Differences And Similarities Between Childers And Frederick Douglass

The idea of educational oppression can be traced back to the time of prevalent white male supremacy, where education for anyone not seen as superior was taboo. The growth of educational attainment in America is often used as symbolism for a change in societal acceptance; that however, has not been the case. From the 17th century to the 21st, America has seen stages of educational oppression towards those of a minority race and/or background. Both Frederick Douglass’ 1845 Narrative of a Life and Mary Childers’ 2000 Welfare Brat envisioned education as a path out of their respective oppressive and destructive environments. They fought against societal values and systems which restricted their agency and humanity. Douglass challenged racial supremacy, …show more content…
Frederick Douglass and Mary Childers lived through significantly different time periods, however, their ability to attain any form of education was affected by the social class systems they were born into. Born in the early 1800’s, Douglass was surrounded by dehumanizing constraints against those of African-American descent. Forced into a social system that lacked human rights, Douglass was deprived of agency to his own body. Douglass describes early on how he lacks the right to know who his parents are and when he was born, he states“the white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege” (Douglass, 47). The prevalence of dehumanization in the south acted as an economic market by treating blacks as property. Douglass describes the corrupt system stating how slaves were placed to the same standards as animals, “We were all ranked together... Men and women, old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep, and swine” (Douglass, 90). The …show more content…
Like many others of their time, political oppression challenged their lives, and conflicted their ability to obtain an education. Though their societal systems were different, they similarly played the biggest role in conflicting their intended paths to escape the situations they were born in. Their situations paralleled, however the overarching theme of it all differed. For Douglass, seeing a life where the color of someone 's skin enabled them to mistreat others gave him to motivation to prove others wrong, forcing a sense of equality. For Childers, the importance of it all was to end up on a spectrum far from the one she was born into, needing only her own person efforts to survive