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Holly Langton
Sue Briggs
English 1050
June 30, 2014
Part I: Othering Essay
The word othering is the perfect descriptor of our distinctly human capacity to separate
ourselves into categories of us versus them. We have separated ourselves like this since the Stone
Age, when this type of categorization helped us develop tribes, clans and early social structures.
Like our ancestors, today, we find ourselves segregated into groups of people who are more like
us. We gain a certain comfort from things we know, but when discomfort with diversity keeps us
from getting to know others who are different, it becomes easy to judge. This judgment, or prejudgment, effortlessly turns to prejudice whenuninformedwe fill in the unknown pieces
ourselves. We may have evolved; the information age and technology has helped to educate us
on biases such as these. All too often however, othering has and does lead to injusticea failure
to treat people fairly and respect their rights.
Respecting human rights is at the heart of Fredrick Douglasss speech, What to the
Slave Is the Fourth Of July? He makes it clear to his esteemed audience that neither he, nor his
people are one of themone, who enjoys the freedom and liberty their Founding Fathers
secured. It is clear when Douglass asks, Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I
called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national
independence?(465). It is a good question and points out how clearly different the slaves are
from these American citizens. Citizens, who view the status of a slave as so different, they do not

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just deny them their freedom and liberty, they persecute them. Douglass makes this point to his
audience with a question :
is it wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without
wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to
flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with iron, to hunt them with dogs, to sell
them at auction, to sunder [separate] their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their
flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? (467)
He does not, and need not, answer this question. His audience knows, as we do, that these actions
are barbaric. Othering, obviously can, and does go beyond the idea of majorities being superior
and minorities inferior. In the article, Impacts of Othering, the authors of the website
Reclaiming Identity: Dismantling Arab Stereotypes remind us there are victims of othering in
many other historical events:
Othering has determined the life experiences of groups of people at different times in
U.S. history. For example, portraying Native Americans as dangerous savages provided
European settlers in the U.S. the rationale to justify killing them and taking their land;
portraying African Americans as an inferior race provided the necessary logic to justify
slavery and later segregation during the Jim Crow era; and portrayals of Japanese
Americans as disloyal were used to justify their internment during World War II.
The injustices perpetrated on minority groups by majority groups occur all throughout history.
In the early nineteen hundreds, Chinese immigrants filled the walls of their quarters with
poetry while stranded at the Angel Island Immigration Station trying to gain entry into America.
Hop Nguyen, is a student in Sue Briggs class, Introduction to Reading Contemporary Culture at
Salt Lake Community College. She includes the immigrant poetry in her discussion post on the

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topic. Hop writes, A section of another poem shouts, Even while they are tyrannical they still
claim to be humanitarian, (Angel Island Immigration Station Poetry). Through these words, I
could feel the anger seeping out of the words, still traveling in the air all around us in search for
justice and freedom. Again, we see the majority denying justice and freedom to the minoritya
common theme in othering.
The idea of them versus us and majority against the minority could not be more striking
than in, June Jordans essay, Nobody Mean More to Me Than You and The Future Life of
Willie Jordan. She writes:
We begin to grow up in a house where every true mirror shows us the face of somebody
who does not belong there, whose walk and whose talk will never sound right, because
the house was meant to shelter a family that is alien and hostile to us. As we learn our
way around this environment, either we hide our habits, or we completely surrender our
own voice, hoping to please those who will never respect anyone different from
themselves (158)
Can you imagine feeling your only hope is to become more like the pepole judging you?
In Jordans story, negative views toward anything but Standard English become the topic. The
students in her classroom, exploring the realm of the minority language Black English, learn
more than they expected. Jordan conveys this when she ruminates about the extinction of Black
English, and along with that, the extinction of much that constitutes our own proud, and
singular, identity (158). This routing out and extermination of minority uniqueness is what
othering is all about. Assimilation not accommodation would be the othering mantra and this
mantra is alive and well in our society, and yes, even in our schoolrooms.

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One would think that the teachers currently teaching in our public education system
would be singing a different tune concerning minority students and the language differences they
bring with them. However, research from Not In My Classroom: Teacher Attitudes Towards
English Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom by Walker, Schafer and Iiams from
North Dakota University, informs us that seventy percent of mainstream teachers were not
actively interested in having ELLs (English Language Learners) in their classroom. Another
fourteen percent directly objected to these students presence in their classrooms at all. (130).
This attitude among teacher is obvious in Gloria Anzalduas book excerpt, How to Tame a Wild
Tongue, when she writes about her childhood experiences.
I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recessthat was good for three licks on the
knuckles with a sharp ruler. I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for
talking back to the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was to tell her how to
pronounce my name. If you dont like it, go back to where you belong. (521)
Where do these students belong? Or maybe a better question is how can they belong
without sacrificing their identities. The research done by Walker et al., indicates that teachers
will generally reflect the attitudes of their greater community. Our teachers, it seems, are only
mirroring the people around them. Thankfully, the more training and experience teachers have
with ELLs the more positive their attitudes toward them become. This makes sense, even when
outside influences are negative; those armed with knowledge are more fair and just.
Incidences of injustice like the ones discussed here have something thing in common, our
ability to view others by their differences to us, instead of their similarities. In todays global
environment, it might be hard to imagine segregation as part of our communities and society as a
whole. Fredrick Douglas, in the closing statements of his speech, states, No Nation can shut

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itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without
interference knowledge was then [in the past] confined to a privileged few But a change
has now come And perhaps it has. We no longer tolerate beatings and whipping, we no longer
openly embrace prejudice. Will we accept injustice? Each of us makes this choice every day.
Will we fail to treat people fairly and respect their rights? In the words of our president Barack
Obama, Not this time (482)
Part II: Rhetorical Analysis: What to the slave is the 4th of July?
Douglass employs the typical rhetorical approach of argumentation to prove the validity of his
ideaslaves deserve the same rights and freedoms as all free people. His speech is anything but
typical, however. Douglass blends diction, syntax, figurative language, and other literary devices
to urge his audience to action. Frederick Douglasss speech, What to the slave is the 4th of
July? masterfully presents sound reasoning, using a myriad of rhetorical devices, to convince
listeners to his point of view.
Stating the point of view effectively is imperative when writing a good paper, or as in this
case making a great speech. As in most argumentative writing, Douglass states his theme of his
directly:
Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the
name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name
of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in
question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to
perpetuate slaverythe great sin and shame of America! (466)
In just this one sentence, Douglass uses imagery when he begins by, Standing with God and
again when slaves are described not just slaves, but crushed and bleeding slaves. He also ties

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liberty to the constitution and the bible, which he repeated uses in support of his argument
throughout his speech. His word choices also strengthen the thesis; outraged, trampled,
denounce, command, sin and shame. The final subordination of Americas sin and shame adds
extra emphasis to his thesis.
Douglass used numerous maneuvers to add weight to his ideas, including analogy. One
such example is his when he establishes that slaves are men:
The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute
books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the
teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws, in
reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave.
When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills,
when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the
slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man! (66)
This is an important point to make because as we all know, and so did his audience, what the
constitution tells us about all men being equal and having unalienable rightsamong them, life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It makes sense that slaves, being men, deserve these same
rights too. Douglasss use of a subtype of parallelism called anaphora in this excerpt, the
repeated use of the word when, which again adds an extra oomph.
He uses parallelism to emphasize repeatedly throughout his speech. He also subordinates
clauses in interesting ways that again add to their strength. Consider Douglasss rather lengthy
paragraph written entirely of parallel subordinate clause sentences like these:
You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity,
while the whole political power of the nation (as embodied in the two great political

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parties), is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions
of your countrymen. You hurl your anathemas at the crowned headed tyrants of Russia
and Austria, and pride yourselves on your Democratic institutions, while you yourselves
consent to be the mere tools and bodyguards of the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina.
(472)
Each time he uses these types of sentences it not only makes his argument stronger, but it also
mirrors an overall theme in his speech. It contrasts right from wrong; it sets apart the wise
Founding Fathers from the oppressive England, it compares the principle of the constitution to
the unjust Fugitive Slave Laws, it declares the churches in the United States as inhuman opposed
to the compassionate Church of England, it shows the sin and shame of America but the pride
and hope of the declaration of Independence. This is just one more strategy strengthening an
already excellent case for his thesis.
Douglass also approaches Ethos, Pathos and Logos in the overall structure of his speech.
Ethos, a rhetorical device that employs the speakers character or emotions to persuade the
audience, is used in the introduction, to establish himself as a humble and credible speaker.
Douglass uses pathospersuading by appealing to the listeners emotion, among other places
when he relates his own personal experiences as a slave to support his retelling of the atrocities
of the American slave trade. He uses Logos, persuading by the use of reasoning, again
throughout his speech, but specifically in the second section of his speech to back up his claims.
Allow me to say; in conclusion, not without standing that Douglass has indeed made his
case. The content and organization of his speech is brilliant. His has clearly communicated his
vision. His use of language and mastery of literary mechanics is astounding. One could not
dispute the skill he has demonstrated in making his point. It is obvious why as Diana George and

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John Trimbur say, Douglasss essay is widely considered one of the greatest speeches in
American history. (460).

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Works Cited
Anzaldua, Gloria. How to Tame a Wild Tongue. Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical
Reading and Writing. Diana George and John Trimbur. New York: Longman, 2012. 521528. Print.

Douglass, Frederick. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Reading Culture: Contexts for
Critical Reading and Writing. Diana George and John Trimbur. New York: Longman,
2012. 460-475. Print.

Georgen, Diana., and John Trimbur, ed. Reading culture: contexts for critical reading and
writing. 8th ed. Pearson Education. 2014. Print

Jordan, June. Nobody Mean more to me than you and the Future Life of Willie Jordan.
Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing. Diana George and John
Trimbur. New York: Longman, 2012. 157-167. Print.

Obama, Barack. A More Perfect Union. Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and
Writing. Diana George and John Trimbur. New York: Longman, 2012. 476-483. Print.

Reclaiming Identity: Dismantling Arab Stereotypes. Arab American National Museum (AANM)
Apr. 2011 Web. 29 June 2014

Walker, Anne, Jill Shafer, and Michelle Iiams, Not In My Classroom: Teacher Attitudes
towards English Language Learners. NABE Journal of Research and Practice, Winter
2:1 (2004): 140

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Works Consulted
United Nations. Understanding discrimination. Global Teaching and Learning Project. United
Nations Cyber schoolbus. 2002 Web 29June2014