Three Ways Of Meeting Oppression

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The Pearl Harbor bombing took place on December 7, 1941. This horrible tragedy was committed by the Japanese. In 1942, the United States government ordered many Japanese Americans/Aliens to leave their homes hastily and was detained in remote, military-style camps. They were frightened and unaided due to their indefinite incarceration by the Americans shortly after Pearl Harbor was bombed. The Manzanar War Relocation Center was one of the camps where the Wakatsuki family was interned during World War II. They stayed there for more than three years, from 1941-1945. In “Farewell to Manzanar,” Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James Houston elaborated that the Wakatsuki family faced many challenges in Manzanar in order to survive the humiliation and …show more content…

She discovered the emotional effect and what it was like to grow up behind barbed wire in the United States. She claimed that she was not provided the same freedom as other Americans did, even though she was a natural born citizen of America. Houston and her family had unique ways in dealing with oppression; and to some extent it was comparable to King’s theories. Accordingly, in “Three Ways of Meeting Oppression,” Martin Luther King Jr. outlined different methods used by the oppressed to handle their oppression in three distinctive ways: acquiescence, physical violence, and non-violent resistance. First of all, King explained the technique of acquiescence where the oppressed accepts the oppression cooperatively and will ultimately get accustomed to what has been brought to them. Clearly, King suggested that acquiescence was immoral and unfeasible because it was an indication of cowardliness. Secondly, King argued that the oppressed have the option to defending themselves with physical violence …show more content…

The non-violent way is the most logical line of attack of defeating oppression by rising above it and proving to the oppressors that they were not any better than those they tyrannize. Although the nonviolent resistance is the most challenging way to deal with oppression because of its lengthy process, but the long term result of equality and justice can be achieved successfully, peacefully and

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