Frederick Douglas and Racism Today

Despite the pains taken to eliminate discrimination, no one can deny that racism continues to exist today. However, we must question ourselves, “why does it still exist?” With the abolition of slavery, the physical shackles were unchained, but the mental stigma of a lower sub-race remained. Through Frederick Douglass’ account of life as a slave, we can begin to understand the psychological foundation of racism as we experience it today.
Douglass moved to Baltimore to live with Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Auld. Sophia Auld, not accustomed to being a slave owner, began to teach Douglass how to read. Upon finding out, her husband forbade his wife from continuing with lessons, explaining, “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell…Learning will spoil the best nigger in the world…Now, if you teach that nigger how to read, there will be no keeping him” (47). In Auld’s reasoning, if he stops Douglass from learning, he stops Douglass from being human. Auld desires fo...