Frederick Douglass And TED?
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress."
"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
-Frederick Douglass
What are you thinking about the listed Frederick Douglass quotations in conjunction with the Briles TED Talk video that watched in class? Reflect, critique, argue, or explain. This blog response is due by 2:30p.m. on Wednesday, March 8th.
posted by Greg T at Thursday, March 02, 2017
20 Comments:
I feel destroyed inside to know that families and little children are put to work as slaves. We should not be forced into labor and treated with low class and no respect. We all are humans and no one is less than anyone. The slaves are just as good as the slave owners and we need to end slavery. Slavery causes problems in all countries. No one is free if slavery still exists in this world. We still have slaves in the US. That's not being free that's being owned by someone. No one owns anybody, we can't control what people do. We have a choice in this society to do what we want when we want. This slaves don't get that choice and that opportunity to live freely in the country that is known for being free and have freedom. Slavery needs to stop for the better of the people that are being treated like dirty.
Both Bales and Douglass make state that slavery takes dedication and commitment to eradicate. Douglass stated, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." Douglass proves that in order to move forward towards eradicating slavery there must be "struggle." Bales says that slavery is on the brink of extinction but it takes the dedication of humans to kick it away for good. Also, we can't free all of these slaves and just leave them to struggle right afterwards. These slaves need support in order to have a steady and successful lifestyle after they are freed.
I think the fact that slavery is still so prevalent in our world is astonishing. I like that there are people out there trying to bring awareness to the fact that it’s still around though. Frederick Douglas talked more about the way that he saw slavery affect him & his people while the man giving the TED talk spoke more about how we can get rid of slavery in our modern day, and how easy it might be if people cared more about it. It costs a lot of money but he said that we could take the amount of money Americans spend on potato chips and pretzels and take care of slavery for good. I don’t think that this will happen in our lifetime because of the way that our society is. We are all inherently selfish, but I think that when start caring more about people then this problem will be solved.
I don't know if I agree with what Frederick said. The definition of concede is "to admit that something is true or valid after first denying or resisting it". Power in its form as of slavery, (white people owning black people), no one had to admit that there was a power struggle. The power that the white people help was never a valid or true power. It was something forced on someone else with no validity other then the whip. I do agree with the fact that with out struggle there is no progress, for the easy things in life usually are not the best things. I did like the ted talk with how he was saying that american spends 10.8 billion on potato chips and how with that money we could free every slave in the world forever.
"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." & "If there is no struggle, there is no process." These are very powerful quotes and I think that this relates to the TED talk because of the hope that is expressed in both the quotes and the TED talk. Both Frederick Douglass and Briles get their point across about their opinions of ending and abolishing slavery. I think that hearing Briles and reading the Frederick Douglass text and quotes, makes me feel more strongly towards ending slavery, hearing about the numbers and the children that go through slavery and how much it would cost to end it and relating that to how much Americans spend on things that do not matter, it really hits hard. That is why I think that the book and the TED talk are very powerful in expressing the hope and go very much hand in hand to make you feel how they feel and get the facts and their points across.
I agree with Frederick Douglass's quotes because its true. The quote I like the most is "power concedes nothing without a demand. it never did and it never will." I like this quote because it's true everywhere you go that has power there is always a demand. A demand for money a demand for more workers, even a demand on the military for weapons and recruits.
The main point of Briles TED Talk is that freedom from buying people out of slavery is not true freedom because in doing so you concede to let the slave owner profit from the act. This corresponds to Fredrick Douglass' quote because both speak that real freedom and liberty come from the dis-empowerment of the people behind the act.
Briles covers this from the perspective of freeing people. Everyone he associates with on his legal team are dedicated to destroying slavery once and for all, not to settle for a small victory at a high cost. He gives examples of slavery abolition efforts in Ghana, and how they utilize the law to put slave owners in the light and take them out of work.
Frederick Douglass also covers this to an extent, by stating that without negative repercussions for slave owners, lasting change will not come about. This evidence can be seen in out modern day America where we have progressed to equal opportunity for all and lasting change because of punishment of slave owners and the legal stripping of property from them without reimbursement.
This Frederick Douglass quote relates to the Briles Ted Talk but having such similarities when it comes to the topic at hand. Douglass lived what he talks about while Briles witnesses what he talks about. We have two different perspectives showing two different sides of the problem. Both do understand the meaning of struggle, some more than others, but that doesn't dilute the connecting statements they have. This quote helps speak volumes for Biles Ted Talk because this quote can't describe any better than a spectator can. I feel that there should be have been more detail in Biles Ted Talk when it came to how will the process go when getting those people out of slavery. He does touch on the point of cost and effects when doing so, but I don't believe that we got enough information to see if this process is that effective. Not sure if his examples were examples of his own, when doing the process of saving them, but I do believe in his words when it comes to trying to get those people out of slavery. Overall, I believe that this Ted Talk is another, pushing the point for viewers out there who still don't understand that we have modern day slavery, and we should help stop modern day slavery before it gets too out of hand, just like how when we enslaved people. It caused massive downfall for our country and the freed slaves.
The last part of the Frederick Douglas quote is very much is line with what the TED Talk speaker mentioned at the end of his talk, and that is the no matter how much influence or wealth or intellectualism people have, they will achieve nothing if they don't work for it. And while Frederick Douglas said "if there is no struggle, there is no progress." society has gotten to the point where the amount of struggle to (as an example: free all of the slaves today) achieve great things has decreased and the only thing stopping most change and international progression now is laziness and greed.
In relation to the TED talk and the quotes form Fredrick Douglass, I feel like these quotes would relate directly to a slave. These people most likely have the mindset that if they finish a task they will move on to better things. The quote "If there is no struggle, there is no progress" speaks to these slaves saying that the struggle will pay off, and that this is just a short period of time of pain and hurt being forced to do things. If I were a slave, I could maybe thing of things like this for motivation and/or hope for the future. Its hard to relate when you're not in the same situation, but you have to think day would be hot, long, and hard as a slave, and you would probably need some pick me up from time to time, and Im sure things like these quotes would help.
I think that it is crazy to me that slavery still exists today in such large quantities. People all over the world are being enslaves and it isn’t apparent until someone brings the topic to the surface. Both the book and the TED talk really make slavery apparent to me. It shows us what is actually happening in the world around us. I think these two quotes are very telling of what we need to do in order to solve these problems around the world. Solving the issue of slavery is a very hard process and it will take some work. Also, if there is no demand for power over others then we are all equal. The quotes, book, and TED talk really show me a new side of things that I have not seen before.
Fredrick Douglas's quotes do line up with this TED talk in many ways. Both Mr. Douglas and Mr. Briles clearly share many ideas on the subject of abolishing slavery and how to end slavery. Both think educating is a key part of removing people from slavery as well as lawfully dealing with slave owners if possible. However while Mr. Douglas was fighting for this at home Mr. Briles is fighting for people around the world who he has never met. Also, the cost of freeing a slave is much lower than it used to be making it easier for freedom to be achievable.
These quotations I think are saying that if we didn't have a little bit of struggle and for the process to be challenging then we might not have any success. I also think that these quotations are saying that if they did not show and type of struggle or show any type of need in help then there would be nobody trying to help save them like in the video the women talked about how they are still in slavery but there is hope because somebody from across the world is on their side trying to save them.The quotes make me think about how in our everyday lives if we didn't struggle at least a little bit with school and work then there is nothing to learn in life or any mistakes to fix because we all are the same and that's how the slaves lives are they struggle and struggle everyday to stay alive but it show they are getting closer to freedom.
I would like to reflect upon how true this statement is "If there is no struggle, there is no progress.". This quote reminds me of the saying no pain no gain and in life to go anywhere you are going to go through hard times and struggles to be successful. Douglass says and proves the fact that in order to move to completely eradicating slavery there has to be "struggle." or else it will never change. Briles believes that we are so very close to ending all slavery but we have to use our intellect to completely eradicate it.
The Fredrick Douglass quote challenges our institutions of power, in a way that shows us little injustices that we don't see, weaken the power of our government. The Ted talk relates to this idea completely because the man talking explains how slavery in other countries affects us by weakening our economy. His argument is that we have the power to free these people and help them join our workforce to strengthen our economy. But right now these people are helping us lose money because the goods they are forced to help make are being imported to our country. I agree also with the man in the ted talk about a way we can help support this cause. People in America are very greedy individuals and by giving our money to help liberate these people I think it would restore pride that our country as lost overtime and renew our selflessness. What if we where the country that helped end slavery for good?
Both of these quotes relate to slavery today and the quote that says "If there is no struggle, there is no progress" this quote can relate almost to anything like in sports or school, if you don't work hard you won't achieve anything, the quote can also relate to the slave issue that is still going on today and basically slaves won't just become free on their own, we have to struggle and fight but eventually slaves will be no more. The second quote "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." after reading this quote it makes me think about how the slave owners won't give up and to beat them it won't be easy but its defiantly possible and after watching the video I now understand how big slavery still is.
I believe that Frederick Douglass is right about when there is no struggle, there is no progress. Things always can get worst but without these bad things we can't overcome them to become a better version of yourself. Power and everything around our modern world is always demand and offer. The TED Talk taught us that the cost of human beings nowaday is $90 dollars and if we think about it. Human beings don't need a price tag. Not everything can be sold. It is like the power of demanding and offering. I also agree with Bailes from the TED Talk. The only way to end Modern Slavery is alerting people and becoming a more involved member of society. Of course , it will be hard to oppose the mindset of having people as objects. However, Frederick Douglass said it,"If there is no struggle, there is no progress". I really like the quote that the Nepal woman said," We have hope now". I firmly believe hope is essential in human life. These people are deprived from material things, emotions such as love and from their happiness whether that is doing something they like or just being with their family. We have hope now. A safe haven for some would be hope. Thinking that someone from the other side of the world came to stand beside them in this horrible situation helps them get through everything bad that has ever happen to them. Hope.
This statement explains that people need pain to grow. It is the natural law in life is pain some people have experienced more than others. Life will be different for all. This video and statement explains that it is reality. The constant growth of pain from everyday life is unhealthy. Small amounts will help with growth but if everyday is just pain that becomes life no longer pain. If we are able to tear away the being a slave from people this can increase growth of life and advancements. I feel that the hope of change from people going out spreading the message of whats happening around the world.
Douglass and Briles Agree that without struggle, there can be no progress. They have both bettered the world in their attempts to abolish slavery and they have both struggled to do so. They both use their talents in speaking to combat the issue of slavery but they do it in different ways. Douglass uses his storytelling and imagery to inform the reader whereas Briles uses more numbers and facts to get the information out there. Douglass's goal in his writing is to show how awful slavery is. Briles goal is to inform people that slavery is still alive and well in our world today and that it wouldn't take that much work to abolish it completely. Both Douglass and Briles show that it will take some struggling, but getting rid of slavery is an achievable goal.
I think the quotation says that in order to reach success, struggle and determination will be needed to achieve it. To eliminate slavery, we will have to face difficult challenges. The TED talk and the quotation both stresses the idea of trying to end slavery and how slavery is inhumane. They are both eye opening because they are trying to spread awareness on slavery.
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