Douglass describes that slave owners attempted to dehumanize slaves by removing every human right from them. They didn’t have the right to free speech, privacy, and most of all freedom. They weren’t aware of basic things about themselves, kept and treated like animals. They might not have known their age just as your pet would. They were beaten and whipped and lynched–treated as if they were absolutely not human. I could never wrap my head around how the mind of slave owners like these work. How could you look at someone and treat them like this, for the sole reason that they don’t look you? Slaves were reprimanded for just about anything, and paid less than dust.  Slave children were stripped from their parents and sold to separate masters–families were ripped apart. These people were treated like property as they bought, traded, and sold. Douglass himself never met his mother or father, and no other family member.

Today, one of the most dehumanizing practices would be the muslim concentration camps in China where the Uighurs are forced to do things that go against their religion.  As someone with the last name “Mohamed,” you can imagine my family’s experienced our fair share of discrimination, especially my father after the tragedy of 9/11.  Even for myself as someone who’s brown I’ve gotten quite a few stares walking into a room full of white people at different points in time. The president right now I think opened the door, and made people think it’s okay to be racist while gladly sharing his own view about minorities. Just a few days ago tweeting about the “Chinese Virus,” when referring to the COVID-19 he made a lot of people sick to their stomach including myself.  I’ve seen firsthand how many peoples true colors have been exposed since this virus started and its terrible.  People I know personally had very xenophobic views concerning the situation and it shocked me. People I’ve never seen wearing masks were wearing masks when taking the 7 train. People are urging others to stay away from Chinese people because they might have it, and it makes absolutely no sense. It is extremely sad to how people have reacted, in the year 2020, and it’s very disappointing.