Slave & Citizen Claims

      Last Tuesday was the first day that I joined my Violence in American Art & Culture class, in discussing Slave and Citizen. I thought many of the passages that we went over together throughout pages 1-52 were very interesting. As we analyzed quotes and tried to translate it in a language to better understand what Tannenbaum was trying to explain, I realized there were a lot of statements that actually made sense and can be applied to in today’s world. One such example is, “The shadow of slavery is still cast ahead of us”, suggesting that slavery was still going to exist in the future, even after the Emancipation Proclamation or 13^th amendment. I feel like this statement also has a deeper meaning; the underlying root of slavery such as hate will also linger in the minds of those who feel a sense of superiority over others. Just like we were talking about in class, the end of slavery failed morally to free the white man because it still exists in his mind. I think this is absolutely relevant even now in certain places; the prejudice against other based on the idea of “race”. One thing such as a law can’t change the way people feel or think about others.

     On another note, I realized that the major claim we pulled out from the text and our discussion is the following line; “For in Brazil the Negro and especially the mulatto, had an access to the culture and a role in social life unknown in the U.S.”. Basically, I feel this means that although slavery exists in different parts of the world, the actual system of how it operates differs. One claim which supports the major claim that I found complex and interesting was a concept in science and religion. I think on page 46, I realized how one religion or beliefs can be interpreted in different ways. On one hand, the British believed science above Christianity and race is biologically unequal, while the Spanish believed everyone is equal and have souls.

     As I take it all in, I believe the fundamentals of human nature are the basis of what we discussed. The idea that some individuals are better than others is obviously something that has always been in history as we can see.