"he is an affront to pride and provokes malice.”

[Pirate Smile]

I read this quote on Talking Points Memo in the comments following an article on the crazy dude who screamed at the President at a fundraiser yesterday that he was the "antichrist". (So this has nothing to do with the MHP dust up - it has to do with the teabaggers and RW fundie nuts).

“Though the colored man is no longer subject to barter and sale, he is surrounded by an adverse settlement which fetters all his movements. In his downward course he meets with no resistance, but his course upward is resented and resisted at every step of his progress. If he comes in ignorance, rags and wretchedness he conforms to the popular belief of his character, and in that character he is welcome; but if he shall come as a gentleman, a scholar and a statesman, he is hailed as a contradiction to the national faith concerning his race, and his coming is resented as impudence. In one case he may provoke contempt and derision, but in the other he is an affront to pride and provokes malice.”

Frederick Douglass September 25, 1883

http://books.google.com/books?id=_YBc6y7_3a4C&pg=PA17&l...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/heckler-scre...

[frazzled]

1. I think we're fooling ourselves if we don't think that statement is still operative

at least in part. Perhaps not as much as it was in 1883, but still true. And I'm not just talking about the crazy lunatics or right-wingers like the fellow who screamed out at the fundraiser.

I'm talking about those who don't say it out loud, but who might be quietly skeptical that the professional sitting on the other side of the desk really earned this spot or was the beneficiary of some special preference.

I'm talking about some from our side too, who sometimes like to embrace the notion of a struggling underclass so that the fight against poverty/racism/inequality can be waged on their behalf, but balk somewhat at the "gentleman scholar" types, who then become seen (in Belafonte's words) as the "house slave," or "slaves to their corporate overlords." They become, in other words, "a contradiction to the (party) faith."

I wouldn't overgeneralize this, and won't say that it applies to all, but I've certainly seen it expressed from time to time. And if we look deep into our own hearts, we see tiny instances of this that we must fight against all the time.

[Whisp]

2. I'm going to print that out and put it up on my wall.

Thanks,

[lillypaddle]

3. Love it

That is right on. K&R

[polichick]

4. Awesome quote - k&r

[emulatorloo]

5. K&R n/t

[Pirate Smile]

6. kick

[Pirate Smile]

7. kick

[lunatica]

8. Frederick Douglass is another one of my heroes

[treestar]

9. Great find

Really relevant to the issues today.

[ellisonz]

10. If you're interested in the life and times of Frederick Douglass...

...I really recommend The Black Hearts of Men by John Stauffer:

Black abolitionists Frederick Douglass and James McCune Smith and white abolitionists John Brown and Gerrit Smith proclaimed that America would realize equality and freedom when white Americans acquired a "spiritual heart that was a black heart that shared a humanity with all people and lacked the airs of superiority of a white heart." Historian Stauffer (Harvard Univ.) examines the lives of these four radical abolitionists, who linked their personal faith and Bible politics to their public behavior and forged strong bonds of friendship based on racial equality and interracial identities, envisioning an America free of racial, gender, and class distinctions. More than an engaging history of antislavery, this volume, with its abundant use of primary sources, restores James McCune Smith and Gerrit Smith to their historical positions as preeminent radical abolitionists and pioneer fighters against racism.

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Hearts-Men-Abolitionists-Tr...