Violent resistance is resistance that does not revolve around events such as sit-ins and petitions. Violent resistance is most effective because, unlike the method of non-violence, it gathers a more drastic and immediate response from other involved parties. I have seen how effective violent resistance is through our lessons by observing how the majority of my classmates have continuously sided with violent resistance. Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael both understood the need to use violent resistance; Malcolm X committed many petty crimes and eventually was imprisoned. While in prison, he decided to join the Nation of Islam, a group that integrated the religion Islam into Black Nationalism. He quickly moved up the ranks in the Nation of Islam …show more content…
and became a favorite of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm soon began making speeches about his disagreement with the mainstream Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King Jr’s involvement and he told his followers to protect themselves at all costs. Stokely Carmichael started his career as an activist after he saw witnessed a sit-in on television which motivated him to join the Civil Rights Movement. Carmichael maintained an active role in the Civil Rights Movement and he was soon assigned to go to Lowndes County, Alabama to help raise the numbers of registered black voters, but when neither of the major political parties had a significant response, he decided to create his own political party whose logo was a black panther. After years of frustratingly slow progress with the non-violent approach, his philosophy changed to support violence. The first document I analyzed was Source 1: Engraving from Nat Turner Slave Rebellion, 1831 & historical summary; this document shows the the effectiveness of violent resistance because, though they were eventually executed, Nat Turner and his group of rebels made a splash in the repressive and unforgiving society they lived in and made their oppressors afraid, giving them power.
Throughout history, fear has been a superior form of power. Slave owners used fear to oppress black people so the best way to reverse the effects of that oppression is to strike fear in the white people. Showing them that a small rebellion killed so many of their own, made them worry about others getting the same idea and a much larger rebellion taking place. It is important to stand up and fight for what you believe in because you have to assume nobody else will, if you start thinking that you can sit down and relax because others will take care of the problem, then the movement or rebellion won’t be as strong and nothing will ever change. Just as Malcolm X said in a T.V. interview in 1964, “My belief in brotherhood would never restrain me in any way from protecting myself in a society from a people whose disrespect for brotherhood makes them feel inclined to put my neck on a tree at the end of a …show more content…
rope.” Violent resistance is usually very effective, as shown in Source 3, an article about the Tulsa Race Riots, but violent resistance isn’t always used for the right reasons. The Tulsa Race Riots were fueled by white people who were angry about the degree of prosperity the black section of the segregated town Tulsa, Oklahoma had achieved, so they took their anger and destroyed everything the black residents had worked for, concurrently massacring around 300 people and injuring around 800 people. The Tulsa Race Riots is proof the violent resistance is very powerful, it can destroy everything good, but when used by people with good intentions, it can create freedom and it can build up communities. The white people living in Tulsa did not hesitate to use violence to change things to the way they wanted them, so I don’t think the Civil Rights Movement should wait either. There is a common saying that many people agree with: “Don’t fight fire with fire” and I think that saying wasn’t thought through very well, what else are you supposed to use to fight fire? Not all fires can be calmed with water. As can be seen from the previous sources listed, violent resistance and protests are very powerful and can create large scale change.
A modern example of violent resistance would be the Arab Spring. In Algeria, people protested because of a lack of housing and several people attempted or committed self-immolation to create awareness including Mohamed Aouichia and Mohsen Bouterfif who set themselves on fire in 2011. In Israel, protesters from Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria attempted to march into Israel to remember the Nakba, a war in Palestine that forced over 700,000 Palestinian Arabs out of their homes, the protests soon turned violent when the Israeli border patrol would not let them cross. The Syrian Uprising spread into Lebanon and there were many clashes between anti-Assad and pro-Assad groups that injured hundreds of people. In Mauritania, a man set himself on fire to protest Mauritania’s leader, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. In Morocco, a group of protesters set a bank on fire causing five peoples’ deaths. In Oman, protesters set fire to cars and stores which cause the police to violently retaliate. And finally in Sudan hundreds of people protested for their ruler to resign and by the end, there were people wanting to overthrow him by any means. Success is something that differs by opinion so it is not easy to measure, but if I had to state if I think the Arab Spring was successful, I would say yes. I think it was successful because the Arab Spring spread through
sixteen countries and did create some major change for some of those countries, it also got a lot of attention from the media which I think is important to look for when measuring success.
...y shocks most of people who hear and see it, encouraging and moving others who also suffer. In instance, Elena screamed at Longoria to show she would not give them any information about resistances and Antonio when Longoria was about to killing her (Tobar 148). Elena sacrificed her life to protect Antonio and her friends who fought against the Guatemalan government without using any violence when she faced Longoria who tried to kill her. She showed it was important not to be daunted by fear and to keep fighting for justice. Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi advocated nonviolent resistance as a means of seeking peace and gaining independence for the Republic of India from Britain. Justice should be served by means in the name of justice. Nonviolent resistance is a powerful way to fight against the cycle of violence and work towards the realization of a peaceful world.
Slavery was a systematic process to dehumanize and create a sense of inferiority towards their caucasian counterparts. Inferiority has preserved itself over the course of generations prevalent in African American children today. During slavery, white slave masters enforced a combination of insults to develop a sense of helplessness within their slaves. This perseverance of helplessness developed low self esteem, inferiority and has influenced a high rate of black on black homicides. Black Americans continue to devalue themselves and it has shown through our youth. Our sense of inferiority also symbolizes the lack of positive leadership within our communities. Slave masters killed any African who exemplified leadership. Unleashing fear of any sort of leadership within the slave community. Most separated themselves from individuals who showed qualities of strong leadership. Those who possessed some sort of leadership were seen as snitches due to their loyalty to their masters. Civil rights leaders leaders such as, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, had been classified as a troublemaker in the beginning of his civil rights campaign. Rejection of leadership within our community is a direct correlation to the fear of any efforts that conflicts white
For many years in the early 1900s the question for African Americans stayed remained the same. No one could understand how they could willingly accept all of the abuse they received at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan. More than that people wanted to know why no one ever successfully fought back. The strength was in the numbers. African Americans made up a huge majority of the populations in the major cities and states in the south. If they had them out numbered why didn’t they fight back?
The most famous instances of famous civil disobedience were all non-violent. Many famous civil rights activist preach non-violence, but there have been a lot of instances of violent civil disobedience. In 2014 the Boko Haram organization kidnaped 329 Nigerian girls from the Government Secondary School in Chibok. The boko Haram disliked western style education. So they kidnaped all these girls to protest. They ended up forcing girls into marriage. There is always an act of disobedience going on. This is similar to what happened to Korematsu. He was forced to stay in a military base, because of his
As Dr. King stated in Letter from A Birmingham Jail, “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. I must confess that I am not afraid of the word, tension. I have earnestly worked and preached against violent tension, but there is a type of constructive tension that is necessary for growth. The purpose of direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.” Such as in the case of the 1969 student site-in against the Vietnam W...
There's a saying that you can't fight fire with fire. If violence is fought back with aggression, then all you do is end up getting burnt, and the problem intensifies. That is the view of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Hate can not drive out hate: only love can do that” (Doc. A) This quote rings true, because if the African Americans were to become violent against the whites, then it would just shine more bad light on them. They are already looked down upon as “animals” and people who aren't worthy of the same “privileges” as blacks. If the oppressed turn violent, then that violence will become another thing that the whites can accuse them of. This can be used as another excuse for the whites to hate African Americans and be ten times as violent back.
In the past, it is true that African American have suffered injustice, however, today there are still some wounds that needs healing from harsh treatment blacks people experience from whites people back during the civil right movement. Now, some whites are in positions where they are able to use their authority and demand unnecessary respect from minorities in certain situations, just so they could be in control. “In any case, white people, who had robbed black people of their liberty and who profited by this theft every hour that they lived, had no moral ground on which to stand” (Baldwin, 2000, p31). For instance, threatening to fire or suspend someone for not allowing them to be in control is the same attitude people had back then. Because of this, some blacks feel that they need to respond in any way possible to make their point. In other words, the attitude that some blacks have express at some point could be aggressive at time.
From bold investigations of mob brutality, protests of mass murders, segregation and discrimination, to testimony before congressional committees on the vicious tactics used to bar African Americans from the ballot box, it was the talent and tenacity of NAACP members that saved lives and changed many negative aspects of American society. While much of its history is chronicled in books, articles, pamphlets and magazines, the true movement lies in the faces—black, white, yellow, red, and brown—united to awaken the conscientiousness of people, and a nation. Work Cited www.en.wikipedia.org www.naacp.org www.spartacus.schoolnet.co
Harriet Tubman once said, I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other. Throughout history the African American culture has constantly been fighting for rights and equality. But in doing so has been denied it. With this happening more and more over the years it seems to have caused them more than just physical pain when violence is added to the equation. It has caused PTSD. The African American community suffers from PTSD due to Racism, what is considered as today’s “lynchings”, and Police Brutality.
In his speeches, Malcolm X spoke about fighting back against those who were hurting them or were in the way. One way that he enlightened them was, “Malcolm made blacks feel good about themselves…he allowed them to have self-esteem and convinced them they had power.”# In order for all black people to fight back and demand their rights, they had to have high self-esteem and make them feel they had power in order for them to put up a good fight and give them motivation to fight, and he did this through his speeches. He also made them fight against white people by “exposing the white man for the devil he was.”# By making white people look bad, it would make more black people to want to fight for their rights and use violence if they were threatened. All this was part of his method of “any means necessary.”
Sometimes civil disobedience can become violent as in the case in South Africa during the struggle to end apartied. It started out with passive resistance, but after years of struggling with no change, a violent group was formed and was willing to do anything to get the freedom they desired.
Struggles come in all shapes and sizes; it identifies the strength of a person. Josh Ellis stated “Lamar seemed to [imply] that some of the responsibility for preventing killings…lay with black people themselves” as he speaks from personal experience after being in a gang (Eells 44). The white supremacy has struggled to keep restrictions on African Americans since the Jim Crow laws; they suppress by keeping them weak minded and killing them off. This may be considered a weak tactic, but it is no different than the “mistakes” of African American killing each other. But it does not take that experience to know that African Americans contribute to their own crisis. They are responsible for their own actions, which mostly result in revenge; not realizing that this do not make them equal, it just adds to the sad news of America. This country is based on wrong doings and consequences leaving the minority leaders to try and make a difference for generations to come. “But… I’m no mortal man, maybe I’m just another nigga” entering into the society where only judgement prevail to the cycle of life (Poem 1 22). Its takes knowledge in order to have courage to step outside the box and lead a movement toward change. “… I learned/…respect/ If I respect you, we unify and stop the enemy from killing us” (Poem 1 17 and
The fight for equality and against segregation has always been a noble fight. But is inflicting your rage onto those who have inflicted theirs upon you keep your nobility or just bring yours down to their level? Especially when there is a great deal of violence being used. This never-ending battle between the blacks and the whites has tormented the U.S. for years and still goes on in some areas. During the 1950’s –1960’s the civil rights movement was at its peek. This was when the African-Americans were growing impatient and could not wait a minute longer before they had their constitutional and God given rights. Many peaceful marches, sit-ins, and boycotts were usually always greeted at the end with police, attack dogs, firemen, and ambulances. African- Americans started their own “police force” called The Black Panther Party so they can supposedly arm themselves against the white people. While others such as Malcolm X tried to convince black people that the whites were not going to help them and that they have to stand up for their own rights. Many riots were also taking place across the nation destroying many cities.
If the lives of the mistreated blacks truly matter, the people that want to change the way things happen they would reach out in a peaceful way and engage others. Instead of acting out with violence and hatred. Overall, the movement should come together as one and actively speak against the "unjust" and "wrong doing ". All across the news and social media it has been mentioned and showed many times how the Black Lives Matter movement protests turn into violent outburst, in which many times harm those black lives that they are trying to protect and support. Instead of making matters worse there should be a plan to defeat the difficulties peacefully and correct the ignorance with a powerful but sympathetic stance. The only way one can truly start change is within themselves; people cannot expect others to help or see your vision of a better [equal] world. If all results seen from performances are malice and bitterness towards the
Militant action also forced white people to give them freedom. To conclude, Non-Violent actions examples all explain how countries wanted to gain their own independence and government by having things like protests and walkouts that didn’t involve violence. Militant action shows examples that explain things like fighting for their right towards freedom and independence by including violence. It's important to discuss the success rate of different actions taken during nationalism and decolonization because many people did different things to see right be done along with changes with their lives. During this time period a lot of Non-violent protest and militant protest are being taken to show that rights need to be made and changes need to happen.