The Problem of Bias and Representation - Assignment Example

Such a representation is of utmost importance because there is innate bias with regards to having an un-enslaved person be wholly responsible for writing and relating the history of an enslaved group. The levels of meaning, true implications, feelings, thoughts, and the representation of reality will inherently be skewed towards the biases that exist within the hearts and minds of the white man/woman of the times (Sekora 785).

The ultimate power is not only in the hands of the slaveholder/slave owner according to the author; instead, the maximum historical power is within the hands of the white man or woman who has placed themselves as the prime storyteller about the issue. As such, even in an era of far greater racial enlightenment than was experienced at the time of antebellum America, a great deal of misunderstanding and confusion about the practice and implementation of slavery ultimately exists because historical analysis mostly only takes place from those surviving records which were penned and authored by the white ruling class at that time.