Anything Worth Learning Is a Hurt (was Re: Giggly Guys)

Charles Brown CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us
Wed Mar 24 11:39:43 PST 1999


There is a legend about Jeremiah the enslaved who was so clever he got his master to agree to free him if he could make the master laugh. A few seconds after that deal Jeremiah told a subtle joke that made the master laugh unthinkingly and Jeremiah was freed.

On the other hand, Frederick Douglass, a self-emancipated slave, who ran away, said, based on dealing with masters, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will."

Charles Brown


>>> <digloria at mindspring.com> 03/24/99 02:33PM >>>
yoshie writes:


>I think that you are talking about two different (though not always
>separate) things above: humoring the oppressor; and covertly criticizing
>the oppressor.

oh sure. but sometimes aren't these the only options? it wouldn't have been especially effective to constantly challenge everything they did. i would have lost my job, only to face the same elsewhere.

kelley "The rest obsequate[d]"



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