In his 1852 speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”, Frederick Douglass voices an authentic critique on the “peculiar institution” of American slavery. In a constructive yet patriotic tone, he argues for the end of slavery through his understanding of reason and the revolutionary ideals which America was founded upon. The language that the famed abolitionist leader develops within his oration provides a framework to approach issues of race and discrimination that exist in our modern world. In particular, Douglass’ historical declamation can be employed to analyze the recent event concerning the vandalism and ethnic targeting of Asian-American students at Columbia University. Douglass, who lived during a time in which abolition was …show more content…
He asserts that there are “certain forces in operation which must inevitably work [its] downfall.” He then explains that the “obvious tendencies of the age” will lead to a world in which “no nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world… space [will be] comparatively annihilated” (16). In other words, Douglass optimistically claims that globalization will help contribute to the end of slavery. However, the recent case of the vandalism at Columbia University points to limitations in the modern-day application of this theory 165 years later. It is evident that we are currently living in an optimum age of globalization: technological innovations and developments have provided people with access to communication and information technologies, tools that Douglass likely did not even imagine. Yet, the attack on Asian American students shows that the ideas of racial difference that were manifested in African-American slavery have remained and recalibrated across the years to encompass other minority groups. The chattel slavery of African-Americans has certainly ended; yet, other forms of enslavement—such as racial inequality and targeting—have not. In other words, Douglass’ theory of the “doom” of slavery is rendered inadequate, as many components of the peculiar institution still remain in a world of