Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Impasse In Race Relations

In his speech on “Impasse in Race Relations”, Martin Luther King Jr (MLK) tries to point out to his Canadian audience the racial segregation his fellow African Americans were facing back home in the United States. MLK described and recognized Canada as a heaven where he and his people would be finally free and treated equally to the white man. As sensitive as this race topic might be to some people, it is still a matter to be taken with the highest regard and utmost carefulness when discussed which he made clear throughout his speech without holding back. King’s main point was to draw consciousness to people on how brutally the white man treated African Americans.

King’s approach to solving these issues were peaceful non-violent

protests he and his fellow activists conducted from time to time. Sadly, all these protests didn’t seem to change anything for the better. While he urged that nonviolence was the most effective form of protest, he did not condemn those who resorted to riots or outbreaks. While he charges the white man as the African American’s adversary, he explains that it does not encompass the whole white race. Rather, he speaks about the adversarial relationship as something driven by morality (or lack thereof) rather than skin color. We find ourselves in a political climate where so many things are classified dualistically–one or the other–no negotiation. Each stance is diametrically opposed to the other. We find ourselves in a large, echoing room, screaming over each other so someone will listen to our stance. In King’s words, he unites us to our very core–the only core that matters–the human core. This is a fair representative of King’s Legacy as he has always been known to fight for everyone to be equal, to fight for what’s right and to reach out to everyone who is in a position of privilege to use that privilege to help their fellow humans.
In Paragraph 3, King argues that Negroes and whites collaborated on certain occasions for the sake of human dignity but this collaboration was far-fetched with both parties seeking different results.

King explained that majority white folks were outraged by brutality seeking improvement while Negroes were just tired of being treated as lesser. They wanted equality and freedom which rationalized the thought of riots violence. King then goes on to defend his people quoting the very reasonable words Victor Hugo “If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness” (169). King then goes on to justify the disobedience of Negroes to the law with various cases of how the white man created this disobedience themselves sighting the slums, equal employment and education as examples. He says “The slums are the handy work of a vicious system of the white society. Negroes live in them, but they do not make them in more than a prisoner makes a prison” (169). Putting a measure to it, King compares the weight of criminal activities committed during a riot to the total slum violations of law by the white man saying the white man would be found

guilty.
On Paragraph 8, King acknowledges that some of the white men have risen against these prevailing prejudices but are willing to do so at a cost that is of disadvantage to Negroes. He says they were willing to share power and accept changes to society at a traditional advantage but in return, Negroes must expect to remain permanently poor and unequal. King believed that because of this, true equality could come to pass in the United States. The worry, King says is as long as the white man takes discriminatory practices for granted, the provocative effect that drives Negroes to disobey the law is forgotten. He describes the older generation of Negroes as more lenient and calm in their endurance to segregation while the younger ones have a lower tolerance of it. He explains that the younger generation of Negroes grew up in a world cruel unfair world that had doors of opportunity closed to them mainly because of their race which I turn incited their hostile behaviour. This younger generation is more hard headed and have rejected the old ways and rather take action than lean on false promises for a new way in the very unassured future describing this searing discrimination to have taken “too large a part of their life to be endured in silence and apathy” (171). He cites unemployment as a factor that induces rage upon the younger generation. Doors of opportunities slammed at their faces from time to time is what eventually caused their rebellion and will to fight back.
Taking urban life into consideration, King uses the white man’s planning of cities and infrastructure as a reason why Negroes are forced to live in slums. King explains that larger cities attract more African American migrants. In this case study, He compares the immigration of white to the United States to that of Negroes. They where given privileged rights and awarded free land by the government while the Negroes where left with whatever resources they had brought with them which led to them moving into slums and left in unemployment. King justifies that he isn’t optimistic and tries to let his audience understand that as bad and destructive the riots and outbreaks Negroes have started in their fight back for equality has been, it has only been viewed in a one-sided way. King says, that “ It is noteworthy that many distinguished periodicals and leaders of the white community, even while the conflict raged, in clear terms accepted responsibility for neglect, evasion and centuries of injustice” (173). These leaders wanted a solution that would drastically reform the society but King believes that not all of these motives were driven by morality. He goes on to provide a few guidelines for the solutions explaining that with whatever plan they come up with, “they must fashion new tactics which do not count on government good will but instead serve to compel unwilling authorities to yield to the mandates of justice” (173)
One of the solutions, King explains, is the provision of an emergency employment program for those who need a job.

This program will also guarantee an annual income to sustain an individual whose work program is impeccable. The second solution kind provided is the demolition of slums and the reconstruction by the people that live there. King still stands to his note that non-violence remains possible, however it must adapt to urban conditions and moods. He says, “Non-violent protests must now mature to a new level to correspond to heightened black impatience and stiffened white resistance” (174). King explains that rather than rioting, mass civil disobedience can transform Negroes rage into a creative force by fracturing the functionality of the city while not causing questionable damage. King elaborates on the Negro revolt, saying not only is it evolving from the fight for equality but also has to face a very powerful system and urge it to create justice. King says that “If humanism is locked outside of the system, Negroes will have revealed its inner core of despotism and a far greater struggle for liberation will unfold” (176). King created awareness to everyone on the harshness and injustices that were being laid upon the black community and wanted the privileges to be shared equally and not by race. His solution to the government and leaders to stop the riots where if and only if the fruits of this world where distributed to a ration so that men everywhere in the

world would live in self-respect and human dignity.