The Pitfalls of Liberalism was a document by Stokely Carmichael who is known as one of the most recognized exponents of the “Black Power.” Movement. Stokely Carmichaels main argument in this document is that the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King along with other civil rights activists had reached an endpoint since the use of “Widespread resistance within America” (238) was in effect. Throughout the semester, we have never seen a document where a leaders only solution to advance is by “calling for the mobilization of organized violence by African-Americans in order to seize political power” (238). The concept of calling upon one single race to take action is new. Carmichael’s intentions were to improve the pitfalls of the way liberals thought. Compared to past doctrines that we have read, The Pitfalls of Liberalism has been the only one that tries to awaken citizens to the subconscious state that they were put through by Western thoughts and to polarization through the information given in articles and speeches (239). Carmichael also brought up the fact that a catalyst does not solely create an outcome, but that the conditions are already in us and how …show more content…
To justify his reasoning, Carmichael gives the example of how the Europeans took America through violence and how Russia has millions of people but are known for their great amounts of violence which allows them to have the recognition of being a great atomic power. Toward the middle of the document, Stokely Carmichael brings up the situation of double standards which we have not seen from previous leaders; the main question over this section is “who has the power to legalize violence”. Carmichael then goes on to question what exactly is violence defined as, is it physical harm or allowing a person to live in