Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail: Segregation

2017195053 – Shinyoung Yeo
Professor Coleman
Social Justice
November 30, 2017
Letter From Birmingham Jail: Segregation In Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, King combats racism by championing the cause of nonviolent resistance, calling people to action who have remained silent out of a desire for social order, and equating different groups of people with one another rather than separating them, and. To understand King’s letter, one first has to know exactly what nonviolent resistance was to King. Nonviolent resistance is, according to King, fixing the prevalent ideology and wrong use of immoral means to attain moral ends. This definition can be elucidated as demonstrating nonviolent resistance, willingness to break unjust

In a teleological view, justice is defined by the purpose, end, or essential nature of the social practice. Who deserves the sovereign power? How do you distribute the political authority? What kinds of discrimination is just? The answer to these questions can be simply stated, it is all about a purpose. Aristotle does not support oligarchy nor democracy. It is because, oligarchic governments believe that the wealthy are capable of ruling and should rule the nation and democratic governments merely follow the majority, sometimes marginalizing the purpose of the community. Moreover, he argues that a person is virtuous if he upholds goodwill for the greatest good and made choices based on that ideal. A form of virtue ethics is the highest goal of living well or thriving. If you only know parts of Aristotle’s theory, you might argue that he is a supporter of segregation as long as it has a good purpose. However, if you find out about his theory of natural slavery in the Politics, your current belief will be overturned. Aristotle develops a theory of natural slavery to secure the morality of enslaving people and providing the foundation for the uses of slaves. To justify slavery, the two conditions need to be satisfied. First, slavery has to be necessary. For instance, whilst citizens gather together to concern about the common good, someone needs to be doing the trivial labor. Second, there need to be “natural” slaves, as there are some “natural” masters. Nevertheless, in the case of Birmingham, there was no “natural” slave who considered oneself as a perfect fit to be a slave and not question being treated unequally. Including King, the blacks were continually searching for ways to gain their freedom and voice. They thought it was a must to find justice through negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. They knew they were being treated unjustly in the courts – a notorious reality.