Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Slavery, Race, and the Making of American Literature: Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson is an odd case.  He makes a lot of seemingly racist remarks.  Lots of people call him racist because of this.

I just want to pose a few questions.  Could this be because this was the "normal" way people talked about blacks and slaves at the time?  Could this be to make a point of how foolish people sound when talking like that?

I personally can't see how the man who wanted to abolish slavery with the Declaration of Independence, and even with the Constitution, could be so abhorrently racist.  I just don't see it.  So there has to be a reason behind what seems racist to us in today's world.  I think it's because we have gotten so much more focused on "political correctness" that anything that could be taken offensively could be seen as racist or bad.

No comments:

Post a Comment