#frederick douglass

[philosophybits]

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence.

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

[arinzeture]

[iphigeniacomplex]

In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky—her grand old woods—her fertile fields—her beautiful rivers— her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal spirit of slaveholding, robbery and wrong,— when I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, I am filled with unutterable loathing, and led to reproach myself that any thing could fall from my lips in praise of such a land.

— Frederick Douglass, from a letter to William Lloyd Garrison (January 1, 1846)

[anim-ttrpgs]

[somos-deseos]

Es más fácil construir niños fuertes que reparar adultos rotos.

[cheerfullycatholic]

Happy Valentine's day and birthday Frederick Douglass!!!

[phobic-human]

"For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival."

- Frederick Douglass

[nateconnolly]

One-hundred-seventy-nine years ago, Douglass told the world that “killing a slave, or any [Black] person, in Talbot County, Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either by the courts or the community”. Two years ago, a bipartisan Senate report found that the Justice Department hadn’t even recorded the deaths of at least 990 inmates. A 2023 Marshall Project investigation discovered that New York State does not fire 90% of guards who “brutalize” prisoners. Among the list of injuries caused by those guards are “Shattered teeth,” “Punctured lungs,” and “Broken bones”. In at least three cases of brutality where prisoners died, the officers involved weren’t even disciplined.

One-hundred-seventy-nine years ago, Douglass wrote about handing the profits of his labor over to Thomas Auld. Four months ago, almost one thousand inmates fought the California wildfires. They were paid ten dollars and twenty-four cents a day, plus a dollar an hour in emergencies. If we assume they worked twenty four emergency hours in a day, their hourly rate would be less than two dollars. Their hourly pay is less than the cost of a soda. And that rate is pretty high for an inmate – the average pay for a US inmate is between thirteen and fifty two cents an hour, if they’re paid at all. In Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas, unless you work for a state corporation, the average maximum hourly wage is zero dollars zero cents. Nothing. 

One-hundred-seventy-nine years have passed, and we still have not put an end to unpaid forced captive labor – slavery by another name.

From "What Frederick Douglass and Modern American Inmates Have in Common". Available free on Spotify and YouTube

Script with Sources