When looking at Barbara Field’s and Omi and Winant’s theoretical models within the narrative of Frederick Douglass’ My Bondage and My Freedom, it can be observed that racial projects are a large proponent of creating and recreating the ideology of race in social structures. It is through the distribution of materials and divisions of peoples by racial distinctions that the ideology of race is reaffirmed throughout the records of Frederick Douglass. Reading and understanding the narrative through the modes of these two theories provide a unique and expository lens to the functionality and flaws of the racial institution that controlled the social structure of the time.
Omi and Winant define a racial project to be, “simultaneously an interpretation, …show more content…
114). The “terrain” she speaks of can be thought of similarly to that of racial lines: a resource guide that details what the dominant and controlling social group, white people, receive and allow themselves to prosper with, and that in which the other groups, enslaved people and non-whites, cannot have. The way in which ideology is narrated throughout My Bondage and My Freedom is through the way that slave owners justify their actions and attitudes with regards to race and racial divisions. It is necessary to have a vessel in which these ideals can be enforced and modified through time, and these modes of transport are racial …show more content…
Often in the statements made by Douglass’ master lie the caveat to his ideological stance on race. When he is discussing that slaves should not learn to read, his master says “it would forever unfit him for the duties of a slave” (Douglass, p. 146). He admits, to a degree, that his way of operating and enforcing rules is flawed if there exists an attainable freedom through the skill of writing. The flaws in the ethics that so strictly conduct the choices and actions of their life reveal just how broken the idea of racial essentialism
Omi and Winant define a racial project to be, “simultaneously an interpretation, …show more content…
114). The “terrain” she speaks of can be thought of similarly to that of racial lines: a resource guide that details what the dominant and controlling social group, white people, receive and allow themselves to prosper with, and that in which the other groups, enslaved people and non-whites, cannot have. The way in which ideology is narrated throughout My Bondage and My Freedom is through the way that slave owners justify their actions and attitudes with regards to race and racial divisions. It is necessary to have a vessel in which these ideals can be enforced and modified through time, and these modes of transport are racial …show more content…
Often in the statements made by Douglass’ master lie the caveat to his ideological stance on race. When he is discussing that slaves should not learn to read, his master says “it would forever unfit him for the duties of a slave” (Douglass, p. 146). He admits, to a degree, that his way of operating and enforcing rules is flawed if there exists an attainable freedom through the skill of writing. The flaws in the ethics that so strictly conduct the choices and actions of their life reveal just how broken the idea of racial essentialism