Monday, July 4, 2011

The Great Frederick Douglass Received "English Lessons" During His Day When He Told The Masses Of People What They Did Not Want To Hear

Reformed Urban Dictionary Definition:  English Lesson:

Protestations voiced by debate adversaries in response to an argument that they care not to refute. Instead they choose to scrutinize and reject the argument before them based on:
  • The spelling errors, grammatical errors or run-on sentences that prevent them from "comprehending"
  • The indignant tone of the author who's main sin was that he dared show contempt for them rather than respecting them as the gatekeepers to truth.  They try to convince the author that had he spoken in a more respectful tone, the obvious truth that he advanced would have been admitted publicly by them.  Instead they choose to retain their poker face as they attempt to save face.
Those who enforce these English Lessons merely possess the benefit of the establishment power.  One cannot find the character of the constitution that they follow committed in written form, allowing those who question them to have guidance in how they might be successful in their attempt at convincing the judge who is also a participant in the debate.  Instead this answer is as discrete as is the number of bubbles in a bar of soap - the question that had stumped them when they tried "speaking truth to a corrupt power".


Frederick Douglass' "Independence Day Speech", Refined Throughout The Years

It appears that the great Frederick Douglass experienced a bit of an evolution through the years.  I previously noted his changed sentiment on the US Constitution.  Initially he renounced it as a fundamentally corrupt document in line with a corruption nation.  Later in his years he was made to believe that it was fundamentally an "Anti-Slavery" document.   With his pragmatism replacing his spirited radicalism that had come from the frustrations of seeing such blind and bigoted corruption which needed a Black man - an equal - to be cast as a farm animal - Douglass saw that the best way forward was to use the system's claim of JUSTICE and HONOR as a mirror held up to show the blisters, callous and skin cancer that is growing upon the nation's face.

In truth - a mirror only works for those who first give a damn about their dignity - as they prepare themselves to fight against those who don't give such a damn, their tether of bigotry proving to be a far greater bond than carbon yields upon other elements.

The spirit of "Frederick Douglass VI" who is alive today recently offered the Black Community an updated version of his great-great-great-grandfather's speech. The speech was based on Frederick Douglass' 1841 Independence Day speech, given in Rochester

Further investigation shows that there are several versions of the "What Does Independence Day Mean For The Negro" speech.
The 1852 proves to be more substantive than the earlier speech.  This is not because the nation had changed for the better in the 11 years since his first speech.  It is far more likely that Douglass had given the same speech in 1842, 1843 and so on - only to understand how intransigent the nation was to his words that threatened their commercial interests and their desire to retain the social order between the races.  Thus the 1852 incorporates the push back and tactics used by those who did not wish to change.

As Mr Douglass provided them with "constructive feedback" as to the corrupt thoughts which produced corrupt ends - requiring brutal oppression to maintain the system based on "Black Inferiority" - he received an "English Lesson" from those who did not like the way this "Black man" was talking to them.  Though the people in attendance at Douglass' speeches were less onerous than those who were outside of the "church" where people gathered to hear him - most of them that felt slavery to be a hideous institution had no intention of accepting the total equality of the Black man.

As Douglass damned America for her transgressions against the Black people held in bondage - those who fancied themselves with the greatness of this nation - while being unwilling to see the scars on her underbelly took offense to these words.  They placed their fingers in their ears to ignore Douglass rather than agreeing that the words "All Men Are Created Equal" and the lie that the African was subhuman and this the proposition is retained - was itself a lie.
    From: "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro"
    But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, "It is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, an denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed." But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!



    The English Lessons Given Today To Those Who Dare Promote The Equal Humanity Of Black People.........To Black People

    In 2011, some 116 years after Frederick Douglass' death - those who dare promote the total equality of the Black man by:
    • Noting that Blacks have the same competencies of the White man but the same proclivity for hatred
    • Believing that group behavior that often promotes provincial  advantage over absolute justice is a human instinct and that visionary governance is the only way to move beyond this entrapment
    • Proclaiming that a closed fist struck upon the head of a Black man by another Black man produces the very same bruise as when a White man's clinched fist renders the same blow
      • Those who promote the notion that the message which accompanies the White man's blow is sent to other Blacks promote this message as being SUPERIOR to message that the Black man's fist upon his sister's head is a sign that someone from WITHIN, who the community had the primary job of instilling consciousness and value regarding the dignity of his own kind has failed and is in need of adjustment before the social justice that they desire the greater government to provide for all can take place in every nook and cranny of the nation - where the central government does not reach.
     Many of those who choose to replay the insightful words of Frederick Douglass each year as a reminder of how this nation has done our ancestors wrong - are averse to accepting the truth that we should be looking at the FORCES that bear down upon Black people - with the knowledge that the skin color of the assailant who acts against us is less relevant than the fact that the contusion suffered by the community consciousness of our people as a result of the blow will not trigger the same response despite the greater frequency.  The silence gives rise to the suggestion that the sound governance of our own communities is not the primary interests.  Instead we seek to boil the ocean, promoting the day when equal 'social justice' is distributed and the motivation to strike such a blow will be curtailed.  The struggle is thus shifted outward rather than an internal human resource management affair.

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