Реферат: Malcom X And Martin Luther King Essay

I have learned that not all white people are racists’ (367).

Yet, while Malcolm learned over a period of time that not all whites

are evil, King entered the scene already fully aware that “good” whites

existed. In fact, where Malcolm underestimated the goodness in whites,

King seems to have overestimated it. He talks about his overestimating of

goodness in “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” “I guess I should have realized

that few members of a race that has oppressed another race can

understand…the deep groans and passionate yearnings of those that have

been oppressed” (244). Yet, even after he found that he did not receive as

much white support as he had hoped for, King never lost faith in the white

community.

Altogether, these views of white society as expressed by Malcolm and

King are reflected in their methods of fighting racism. Malcolm, who

supported the use of violence to achieve equality, most likely reached the

conclusion that this was the only way to fight the whites based on his

original view of them as heartless and uncaring. One place in Malcolm’s

“Ballot or Bullet,” where his categorizing of whites with violence and

cruelty can be found, is during a passage in which he compares the white

man with a Guerrilla warrior. “You’ve got to have a heart to be a

Guerrilla warrior, and he (the white man) hasn’t got any heart” (267).

Malcolm sees the whites as a violent group. He most likely came to his

theory, that nothing important could be accomplished without violence,

through the reasoning that only violence can be used to stop a violent

group. Violent people would not understand the use of peaceful means to

reach an agreement. Therefore, it is not really the violence itself which

he supports as much as it is the reason for using it. He justifies his use

of violence by trying to explain that there is no other way to get through

to the white people.

In contrast, King sees the whites more as victims of violence than