Three Fifths of a Person

Cultural Diversity: Racism

There is a time that the U.S. government regards black people as three fifths of a human being. It is unimaginable that a government can do this. This is done in the case of the United States view of slaves during the formulation of the Constitution. This discussion looks at the concept of reducing a human being to three-fifths of a person and the current-day debate surrounding the application of the term "three fifths of a person."

Condoleezza Rice: Critical Event

Zencey (2008) posts a personal irk regarding the diplomatic accuracy in messages given to other countries by Condoleezza Rice. Apparently the overseas speeches given by Rice, an African American, contain self-referrals of the following manner, "In the original U.S. Constitution, I was only three-fifths of a person" (para. 2). Zencey contends this is inaccurate historical depiction. Zencey refers to Article I, section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. This part of the Constitution illustrates the process used to build the House of Representatives. Also, this part of the Constitution talks about how taxes are apportioned to the states considered within the desired union of states in America at that time. "The more residents a state has, the more representation it will get in Congress. (para. 5)

Apportionment of taxes/people

The apportionment is determined by number of people in each state. The whole number of free people is taken into account in the formulation of the equation. In addition, the count includes indentured servants having a certain number of agreed-upon years of service. States then take a count of all people who do not fall into the categories of "whole number of free people" and indentured servants, for the purposes of this discussion-a null set. Three fifths of the total number of the null set is then determined. States can then apply three-fifths of the null set in the final taxation count for the state Untaxed Indians are excluded from the count.