The Persistence of Prejudice (supplement to 8/23 post)

Foreword: In this excerpt from The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, the young author has been brutalized by a Mr. Covey to whom his master, Captain Auld, has given him for a year "to be broken." In desperation, Douglass, wounded, bleeding, and fearing capture by and death at the hands of Covey, has walked seven miles to Captain Auld's house and appeals for mercy.

...I told him all the circumstances, as well as I could: how I was endeavoring to please Covey; how hard I was at work in the present instance; how unwillingly I sank down under the heat, toil, and pain; the brutal manner in which Covey had kicked me in the side, the gash cut in my head; my hesitation about troubling him (Capt. Auld) with complaints but that now I felt it would not be best longer to conceal from him the outrages committed on me from time to time.  At first Master Thomas seemed somewhat affected by the story of my wrongs, but he soon repressed whatever feeling he may have had, and became as cold and hard as iron. It was impossible, at first as I stood before him, to seem indifferent. I distinctly saw his human nature asserting its conviction against the slave system, which made cases like mine possible; but, as I have said, humanity fell before the systematic tyranny of slavery. He first walked the floor, apparently much agitated by my story, and the spectacle I presented; but soon it was his turn to talk. He began moderately by finding excuses for Covey, and ended with a full justification of him, and a passionate condemnation of me. He had no doubt I deserved the flogging. He did not believe I was sick; I was only endeavoring to get rid of work. My dizziness was laziness, and Covey did right to flog me as he had done. After thus fairly annihilating me, and arousing himself by his eloquence, he fiercely demanded what I wished him to do in the case! With such a knock-down to all my hopes, and feeling as I did my entire subjection to his power, I had very little heart to reply. I must not assert my innocence of the allegations he had piled up against me, for that would be impudence. The guilt of a slave was always and everywhere presumed, and the innocence of the slaveholder, or employer, was always asserted. The word of the slave against this presumption was generally treated as impudence, worthy of punishment. "Do you dare to contradict me, you rascal?" was a final silencer of counter-statements from the lips of a slave. Calming down a little, in view of my silence and hesitation, and perhaps a little touched at my forlorn and miserable appearance, he inquired again, what I wanted him to do? Thus invited a second time, I told him I wished him to allow me to get a new home, and to find a new master;  that as sure as I went back to live again with Mr. Covey, I should be killed by him; that he would never forgive my coming home with complaints; that since I had lived with him he had almost crushed my spirit, and I believed he would ruin me for future service, and that my life was not safe in his hands. This Master Thomas (my brother in the church) regarded as " nonsense." There was no danger that Mr. Covey would kill me; he was a good man, industrious and religious; and he would not think of removing me from that home; " besides," said he–and this I found was the most distressing thought of all to him–"if you should leave Covey now that your year is but half expired, I should lose your wages for the entire year. You belong to Mr. Covey for one year, and you must go back to him, come what will; and you must not trouble me with any more stories; and if you don't go immediately home, I'll get hold of you myself." This was just what I expected when I found he had prejudged the case against me. "But, sir," I said, "I am sick and tired, and I cannot get home tonight." At this he somewhat relented, and finally allowed me to stay the night, but said I must be off early in the morning, and concluded his directions by making me swallow a huge dose of Epsom salts, which was about the only medicine ever administered to slaves.

     It was quite natural for Master Thomas to presume I was feigning sickness to escape work, for he probably thought that were he in the place of a slave, with no wages for his work, no praise for well-doing, no motive for toil but the lash, he would try every possible scheme by which to escape labor. I say I have no doubt of this the reason is, that there were not, under the whole heavens, a set of men who cultivated such a dread of labor as did the slaveholders. The charge of laziness against the slaves was ever on their lips, and was the standing apology for every species of cruelty and brutality. These men did indeed literally "bind heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, and laid them upon men's shoulders, but they themselves would not move them with one of their fingers." 

–from The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (pp. 160-163)

Commentary: Do the plea for justice made by Douglass and the response offered by Captain Auld sound familiar? 

They should.

Although Douglas relates an event which took place in August of 1833, the attitudes he describes as those held by white men toward blacks persist to this day. These a priori assumptions conveniently justify the groundless stoppages and arrests of innocent Americans guilty of nothing but Walking While Black, and they allow local authorities to minimize atrocities like the killing of an unarmed teenager, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri. 

In addition, these attitudes provide the foundation for the inevitable efforts to exonerate police officers and others who perpetrate such injustices daily in America.

The justice sought by the black community in Ferguson and throughout the nation is quite straightforward. They ask not for special treatment, as their critics decry. Rather, they seek something which is simple in substance but quite difficult for those wielding political power to grant–public acknowledgement of the existence of the problem and a concrete effort to eliminate it.

Their request is by no means unreasonable. It never has been. Yet the persistence of prejudice has short-circuited all efforts to provide a remedy for well over a century and a half in a nation where equality for people of color exists de jure but not de facto.

Afterword and a Call for Action: Politicians rarely if ever support calls for change, no matter how reasonable and necessary may be, unless and until they believe a sufficient number of voters exists to ensure their reelection should they do so. Right or wrong, this is political reality in America. 

In the 1960s, nightly television broadcasts of armed and mounted police beating and arresting peaceful marchers educated a largely apathetic white community about the true nature of segregation and engendered sufficient support for the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Through viral video and social media, the internet has largely supplanted television as the disseminator of information capable of creating the critical mass of voters needed to effect change.

Therefore, it is up to you, dear reader, to spread this and other similarly-themed material that comes your way if you hope to see equal justice become a reality in America.

Thank you.