Martin Luther King Jr. And Malcolm X Controversy

1232 Words5 Pages

White: The Supreme Color of Racism
The era of oppression sparked major controversy in the African American community. Being fed up with the segregation of schools, busses, or even drinking fountains, many Civil Rights activists took a stand on racism. Minor protests began to arise as the movement for equal rights became clearer to the public. Rosa Parks and hundreds of other African Americans began boycotting Montgomery busses as a result of the segregation upon seats. Two years after the boycotting of the Montgomery busses, Martin Luther King Jr. began to surface in the public 's eye. Within another seven years after the boycott, Malcolm X appeared as well. The two Civil Rights activists were famous for many of their public appearances and …show more content…

and Malcolm X use within their pieces correlate and influence their choice of words. In order for Malcolm X’s tone to correlate with his wording, he continuously uses words such as ‘our’ and ‘we’ that pertain to his audience: African Americans. Malcolm X speaks to the entirety of the 22 million Afro-Americans as he refers to the white man as “our enemy” (Malcolm X, 304). Likewise, King uses the same possessive pronouns within his piece, but instead of using these pronouns to rally his brethren, he uses them to portray the black community as an united whole. Each inclusive pronoun used within both of their letters, unifies the black community for different purposes. Although King and Malcolm X have very different audiences, they both have similar views for the African American community to stand …show more content…

and Malcolm X share a similar hatred for racism and the oppression of their God-given rights as human beings. While Malcolm X directs his hatred solely towards the white man, King finds aspiration and persuasively sympathises with his oppressors in hopes of a better future. Through their tones, parts of speech, vocabulary, and methods of terminating racism, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X drastically differ. However, both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X’s purpose in life was to eradicate the oppression felt by the common African American man. Each of their bloodlines descended from the enslavement of their ancestors. The ‘inferior’ color of the skin has determined the African Americans past, but it does not have to determine their future as the war on racism dwindles into the history