The man that gave birth to a nationwide resistance against oppression was Martin Luther King Jr., he was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. He was the middle child of an older sister and younger brother his father was a pastor and mother a former schoolteacher. He graduated from high school in 1948 and then entered Crozer Theological Seminary where he received a Bachelor of Divinity Degree. He was elected president of his senior class and afterwards enrolled at Boston university where he earned a doctorate in systematic theology (1955). In 1953 he met the love of his life in the city of Boston, her name was Coretta Scott and they got married later that year. She was a singer that was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music, after their marriage they moved south to Montgomery, Alabama where they had four beautiful children. “MLK” became a pastor of The Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and found his true calling mostly due to inspiration from his mentor Dr. Benjamin Mays.
The article that was presented to me called “Where do we go from here; Chaos or Community” is a very deep and passionate article. Mr. King touched several subjects over the status that people in America and all over the world must deal with. The main subjects spoke over the treatment of our different ethnicity groups in our country. He explained that there is no justification on why we treat races different than ourselves. There is less respect to races outside of the “white race” that we see in the U.S., mostly from this common group of people. He explains that due to this high level of technological achievement, we should not be quenching our thirst for more power. There is no reason for us to be divided between ourselves, he argues that we need to see the larger picture of harmony and bring unity for us now and future generations. I want to bring to light the wonderful examples that MLK brought to us that included his belief that there is no need to Fight over food and land, the struggle to end racial injustice and his amazing quotes that are still great motivational words 50 years later.
One of the biggest despair’s we face in the greatest nation on this planet is hunger in America, although we have the resources to make sure Americans eat plenty and receive all their nutritive values this goal has not yet been fulfilled. MLK’s words said it best “There is no need to fight for food and land Science has provided us with adequate means of survival and transportation” (1967). He was completely accurate but due to the economic struggles that lower class Americans struggle with makes it hard to consume high quality food three times a day. Henry Louis Gates Jr, a Harvard scholar wrote that he believes it is difficult for poor people to be treated fairly in the eyes of the law and noted that if MLK was still among us that he would say we need another civil rights movement constructed of class not race (Written by Collen Callahan of “Feeding America¬”, 01/19/15). The challenges lower class Americans face like not receiving all their energies from quality food set them back behind the rest of middle class Americans to achieve success and graduate from college to become successful.
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Our country is facing an epidemic of awful living conditions for underclass citizens and that they do not receive enough help from the government. This country rather invest their money in their military advancement and equip their armies with heavier and deadlier weapons more and more each year. MLK states that “he watches how leaders of nations talk about peace, yet they prepare for war and he takes a fearful pause” (Where do we from here: Chaos or Community, 1967). With this being said he feels that the misery and terror most felt from wars and battles between nations, will cause history to repeat itself. We are now living with this same animosity all over the globe as so many nations cry for peace, yet they seem to keep control over armies that prepare for a more aggressive war. There are moments in history after MLK’s death where innocent blood has been shed from cause of some nation’s greed over power. We see this in our nation where we have invaded countries in attempt to disarm nuclear weapons but at the same time end up seizing control over their natural resources like the Oil Industry. Now the question is will we keep destroying lives for the sheer thirst for supremacy or will we change our ways as a society and learn from our mistakes.
Rising violence rates are important causes for concern within our global system. United Nations are leading a powerful movement to direct the causes of high volumes of global violence. MLK mentions that “the UN is a gesture in the direction of nonviolence on a world scale” (Where do we from here; Chaos or Community, 1967). This powerful coalition of nations are attempting to accomplish on a global scale key elements that will result in less violence, and hatred amongst ourselves. There have been attempts at this pursuit to lessen global violence by the UN, in September 2015 over 196 countries joined forces to sign a new agenda declaration (2030 agenda for sustainable development). Which in this hearing there were discussions for several goals that were aiming towards global peace, education, and issues of non-violence. We must all become more united as an entire global family to produce more peacefulness amongst us and let this mentality become a daily ritual for us. By becoming tougher in this battle of awareness that there is a huge problem of internal violence we will slowly but surely make progression towards global peace.
Providing unconditional love should be the way it goes, MLK said that “Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that” (Strength to Love, p. 51) with these wise words being stated we must truly perform a self-analysis on the love that we show members of another race. Stereotypes and small mindedness spark hatred and racism amongst citizens in this nation. Racism is more than likely to minimize very slowly over time, but does this mean we have to wait for it to end later in the future? I don’t believe in that, fighting for love for our brotherhood should be a higher priority than what it is now.
There should be an inner fire that is fueled more frequently for the search of love between Americans, we need to start this challenge in our own lives to see change in how we view other races. Obstacles that most ethnicity groups encounter when trying to fight racism are not wanting to love each other’s race unconditionally, we always seek out for the other race party to begin loving our race selflessly. If we just sought out to do research on each other’s races and possibly start conversations in public with people of different ethnicities, then we would understand each other better and learn that we are not that different from other races.
Where shall we begin to look for motivation and a sense of urgency in trying to create a new world for our future generations? We must try to find inspiration from philosophers such as Socrates. MLK used examples from this Greek teacher as prime mentions in his “Letter from Birmingham jail” (1963) that included the idea of putting behind the false myths or half myths of other races that lie dormant in the minds of racists. We should let ancient teachings such as this example from Socrates become well engraved in our minds and try to change how we view different cultures and races. Clustered ideas of how the other race views you should be eliminated from your mind, we should understand that individuals think for themselves and not all people of one race class think similarly. We should not let these examples of untruthful facts run thru our minds on how we think of other cultures, it all starts with examining ourselves and accept the change we need to embrace to fight racism in our society.
The fight for change in racism and equality is not going to be easy, it will take a lot of hard work and dedication for this to become a winning battle. We have made progression in MLK’s dream for equality compared to the 1960’s and 1970’s, yet we still let our imperfections get the best of us. For us to draw closer to ending the struggle of racism we must believe in a better future for our children. We should teach them the mistakes that society has made in this equality battle and show them how they can start the new peaceful movement towards the ending of racism.
References
- 2018, T. n. (2018). Agenda 2030. Retrieved from Nonviolence: http://www.nonviolence.com/about/agenda-2030/
- Callahan, C. (2015, January 19). Hunger Blog. Retrieved from Food insecurity social justice: https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-blog/food-insecurity-social-justive
- Editors, H. (2009, November 9). History . Retrieved from www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr
- Gilmer, C. (n.d.). features/dream. Retrieved from everystudent: https://www.everystudent.com/features/dream.html
- Joseph, T. (2016, February 1). martin luther king jr in dialogue with the ancient greeks. Retrieved from the conversation: http://theconversation.com/martin-luther-king-jr-in-dialogue-with-the-ancient-greeks-53550
