While reading, letter to Birmingham jail it was a movement for a nonviolent against segregation for a concern public statement. While reading something stuck to me stating, ” In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine either injustice are alive, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action” (Martin). With these steps, he knew that this was the path on how to fully achieve a difficult situation within Birmingham since it was considered the most segregated city and this could dissolve segregation and bring a united community/ society. Within another article it states, “If we had started guerilla warfare in America’s cities, if we had given into terrorism in America, we could not have won but America could not have survived,” said Young”(non-violence). This shows us that if it weren’t for non-violence, it would have been a style of feeding the fire to which both sides wouldn’t have won but would have started back at square one and become broke.
While reading he brought up a point about, “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outsight justice”(King). As well for, “…that few members of race that has oppressed another race can understand or appreciate that deep groans and passionate yearning of those that have been oppressed, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent, and determined actions”(King). Through this, it shows the reader and society that we can not fully achieve the whole viewpoint for as united if we do not understand both sides or multiple viewpoints of the situation/ purpose. Through non-violent actions, there is the capability to hear and react more effective than feeding the fire and creating an enormous mess of the situation and throughout history, we have known of non-violent actions and how they have changed our social society.
Sources:
King – https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/letter-from-a-birmingham-jail/552461/
Non-violence – https://www.voanews.com/usa/non-violence-was-key-civil-rights-movement
I loved the focus on all of the non violent actions. I agree with you about us working together and coming up with ways to inform people of both sides. In todays world once a person is preconceived to something it is hard to move them. The feeding the fire statement is strong. Because once you start something it is hard to put it out, and with more added the stronger it becomes even when it is not the best situation.
Nice post Jose! I liked your focus on understanding different points of view, in the second paragraph. After reading “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in high school and now in this course, it has become even more important to educate yourself and create exposure to different sides within each story.
I really enjoyed the emphasis on people coming together and finding a better way to solve our issues. In our modern world, things are extremely divided and I think what you talked about should be something we all consider today. This post does a good job of showing how far non-violent actions can go in influencing the minds of others.
Great post Jose! I really enjoyed reading about your explanation of nonviolent view points that you gathered from the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. I agree that working in unity is the best solution for our disputes, because without unity no side will win and we will remain in square one like you mentioned. In order to have unity, we must hear out each other’s views. However, we have seen in today’s society times when we have tended to not understand the other side’s view points on a situation which results in violent actions rather than nonviolent.
One of the crucial points you made in this post was that becoming united is not something that happens without an attempt at understanding both viewpoints. When you look at something from the opposite viewpoint of your own, it gives you a chance to see why they might think the way they do. This, in turn, makes it easier to explain to them your side with their ideology in mind. This encourages meaningful conversation, something that is necessary when it comes to reaching any sort of conclusion.
Thanks for the post, Jose. You said in the post that “it shows the reader and society that we can not fully achieve the whole viewpoint for as united if we do not understand both sides or multiple viewpoints of the situation/ purpose.”. It’s very true. I think many of the problems raised by humans are generated from not understanding the point of every side, as Dr. King says something similar. And I want to develop on that point. Since we know it is important for people to understand the point of the view for every side, then why there’re still so many people who don’t understand the idea of the people on their opposite side? One big reason for me is that the messages they can receive are restricted. The people who are not understanding might not because they don’t want to understand other people, it might because they simply don’t have the access to the information of the other side in their daily life. This can be the result of policy, culture, from many aspects of daily life. So, although it seems easy to say: “we need to listen to the idea of both sides”, it’s often not as easy while people are practicing that idea in their daily lives.
Great post! Our country has come a long way in just over a half century. However, it seems as if our country is more divided than ever. I hope we can bring it together soon.
This is a great presentation Jose! This provides another great insight as to what MLK was most likely thinking in his writing of the letter. People need to better learn how to think from multiple perspectives to form their view of the world, and this can only serve to benefit everyone. Everyone would become much more understanding of one another, and the country would start to heal from the amount of tension that is currently present.
I love the quotes that you decided to include in your post! The quote that really stood out to me was the one about how America can not survive by giving into terrorism. A nation can not stand on solid ground if it is built upon unlawful force and violence. I think this helps us to take a step back and look at the larger impact of injustice not only in our individual lives, but also how injustice impacts an entire nation and its foundations. Another quote that interested me was the one about how shallow understanding and lukewarm acceptance can be more frustrating than up front injustice and absolute misunderstanding. This made me think about how not everyone has strong views on injustice. Some people are indifferent to injustice or intentionally try to ignore it. Although they may not be ill willed they are allowing the injustice to happen, which is just as bad. An unwillingness to try to understand can become more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding.
I actually like how you tell the relationship between violence and rights. Violence sometimes can be important but sometimes non-violence is even more important. The US is a big melting pot that conflicts will also be there. What’s important is that how to unite all people together which makes the US a stronger country and everyone can have their American Dream
Great points. I think the ideas behind non-violence is to not give into any more hate. With racism comes a lot of anger and hate. Through these peaceful movements they were able to see pass anything that was meant to cause harm.