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Good article on Frederick Douglass, by a Washington and Lee U. professor
Posted on 1/30/18 at 2:00 pm
Posted on 1/30/18 at 2:00 pm
quote:
A “popular error” of our own day is the idea that because Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, nothing good could come from him. Douglass surely knew that Jefferson owned slaves, but he knew as well that Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of Independence, which supplied for Douglass and for all Americans the key to political progress: the principles that “all men are created equal”; that they are “endowed by their Creator [not by government] with certain unalienable Rights,” among which are “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”; and that “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men.”
Douglass called these “saving principles,” and he devoted himself to convincing white Americans “to trust [these principles’] operation.” In this he foreshadowed Justice John Marshall Harlan’s lone dissent against the Supreme Court’s infamous Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which produced the nefarious doctrine of “separate but equal.” Harlan wrote: “Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.”
Thirty years before Plessy, Douglass observed that the Constitution “knows no distinction between citizens on account of color.” The “burden of our demand upon the American people shall simply be justice and fair play,” he said. “We utterly repudiate all invidious distinctions, whether in our favor or against us, and only ask for a fair field, and no favor.”
Douglass was no fan of “race pride,” counting it “a positive evil” and a “false foundation.” For the better part of American history, black Americans wanted nothing to do with a color line that set them apart from other Americans. “It has long been the desire of our enemies,” Douglass wrote, “to deepen and widen the line of separation between the white and colored people of this country.” For Douglass, the only relevant minority in America was the minority of one—the individual. The government of all should be partial to none.
The politics of identity make the present a prisoner of the past, with individuals viewed chiefly through the lens of race or other arbitrary characteristics. Douglass argued for identifying with America—with the nation founded on “human brotherhood and the self-evident truths of liberty and equality.” He saw that the protection of specific groups or classes would lead government away from protecting individual rights and towards assigning benefits and burdens. “I know of no rights of race,” he said, “superior to the rights of humanity.”
LINK
Posted on 1/30/18 at 2:21 pm to L.A.
If Douglass went to Denny's, or Pine Bluff, he would feel absolute shame.
Posted on 1/30/18 at 2:34 pm to L.A.
Douglas and Booker T would be better intellectual foundations for race relations than WEB Dubois.
It is a fricking shame that they have been pushed to the side for Dubois.
It is a fricking shame that they have been pushed to the side for Dubois.
Posted on 1/30/18 at 2:35 pm to Sody Cracker
"If Douglass went to Denny's, or Pine Bluff, he would feel absolute shame."
I rather doubt it. Why should he be ashamed of what other individuals are doing so long as he comported himself in a manner he could be proud of?
I rather doubt it. Why should he be ashamed of what other individuals are doing so long as he comported himself in a manner he could be proud of?
Posted on 1/30/18 at 2:44 pm to L.A.
Speaking of the affronts upon the people committed baby the King..
Jefferson had the following in his original draft of the Declaration of Independence.
...he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, & murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.
Posted on 1/30/18 at 3:21 pm to L.A.
Don't kid yourself into thinking that Douglass would have been some Trump supporter. And keep in mind Douglass didn't really live to see the full horrors of Jim Crow. His entire life - and then decades upon decades after his life - was characterized by this country absolutely failing to meet him on the "fair field" that he requested.
You should read his 3rd autobiography. It's one of the best books you can read. It's amazing to me that a biopic hasn't been made. He was one bad mutha.
You should read his 3rd autobiography. It's one of the best books you can read. It's amazing to me that a biopic hasn't been made. He was one bad mutha.
Posted on 1/30/18 at 3:24 pm to Big Scrub TX
quote:
And keep in mind Douglass didn't really live to see the full horrors of Jim Crow
He lived through SLAVERY. He WAS a slave for awhile.
Posted on 1/30/18 at 3:53 pm to Big Scrub TX
quote:
Don't kid yourself into thinking that Douglass would have been some Trump supporter.
And to think that Douglass wouldn't be dismissed as an "Uncle Tom" by the left is equal bufoonery
Posted on 1/30/18 at 4:00 pm to L.A.
quote:
“Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.”
How far we have strayed from this fundamental principle.
Posted on 1/30/18 at 4:07 pm to Big Scrub TX
quote:
And keep in mind Douglass didn't really live to see the full horrors of Jim Crow.
What about living in the Jim Crow period would have changed Douglas’ opinion about the government needing to recognize the individual rather than burden or bless a racial group?
How can you honestly say that Jim Crow proves anything besides the necessity for our government to treat all citizens as equal individuals before the law?
This post was edited on 1/30/18 at 4:25 pm
Posted on 1/30/18 at 4:12 pm to JuiceTerry
Amazing job. Being recognized more and more.
Posted on 1/30/18 at 5:08 pm to JuiceTerry
quote:One of my favorite lines from 2017.
He's been doing great things
Posted on 1/30/18 at 7:03 pm to L.A.
quote:Yes, thanks for the history lesson. The point I was making is that these remarks were made 1866ish (i.e. in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War - it makes reference to "30 years before Plessy"). At that point in time, Douglass would have had reason to be optimistic that the US was finally going to let "The Negro stand or fall on his own 2 legs". A war had just been fought which had the effect of abolishing slavery. Reconstruction was in its nascent stage. The 13th Amendment had been ratified and the 14th was in the near future.
He lived through SLAVERY. He WAS a slave for awhile.
This article essentially takes Douglass out of context. My point is that the quoted remarks were made PRIOR to 100 years of Jim Crow horror - which would have potentially dashed Douglass' hopes in this regard. (He did in fact live to see the destruction of Reconstruction and the beginning of Jim Crow.) He also, in fact, lived to see the "positive evil" of "race pride" in ways that were extremely offensive to him and all blacks. That evil race pride carried on for 100+ years...by WHITE AMERICANS.
To try to repurpose his remarks for some modern commentary is disingenuous at best.
If we want to feel all warm and fuzzy about FD quotes, then this is among my favorites:
quote:
A man's rights rest in three boxes. The ballot box, jury box and the cartridge box.
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