Love As A Revolutionary Act For Change Essay

Love is many things. Love is passion, endearment, fondness, devotion, and most importantly, love is “what makes the world go round.” To many this is a nonsensical concept, but to James Baldwin love was the missing key to making the world a better place, or in other words making the world “go round.” For hundreds of years’ racism has always been a prominent affair in American history. Some will say it is currently still taking place, while others believe it is not prevalent in today's society. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X both played a great role in the civil rights movement in the early 1960’s while sharing very distinctively different ideas on racial discrimination and how it should be handled. Comparatively, James Baldwin believed in a somewhat middle ground between Malcolm X and Dr. King's point of view. Baldwin’s essential argument was that unless The United States learned to accept love for people of any race, all Americans would be lost, and racial discrimination would not come to an end. He believed that in order for whites to truly learn to accept and love blacks, it was crucial that they examine the history of how whites came about the discrimination against the blacks. Although Baldwin did not have a specific set of followers during the civil rights movement, he still played a meaningful role in the movement by administering Malcolm X and Martin Luther King’s views that he believed in by writing a beautiful book called The Fire Next Time. In this book

“Black lives matter,””White lives matter,””All lives matter” are proclamations manufactured by numerous anti-racism organizations today. Failing to squander racism, the United States continues to make bounds towards racial equality. Preceding the American Revolution racism plagued the world and continues to corrupt the world today. Today activist comparable to Martin Luther King, Jr. continue to combat racism and seek an end, to all, racism. In effort to clear the obfuscated minds of the clergymen King stains Letter from a Birmingham Jail with pathos, allusion, and antithesis to explain the cruel, unjust , harsh reality of the world in the time.

When explaining to his nephew how to resist the toxicity and oppression of white Americans, Baldwin states, "You must accept them and accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope. They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it" (Baldwin 8). Therefore, the only way to break white Americans free from their prison of ignorance is to love; then they will truly see they were imprisoned the whole time. Concluding the letter, Baldwin says to his nephew, as well as all black Americans, "We cannot be free until they are free" (Baldwin 10). This statement further drives home the point that love is the key to untangle Americans from the quagmire of institutionalized racism.

This connects with Martin luther king letter of birmingham. Martin wrote the letter for the sake of injustice. Which now in today’s society there is a lot of injustice that is being spread around. Martin describe how the negroes was treated with disrespect due to all the violence from the whites. Martin have always wanted blacks to respond in a calm manner instead of fighting with hatred. You cannot get through the enemy with hatred. “We must see the need of having nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise” (Martin, 266). Martin agrees with loving our neighbor instead of showing fear and hatred towards them. “I have wept over the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love” (Martin,

Throughout history, black people have been hurt and battered physically, mentally, and emotionally by white people and those who believe they are superior. From the beginning of the 19th century to the ongoing 21st century, black identity has evolved in accordance to the struggles African Americans are facing at the time. From the abolitionist movement to the Black Lives Matter movement, the evolving issues facing black identity in the struggle for equality and constitutional rights can be seen through the literature and writing by the black leaders of the time.

Throughout A Letter From Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. reveals many challenges facing the African American community regarding criticism and racism and that the ultimate goal is to bring equality to America. He provides not only his own option, but reasons to support his thoughts. By finding the ethos, pathos, and logos in the letter, it is clear that this is written so that the form, influences the content of the piece. He wrote this in an honest, logical, and peaceful manner, but wanted to get his point across in a non-violent way in hopes to change people’s views on racism.

“Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit” (King 18). America’s history of hate towards individuals of color has transcended for centuries when finally, an African American minster felt it was enough and had to do something about this social injustice. In the book Strength to Love, by Martin Luther King Jr., it presents a collection of sermons where he hopes to preach the social gospel by emphasizing religious values such as forgiveness to better the nation and the well-being of others. With the combination of Christian teachings and social consciousness, King promotes courage and love as the ultimate forces in combating the evils of the world

In her book, Killing Rage: Ending Racism, Bell Hooks discusses black rage with personal storytelling and accounts of different ways that her personal experiences have led her to this enlightenment on racism in our society. She is speaking as an oppressed woman and African American speaking out for herself and her race. One of Hooks’ main arguments and quotes that set up her book was “Many African Americans feel uncontrollable rage when we encounter white supremacist aggression. That rage is not pathological. It is an appropriate response to injustice.”

Harper Lee, when asked about her award-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM) described it as “A love story, plain and simple.” Many people may interpret love as these ancient Greek notions; Pragma- longstanding love, Ludus- playful love, or even Eros- the love for sexual desire. Agape is another ancient Greek notion meaning the love of God for man and of man for God, and one must understand Agape to understand why TKAM is a love story. In the article by Maria Popova “An Experiment in Love: Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Six Pillars of Nonviolent Resistance and the Ancient Greek Notion of ‘Agape’”, Martin Luther King Jr.(Dr. King) examines the six essential principles of his philosophy of nonviolence, debunking the misunderstandings, and how these six pillars can be used to help the movement of nonviolent resistance in the form of Agape. These six pillars associate and demonstrate that To Kill a Mockingbird is indeed a true love story.

Loving happens as natural as the rising of the sun. At some point in our lives, we all profess to love someone or something. For as long as the word and notion of love has existed, there have been innumerable attempts to explain just what love is and whom we should or should not love. Even the Bible, commands its believers to love their neighbors, family, friends, and enemies as they love themselves. The Phaedrus, one of Plato's greatest dialogues delves into the love in terms of who would be best for us to love and why. Phaedrus makes mention of a speech by Lysias, whom he strongly admires, that states that one should strive to love a non-lover, someone who does not and will not love you in

The racism that runs deep in the blood of the United States is a complex issue to tackle. As white supremacy was the foundation on which the country was born, many believe that society breeds this racism and deny the possibility of change. bell hooks eloquently addresses the problems faced by those who seek to make change and establish equality in her essay, “Loving Blackness as Political Resistance.” She discusses these problems through the lens of her instruction by using responses to lectures. This brings to light the contemporary struggles in a very real context as most of her students are those who believe that they are progressive, yet hooks demonstrates where they lack: loving blackness. This notion goes

Love has many different meanings to different people. For a child, love is what he or she feels for his mommy and daddy. To teenage boy, love is what he should feel for his girlfriend of the moment, only because she says she loves him. But as we get older and "wiser," love becomes more and more confusing. Along with poets and philosophers, people have been trying to answer that age-old question for centuries: What is love?

Love is difficult to define, difficult to measure, and difficult to understand. Love is what great writers write about, great singers sing about, and great philosophers ponder. Love is a powerful emotion, for which there is no wrong definition, for it suits each and every person differently. Whether love is between family, friends, or lovers, it is an overwhelming emotion that can be experienced in many different ways.

Love is a powerful feeling; it makes you do crazy thing. Many people spend years trying to find it, others give up thinking they’ll never find it. Love has been defined as an intensive feeling of a deep romantic or sexual attachment to someone. Of course, Love doesn 't have to romantic and/or sexual. People who are ace, as in asexual, aromantic and agender, can still be in relationships that are satisfying for them without the needs of a romantic relationship. Familial love is also non-romantic-sexual. However, in this paper, we will be talking about romantic-sexual love, what it is, and why I believe it’s so important to understand and experience.

Maybe you were wondering from the previous chapters, when did I have my first positive female interaction after all the drama I’ve experienced with the cheap love note ploys and being out of the mix when it came to dressing like others. This chapter will expound on the notion that I tried looking out of state for love and let’s see where it takes us.