Conditioned by a culture; Equino and two cartoonists’ stance on slavery

In Equiano’s narrative he attempts to portray himself to a white, european audience; as a free man it becomes an oxymoron to think of Equino as an enslaved European, yet from his biographical image the audience realizes that Equino does not have the same status as a slave.  The fact that he can grow hair, and look the viewer straight in the eye, which encroaches onto intimidation, and calls for the audience to respect his words as a black man.  Although his initial image in the narrative proves that Equino may be unorthodox to the archetype of most African Americans during that era in Europe, his ideology still supports the bias for slaves, much like the two political cartoons do not revolve around an abolitionist mindset, but rather a pro-slavery outcome as their message portrays.  For example, in his narrative Equino states “sometimes indeed we sold slaves to them, but they were only prisoners of war…but how different was their condition than that in the West Indies!”  He continues to argue that the slaves they have taken in do “no more less work than” other counterparts of the community.  Equino becomes blind sighted by the fact that they have no freewill or choice during their abduction much like Mary Rownaldon or other captured peoples at the time.  His argument coexists with the mindset that the slaves are indifferent to their capture, and are treated fairly without a care in the world.
His statement mirrors the political cartoon “John Bull taking  a Clear View of the Negro slave trade” the image still supports this ideology that the slaves are happy and treated well, especially when the quakers that reveal the brutal imagery of them contradicts the reality of their life in the background.  This cartoon exposes the conditioning of their culture, and how they begin to conceive slavery as more humane that it actually would be considered.  They make the Quakers fixed as the antagonists in the political cartoon, when they are actually foreshadowing the treatment of the African people.  Not only that the other political cartoon by an unknown artists forces the assumed European viewer to side with their own people, and focus on the ethos of the imagery, rather than treat both sides as individual and equal to the same suffering of the human condition.  The narrative and political cartoons are products of the conditioning of their culture.  Everyone remains separate and must prioritize one or the other, rather than having both people live in harmony.  On a random note I believe the film “Get Out” also portrays the same image of enslaving people through conditioning, especially psychologically.  The movie is currently out right now and brings up archaic issues concerning racism and even racists injustices committed today.-Jessica Mijares