People call what I do extreme and impossible, especially progressives and people on the Left. They say I’m privileged, which enables me to do things most people can’t. Let’s leave their ignorance of my life (beyond my skin color, sex, and sexual preference) out of it and say for the sake of conversation that I’m who they think I am. They’re saying that accidents of my birth and the position they give me in my culture make what I do possible.
Now consider Frederick Douglass. He achieved a lot more than I have and started with less. He went from slave to friend of the President.
The progressive view is why conservatives, libertarians, and people on the Right can claim Frederick Douglass as one of them. I grew up seeing him as progressive, as I saw all abolitionists. Today I see that conservatives and libertarians claim Douglass in their heritage. I suspect many progressives will be shocked at some examples:
- Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man, a book published by Cato Institute
- Frederick Douglass and the American Dream, an article in the Cato Journal
- The Frederick Douglass Foundation is a public policy and educational organization which brings the sanctity of free market and limited government ideas to bear on the hardest problems facing our nation.
- The Frederick Douglass Foundation Project 2025: “The Frederick Douglass Foundation has enjoyed a long-time strategic partnership with the Heritage Foundation, one of the world’s leading conservative think tanks impacting public policy. Today, we’re proud to announce that we will be joining the Heritage Foundations Advisory Board for the Presidential Transition Team, aka Project 2025.”
We know what he did was possible because he did it, but at every stage in his lifetime, each next step they would have called impossible. Few people who weren’t slaves—in their language, people who were more privileged—achieved such things. If privilege is required for you to do more, then Douglass shouldn’t have been able to.
If you’re thinking that very few slaves could have done what he did, he was a fluke, you’re missing the point and making excuses. The point is not to compare him to his peers. It’s his resources compared to yours. He had less than you. Should he then not have acted since if you can’t make a difference than he wouldn’t be able to either.
If you agree that he should have tried to do what he did, then shouldn’t you too, instead of calling what I do impossible and discouraging action?
Do you want people who achieve more than what you can imagine possible to reject you politically?
If you’re progressive or on the Left and dismiss people’s achievements for claims of privilege, you might want to consider how you undermine your cause and fuel your opposition. As least it looks that way to me.