{"id":33551,"date":"2023-10-19T23:22:58","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T06:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=33551"},"modified":"2023-10-19T23:22:58","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T06:22:58","slug":"applying-the-wisdom-of-frederick-douglass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/applying-the-wisdom-of-frederick-douglass\/","title":{"rendered":"Applying the Wisdom of Frederick Douglass"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou may disagree on this point or that, but I invite you into the rough and tumble of ideas, guided by the call of justice.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

The Struggle Against Domination<\/strong><\/p>\n

Author Vincent Lloyd boldly extends this invitation to readers in the preface of his book Black Dignity: The Struggle Against Domination<\/em>. What follows is a multilayered discussion of the philosophy of Black dignity, the need for clear-headed analysis and critical engagement to reveal systems of domination, and the need for, but also the pitfalls of struggle.[2]<\/a> He calls for people to recognize the systems of domination in which we live, and then, do the work we need to do on ourselves to become new people, no longer dependent on these systems for life and security.[3]<\/a> He invites us into a somatic engagement of his material in which we encounter theories, stories, and experiences with more than just our mind, but with our gut, our memories, our associations, our moral soul.<\/p>\n

Lloyd\u2019s Views on Black Dignity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lloyd sees dignity not as a quality bestowed on every person at birth, but as a quality gained and performed in the struggle against domination and an act which in its purest and most powerful form, is encountered and understood in the struggle of Black slaves against white masters.[4]<\/a> \u201cThe relationship between white master and Black slave in the Atlantic world represents domination at its purest, and this is why struggle against racial domination is the paradigm of struggle \u2013 and Black dignity is the paradigm of dignity.\u201d[5]<\/a> According to Lloyd, the goal of the struggle against domination is the abolition of systems of domination.[6]<\/a> The vision is for a world without domination. He writes, \u201cThough that world is inaccessible, we have a foretaste of it in the expansive practices of struggle \u2013 political organizing, dancing, dreaming. In that envisioned world, where every system of domination is dismantled, there will be equality.\u201d[7]<\/a> He adds: \u201cThe only way to access [this envisioned world], and then only imperfectly, is in a different register, through poetry, or art or song.\u201d[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

The Story and Wisdom of Frederick Douglass<\/strong><\/p>\n

For me, Lloyd\u2019s book offers a plethora of ideas to contemplate and strive to understand. In particular, I was touched by his recording of Frederick Douglass\u2019s story and wisdom and the way in which this overlapped with Lloyd\u2019s challenge to engage our whole being in our listening and learning. As well, I found myself wondering about the place of \u201cpoetry, art, and song\u201d in our transformation.<\/p>\n

Frederick Douglass experienced the horrors of slavery, escaped oppression, secured his freedom, and advocated for justice through his writing and speaking in the 1800s. Douglass wrote of a \u201cturning point\u201d in his life when, at age sixteen, he was sent to work for a man, Covey, known as the \u201cslave-breaker.\u201d Covey attempted to beat and break Douglass, but the young boy fought back, overcoming the man physically and overthrowing Covey\u2019s false paradigm of domination.[9]<\/a> Douglass wrote, \u201c[The fight] rekindled in my breast the smoldering embers of liberty\u2026 I was nothing before; I was a man now.\u201d[10]<\/a> It seems that Douglass saw this event in his life as a threshold moment not only for himself, but for all people oppressed in slavery. In his book, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass,<\/em> he sought to help people comprehend the magnitude of this transformation in his life. He suggested two tools to help people in this process. For sake of space, I will focus just on the first tool.<\/p>\n

Applying the Wisdom of Frederick Douglass<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first tool he proposed was for people to \u201creflect on some time when you were involved in \u2018repelling the unjust and cruel aggressions of a tyrant.\u2019\u201d[11]<\/a> I decided to apply the tool to my life. The first thought that came to mind was an incident when I was eight years old when an adult came after me with a yardstick. As I remembered, I felt the fear, anger, and adrenaline of the moment; and, as I recalled this experience in my life, I crossed a new threshold of understanding, not because my situation was similar in magnitude. It was not. But, because, at that point, I began to understand with my whole body, not just with my head and not just through words, what Douglass was describing, and on a larger scale, what Lloyd had been describing in his book. Maybe this is key to our healing \u2013 to creating new ways of being neighbors together in our country and world. Listening, not just to words, not just with our brains, but fully hearing with our entire bodies. We are somatic beings. It would make sense that our healing would come through our whole, God-equipped being.<\/p>\n

In his book, Lloyd talks of the importance of storytelling in identifying systems of domination.[12]<\/a> It is important to have storytellers. I think it is also important to have people who \u201chear\u201d the stories, that we might envision together new ways of living.<\/p>\n

Poetry, Art, and Song?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lloyd suggests that perhaps the only way to access this envisioned world is in a different register – through poetry, art or song.[13]<\/a> I wonder what that might look like? Are we creative and courageous enough to give this a try? Certainly poetry, art, and song cut through to the core of our soul, speaking a language often beyond words and yet, powerfully transformative.<\/p>\n

I am reminded of the words of Joy Harjo, twenty-third U.S. poet laureate, who said, \u201cWe need poems when we lose something important to us, when we need to pay attention, or when we need to put something back together that has been broken\u2026Poetry feeds our hearts and minds so we can walk forward in our story with a renewed spirit.\u201d[14]<\/a><\/p>\n

Ending with a Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lord, Please guide us, teach us, help us to see clearly the ways you intend us to live. And, give us courage to follow you, to love you, and to love each other. Amen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Vincent W. Lloyd, Black Dignity<\/em> (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022), ix.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Lloyd, 23, 35, 37, 161.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Lynice Pinkard, Black activist and minister, in Lloyd, 133.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Lloyd, 14-15.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Lloyd, 14.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Lloyd, 159.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Lloyd, 16.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Lloyd, 17.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Lloyd, 6-7.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (Boston, MA: De Wolfe and Fiske, 1892), 177; in Lloyd, 7.<\/em><\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Lloyd, 8.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Lloyd, 15.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Lloyd, 17.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Joy Harjo, Remember<\/em> (New York, NY: Random House Studio, 1983), author\u2019s note at closing of the book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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