In Frederick Douglass’s memoir and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “Letter to My Son”, racism corrupts both the perpetrator and the victim: Coates perpetuates inequality by hypocritically promoting prejudice and classifying blacks as superior, whereas Douglass focuses on achieving intellectual freedom in order to advocate equality and reveal the capability of redemption for all.
Coates focuses on the corrupting influence of racism on the black community, counteracting the inequality ingrained in the roots of America through preparing the body, instead of broadening the mind, which Douglass believes the black community is deprived of. Coates’s younger life consisted of gang violence and downtrodden inner city …show more content…
Instead of blaming the present racism of the white community as the corrupting and evil force, Coates blames the racism of the past, which has integrated into the history and heritage of the nation. He speaks of the flawed system, and how the “destroyers are merely men enforcing the whims of our country, correctly interpreting its heritage and legacy” of racism. The “destroyers” are the white people who destroy the black body because it is heritage, a tradition that is both a feature and a flaw of America. Coates views the relationship between the white and the black communities as similar to a predator prey relationship: The blacks are continually hunted down by the superior whites, whose instinctive nature drives them to pounce, rather than their consciousness. Douglass views racism and slavery as the source of evil instead of the white people themselves. Through racism, the kind and compassionate Mrs. Sophie Auld transforms into a heartless and insensitive individual whose “angelic face gave place to that of a demon(48)”. Through her husband’s warning about the backstabbing nature of slaves, racism manifests itself inside her to bring about