Monday, October 13, 2008
16. King's Persuasive Techniques
In "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King, Jr., uses multiple strategies to convince his reader of his points about segregation. Find two places in the "Letter" that seem significant to you. Copy the passages (or excerpts, if they're long) and explain how King's writing works to persuade. Due Wednesday, 15 October.
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After reading "Letter from Birmingham Jail" Martin Luther King Jr., made many strategies to convince readers about segregation. But there were two places that caught my attention, one was the strategy of direct action. King says, "The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue." His direct actions also included, sit-ins and marches, etc. I think this is an great idea on trying to stress on how we shouldn't be segregated. King said, ". . .segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful." I do agree with this statement, while people are being segregated there has always been the group that has been above the other. The group above which is known as the "oppressors" are the majority while the "oppressed" make up the minority. This has persuaded me by letting me know that if you want change you have to do something about it.
King also tries to convince others of the importance of desgregation, by being a religious leader and speaker. King has also been categorized as an extremist, which can be a good thing. King says, "Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." After King stated this, he wondered if he wanted to be an extremist for hate or for love? Because of his effective speaking, King managed to get the attention of some of his "white brothers" in the south as he would say. They participated in many of his marchings that resulted in jail time. Obviously it didn't bother them much because they still rested on King's side.
In Martin Luther King Jr.’s, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, he uses several strategies to persuade his readers about segregation and his views. King starts his letter off in a respectable manner by referring to the clergymen’s letter to the public, “A Call for Unity”. He informs his readers of what he will accomplish in his letter by telling the clergymen that he feels they are men of genuine good and he (King) wants to answer to their statement in patient and reasonable terms. Right from the beginning King compliments the clergymen, and tells them that he wants to give them a calm and reasonable statement capturing the reader’s respect.
King then sets his background into perspective as to why he is here. He says that he was invited to Birmingham because of his organizational ties and his promise to take action to help in the program. He then refers to the injustice in Birmingham and relates himself and the situation to the eighth century B.C. when Apostle Paul left his home to help outside of his home.
King used several admirable phrases in his letter, but one strikes home the most, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere…whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” He references being called an ‘outsider’ in “A Call for Unity”, and defends that title by saying, “Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”
King uses many informative excerpts from “A Call for Unity”. Others such as saying, “The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation.” King uses this, as well as the prior clippings of his letter, as logical appeals to the reader by stating facts.
Martin Luther King Jr. also proceeds down the road of touching on the reader’s emotions on page 915 in the paragraph starting out with, “We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights…” In this paragraph, King tells of the Negro’s outcaste mistreatment. He uses examples such as a black little boy looking up to his Father and asking, “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?” He refers to the many times that his people have spent nights sleeping in their cars because they were shooed from the motels for being black. He tells of how black people’s first name has become “nigger” and their middle name has become “boy”, and then “John” follows. In mentioning these reality instances, King justifies his ‘timely action’ that he was involved with in taking place.
The letter is extremely effective in stating all of the issues applied to both whites and blacks.
In concluding King’s letter he thanks the people and clergymen for their time in reading such a long letter. He apologizes for the letter’s length and for anything that he might have said in the letter that may have overstated the truth. King presents himself as an incredibly credible man with his lengthy words of wisdom and truth throughout his letter. He continues to support his people and wish the best for everyone in hopes to drive truth into the non-believer’s hearts, and dignity into his fellow people’s souls.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham have a lot of strategies to convince his audience of segregation. "Then, last Septmber, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham's economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made the merchants- for example, to remove the sotes' humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttleworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for human rights agreed to a moratorium on all demostrations As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned, the others remained."
From this passage, it persuade the audience that even compromises for a promise wasn't enforced and every merchant broke the promise made to not segregate.
"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntaraily given by the oppresssor;it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "wait"! It rings in the ear of every negro with piercing familiarity. This "wait" has almost always meant "Never". We mus com to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."
In this paragraph, King is talking about freedom must be gained by the negros/black community because they will never have freedom because the justice of the southern states will never give it to the black community. The word "wait" has become the word "never" so it is not worth waiting anymore. IF the blacks don't fight for equality than they may never have equality.
While I was reading "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr., I picked two passages that I thought are persuading from MLK himself.
One- on page 914, "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue." Which capture my eyes on the questions above of the sentence and he explained that he tried to create a "tension" peacefully without any violent involved and also to not segregate group. To not stress out to negotiation, MLK had tried to take it easy so they might be able to negotiate with white people or laws-making people. As he said for purpose of nonviolently, to preserve the evil system of segregation on page 924.
Two- on page 920, "Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained." At first, I was not sure what that means but when I checked it out on internet then suddenly I got an idea what it is saying about. The American Negro does get his birthright of freedom but only if he gets his own free will to believe that then maybe he would do anything that he can do nonviolently and successfully. Something "within" him to be reminded that he gets a birthright of freedom should be something to believe and have a faith in that he gets his own free will. Something "without" him to be reminded that it can be gained, might be meaning that if he continues to believe that he has a right of freedom and as American, he can be freeman, only if he has a faith in himself and gets his free will of being American and proud of it.
But not only that, MLK explained that there were problems with Negro with many things and that he needed to be released these if he could as freeman.
In Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, he outlines and develops strategies and arguments he uses to convince his colleagues of his points about his method of handling the issues of segregation. This is an amazing letter and gracefully written without a hint of real anger about the situation. Martin Luther King, Jr. writes about the four basic steps in a nonviolent campaign. The four basic steps are collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. In his letter, he discusses the facts of injustice in the unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches, brutality and unjust treatment in our judicial system. He talks about the Negro leaders trying to negotiate with city officials with no response and how certain promises were made to correct the actions of whites that were broken. So, what is left to do in this nonviolent campaign – direct action? His purpose of direct action, sit-ins and marches, was to bring a nonviolent crisis and foster tension to the community and force a discussion about the injustice and segregation issues being faced by the Negro population. I feel his pain by the examples he illustrates to those that ask him to “Wait” and how that wait turns into “Never”. He states, “Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait”, then he begins the illustrations. I believe it is wrong or unjust that blacks were not allowed to ride on the bus, go into white’s restaurants, and such. It wasn’t fair for blacks to not have equal powers as whites. In God’s eyes, all people are equal and the two races were not meant to be segregated. He says “Hence segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful.”
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote many letters on the subject of segregration, each having a different impact on every man and woman. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written to clergymen, those of his same ideals and beliefs. King made many appealing arguments using a variety of different strategies, some effect to the common man and some are not as affective to the common man reading this letter.
“But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you no forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.” (paragraph 14)
This effective because it allows a small glimpse into what the average black man would have to deal with, some exceptions here and there, but for the most part this is an average ideas that usually go unnoticed by the white man. It is hard to imagine what it would be like to have this happen on a daily basis, not only as an average man but also as a clergyman or a businessman. It makes me wonder if this would happen to a man in upper class society or in a position of authority? Cleary the law allows such actions to happen without disapproval or consequenses, but would it be the same to men of higher authority positions?
“I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: "Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother." In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: "Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern." And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, on Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.” (paragraph 37)
This is effective because this letter is written to clergymen, men that should but their faith first. However these men do not preach the moral values of equality but rather the idea that they should merely follow the law whether or not it is morally or ethically correct. Ture churches should not teach the idea to disobey the law however that does not mean that they much preach the idea that the law is morally correct. Which is the point that King tried to make in this snippet of his letter (not including the larger idea of his essay).
There were several key points that Martin Luther King Jr. used to make his point on segragation. At one point he said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality; tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affectsone directly, affects all indirectly. never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds." King's writing there is persuasive because it makes segragation everyone's problem and not just Alabama, or even the south for that matter. By saying since the United States is one unit and that their problems are all related and can affect everywhere, it puts the problem in your hands. Another point he made was when he said, "A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law." King makes a good point in how the morality of segragation is wrong just in the act of it being forced on a party without them giving a say. It makes segragation a question of ethics and not just everyday procedure.
In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr. uses many strategies to convince the terrible aspects of segregation. Martin Luther King, Jr. begins and maintains throughout the letter a cool, collective, but forceful reasoning. By maintaining this throughout the letter, he allows the reader to have a small glimpse of what he is truly fighting for and against. However, what he conveys by tone, he amplifies it twice as much in some of the paragraphs he writes.
For instance, when Martin Luther King, Jr. describes the unjust and just meaning of certain laws he points out various ways that would make a law just and unjust. “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christians faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country’s anti-religious laws. “ He points out that even if it was “legal,” it didn’t make it right what Hitler did. So Martin Luther King, Jr. is saying even though segregation is technically allowed, doesn’t make it right. By saying he would of helped his Jewish Brothers, he is saying he would help anybody during their time of need and is making a point that no matter who or what you are you should always help another. Even if it is “illegal” people need to realize what is truly right or just and defy the unjust. His main strategy is to point out past experiences to prove that what he is fighting for is not wrong. By using Hitler and what he viewed shows a prime example of how what is suppose to be “just” is clearly unjust and needs to be defied, as the freedom fighters had. This was significant because it really put you in the position of what you should do. And that you need to realize that just because they say it is right doesn’t mean it is.
Martin Luther King, Jr. also proves his points about segregation by writing “…and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people…” Here Martin Luther King, Jr. uses a strategy of pathos to connect emotionally with the reader. He proves segregation affects everyone and anyone. Even little children of color had to endure the hate and negativity that it gave off. He shows a scenario, and kind of indirectly says what if you had to say this to your daughter? What if your daughter, because of her color, couldn’t go do what other “normal” kids could do? You begin to feel sorry and want to help him and his cause. It was really significant to me because I have a lot of younger siblings and it’s the worse thing in the world when you have to tell them they can’t and you can’t really explain why.
Martin Luther King, Jr. uses many more strategies to convey his message of why segregation is wrong. However, these are really the passages that stuck out to me and connected with me the most. Overall, this was a very powerful letter and it really conveyed much more then Martin Luther King. Jr. could have probably hoped for.
In the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" there are many significant passages that try to persuade everyones minds.
One part of the letter that seemed significant was the first paragraph. Dr. King said " While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities unwise and untimely. Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticismes that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms." In this paragraph he uses reverse psycology by giving the person that he is writing to a compliment by stating that" they are genuine good willed people." He was making them feel good while he was getting his argument across.
Another passage that I felt was significant was the last paragraph in the letter. It says "I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a cilvil rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty. Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood." It shows his manner in how he deals with all his situations. He is calm and reserved even though he is locked up in Birmingham Jail.
Martin Luther King Jr., to get his point about segregation across, uses first real instances. He talks about Birmingham and how "the negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in courts, there have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and the churches." This persuades the reader because it makes people feel bad about all that happens to these other people just based on race. King also uses comparison. He compares the political indepedence of Asia and Africa to the desegregation of America. He states "We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaininig political independence, but we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gainiing a cup of coffe at a lunch counter." This use of comparison will make the reader realize how that if those two countries and put aside differences for the common good very fast, why can't Americans do the same at a faster pace then the 340 years its taking to do so.
"Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking.”
This part of the essay sort of confused me when I first read it but further down the paragraph King defines tension and tells his opinion of the matter. He also uses quotes Socrates, and a few others, to help explain his views.
“One may well ask: ‘How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?’ The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’”
After King makes this statement he presents different metaphors to re-emphasize the point about just and unjust laws. By stating many differences in the two types of laws, King expresses his beliefs and backs them up with evidence. He states his opinion and then presents many ideas to support it. This persuades the reader to follow King because he has many examples to support is opinion.
To me, King’s writing is so persuasive because he knows what he’s talking about and he knows how to reword his ideas so anyone can understand. King wrote this letter to a group of eight clergymen and yet I, a college student, can understand what he’s saying. He writes effectively no matter who he is writing to.
"One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."
I'm not exactly sure what I’m supposed to explain but I’ll give it a shot. I picked this particular part of his essay because I totally agree with what he is trying to say. I think any person with a good sense of morals would agree with him. This passage inspires me to stand up for what’s right and want to change what’s wrong. I think many people should feel this way; especially knowing the history of this written response by King and what he was trying to do for the African Americans.
“But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
I also picked this little excerpt because I also agree with it. I do think he went a little far to use Jesus as comparison, but it gets his point across. In a way his love analogy talks about him because King never used violence and showed compassion to all; even those that would do harm to him and his family.
In Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" he uses many different strategies to create a convincing argument. He is writing to his fellow clergymen after being put under arrest for participating in nonviolent protest against segregation in the southern states. King uses real life instances and appeals to the reader's ethos in order to present his views on a serious topic.
The first section I chose from the letter is on page 915 and goes as follows: "Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking, "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored" when your first name becomes "Nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when your are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience." This is a rather long section of the letter but I couldn't chose just one part of this paragraph that was most impactful on me since I found the entire paragraph to be very convincing. In this section King tells the reader of all the hardships African Americans endured. This helps to prove King's point that desegregation is a neccessary advancement in order to give fair treatment to everyone and to end the harsh treatment people receive simply due to the color of their skin. This appeals to the reader's ethos and almost makes the reader feel sorry for colored people which in turn could lead the reader to take action against segregation, King's main argument.
The next section I chose was the second full paragraph on page 922. "I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi, and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious-education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking: "What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were their voices when the lips for Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call defiance and hatred? Where were their voices of support when bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?" Once again King uses real life instances to support his argument. By telling the reader things that actually happened King is making the problem of segregation seem more real to the reader and appealing to the reader in the sense that it could impel the reader to take action against segregation and end this cruel treatment of a race of people. Also in this paragraph King presents some good things in the south, as its beauty and wonderful Christian heritage, in contrast with the bad things such as segregation. This allows the reader to see a portion of both sides of the argument which in turn makes King's argument more persuasive.
In my eyes, Martin Luther king Jr. is a very respectable man that holds his morals and standards very high. He stuck to what he believed and continuously fought for freedom. The best quality about him was he never used violence, profanity, vandalism, or any drastically negative action to better his life. In the letter, there were two statements he said that were significant to me and impacts my way of thinking. One quote says,
“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed”. Luther is directing this statement to the individuals that were located in Birmingham at this time. He says freedom is not given to anyone (African Americans) and that thought is easily shown in Birmingham through the beatings, lynching, and violence in the streets. The person that allows freedom to be present is not going to give it to everyone, only people of his kind. And so the “outcasts” much work very hard to try and gain that same respect. The next quote that grabbed my attention states, “I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth”. By saying this, Martin Luther’s objective was to inform his readers that tension may not have a negative outcome in every situation. Obviously any violent or negative tension would be harmful towards any goal that is trying to be achieved. But on the controversial side there is something known as nonviolent tension that still exhibits the problem in hand but constructively pushes those individuals in the right direction. non violent tension can help the growth by letting people know that this problem must be correctly addressed and solved.
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