Martin Luther King Just And Unjust Analysis

In Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter from the Birmingham City Jail, King speaks about the society he and all other African Americans are living in. He starts to discuss just and unjust laws and states the difference between the two: “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.” Most people, at the time, thought that if a law is in place, it is for the better of society. The idea held by mostly white America that the brutality the police officers are inflicting on civilians who fight against systemic racism as a way to keep order adds to Kings problems with the current state of society. He is fighting against the ‘white moderate’, who is the white

With this intention in mind, he brings up the notion that unjust laws are meant to be broken if the person breaking them has accepted the consequences or if breaking the law is for the bettering of society. King believed that if you break a law that your conscience deemed unjust and accept the punishment in order to make people think about the injustice that the law set in place, you have the highest respect for the law. As stated in the prior paragraph, King refers to the voting system in the state of Alabama and how it is corrupt. The way laws are being voted upon make them unjust, and, therefore, set a baseline for them to be broken. Towards the end of the passage, King brings to light how the police officers were commended for their actions of keeping the protesters in “order and preventing violence”. The white community believed that all laws were just because they did not negatively affect their lives. The black community speaking out and protesting against laws they viewed as unjust were perceived as obscene by the white community. This point of view demonstrates Kings beliefs that unjust laws are breakable, because while the white community in Alabama saw such protests as obscene and unneeded, the rest of the country tuned in to watch everything unfold.

Despite this, King’s views are not compatible with the cultural relativist approach to ethics. The ethical approach by cultural relativism indicates that every culture has different moral standards and leads to the perception that there is no ultimate standard for good or evil. This approach to ethics is based on how each individual society conducts themselves, and in turn each society creates ideas of good and evil. With this in mind, King’s ideas of how society should be do not line up with this definition of cultural relativism. Based off of his feelings towards the treatment of African Americans, it can be determined that he believes that there is a general standard for good and evil while also thinking that the societal standards of cultural moral standards shouldn’t differ from every other culture. Kings feelings towards African American treatment can be seen through his discussion of the white moderate of page 296, where he states “Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding of ill will.” By stating this, King is showing a distaste for the white people who believe there are no problems with the law or society, mainly due to the fact that they aren 't facing adversity or paying attention to what protesters are saying, by which Kings beliefs then go against cultural relativism. Therefore, by King going against societal