What to a Slave is the Fourth of July? - Tentative Answer

Is ‘affirmative action’ (laws that all universities and agencies) to make special standards for admitting or hiring) steps toward the demands that either Wollstonecraft or Douglass made?

Affirmative action attempts to provide equal opportunities to disadvantaged minorities. This is a recognition that there is a difference in the upbringings between people of different races. Frederick Douglass addresses the issue of inequality in America and the subjugation of black slaves. He also points to American hypocrisy in the justification of slavery through a perceived intellectual inferiority. This “inferiority” justified slave owners’ rationalization on the nature of black slaves in America; much like Aristotle. Racism against black people developed from slavery in America and the stereotypes associated with black people has persisted until today.

Affirmative action provides the opportunities for minorities, like black people, to experiences that they otherwise would not have been exposed to. The resistance to allow black people into society has created a divide in America which led to a difference in treatment between black and white Americans. Black people were left without rights and have been left economically disadvantaged. From this lack of support economically and by society, affirmative action becomes vital in providing black people with the leverage needed to equalize the privilege granted to white people in society. The necessity of affirmative action is to even the playing field for everyone in society, regardless of race or gender, grounded in an acknowledgment of the inequalities in the United States.