Helen Keller:

[MadameButterfly]

13. i thought your description of Keller's position

was fair, explaining the limitations of what they knew and how her position evolved. But your conflict on hearing her affiliation with eugenics reminded me of my family members and college community who made similar discoveries.

I still think when examining people's positions in the past we need to consider their experience of the times, even with something as abominable as slavery. Thomas Jefferson hoped to end slavery when he wrote the Declaration of Independence, but he lived with slaves all his life. There were abolitionists who wanted the South to secede, so the North would not be tarnished with it's evil. Frederick Douglass wondered how that would help the slaves. Douglass also experienced racism from abolitionists he worked with, and the abolitionist movement to a large extent was fine with leaving in place another kind of bondage that women experienced. Abraham Lincoln actively explored the idea of sending Negroes back to Africa. Going back further, Benjamin Franklin had to be taught by a schoolteacher that Negro children really were capable of learning.

These were not all people bereft of conscience and a capacity for empathy. They were raised in the beliefs and understanding of their time, with different levels of commitment to breaking with the established system, and without the benefit of our experience. Some of them, like Helen Keller, learned. Others didn't. And of course there were a lot of cruel people in the mix.