Racial Harmony According to Martin Luther King - Essay Example

He stated that he dreamt that "little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with the little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers." Direct Action. In one of his letters from Birmingham City Jail, he stated four basic steps to non-violent campaign: 1) Collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; 2) Negotiation; 3) Self-purification; and 4) Direct action. He saw these four basic steps of non-violent campaign as a systematic and rational approach to address conventional violent tension protests.

In the same context, King explained that direct action is the non violent protest to negotiate with the reluctance of "city fathers," especially on civil rights issues. In King's view, non-violent direct action could create the same crisis and tension like violent protests - enough for a nation and its officials to pay attention to, like demand for the responsible party, marches, sit-ins, and the like. Biological Basis of Race and Conscience. In one of Martin Luther King's statements titled Trumpet of Conscience, he stated that "many people believe that the urban Negro is too angry and too sophisticated to be nonviolent," implying racial discrimination where black people are believed to be incapable of being diplomatic as to carry out non-violent direct action. . He is therefore convinced that even very violent temperaments can be channeled through nonviolent discipline, "if the movement is moving, if they can act constructively and express through an effective channel their very legitimate anger." J. Philip Rushton, a psychology professor at University of Western Ontario, in his paper titled, Is there Biological Basis for Race and Racial Differences dated May 28, 2001, said that biological composition has to do with people race.

He mentioned brain size, intelligence, temperament, sexual behavior, fertility, growth rate, life span, crime, and family stability. Rushton said, "On average, Orientals are slower to mature, less fertile, and less sexually active, and have larger brains and higher IQ scores. Blacks are at the opposite end in each of these areas. Whites fall in the middle, often close to Orientals." Rushton suggested in his findings that racial balance or harmony as biological basis is lacking or cannot be supported through the very material components of people, as people differences through biological aspects calls for classification such as race.

This conflicts with the idea of racial harmony that King envisioned. However, King's principles were the results of his study of social history and philosophical views, as recorded by Doug Linder in Martin Luther King Letter from Birmingham Jail. Accordingly, Luther modeled after Socrates' enforcement of learning his concept of non-violence direct action for creating tension to achieve a certain goal. By this Luther believed that "in creating such tension, society will help men to rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding