Critical Thinking & Access To The Forms Of Production: What Frederick Douglass Did And What The Incas Could Not Do / #edchat #politicalscience #theFreedomPapers #humanrights

Frederick Douglass At His Desk

They ranged between seventy five and ninety years of age, hailing from Chile, Colombia, Puerto Rico and Peru… all of them American citizens. I sat with them to have a conversation in Spanish, wake up the neurons, and get some profound intellectual brainwork happening. As it is, being a political scientist, I was chairing the conversation to gather understanding of different view points once presenting the case formally before them. Below are the conclusions of the conversation:

Economic and Cultural Oppression

How do you realize, how do you see the characteristics of economic and cultural oppression if you are not trained for it? Societally ingrained perspectives compress into standardized ways of thinking; these perceptual constructs surround us since infancy that we can not see the intricate interplay of what could simply be politically-charged machinery, meant to condition, desensitize and push us into desired view points, like cogs in a traditional watch working together. Having been brought up in that 'proverbial soup,' and lacking the right kind of critical thinking education, it is almost impossible to step outside of the matrix, and comprehend our role in it, how we may be kept in position, and why it is difficult to positively disrupt our role in it and that of others, without the right perspective,  understanding how to be unbiased as we access 'forms of information production,' and be able to garner unto ourselves, the right kind of education that favors freedom and humanity without imposition, and in the spirit of the ordered liberty and justice for all as found in our Declaration of Independence.

Take for example, the Inca-descendants of the mountainous regions of Peru. These are an indigenous folk who have maintained their traditional garb (clothing), profession, and ways of living, largely intact since their departure from their lands at the onset of the militaristic, Spanish conquests three to four hundred years ago. In those times, the ‘conquistadores’ brought military weaponry and diseases unheard of by the local people, utterly decimating them through battle and sickness. The remaining Incas eventually receded away from the geography of which the Spanish explorers took in search of material wealth (gold), and over time, Spanish cultural and economic dominance set up a way of life akin to their understanding and not at all following or resembling the way of life of the Inca heritage. In fact, the Incas ability to partake in the new economic and cultural system was not accepted on variety of levels, leaving the indigenous people no recourse but to separate themselves and uphold what they could of their old ways.

Go forward to modern times and what we have is a peaceful economic and cultural status quo, heavily dominated by western economic practices and Spanish-cultural heritage, yet with distinct economic and cultural ties between the indigenous population and the Spanish-descendant peoples of Peru. Already, you will find that their are indigenous people who have entered the newer system, have taken on Western ways, have inter-married with non-indigenous people, perhaps become professors, engineers, architects, and part of the plethora of professional occupations which reflect our age and time in Western culture. This is a minute sliver, even if growing, of the indigenous population. To a great extent, the indigenous inca-descendency has resolutely kept its ways.

In our discussion, I put forth that these people have been kept out of the political process due to built-in conscious and unconscious educational oppression and a historicity that has emotionally etched in the past slaughter of Spanish conquistadors into the psyche of the Incas, much like slavery has left an indelible mark on the African-American population, of which it is finally coming forward to begin new stages of healing. As opposed to the absence of the right kinds of educational supports for Peru’s indigenous population, the African American populace has had the opportunity to develop critical thinking and advocacy skills, allowing individuals to begin to articulately and coherently bring thought and civic-action forward presenting a claim of grievance against human rights trespasses. 

A shining example of this blew the hinges off the intellectual doors. His name was Frederick Douglass, and he was able to become a critical thinker through self-education using the Holy Bible and the compilation of essays, poems and literary pieces housed in what was the seminal educational textbook in the 1800’s, Caleb Bingham’s 'The Columbian Orator.' Unlike the Peruvian indigenous population, Douglass was able to learn to read and write in the ways of the culture that surrounded him, eventually using his newfound critical thinking skills to intellectually consider that he had inalienable rights given to all from God, and that he had a right to rise as a prolific individual power, unashamed and free. Douglass was able to run educate himself, run away from his slave master, become a public speaker of human rights, and purchase a form of historical production which catapulted him as a powerful force which would forever change the direction of the United States of America. He purchased a printing press. 

The Inca-descendants were not whipped like Douglass, or made to toil in the sun under the merciless eyes of slave task masters. No. They became geographically isolated, creating and up keeping their traditional system, separate from the Westernized, Spanish-culture which populated the coastal regions. The Western educational system does include them now, and these rise through the educational levels and join the Western society of Peru as equal citizens, but in fact, what is so, is that their are few if any critical thinking, advocating indigenous people with the forms of production, as in not only internet connection, but the intellectual training to be vociferous, out spoken participators of the democratic conversation in the country. Douglass was self-trained to be an intellectual powerhouse, was a voracious public speaker of such eloquence that many a times audiences questioned if he had ever been a slave, and had a form of historical production, the printing press, which allowed him to make physical copies of his ideas on human rights and the issue of slavery which would stand the test of time. Unlike his words spoken into air, Douglass’s printed pamphlets, or mini-newspapers could be read and re-read again and again serving as a constant reminder of thought that could withstand the erasure of working memory that happens with the spoken word.

The indigenous people of South America and Central America had no such form of historical production or ability to distribute such a critical thinking advocacy as had Douglass, or as do modern-day media networks, which employ a complex system of information distribution that employs people in television studios, social media network companies, and newspaper delivery people who bring the ideas right to our doorsteps. To reiterate, the right kind of education that develops critical thinking, civically-minded, advocating individuals to participate in the local and national conversation directly protects the civil liberties and freedoms of a person and of a people. Being isolated in the mountains of Peru, partly through choice and partly because they were driven there by ruthless conquistadors of ages past, the indigenous people were barred from any possibility of understanding the need for educational agility as a means to stand up and claim their human rights. Robbed of the ability to apply their grievances through the world’s historical forms of production, indigenous people have found that their side of the story has been told by Westerners, rather than by themselves.

As Haitian author Michel-Ralph Truillot describes in his powerful book, Silencing The Past: Power and the Production of History, “the production of historical narratives involves the uneven contribution of competing groups and individuals who have unequal access to the means of such production.”