Compare the philosophies of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. how their goals for the African American community similar and/or different? How their strategies for reaching those goals similar and/or different? During the past century there were two influential people Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X who grappled with the problem of inequality between black and white people. They both wanted to bring hope to blacks in the US through their powerful, hard-hitting speeches, but the methods and styles they followed were completely different from each other.
While one followed non-violence, peaceful way for bringing racial harmony, the other encouraged his followers to rise up and protest against white enemies. King inspired people to follow the peaceful and way to fetch the rights and equality within the black community, whereas Malcolm X believed that peaceful demonstration and arguments is nothing but only a tick by the whites to keep blacks in their places. They both followed different approaches to accomplish the same goal. Kings had a positive attitude to reach to the destination.
On the other hand Malcolm X was rebellious and aggressive. Both of their attitudes towards the racial discrimination were responsible due to their early backgrounds. Their points of views were influenced by the way they spend their lives at the early stages. King’s calm approach seemed to reflect his safe, middle-class environment while Malcolm X’s extremist approach came from his neglectful upbringing. King wanted to unite two races through peaceful methods and non-violent tactics. He delivered the speech “I Have a Dream” where his hope and dreams for the black community ere flourished. He wanted the freedom of the Negro community who were “sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. ”(2457) He talked about the promises of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence that were given by the Republic where both black and white were “guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. ”(2457) But America couldn’t keep its words. “America has given the Negro people a bad check. ” Even then King didn’t lose his hopes; he believed that the bank of ustice isn’t bankrupt. “We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we came to cash this check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of injustice. ”(2457) He was very optimistic about the future of the black community. He had faith that black people would find the path “from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. ”(2457) although he had lots of hope and desire for the black rights of the black he was against violence and destructive pproaches. “We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protests to degenerate into physical violence. ”(2457) On the other hand these tactics of violence was strongly supported by Malcolm X. He wanted to lead the people towards the revolution. He believed that the equal rights for the black citizens were impossible without strong protest. While King urged people towards the racial harmony through peaceful steps, Malcolm X in his famous speech “The Ballot or the Bullet” aised his voice against those hypocrite white people who “treated blacks as subhuman,” and he wanted to bring the rights to the black people through struggle. “…if the white man doesn’t want us to be anti-him, let him stop oppressing and exploiting and degrading us. ”(2469) He threatened the white people saying that if the black didn’t get their rights they would chose the path of violence and destruction, “either ballot or bullet. ” (2469) And here by ballot he wanted to imply the meaning of freedom of the black nation. He wanted to black get an independent xistence where everyone would get the voting power to express their political opinion as the white could do. He wanted the black people to be treated as the white citizen in the US not along with the identity of Negro. He called the people to become “politically matured” to have their rights for voting, and if they can’t “cast a ballot,” they are gong to “cast a bullet. ” Although King and Malcolm X both trued to infused power and strength within the black community, King was inclined to look through rose-colored spectacles to achieve the goal whereas Malcolm X had a different perspective.
King wished that “one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be made plane, and the crooked places will be made straight” (2459) He dreamt “to work together,” “to pray together,” “to struggle together,” to got to jail together,” “to stand up for freedom together”. (2459) On the contrary, Malcolm X didn’t “see any American dream;” he “saw an American nightmare. ”(2470) He fought against the conspiracy of the white and wanted to make them aware of the fact that the eyes of the black people were not closed.
He wanted to expose the hypocrite white society in front of the world. He wanted to promote the philosophy of Black Nationalism by removing “the evils, the vices, alcoholism, drug addiction, and other evils that are destroying the moral fiber” of the black community. (2479) He wanted the black men to re- evaluate themselves. Both of the men worked hard to bring about the equal rights and hopes to the black nation. Even though their approaches were different, they had the same goal. They wanted to demolish the racial difference and to establish the equality between all races.
