When examining and analyzing this week’s readings, I was impressed by the power of words spoken by the authors. Both Douglass and Hochschild presented strong insights into the meaning of the American dream and the proclaimed principles of liberty and justice to different populations. The context for the selected quote from Frederick Douglass’s My Bondage and My Freedom is the celebration of Independence Day, to which the author was invited as a speaker.
However, Douglass denies this day as a holiday worth rejoicing and celebrating because it is a mourning day for those from the enslaved heritage. The quote is as follows: “The blessings in which you this day rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me” (Douglass 340).
Douglass refers to the multiple virtues of the American society and the beneficial qualities of the state that have proven to be appreciated by the predominantly white population, including the founding fathers. Indeed, the author emphasizes the distinction between the enslaved from free people, meaning the dominating white population and the black minority.
For slaves, there were no liberty, prosperity, justice, and independence because the economic and political advancement of the whole country was achieved by means of oppression of the slaves while slave-owners pursued success (Hochschild 17). This quote is relevant to the present-day social issues in the USA since the country is still separated by injustice and discrimination. The illustration of this tendency is in Black Lives Matter and other similar movements that fight for true justice and liberty for all.
The question for further discussion that appeared in my mind as I was contemplating on the analyzed quote is as follows: How should the history of slavery be tolerated in the contemporary society where the descendent of the generations of slaves learn to live in a diverse environment?
Works Cited
Douglass, Frederick. My Bondage and My Freedom. Edited by John David Smith, Penguin Books, 2003.
Hochschild, Jennifer L. Facing Up to the American Dream: Race, Class and the Soul of the Nation. Princeton University Press, 1995.