The black race has been segregated and discriminated against for hundreds against. There has been the beaten, raped, lynched, and deprived a chance to be as equal as the whites. Blacks did not have to be a slave to feel the slave treatment through the US. They would be deprived good jobs, and the salary that goes along with it. There were two main approaches that blacks would consider to get their equality: violence vs. non-violence.
Non-violent:
The non-violent approach was an approach that some big speakers like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks used to get his word across to the public. This way was targeted more towards the black community to get them excited and to help push action to the government. Government does not want to see violence and if anything would make them not want to change the law in this case because it shows that blacks are not a civilized as white people. Non-violent approaches were very civilized and organized like boycotts and protest marches to the city. People would not obey the law in some cases and would end up in jail but they were doing it for a cause that they believed needed to happen today not 10 years from now.
Violent:
One of the more famous people on the violent side of the Civil Rights Movement was Malcolm X. Malcolm X thinks that if the government is not doing its job to protect the black man the black man should be protecting himself. He states that the constitution gives even the black man the right to own a rifle or a shot gun and he thinks that all blacks should. He does not think that a black man should go and kill a white man but he should if the government is not protecting the black man. He says that I am not fighting the white man I am just fighting the racist people which happen to be white. Malcolm firmly believes that the blacks have the right to fight against the racists, by any means that are necessary. I liked a quote that he said in the Ballot or the Bullet speech. “Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American.” This to me is a realistic view on how many black people would have felt because they did not come here willingly and are not treated with any of the rights that America’s constitution gives to the white man. When the government would not even step in and stop white from the hangings that were going on in the US the black community should have fought for what they believed in. These blacks where humiliated, beaten, burned, and killed on this rope in front of hundreds of people in the crowd. People that believed in the more violent matter were also people that were tired of the white man raping the black women. They felt that they should be able to defend themselves and their women. Like Jean Owens case of being raped by 4 men and the men never being charged for anything but 15 days in jail would really piss me off too. This was something that happened on a daily basis and many whites would not be charged anything. Black people had to face more abuse than any race in the United States to this day. They had to face the physical abuse and emotional abuse on a daily basis. Violence was thought to be the answer to sum because it would be a temporary fix and make white people doing all of these bad things to the blacks. Some blacks also wanted pay back because of the way they were treated.
Both groups were hoping that they could end the segregation and ultimately bring equality to all people. Today segregation does not really happen any more and blacks are still discriminated against in some degree. Blacks still discriminate against whites to some degree as well so I do not ever think that there will not be any discrimination in the US but it has gotten 500 times better in the last 50 years.
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Ryan- You mentioned that speeches about non-violence protests made by MLK Jr. and Rosa Parks were targeted toward the black community. I actually think their non-violence speeches were targeted toward everyone. They wanted blacks and whites to hear what they planned. They did not want whites to assume that they were going to be attacked because a large number of blacks were marching in protest. The non-violence speeches were given to try and get everyone on the same page. Media would cover the speeches, blacks would know they could stand up for their rights but not fight back, whites would know where to go if they wanted to join in and what the rules were, the government would know that large groups of people would be participating and the only violence would be from the people they considered their equals. This was a brilliant move by MLK Jr. because he knew these high profile powerful government officials could not look the other way with all of the media coverage following the protests. They had to step in and negotiate or allow things to get out of hand and look like they could not get their people to obey the laws, thus making them look like fools.
ReplyDeleteYea I guess you are kind of right. When I said that I ment it to be that it was aimed to get black action I guess to help them push the thought of these rights becoming a reality. But you are right it was to get everyone on the same page. I really should have put that in my post.
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