker T. Washington wrote in Atlantic Monthly on the education of African Americans:  http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/flashbks/blacked/washaw.htm

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/flashbks/black/washbh.htm


In his argument for the broad liberal arts training of African Americans,  Du Bois quotes an excerpt of Matthew 6: 25:

Is not life more than meat, and the body more than raiment?"

A more recent translation of the entire verse reads like this:

 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

Jesus in Matthew 6: 25 and Du Bois in this essay are railing against materialism, but what is materialism?
Bob Deffinbaugh in an online commentary describes materialism as:

Materialism, however, has nothing to do with how much money you or I have in the bank. It has little to do with whether you drive a Rolls Royce or a Rambler. Materialism is primarily an attitude toward money and its importance. Materialism is an attitude which attaches to money and material goods more importance than they deserve. To go one step further, materialism is primarily a matter of reversed priorities. You cannot identify a materialist by an audit, but only by exposing his attitudes.

Source: http://bible.org/seriespage/fatal-failures-religion-4-materialism-matthew-619-34#TopOfPage

Why is the argument against materialism important?
Du Bois argues in the essay that:
The tendency is here, born of slavery and quickened to renewed life by the crazy imperialism of the day, to regard human beings as among the material resources of a land to be trained with an eye single to future dividends?
What do you think?