Newton’s Third Law of Motion- every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This idea is true to its core, and not just applicable to physical science. This concept of actions producing reactions can be thought about in terms in the United States social order, or any social order for that matter, and how the past actions of the citizens of the United States have a direct reaction onto how society runs in the present. America was founded on oppression. For the first 150 years of its founding, the entire southern economy ran on slave labor. While the repercussions for running a country around suppression was most likely not obvious at the time, the consequences of those actions in the past are the reason the United States is having many of its problems today. To understand African American oppression in colonial America, is to equally understand African American oppression in modern day. Modern day black disempowerment and depredated socioeconomic status is a direct result of what white America of the 1700’s put into place. Many of the problems then ARE the problems now, just in a new form. Frederick Douglass, born into slavery who later became an abolitionist leader, talks about the consequences of white America in many of his speeches and essays. Frederick was literate, a skill not many people born into slavery were able to accomplish. Due to this, Douglass is able to convey the message and the voice of African Americans during an era of formal oppression. In Frederick Douglass’ speech; “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July,” Douglass talks about the hypocrisy in American government. Explaining how the government claims equality for all, but forgets to mention that the freedom for all is only applicable for white men. These ideas were not only prevalent to the time period then, but also now.

Douglass starts his speech talking about the Fourth of July, a simple holiday that is supposed to insight national pride due to the country’s independence. But later he denotes that this holiday produces no happiness for the African Americans because while the country is free, they are not. The fact that enslaved people would not want to celebrate the liberation of a country, when they themselves are fighting for liberation is not surprising. Douglass perfectly explains why by saying,

“What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages” (Douglass).

 During the 17-1800’s African Americans were not held to the same constitutional standards as White Americans. African Americans had no rights, in fact they could never own land, but if a slave were to commit a crime, they would still be held accountable for that crime. This shows a direct hypocrisy in the way the system was set up, to make POC people of color fail. This system of oppression came in many forms- even the church. Douglass explains that the people use god as an excuse for slavery by having the church side with the oppressors. This was not his opinion, this was fact, and can be seen when the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, which Douglass refers to as “stupidly-blind, or wickedly indifferent” (Douglass). To continue into modern day, religion has always been used to oppress. In a sequential order, churches were segregated, then in the 1900’s formed the KKK, and now the Westboro Baptist church. Through this succession of oppression, it is obvious that the United States of America uses religion to justify discrimination. Another example in modern day history of religious oppression is the singing of the “Religious Freedom Act,” authorized by governor Mike Pence of Indiana. This act allows businesses to not serve a person based on their religious views (NBC News). This mainly affected people in the LGBT community, but the use of religion to hate is still something strong and prevalent in the modern day. 

Douglass again talks about the hypocrisy in the American government again later in his speech. He says ‘[t]his Fourth July is yours, not mine” (Douglass). And it is especially important to note that yours and mine are italicized. This is to emphasize the fact that as a black man in the country, he was not equal. The Fourth of July represents independence for a country that embodies freedom for all, and equality. But this equality is not given to people of color. It completely contradicts what this country represents and later denotes that expecting a black man to celebrate white America’s escape from tyranny is “inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony” (Douglass). It only makes sense Douglass feels this way; this holiday represents something that he as a black man does not have: freedom. 

Douglass starts to conclude his speech by addressing the criticism he knows that he will receive. His argument is simple and gets the point across in few words; “there is no person on earth that would be in favor of being a slave himself” (Douglass). It is a simple argument that should resonate with everyone who was listening to the speech, and everyone who has read it. No one wants to be a slave, so why should he have to be? He remains hopeful in his closing remarks. Douglass says he believes that all in the United States will soon be free. He believes this because at the time of making his speech, British and French colonies had already abolished slavery. Nevertheless, even when that emancipation came, Douglass, and all other people of color would still not be “free.”

The system of oppression that Douglass talks about, takes on many forms throughout history. It starts as the entire government (slavery), but then emancipation is was finally enacted. After emancipation came Jim Crow. Once Jim Crow was outlawed, within a short period of time Ronald Raegan declares his noble “War on Drugs!” The public saw it as a way to clean the streets, but in fact is it was the government finding a way to paint the African American community as drug addicts in order to take them from the streets and into prison. Once this system of not enslaving blacks, but simply imprisoning them became somewhat of a social norm in America, Bill Clinton passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. While he did not foresee its consequences, it allowed for a direct movement to put blacks in prison. This bill called for higher incarceration rates, and increased prison populations. Along with this bill came the enactment of a “mandatory minimum.” Mandatory minimums are the predetermined time one will have to serve for the type of crime they are accused are doing. Mandatory minimums are so detrimental to the African American community because it creates a sort-of loophole within the United States judicial system. Many times young black men who are falsely arrested will take a plea bargain, which gives a much shorter sentence, without even going to trial. These men and women would rather plea to a crime they did not commit than go to trial and face the possibility of a 20+-year sentence (Farley). Mandatory minimums are unconstitutional. It is a system that while said to be unintentional, directly attacks the black community and puts them in jail. It has gotten to the point that according to the Huffington Post, 1 in 3 black men will be in prison in their lifetime (Knafo). Additionally, the United States has 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prison population (Webb). That is higher than anywhere else in the world, and is a system of oppression based upon what Douglass talked about- elite at the top justifying what they do with alternate motive, which is direct hypocrisy.

To further explore the detrimental effects Bill Clinton’s Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 had on the African American community, one needs to explore what came along with it- private, for-profit prisons. Private prisons have been the perfect platform for Republicans to achieve what they want; putting more young black men in prison. Newt Gingrich shows Douglass’s definition of hypocrisy by advocating for the for-profit system saying that, “private prisons save money” (Bauer), which they don’t. Additionally, Florida senator Marco Rubio, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush expressed that they both think that private prisons have improved the streets of Florida (Bauer). Neither are true. In fact, all private prisons have done is prove a sheer abuse of power within the higher-up government, and how the hypocritical rhetoric of the government has supported these prisons for all the wrong reasons. Looking at sheer statistics, since the enactment of private prisons, profit rates for Corrections Corporation (the largest private prison company in the US) have gone up 500% within the past 20 years. The business growth shows no definitive rate of stopping, or even slowing, and are now in 48 out of the 50 states in America (Matthews). Additionally, 

“[s]tates sign agreements with private prisons to guarantee that they will fill a certain number of beds in jail at any given point. The most common rate is 90%, though some prisons are able to snag a 100% promise from their local governments. Because of these contracts, the state is obligated to keep prisons almost full at all times or pay for the beds anyway, so the incentive is to incarcerate more people and for longer in order to fill the quota” (Matthews).

 There is no other statistic that proves that for-profit prisons fit Douglass’s definition of hypocrisy within government than this. Douglass said “[w]here justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe” (Douglass). This oppression is still strong today and is created by many things, private prisons being one of them. The law makers are claiming they keep peace with these laws and systems, but they are put into place to get what they want- black people off the streets. It is modern day slavery. 

Frederick Douglass was a voice for African American people during the mid 1800’s. He was intelligent, well-spoken, and was able to convey his point. He talks about multiple injustices that African Americans in the United States faced in his speech, “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July.” Douglass shows how the government not only favors whites, but is directly set up to hurt the African American community. He also points out a hypocritical trend within the United States culture; one being celebrating the Fourth of July, which represents a break from tyranny and oppression, when the United States itself is the oppressor. The United States as a country has come a long way since Frederick Douglass has made his speech. Slavery is abolished, there is not a job in this country that an African American cannot do- even president. But, there are still modern day injustices happening all over, they are just not as obvious. Our government is still not set up to serve everyone equally. The Law Enforcement Act of 1994, and private prisons are set up to hurt POC, and there is no sight of LEA being overturned, or private prisons being eradicated. They are systems in our country that represent modern day slavery, and they must be stopped. 
