Is violence justified in fighting against racial or ethnic discrimination and exclusion?

Introduction

In the early years before and after World War I, there emerged different figures, both individual
and single activists who launched the fight against discrimination, political and economic
exclusion based on race and ethnicity. In this period, it presents a hostile environment for such
kind of conflicts. Still, most activists believed that the struggle for equal rights for all people
regardless of their color or ethnicity could be non-violent. Those who thought it this way
presented the best fights known and went a long way to help reduce discrimination that was
rampant during that period. This paper, therefore, is based on the support of the argument that
violence is not justified in fighting against racial or ethnic discrimination. This paper will provide
specific insights into different groups and individuals who fought against discrimination and
race through non-violence and the impact that they made to their struggle.

Colored

Body

First and foremost, the most decorated individual who was widely known for his immense fight
for black people right was Martin Luther King. Even though Martin Luther King was
assassinated, his fight against discrimination of race was highly decorated and well-strategized
in a peaceful manner. Martin Luther King is seen addressing gatherings of people from different
walks of life who felt that enough is enough, and it was time to fight for themselves. He ensures
that he instills knowledge in her through reckoning to them that they are entitled to equal
rights regardless of the color of their skin. People listened to Martin Luther King, and he created
tremendous fear for the authorities who thought that there would be a violent revolution by
the black people. He went along his fights with a lot of moderation, promising the black people
that he had gone up to the mountain and saw the Promised Land. Through it, he implied a free
state that was devoid of racism.

The emerging of different movements who were completely non-violent presented the way to
go for the fight against racism by African Americans. Most of them based their arguments on
the individual human rights that were being infringed by the white people. Most activists made
sure that they champion human rights, colored solidarity. Through this, they ensured that they
included multiple goals through chanting words such as freedom and equality. Those words
energized the movement. Different scholars came up to define what human rights meant for
the alienated races and ethnic groups to make them understand what they were fighting for. It
was a fight for equality in treatment and political aspects. Most of the activists now focused on
the human rights fight, which connected mostly to the fight against white supremacy with
intertwined struggles for freedom and justice.

Colored
In support of non-violence as the best way to fight against racism, black life's matter presents
the best notions and ideology that made that sense stood up. The movement sparked a global
interest from different parts of the world. The movement was not only relevant to the United
States of America where the rights of black had been violated but also globally where black
people were being discriminated against and being killed. There were numerous protests which
were peaceful in Paris, Vienna, and Copenhagen, where people stood with the solidarity slogan
that black luvs matter in the fight against racism. The movement made people go out of their
way to fail to attend their work to walk around championing for the black people's lives. At this
point where the slogan came up, it was in us where there was the rampant killing of the black
people by the state and the vigilantes.

Colored

In reference to 1968, which was branded as the year of great refusal, there were several
upcoming new ways in which the fight against racism happened. During this period, Muhamad
Ali had been denied a license to fight since he did not support the war in Vietnam. During the
same period, different artists composed songs such as Bob Marley, peter Tish and bunny Wailer
that were based on themes against racism. The whole world heard the songs together with the
message, which was very influential. It was a smooth way of fighting against racism without
violence. At the Olympics that was organized several months after students in Tlatelolco were
massacred, two black men while being given awards bowed their heads and raised their arms
together with joining their fingers into fists of black and power for their silent fight against
racism. All these acts were being done quietly; however, they had profound messages that
people and the state generally started to consider them.

Realistic

The fight against racism went all along into universities, which played importance in alienating
young historians about racism and equality for everyone. The author tells us on the
extrapolated fight against racism, which was now evident in the universities, schools, libraries,
movies, and television, which did not have any history to speak about the African American
people. The fight against racism in the university from where the author studied opposed the
plans of the university to enclose a commons, which was a park used by Harlem residents to
build a gymnasium for the white students. The actions taken by the students were after the
assassination of the great Martin Luther King Jr. the killings also led to peaceful protests that
were evident city after city, which were of the view that African American s should receive
equal rights as those of the whites.

In relation to happenings in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, Rosa Parks championed the civil
rights movement by sitting on a bus. In the city, people were divided based on their races in
that the first ten seats were usually reserved for the whites. The African was not supposed to sit
on any of that first ten seats but the position on the others. The rules were that if there were an
extra white person who did not have a seat, the whole row of Africans would be stood up for
him/her to sit. The same thing happened to Rosa, but he refused to be undermined based on
his race. It led to her being arrested, which later made fifty thousand African Americans refuse
to travel by bus. Alongside boycotting the bus, they protested to instill to the community that
there was a connection between the civil rights and the human rights that they deserved. Parks
was interrogated and asked what she hoped for the civil rights, which she said that African
Americans deserved equal rights as any other humans. After her release, she protested
apartheid through joining the South African movement. It was a non-violent way to pass a
message that they were a human being like other irrespective of their race.

Conclusion

Therefore reflecting on the different ways discussed how different activists and movements
fought against racism, it is evident that violence was not the best way to fight for equal rights
for African Americans. Activists used every tool that they had to ensure that they spoke to the
authorities and made them understand that it was not them who chose to be black, and they
decided to be whites. From several addresses of Martin Luther King, he addressed his followers
and motivated them that they were not children of a lesser god than the whites. He knew that
racism was not a virtue that would make a country to develop but would make a country to
break down. Regardless of his assassination, many other people followed his footsteps to
ensure that African Americans are treated as equal as whites. The most important thing was
that African Americans were learning day in day out and ensured that they used the right
means you fight for their rights. If at all, there would be violence involved in the fight against
racism, it is right to say that the situation would have been worse than it was. At the moment,
due to non-violence fights against racism, whites and African Americans can sit in the same
restaurant and have food, a school in the same institution, travel on the same flight, which was
a dream that Martin Luther King Jr had many years ago.

References