Cornel West's Speech Analysis

Lastly, King appeals to character as well as establishing his creditability. For starters, the the vocabulary King chose to use shows that he is educated and possesses the knowledge to respond to the clergymen. King also informed the clergymen that he had previous experience in conducting and participating in non-violent campaigns. This provides credibility because it showed that he had prior knowledge of the behavior and purpose of those participating, while also addressing that past campaigns have always been “untimely”, but with desired outcome. The last and most obvious proof of credibility, is that King was a black man that faced the same adversities that he referred to in the last paragraph of this section. The example being of having to personally tell his daughter why she could not be allowed to go to a public amusement park because she was black and looked at as less than.

We have all sat through multiple history classes and learned about slavery, segregation, and the Civil War. We have all seen brutal movies and presentations based on racial injustices and the lack of equality. So often, we forget that these issues are still so present in our community. Slavery is illegal in the United States but other forms of racial profiling, insensitivity, and racism continue to be a recurring social barrier. Racism is still very much alive. The United States is “equal” yet somehow segregated. There isn’t quite a quick fix to this problem. Clearly, this has been an ongoing issue and requires major progression in our personal global

One year after delivering “I Have a Dream”, King’s work and message of equality for all was recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize. Not only did the award recognize his work for civil rights, but it was sign of worldwide sentiment that

King uses irony, by giving examples of him using peaceful actions that were condemned anyway because they were said to ?precipitate violence?. He went on to say, ?Isn?t that like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated in the evil act of robbery??(King 563). Dr. King also realizes that the white moderates are mostly religious. He reminds them ?Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability, it comes through tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God??(King 563). Again, he urges the audience to get up and become active, and that there will be no change without their action.

Kings Jr. Speech overall is very influential and King accomplishes to get his message across. His words throughout the speech are those of hope. The more you read the speech the more inspired you become with his words of wisdom. This speech is one of the most inspiring speech’s there is out

He talked about racism, a non-violent approach, freedom and what should be demanded by the government. King showed these topics go hand in hand and you can't talk about one without bringing up another. Like explaining racism and all the things happening to his brothers and sisters it was almost inevitable that he mentioned how him and followers were able to used a peaceful protest to make a statement against violence, instead of reacting out of emotions with violence. King then talked about freedom should be granted, no matter the race. King thought that nobody should stand for being the last to receive what’s technically was theirs when it came to freedom, he believed we shouldn’t wait for the government, but demand freedom from the government.“Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds”(King page 1). He felt that living in the USA, freedom is

The election of Barack Obama as the 56th president of the United States raised many hopes that the “Black struggles” was finally over. For conservatives, Obama victory reassured their beliefs that there was no longer such thing as racism and that every American had equal rights and opportunity to pursue the American dream. While many people have come to believe that all races have equal rights in America, Tim Wise argues in his documentary “White Like Me” that not only does racism and unconscious racial bias still exist, but that also White Americans are unable to simply relate to the variety of forms racism and inequality Blacks experience. This is mainly because of the privileges they get as the “default.” While Wise explores the variety forms of racism and inequality today such as unconscious racism, Black poverty, unemployment, inadequate education system, and prison system, the articles by the New York Times Editorial Board, the Human Rights Watch (HRW), and Adam Liptak further explore some the disparities in the criminal justice system. Ana Swanson points out in her article, “The Stubborn Persistence of Black-White Inequality, 50 Years after Selma” that while the “U.S. has made big strides towards equal rights,” significant gaps still remains between the two races. With the Supreme Court striking down a “portion of the Voting Rights Act that stopped discriminatory voting laws from going into effect in areas of the country with histories of disenfranchisement,” civil

     Furthermore, he gave addition reason of why he was speaking out. He say, “As I walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems…. But they asked-and rightly so- what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn’t using massing doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted.” King was the messenger of peace and if he had not spoken against the tragedy of Vietnam, some people might have called a hypocrite, who is the preacher of peace and does not address the greatest example of violence. He wanted people to remember him not as a hypocrite. Furthermore, King’s conscious would not forgive him if he had not spoken for the suffering people of Vietnam.

King demonstrates how his peaceful, non-violent protests do not advocate violence, which is exactly what the clergymen feared from Malcolm. Kings intensity and magnitude of his statements show that he believes both paths he mentions are wrong, as he states, “I have tried to stand between these two forces.” King attempts to stay between the extremes and remind people that he is the middle ground. King emphasizes that he is not an extremist, rather, he is a moderate attempting to find the most favorable solution to both his and the clergymen’s problems. In conclusion, King juxtaposes these two extremist views in order to demonstrate how his practical and non-violent protests should be encouraged.

King combines the use of ethos and pathos as he compares himself and the rights of men to religious backgrounds. His first comparison is with the Apostle Paul, where Paul had “carried the gospel of Jesus Christ,” as to Kings carrying of “the gospel of freedom.” King addresses this similarity to show why he felt committed to go to Birmingham, because like Paul, he needed to respond as an aid to his people. Towards the end of Kings letter; he exemplifies courageousness in the Negro demonstrations by relating them to the actions of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they refused to follow what they believed to be unjust laws. Saying that if they are supposed heroes by going against unjust laws, why shouldn't the people see Negro demonstrators the same way? They are also God's children and by those disobedience’s, they were really showing the grace of God. These connections to religion supports their fighting against unjust laws as a divine cause.

Now exploration of the matter is complete without King's input. The activist's Daily Kos letter (essay) follows, I agree with other writers and opinion speakers in positing; King should never have been forced to deal with such a topic. It is yet another shame on American that emanates from the

As a little girl, I would stand in front of my mother’s mirror, grab the television remote and pretend to deliver a speech before my stuffed animals. There was no question whenever I was asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” that I’d quickly respond with, “the president of the United States.” Although that childhood dream quickly diferred, as a college freshman at the age of 19, I would experience an event that may someday be written down in history books because it was not an average event of entertainment in seeing J. Cole perform live at a coliseum or Dwayne Wade in a Miami Heat Jersey at the American Airlines Arena. This was an event that have affected the lives of many and brought about more awareness of the oppression America

King’s opinion that unity among the people is a huge strength for a successful movement. In this speech, he called people to be united. If people are united it would be easier to be heard their voices. His idea was that protest without violence. If there was a strong unity, nonviolence movement would be very effective. He gave the example of Pharaoh of Egypt. Pharaoh wanted to keep slavery in Egypt for a long time. For that, he engaged slaves fighting each other. Whenever slaves got united, something happened in the court of Pharaoh, which ultimately helped the slaves to be liberated from the slavery of Pharaoh (King,

In Cornel West’s essay, “The New Cultural Politics of Difference”, West describes this new cultural politics of difference to have three challenges: intellectual, existential, and political. The new cultural politics of difference trash the monolithic and homogeneous in the name of diversity and reject the abstract and the universal in light of the concrete. Cornel West, through the use of the three major historical periods (Age of Europe, America’s Domination, Civil Rights Movement), explains the importance of intervention in order to change and improve upon the mistakes of the past and reject the false degrading stereotypes that were created during those times. Throughout his essay, Cornel West uses examples of the battle between the people of color and White Progressives effectively because it allows the readers to understand that for changes to be made one must be simultaneously be in the group challenging the system and in the system itself in order for social reforms to occur within the society they live in.

Last but not least, supporters of BLM should be brought to discussion, as they are the most important factor of a movement. It is undeniable that BLM has received considerable support from a lot of celebrities. One of them, an American actor and film producer, Samuel L. Jackson has challenged the celebrities to go one step further as he posted a video on his public Facebook page asking famous figures who took the Ice Bucket Challenge over the summer to join the protest: "All you celebrities out there who poured ice water on your head, here 's a chance to do something else. I challenge all of you to sing the “We ain 't gonna stop, till people are free” song." BLM 's list of celebrated supporters continue with Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Russell Simmons, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Marco Rubio, … The fact that celebrities can drive attention to certain things is undebatable. Hence, receiving support from celebrities helps BLM become more and more influential. However, it is true that BLM has failed to receive it from the most important people. Although BLM tries to speak out for black community, almost all of the cases against which they protest are males. That is as well one of the reasons that lead to the creation of “Say Her Name”, a movement fighting for black women. They have been killed, beaten, or sexually assaulted but their cases have not received as much attention as those of unarmed black men killed by police in recent years. Eventually, black women are the people