This article draws on the antebellum political thought of Black abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany in critically assessing the efficacy of reasonableness in advancing the aims of emancipatory politics in political discourse. I argue, through a reading of Douglass and Delany, that comporting oneself reasonably in the face of oppressive ideology can be counterproductive, if one’s aim is to undermine such ideology and the institutions it supports. Douglass and Delany, I argue, also provide us with a framework for evaluating alternative discursive strategies we might wish to employ in light of the limited value of reasonableness for emancipatory politics.

中文翻译：

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深思熟虑与解放：一些批判性评论

本文借鉴了黑人废奴主义者弗雷德里克·道格拉斯 (Frederick Douglass) 和马丁·德拉尼 (Martin Delany) 的战前政治思想，批判性地评估了在政治话语中推进解放政治目标的合理性的功效。我认为，通过对道格拉斯和德拉尼的阅读，如果一个人的目的是破坏这种意识形态及其支持的制度，那么在面对压迫性意识形态时合理地表现自己可能会适得其反。我认为，道格拉斯和德拉尼也为我们提供了一个框架，用于评估我们可能希望根据解放政治的合理性价值有限而采用的替代性话语策略。