Precious Knowledge Frederick Douglass Analysis

While Frederick Douglass’ “Learning how to read and write” was set in the nineteenth century and the documentary Precious Knowledge was filmed in the twenty first century, both works serve to show the reaction of how society views change. Frederick Douglass’ piece “Learning how to read and write” illustrates his struggle with literacy and Precious Knowledge illustrates the struggle of ethnic studies in a school district in Arizona.
In the nineteenth century, a slave’s intellect was minimal and they were seen as chattel, and weren’t seen as humans. Slaves needn’t learn to read and write for the jobs that they were given. Frederick Douglass’ mistress decided to give him lessons on how to read and write, but after a while, she stopped because …show more content…
Minorities at the schools were expected to be lazy, bad at school, and drop out. The school district did nothing to help the schools and thought this was normal in the region. When La Raza studies and other ethnic minority studies where distributed, officials in the area did not approve. They did not approve of handing the students new knowledge and giving the student’s a different view of the world. Just like Frederick Douglass’ situation, the officials did not want the students to have a future different from the status quo. Nothing was scarier to the officials than change of the system, because that would mean their world would …show more content…
Frederick Douglass decided that he would run away to escape this oppression. “White men have been known to encourage slaves to escape and then, to get the reward, catch them, and return them to their masters” (Douglass, 3). Frederick Douglass was in a situation that was a system for slaves to be thrown back into oppression. Douglass still made the decision to continue to learn and to continue to fight against oppression. However, the oppression just becomes heavier as you try to fight back. Once a slave runs away, there will be merciless hunts for the runaway slave. Oppression in this situation is built to keep you down, at whatever costs, and oppressors never want to hear anything from their subjects. In Frederick Douglass’ time, the abolitionists and the runaway slaves were seen as a problem to slave owners which ultimately resulted in the Civil War, where slave owners chose to fight to stay in power. In Precious Knowledge, as the students protested more, the officials were more convinced that they needed to be stopped. The students began to increase their nonviolent protests, the officials were beginning to be scared of the students, as they grew in numbers. Just like slave owners in Frederick Douglass’ time, the officials would do whatever they needed to stay in power. In Frederick Douglass’ and the students’ situations, they both had