Racism In Education : Learning To Read And Write By Frederick Douglass

Examining Prevalent Attitudes on Racism and the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

Throughout history, African American weren’t considered the smartest race on earth. With slavery and being for bided to ever touch or learn to read a book, African American became the race that envy having an education. Education became a prime factor in the African American culture. Having an education to an African is having the one-way ticket out of the terrible streets. They believe that if they don’t know nothing they won’t get nothing. In other word, if they aren’t educated their life would remain the same. Way back to slavery, African American would be beaten if they were to open a book and dare to read it instead of cleaning it.

Frederick Douglas was born into the slave trade in Talbot County, Maryland. He was sent to work on a plantation for the Hugh’s Family for about seven years. This is the location where his learning truly began. His mistress was a “kind, tender-hearted, woman” who treated Frederick as a human instead of property the family owned. This was a dangerous thing for both parties at this time in history it was considered wrong. Frederick States “Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me” which I see the connection he had made to her change of personality because of slavery. She had heavenly qualities that slavery was able to divest from her. It was injurious to Fredrick not only for the lashings a salve would

Literacy plays an important part in helping Douglass achieve his freedom. Learning to read and write enlightened his mind to the injustice of slavery; it kindled in his heart longings for liberty. Douglass’s skills proved instrumental in his attempts of escape and afterwards in his mission as a spokesman against slavery.

In the extract “Learning to Read and Write,” Frederick Douglass tells the intended audience about his experiences as a slave living in his master’s house and how he went through many trials to learn to read and write. In this excerpt, Frederick Douglass uses imagery, contrast, pathos, ethos, logos, an empathic tone, certain verb choice, and metaphors to inform African Americans of how crucial it is to learn how to read and write and to inform an audience of caucasian Americans of the wrongdoings that slavery has brought about. Frederick Douglass is often persuasive using pathos to get across to the intended audiences.

In "Learning to Read and Write" written by Frederick Douglass, he talks about his experience of teaching himself how to read and write as a slave boy living in Master Hugh's house where his mistress educated him. However, she was dictated by her husband and the instructions given to the slaves on how to read had to stop; in order for Douglass to teach himself, he obtained a book about slavery, The Columbian Orator and read the book every free second he had. Encouraged by the book, Douglass runs away to the north from his master for freedom. Douglass' main ideas include depravity, chattel, and an emancipation, which represents a moral corruption, the slave properties, and an act of freeing someone from slavery, respectively.

“What I told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” (Coates). This powerful quote exemplifies the mistreatment of blacks in America as something that has been prevalent throughout our nation’s history and is still present in our contemporary world. Our national founding document promised that “All men are created equal”. As a nation we have never achieved the goal of equality largely because of the institution of slavery and its continuing repercussions on American society.

Frederick Douglass, “Learning to Read and Write”, Malcolm X, “Learning to Read”. How does one compare the struggles between them. First off Mr. Douglass, “Learning to Read and Write” is not truly comparable with any of the other reading options, and to force comparisons would belittle Mr. Douglass's struggles to do so. Every other reading option had to endure unfair treatment and racism but no one was born into slavery as Mr. Douglass was. Whereas every other reading option had access to underfunded and unequal schools, Mr. Douglass was not afforded these options so order to learn he had to hide it for fear of being beat or killed. “I lived in Master Hugh's family about seven years. During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write. In accomplishing this, I was compelled to resort to various stratagem”(Douglass 1). Mr. Douglass not only wanted to learn but had a deep driving need to learn for it was his only route to escape slavery. “I resolved to run away. I looked forward to a time at which it would be safe for me to escape. I was too young to think of doing so immediately; besides, I wished to learn how to write,as I might have occasion to write my own pass. I consoled myself with the hope thatI should oneday find a good chance” (Douglass 3). Mr. Douglass not only had to overcome being a slave for life but had a deep distrust for others thinking they would betray him ”for I feared they might be treacherous.White men have been known to

In the narrative excerpt “Learning to Read and Write” (1845), which originally came from the autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass recapitulates his journey into the coming of literacy that shifts his point to how slavery really is. Douglass develops and supports his main idea by providing a flashback of his own experience as a slave learning to read and write and through dialogue with rhetorical appeals, such as ethos, pathos, and logos. Douglass’ apparent purpose is to retell his story of the obstacles he faced to finally become a free man to guide and prompt other fellow slaves to finally take action for their freedom; he also wants to establish a foundation in which people of higher power, such as abolitionists, are more aware of the slavery situation. The intended audience for this excerpt is the general public of the time consisting of fellow slaves, slave owners, and abolitionists; the relationship Douglass establishes with the audience is equivalent to a news reporter and the people receiving the message—he exposes the truth to them.

Fredrick Douglass’s “Learning to Read and Write”, gives readers insight into the struggles of being a slave with intelligence, but more importantly into his experience. In his essay, Douglass shows how he fought to obtain knowledge; however, a reading of his story will reveal that what he learned changed him for the better. Michael Scott, a former EOF student read the story and believed that Douglass’s intelligence was a destructive and to a certain degree pointless. Contrary to Scott’s statement, Douglass’s knowledge wasn’t more of a curse than a blessing. Being a slave was everyone’s curse. Douglass went into depression because he hadn’t had the same experience as other slaves and finally felt what it was really like to be a slave when he was punished for his knowledge. However just because his knowledge is what got him into trouble doesn’t necessarily make him, being an intelligent slave; a curse nor does it mean that he had absolutely no alternatives to his condition. In fact, he above most other slaves had the upper hand when it came to creating his own alternative. Douglass’s intelligence helped him become autodidactic, manipulate situations to benefit him, and develop an ambition to become free.

Taking into consideration my early childhood, youth and adolescence, I could say that I was surrounded by people, who were friendly and shared common cultural values. However, with the hindsight at my whole life, I could say why the sense of institutional racism touches me so deeply. I was raised by my mother and my grandmother, both of whom could not read and write. Thus, for the illiterate people there were no chances to have higher status in the society. The only way to survive for them was hard physical work. Institutional racism, as a form of oppression, is more consequential and involves policies and acts that affect a large number of people. Life of my family is only one example of its impact. Even though, a lot of time has passed since then, the most recent incidents with Rodney King, Trayvon Martin and George Zimmer, illustrate how a black man continues to be viewed as a menace to society in America (Blumenfeld, 2010).

Institutional racism has solidified its position into various aspects of American society. It has installed itself into employment practices, all levels of education, healthcare, housing, politics and the criminal justice system. Institutional racism has made some subtle changes to replace the boldness of slavery and Jim Crow. However, in educational institutions the effects of racism and discrimination are so delicate they typically go unnoticed by students of color. Individual racism usually happens on the personal level where the prejudice is expressed either consciously or unconsciously while there is some form of interpersonal encounter. When it comes to institutional racism it is similar to the individual concepts, however policies and practices are associated with with the belief of racial dominance of one group over another. It is a powerful system that use race to determine power and privilege(Reynolds et al., 2010). Even after the desegregation of school, educational institution are still separated. In Shelby County where I have lived since 1999 there are schools for minorities, and there are schools for whites. The schools for minorities in the city of Memphis have police officers walking the halls and there no books for learning. There are higher numbers of Whites students enrolled in private, charter, and magnet schools in the more affluent segments of the county. They will be exposed to the advantages of a proper education because of their race and privilege

Through the past couple hundred years, many minorities have faced detrimental discrimination. Those who have been heavy targets are Black Americans. It is common to hear that slavery is over, but those groups still face discrimination today. Why are these minorities paying the price? Institutional discrimination is the cause to this madness. Those who have authority over the average citizen extending their power rights and preforming non-relevant; like over policing the black americans.This is common in everyday scenarios, the courtrooms, the school grounds, and the streets. It starts when these groups are young.

The English Oxford Living Dictionary (2018) defined institutional racism as racial discrimination that has become established as normal behavior within a society or organization. In my race and ethnic studies course, we talked extensively about the idea of institutional racism. Through that I was able to gain a good grasp on the implications that are produced through institutional racism. In fact, what I have come to understand now is that institutional racism is hard to truly uncover, because it has become so embedded in all the social structures within society, which includes the media. What makes it even more interesting, is the fact that it has become so embedded in everyday life that it’s easy to just pass it by or pay no attention to the social inequalities it produces for those that make up different racial and ethnic groups. For example, it is evident that media coverage often depicts African Americans in a more negative light

Institutional discrimination is a form of racial discrimination that is involved in policies, practices, and procedures that can negatively affect minorities’ access to quality of goods, services, and opportunities. This form of discrimination involves institutions that hold on to biases and prejudices and use it to create policies and programs that will mostly benefit white people but will try not to directly discriminate minorities. Institutions are meant to create and expand opportunities that are designed to help people but they will find a way to make sure that those opportunities can mostly help white people. An example of institutional discrimination is denying black families access to proper food, shelter, and medical facilities. Institutional discrimination is also portrayed in medicine, whereas white people would get preferential treatment while other minorities would get inferior and unequal treatment.