Many black authors and leaders of the sixties shared similar feelings towards the white run American society in which they lived. Malcolm X, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, and Stokely Carmichael all blamed the whites for the racism which existed. However, they agreed that it was up to the black society to end this problem. Using the black society, each of the authors had their own idea of how racism could be stopped. Unfortunately, for some, such as Malcolm X, this involved the use of violence, while others, such as King, favored the non-violent approach.
The belief that all white people are untrustworthy, when based solely upon the actions of certain white people, is analogous to the notion that all blacks are evil due to the misdeeds of some blacks. It is illogical in my eyes to suspect a nation of treachery because of the actions of some. Topic Sentence 3 (Segregation and Racism) Malcom X thought that Black people should have sole control over Black communities, education, economics, social formation and politicians for the sake of strengthening those Black communities. He said: “integration will not work. It assumes that the two races, black and white, are equal and can be made to live as one.
and Malcolm X had opposite views when it came down to how they wanted to fight the Civil Rights Movement. King took the nonviolent path while Malcolm X led his way down the violent path. King believed that blacks should not cooperate with evil, but rather with marching and boycotting. He believed that violence increased hate and that it was a spiral that leads to nowhere, it solves no problems. He had considered violence but then said, “in the event of a violent revolution.
The strengths of Malcolm X s approach towards his definition of race appealed to Black America by giving hope to the struggle of the civil rights movement. However, the weakness of his approach was one-sided alienating the white race, non-violent black people taking part in the Civil Rights struggle, and all other religions besides Islam. Malcolm X's intended audience for his views on race were the American people of the 1960's during the civil rights movement and all future generations of America. Malcolm X's views both fit into and countered the views of the time. The strengths of Malcolm X's approach towards how he defined race appealed to Black America by giving an inkling of hope to a hopeless people with nothing to live for.
Malcolm X’s philosophies, which centered more on blacks accepting themselves, and loving themselves, and creating their own sense of pride, was deemed racist by the media and he was portrayed as militant/violent by the Civil Rights Activists, when in fact Malcolm X’s teachings contain the exact remedy that we “victims of America” (Malcolm X uses this term to distinguish the fact that blacks were not brought to America out of their own volition) need in order to live the best lives in the conditions that we have been forced into by whites. Booker T. Washington, born in 1856, was a prominent leader of the black community during the years following the abolishment of slavery, who believed that equality and respect for blacks would be gained over time. Washington preached to his followers that they should work on bettering themselves, not through liberal education, but by learning a trade or vocation which could be of service to either the black or white community, and that in time, whites would allow blacks to assimilate into their society. William Edward Burghardt Dubois, born in 1868 and more commonly known as W. E. B Dubois, was Washington’s adversary. Dubois preached that blacks should demand their rights, both human and civil, and that this w... ... middle of paper ... ...proach of the Civil Rights Movement, led by Dr. King and financed by whites, would lead to the loss of black pride because it would encourage blacks to “try to be white” in order to “fit in” the white society.
Baldwin was given the opportunity to become an influential figure in the Nation of Islam movement, he rejected Elijah Muhammed's offer. He was totally against the belief that the movement held. Baldwin says, "love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and we know we cannot live within." (95) Whites cannot love because they fear "to be judged by those who are not white.". Because Blacks are stereotyped to be "uncivilized", whites have the "private fears to be projected onto the Negro."
In the beginning of the story, the narrator’s grandfather says that the only way to make racism become extinct that African Americans should be overly nice to whites. The Exhorter named Ras had different beliefs of the blacks rising up to the whites and take power from the whites. Even though these thoughts come from the black community to take the freedom from the whites, the stories reveals that the are just as dangerous as the whites being racist. The narrator has such a hard time throughout the whole story exploring his identity. While doing so, it demonstrates how so many blacks are betraying their race because the have such a hard time dealing with it.
Malcolm X was a very influential leader during the Civil Rights Era, but he didn’t always have a positive outlook on how White Americans treated African Americans. Malcolm X was a prominent figure during the civil rights era and he wasn’t for integration and peace as other Civil Rights leaders of this time. In fact Malcolm X advocated and suggested an establishment of a separate black community, rather than integration and he provoked and influenced the Panthers to use violence as self defense, rather than non violence and trying to make peace, Malcolm and the Panthers uncompromising and disgusting beliefs of the evil of the white man scared and made the white man frightened the white community. Malcolm and the panthers had a good and bad affect on the Civil Rights era, him and the panthers used violence, criminal activity and anti-racism to get their points across which had a toll on the civil rights movement. The Black Panthers were formed in California in 1966, and they played a short and different role in the Civil Rights movement, the Black Panthers believed that the non-violent word that Martin Luther King was trying to spread failed, and felt as if they should take matters into their own hands because of the ‘traditional’ Civil Rights would take to long, or wouldn't be compromised with the White man.
Sartre, Jean Paul. "Existentialism." The Course of Ideas. Second Edition. Jeanne Gunner and Ed Frankel Washington: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.
Many states, particularly the South, passed laws “that were designed to segregate the white and black races and to keep African Americans in an inferior position in society.” (Hamner 21). These laws were called “Jim Crow laws.” Examples of some o... ... middle of paper ... ...re essential in this country. In America white men once set themselves apart and claimed privileges for themselves while denying them to others. Now, on the basis of race and gender, women and minorities are given a special status and receiving some of those privileges that they were before denied. Works Cited Hanmer, Trudy J., Affirmative Action: Opportunity For All?.