Pros And Cons Of Martin Luther King

Kyle Drainudel
Professor Walker Griffy
English 101
24 September 2015
A Good Movement Wasted
In the 1950’s and 60’s Martin Luther King Jr. lead the Civil Rights Movement. This lead too many legal changes, but most importantly, the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Then, half a century later the Black Lives Matter movement took shape. It was formed after several men were shot and killed by police officers. The movement claims to be a continuation of Dr. King’s ideas, but this isn’t as accurate as it may seem. Martin Luther King Jr. would not approve of the way the Black Lives Matter movement is currently functioning because of the major differences in the rhetoric between it and the Civil Rights Movement.
First of all, Dr. King would not approve of

the current Black Lives Matter movement because it stereotypes the police. As New York City police commissioner, William J. Bratton said, “It is a matter of the actions of the few, and the few that we need to seek to find and get rid of. And the few that we need to keep out of the ranks of the N.Y.P.D” (Goodman). Not all police officers are bad people. The one’s who commit the horrible acts against innocent African American people are a very small number. This small number of people then gets highlighted by the media and made out to look like a bigger issue than it really is. Media outlets play off of the public’s fears, after all, which leads people to think that the issue of racist and discriminative police officers is a common thing and they begin to stereotype police as a whole, as evil people. The N.Y.P.D. as acknowledged the issues, saying they “… do not deny that it exists,” Mr. Bratton said, speaking of cruelty and injustice by officers. “But it is not systemic in the sense that we do not condone it” (Goodman). Stereotyping other people was a major factor of in what lead to discrimination in the southern United States. That’s the last thing that Dr. King would want. It is unfair to the vast majority of good, kind hearted officers to be labeled as evil due to the actions of a bad few. In contrast to the way the Black Lives Matter movement tries to label the police negatively out of fear, the Civil Rights Movement attempted to show that all people are the same and should be treated with respect.
Also, Dr.

King would not approve of the current Black Lives Matter movement because it has no clear leaders or direction. “Like Occupy, Black Lives currently has no hierarchy or visionary leader as the face of the movement. Factions develop, disagreements happen at demonstrations, and already the movement has had to resolve how to include people who have not been victims of racism but who feel passionately about the issue - without allowing them to co-opt it” (Canon and Schatz). Although the loose organization of the movement makes it easy for people to participate, it keeps the movement from accomplishing much at all due to the fact that they have so many different ideas and directions they want to go, and no real way to go through with them. Instead of “To succeed, it needs leaders who can distill the protesters' sentiments into specific policy recommendations while establishing a collective narrative - something that gets at the big picture without losing sight of what's happening in local communities” (Canon and Schatz). Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” was one of the most influential works that brought the Civil Rights movement to success, and this of course was written by their leader. Dr. King said that he “[had] a dream” (King). He is literally stating that the rest of his speech is the direction in which he wants to take the Civil Rights Movement. Without a clear leader and a clear direction, they wouldn’t have succeeded, and neither will the Black

Lives Matter Movement.
Lastly, Dr.

King would not approve of the current Black Lives Matter movement because it causes even more racial division. He said that “…many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone” (King). Martin Luther King Jr. knew that the only way for the Civil Rights movement to succeed was by bringing together people of all races. A division between the races is one of the main causes of southern racism in the first place, so bringing people back together would be the only clear solution. On the other hand, the Black Lives Matter movement doesn’t follow King’s method. It is, of course, called the “Black Lives Matter” movement, not the all lives matter movement, creating more racial conflicts than there were before (Canon and Schatz). The name implies that black people are special and matter more than everyone else. This causes problems because it makes people feel like they are being made less important in society. Pushing different races further apart is the worst thing you could do when trying to gain

equality.
Due to the many differences between the way the Civil Rights movement and the Black Lives Matter movement are being executed, Martin Luther King Jr. would not approve of the way things are going. If he were alive today, he would definitely start some form of movement to deal with the current racial issues. Despite this, many of the current policies go against his methods of leading the movement such as stereotyping, dividing the races even further, and of course, having no leadership or organization at all, so he would do everything differently. The current Black Lives Matter movement is based upon good concepts but is being carried out poorly which will, in the end, result in not much at all. It is clear that this is a good movement wasted.