Compare And Contrast Martin Luther King Jr And Malcolm X

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Nathik Salam Regulus Allen African American Literature 10/23/15 The Moral high ground versus the Back alley This is a provocative argumentative paper that highlights the different arguments that are presented by Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X also known as El Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. These orators are renowned for their immense contribution towards the liberation of African-Americans and the death of racism in the United States. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” and Malcolm X’s “The Ballot or The Bullet” are two stimulating speeches that were delivered back in the period of segregation during the prolonged fight to usher in a new dawn of Freedom and Liberty for all in the United States of America. The two speeches differ in their deliverance…show more content…
His speech which demanded racial equity and a cooperative society ended up being etched in Gold in the books of American history, simply because he was able to acutely grasp the social and political terrain of the time and further more he knew how to bring about change without sacrificing a single drop of blood. It is reflective of the need of a perfect, ideal future where every individual irrespective of race, gender, religion or any other such classification would have the same odds of pursing the American dream. His speech served as encouragement and inspiration for the whites and blacks to work hand in hand so as to realize a peaceful and amicable future. On the other hand, Malcolm introduces his speech “the Ballot or the Bullet” by first ridiculing and scornfully berating the white people. He identifies guerilla revolt as the only surest way to give the blacks their much-desired freedom. Additionally, he introduces the idea of black nationalism where African Americans take the matter of their well being and social progress into their own hands without any reliance on a group of hypocritical white leaders who only show up at their doorsteps begging for votes during election time. To reiterate El Hajj was ready to go to any extent to fulfil his goals including violence, where Dr. King was ready to resort only to…show more content…
King firmly championed that to make progress in the 20th century people had to work together as they needed each other to fulfil their individual goals. However, Malcolm X paints the white man as an inherently evil being whom the African Americans should always be wary of and furthermore to ensure their race’s well being, they have to forcefully pry the power to govern themselves from the white man’s grasp. He argues that black man has been waiting for the white man to deliver justice and retribution for his past sins for so long but to no avail, if they haven’t delivered it after 300 years of enslavement, why will they do it now? why should the black men trust such a dishonest group of people now? The implication of the above argument is that these two speeches are responding to same stimuli with opposing messages. It can be argued that Malcolm’s speech is a response to Luther’s speech as he ridicules the pacifist for walking up and down Washington singing “we shall overcome”. This is because he vehemently disagrees with the ideology of collaboration and consultation with the whites. Malcolm mocks the whites’ efforts to have democracy and integration in other countries while they feared the same in their own
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