Argumentative Essay

Johnny Cash

October 7, 2012

Protesting: One Goal, Two Mindsets

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is known as the peaceful protestor. He avoids violence at all costs and still gets the results he desires. Malcom X, however, takes a different stance. He is all for peaceful protesting, but he refuses to let any man put their hands on him. These two men together want the same goal but they each have their own unique and individual ways to go about achieving that goal.

Martin Luther King Jr. believes in taking a nonviolent stance. He believes that there is power in nonviolent protesting. This belief does indeed come from him, but it was highly influenced by the late Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who also believed in nonviolent protesting. Now, what these two men saw as nonviolent protesting, many other people saw as cowardice. This is actually not correct. While the nonviolent resister is not physically aggressive towards the violent aggressor, the mind and emotions of the nonviolent resister are both always active, constantly working to convince the aggressor that they are incorrect. Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi wanted to stress and emphasize that choosing to be nonviolent is far from being a coward, because it takes a strong mind and a strong resolve to withstand everything they went through and not break. In fact, one cannot undertake the nonviolent path if one is a coward. The belief is that no individual needs to submit to any wrong, but neither do they need to use violence to right the wrongs that were committed. Malcolm X, however, believes and stands firm on a different mindset. He believes that to let the aggressor put their hands on the protestor then gives them the right to fight back physically. Malcolm X sees this as the African American community saying to the white man that they are not afraid of them anymore. He is saying that sure the white man may kick at African Americans, beat them and carry on; however, the after effects of these...