A Response to Martin Luther King Jr's “I Have a Dream” speech. In Martin Luther King Jr’s speech “I have a dream,” King issues a statement that changes the stake for the civil rights movement into the favor of equal rights for all. According to King, many nationalities, specifically, the African American people are subjected to the injustices and shortcomings of the American system. King identifies some of the sources of the discrimination such as close mindedness, racism, hate, and prejudice. King also, brings up several solutions for these problems. To support his argument, King cites the constitution, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Declaration of Independence (600). Before reading this speech in its entirety, I wasn’t even aware …show more content…
King describes a path for the African American people to follow “... to make real the promises of Democracy.” (600), “...to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path racial justice.” (600), and “...to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children.” (600). King uses this to provide a plausible, rational path for the equal rights movement to work towards. King also states “[t]here will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.”, in this King informs everyone that the equal rights movement will not give up and will persevere until they are granted their rights that they were promised. King also explains that it would be detrimental for America to ignore the importance and determination of the movement. King uses these phrases to empower the movement and forewarn the opposers of the coming “... whirlwind revolt ...” to “... shake the foundation of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.” (600), this message being central to his point of equal justice and equal rights, for everyone, which I believe gave the movement a boost in strength and endurance to power through adversity and gain the suffrage and rights they …show more content…
Although King set an empowering and righteous example, I say with a heavy heart that I, personally, believe today’s movement is nothing but spitting in the face of a great man and all of his efforts, along with the efforts of the movement as a whole. I do feel for those who are genuinely prejudiced, and discriminated against, as well as those who are victims of police brutality, but scapegoating the other 99% of men and women who put their lives on the line in a sense of righteous duty, is unacceptable. As King states “[i]n the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.” (602), “[w]e must not allow our creative protest degenerate to physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.” (602), and “[we] must not lead us to a distrust of all white people” (602). These are several of my favorite quotes, from the text, and some I see as the most relevant to the situation today. As I said previously, the behavior of today’s movement is unacceptable, every headline like “rioting ensues,”, “looting has begun to take place,” and a particularly horrible example “Dallas PD ambushed by sniper fire, several dead, and many more injured”, and “several white males doused in gasoline and set on fire by BLM protestors”, are all disrespectful, useless, efforts by a group desperate