ask a slave

April 14, 2014

The Power of Ask a Slave

Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126

Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127

Azie Dungey’s webseries Ask a Slave exemplifies the power of satire in addressing reprehensible history. She even incorporates critical voices—in the second episode of the second season—that tell her she cannot joke about something as immoral as slavery. This inclusion of criticism, and the series as a whole, reminds me of two Quentin Tarantino movies: Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. In the former, Tarantino examines a special American force that fights Nazi forces in France; in the latter, he displays the vengeful rampage of a former slave. Both movies, respectively, confront perhaps the two greatest travesties in recent history: the holocaust and slavery. However, Tarantino approaches these events from the perspective of satire. In Inglourious Basterds, he shows that the Americans successfully kill Hitler in a movie theater; in Django Unchained, he incorporates several items that would not have been invented for decades. Tarantino intentionally makes his movies partially false and absurd because it allows the audience to digest a very flawed and equally absurd history. Indeed, it may be the only way to discuss these issues without losing the audience.

Likewise, Dungey bases her show on a preposterous notion—a slave of George Washington who can talk with modern Americans. She furthers the absurdity with her introductory banjo music and animation, which is complete with a wink from her smiling face. Dungey incorporates these aspects into her show because it is easier to reach her audience through this medium. She then proceeds to discuss several deplorable aspects of slavery, but presents them in a humorous manner. A guest jokes that Jefferson’s slaves are treated well because he has sex with them; Lizzie Mae spits out an (admittedly funny) flurry of expletives in response to the notion that “slavery isn’t that bad” after all; and she even flips a guest off. The character of Lizzie Mae confronts ridiculous assumptions of slavery with clever, humorous retorts that never fail to make me laugh. While these represent but a few of her jokes, they collectively indicate the severity and sensitivity of the subject matter at hand. Moreover, she addresses the treatment of Indians when her guest “Red Jacket” visits the show. He discloses that he enjoys burnt corn soup because it commemorates the burning of Indian people and cornfields. He furthers that he got an enormous medal in exchange for his people’s land. Dungey’s decision to address Indian suffrage furthers the idea that she is indeed trying to educate people, but in a different way than a documentary or textbook would.

By discussing these issues in a satirical manner, Dungey effectively reaches her audience. Instead of portraying the serious and very real travesties that slaves endured, she jokes about them in a talk-show forum. As “Ask A Slave’s Critique of the American Education System” pointed out, we lack accurate understandings of slavery because of our decision to not educate all children about the dark side of our history. Dungey very much recognizes this problem. In one episode, she talks to children and even changes her introductory text from “protect the guilty” to “protect the innocent.” In this way, she acknowledges that these kids are victims of the system, and that the only way to reform education might be through the power of satire.

April 14, 2014

While watching the web series “Ask a Slave,” I was pleasantly surprised by Lizzie Mae’s witty comebacks and the humor she used to educate others. The short videos are based on an actress’s experience posing as a slave at Mt. Vernon, the home of George Washington. In the series, Lizzie Mae answers questions people ask her. Often time these questions are offensive and almost, if not all, are based on ignorance. I was particularly struck by a homosexual couple who compared their own marriage to the marriage Lizzie Mae faced as a slave.

While there may have been some similarities, like the illegality of their marriage, there are also vast differences. For instance, slave families lived with the constant fear of being permanently separated because of their master’s desires and had to obey their masters or risk death. They were controlled by another human being who thought of them as nothing more than property. The lack of thought or knowledge behind the questions asked to Lizzie Mae, although not entirely surprising, shocked me all the same.

As others have mentioned in their posts, the humor Lizzie Mae used to answer the questions asked of her was enjoyable but should not hide the message behind her videos. These videos point out the general lack of knowledge others possess about history and present a need to show others what helped create the land they now live in. A knowledge about dates is not necessary, rather people need to know of the lifestyle others had and consider the emotions behind the predicaments they faced. Thinking about how others may have felt can greatly change one’s perspectives on an issue.

April 13, 2014

Commentary on Ask a Slave

First, I really enjoyed the “Ask a Slave” web series. The woman who played Lizzie Mae did a fantastic job of making sure things were in the correct time period. The questions she was asked were if not hysterical, but sad. If those had been actual questions that she was asked while acting as a slave, then the level of knowledge that people have of American history is astounding. Too many people know too little of the nation’s early years.

There were several instances in the webisodes where Lizzie Mae and/or another character would discuss and/or criticize the real life figures they were discussing. They brought to like several myths about the presidents and about slave life that were not true.

It seems as though many people today have trouble understanding the way slaves lived and the severity of the meaning of the word slavery. It seems as though many people are either not learning the history or choosing to not acknowledge the brutality of it. This could lead to be dangerous, because people not caring about something as cruel as slavery could lead them to be impartial to other things in the present.

April 13, 2014

Ask A Slave: A Commentary

In the YouTube web series Ask a Slave, the creator Azie Dungey comically portrays a slave living on George Washington’s plantation in the late 18^th century. Using her historical knowledge of the time period, and an extremely dry wit, she sarcastically answers real questions posed to her by individuals she encountered while working as an historical reenactor at Mt. Vernon. Azie, under the alias of the slave Lizzie Mae, admirably illustrates with humor the shocking lack of knowledge that many Americans possess about early American history.

Dungey’s video really highlights a collective ignorance in America about slavery in the United States. Many of the questions posed to Azie where simply shocking to me. Some of the more outrageous questions and statements included the following: “Slavery wasn’t that bad!,” “Do you have any white friends?,” and “What does George Washington think about Abraham Lincoln freeing all of his slaves?” In my opinion, the questions posed to Azie are just absurd. Moreover, It’s disconcerting to me that people would still think that “slavery isn’t that bad,” particularly because it still exists as an underground institution in today’s society. I found myself wishing that the person who made this statement could face the conditions that early slaves did, if only for a couple of days. Perhaps this would allow them to see what a deplorable, degrading, and dehumanizing practice slavery is.

I feel as if the author of the post Ask a Slave’s Critique of the American Education System made an extremely important point when stating that we cannot let Azie’s message get lost in her humor. Azie’s comedic influence in her work is certainly valuable. It makes her videos more accessible and interesting to her audience, and I feel it is a major factor in why they have achieved such recognition and success. However, it’s all too easy to allow ourselves to just take that humor at face value, instead of looking past it and trying to understand why Azie actually made these videos. I don’t think Azie is just making her videos because these questions are ridiculous or funny. She’s purposely illustrating a rather shocking and sad ignorance about our nation’s history among the general populace

Overall, I feel as if Ask a Slave is an important web series. Dungey’s videos are witty, sarcastic, and supremely funny. More important, however, is the fact that they highlight a real lack of knowledge about the early history of the United States. I feel that we as Americans have a responsibility to learn about the history of our country. While this country is certainly one of the greatest on this earth, many mistakes were made along the way to reach the point where we are now. It’s important to learn about them. We don’t want them to happen again.

April 12, 2014

Ask A Slave’s Critique of the American Education System

The Ask A Slave web series offers a humorous yet eye-opening look into how present day Americans view the institution of slavery. In addition to highlighting the ignorance of those asking questions, the series suggests that their completely misconstrued assumptions and queries also reflect poorly on the way slavery is taught. Furthermore, the equally uninformed people asking these questions demonstrate how myths about slavery have lasted over time and that more attention is needed in correcting these problematic misconceptions.

As Rebecca alluded to in her post, one misconstruction that a character had was that Lizzie Mae’s position as a slave was one that she applied for and that it had its own Human Resources department. While this character’s question shows a lack of general historical knowledge as well, it ultimately undermines the hardships that slaves had to face by equating their struggles to a job in present-day corporate America. A similar connection between slavery and employment is wrongfully made towards the end of Episode five in Season one as a young woman asks if slavery is as hard as her job at Forever 21, which she claims is “like slavery.” This comparison is completely inappropriate as it collates the brutal treatment of slaves to a job, which gives monetary compensation and other benefits in exchange for an employee’s work. Both of these examples exhibit primarily how misguided some Americans are regarding the history of slavery. Additionally, these examples indicate a flaw in the manner in which people are educated relating to slavery in this country.

While Ask A Slave is an inherently funny web series due Azie Dungey’s acting prowess and the absurdity of the questions asked, it is important that the work’s overall message does not get lost in that humor. The piece displays the Americans’ generally misinformed position on slavery, but it also begs the viewer to ask how people would ever conjure up such ridiculous questions. While I believe that Americans certainly do have a responsibility to be informed about their country’s history, part of the blame should be put on the nation’s primary, and in some cases secondary, schooling that tends to hide our blemishes and promote our successes. Ask A Slave is therefore an example of the consequences that can arise as a result of Americans being misinformed on an important historical issue.

April 9, 2014

Lizzie Mae

The Ask A Slave web series really had me in awe. I honestly cannot imagine that people in our present day society are actually that ignorant. Many of the questions seemed so preposterous that it seemed fake at times. In the beginning of each video, it said that all of the questions were real questions though. This makes me really wonder how so many people are so uninformed about slavery.

I really enjoyed watching these videos. They were humorous, but at the same time very sad. It made slavery seem real. So often people think of it as something in the past, and they don’t think twice about it. The sarcasm really emphasized this. Like my classmate said, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington are often optimized as being noble, upstanding heroes of America. They did have slaves though, and that is overlooked. Questions regarding “Lizzie Mae’s” children really stood out to me. People who asked questions made it seem like slavery was not that bad.

Another misconception was involving the abolitionist. The general public has the opinion that abolitionists fought for an end to slavery, when it fact it was not that simple. As shown in the web video, the abolitionist had not even talked to a black person before. He also did not believe in slavery, but wanted to send the slaves back to Africa or Jamaica. He furthered this distaste by implying sexism on her. All in all, this demonstrated that not all abolitionists actually cared that much about the actual black slaves.

These videos are a way for people to see a glimpse at slavery, and how our current world perceives it. This is not just an issue of the past though. When Lizzie Mae was talking about making her own clothes, the person asking the question said she did not know who made her clothes. Lizzie Mae then replied saying that someone like her could be making those clothes. This is true, because slavery still exists today. It is sad that people are still going through that, and we are supporting it.

April 9, 2014

Ask a Slave

I, like Thomas brought up in his most recent post, saw Ask a Slave series provided moments of comedy, and simultaneously provided moments of great fear for the knowledge of the American public. The slave character she portrays, “Lizzie Mae,” gives the unique slave perspective often disregarded in the text books. She brings up important issues, such as how the idea of “good” or “generous” slave master was an oxymoron. We glowingly look back at the Founding Fathers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who were noble in their freeing of their slaves upon their death. She brings up how Martha Washington held onto all her slaves and how Thomas Jefferson has been known to have had relations with his female slaves. She also talks about how abolitionists were not as great as we think, often they have never interacted with African-American slaves, they were mostly in favor of sending the slaves back to Africa, and they were still very sexist.

But as Rebecca alludes to at the end of her post, this series is almost more a commentary about present day views and beliefs than a informative video on the horrors of slavery. Lizzie Mae brings up how out of touch people are and this is evident by how each video starts with a disclaimer of “names being changed to protect the guilty.” Some of the things that stood out for me was how people still buy into the missionary justification today, that the teaching of Christianity was some how a fair trade for a life of hard labor. In addition, many people asked questions about who watched their children and where did they go to school, completely oblivious to the fact that slaves families were often broken up and sold, and their children were working, leaving no need for them to be watched or educated. Also, many people believe that fleeing north and the underground railroad was not risky, and there was just a super highway and advertisements for it that saved slaves by the thousands.

The moment that had the biggest impact on me was when Lizzie Mae brought up the issue of modern day slavery. We think because we do not have a slave in our house that sews our clothes for us in the living room like George Washington, that our clothing comes from well paid workers. In reality, their are child sweat shops in China that we are still exploiting.

April 7, 2014

Misconceptions About Slavery

In the web series Ask A Slave, Azie Dungey draws upon her experience as a living history character at Mount Vernon to expose some surprising misconceptions about slavery. As Thomas explained in his post, Dungey’s sarcastic wit distinguishes this series as particularly memorable, and she takes a lighthearted approach to the often taboo—or at least somber—subject of slavery and racism in American history.

One of my favorite videos was that featuring the abolitionist, a man morally opposed to racialized slavery yet clearly uncomfortable interacting with a black person. While many of the issues Dungey exposed were rooted in modern ignorance, the abolitionist showed an important contradiction at the time of slavery. The abolitionist, although good-natured, came from a town with little to no black population. As the conversation continued, he grew more uncomfortable and felt compelled to defend “good” slaveholders like Jefferson, and he seemed shocked to hear that slaves had no desire to relocate to Africa or Jamaica. As Thomas mentioned, the conversation ended with the abolitionist conceding that Lizzie Mae raised some intelligent points…for a woman.

A shocking modern misconception that Dungey brought to light was that Lizzie Mae’s position was an honorable occupation. Obviously since this is a humorous show, she used the most ridiculous examples at her disposal, but clearly a horrifying number of people do not grasp the concept of slavery. One person asked if she found her position in a newspaper advertisement, while another man actually had the gall to ask if her job was an internship with a human resources department. People asked where she went for vacation and what she did for fun, and a few even expected her to be proud of Washington for being president. When someone commented that she must be excited to meet so many famous people, she flatly remarked, “If you’ve seen one rich white man, you’ve seen them all” (season 2, episode 1).

Even some people who had a firmer grasp on the hardships of slavery acted as if slaves had normal choices and opportunities. People asked Lizzie Mae why she didn’t go to school in Massachusetts and where her children went to school. Someone asked why she couldn’t merely escape through the Underground Railroad. Clearly, some people failed to understand exactly how oppressive slavery was, as if Lizzie Mae could easily escape her situation with a little bit of effort and self-education.

I really enjoyed the web series for its humor and shock value, both of which I’m sure were intentional. I sincerely hope the majority of Americans know better than the views portrayed in these videos, since Dungey probably selected the worst questions she could remember. She did, however, effectively expose some embarrassing ignorance, regardless of how far that ignorance extends. Even though I didn’t suffer from illusions that Washington’s slaves held honored and happy positions, these videos still changed the way I think about slavery. I think anyone could benefit from seeing Dungey’s videos, especially given her talent and charisma as an actress.

April 6, 2014

Ask A Slave

The Ask A Slave video series features Jordan Black answering questions she experienced as a living history character at the historical Mount Vernon residence of George Washington. To set the context, she wears clothes that female slaves would usually wear, plays 19^th century flute music, and sits in a simply furnished living room with a framed drawing of George Washington in the back. The trademark of the series is the humor that Lizzie Mae, her character, uses to answer the questions, invoking satire especially through sarcasm. Despite the lighthearted nature, the videos expose that ignorance and underlying racism are still very present in our society.

Jordan Black’s message comes across more clearly thanks to her decision to use questions from only white people. Of course, this reinforces the slave-time separation between whites and blacks, which further help contextualize her video. The choice also underscores that many white people are either completely ignorant or simply uneducated about slavery. No example highlights this more clearly then in one of the women’s relentless questioning of how Mrs. Washington gets her tea in the middle of the night since the slaves are sleeping. This not only shows a deep misunderstanding of a slave’s role, but also exposes the woman’s misunderstanding of slave treatment. A further, more direct commentary on present day racism occurs when a different girl asks, “do you have any white friends,” exposing the fact that our society is still inflicted with deep lying color awareness. In the context of the video, this reality is a poignant reminder that while slavery is conquered, racism is not.

Olivia’s excellent post about Wilentz’ discussion of abolition drew my attention to Jordan Black’s method of commenting on the abolition movement. Thanks to Lizzie Mae, we get a unique perspective that, at least in some ways, that brings history into the present tense, meaning that, unlike any historical book, the commentary is not marred by the influence of time. Thus, Black chooses ignores any exploration of the difficult odds that abolitionists faced, instead choosing to undermine the abolitionists’ supposed moral enlightenment. To do this, she shows the abolitionists discussing the sheer amount of black people in Virginia and how uncomfortable it makes him. The abolitionists also compliments Lizzie Mae on her good point, “even though she is a woman.” Lizzie Mae responds by saying, “one thing at a time,” alluding to the fact that she freedom was first on the agenda, equality second. Olivia discussed a similar attitude when she talked about the decision many leading women’s rights activists made “to put the anti-slavery movement to the forefront” during the Civil War.