Malcolm X Rhetorical Analysis

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, once said "If you kill your enemies, they win." Though Trudeau could have phrased this concept much better and was referring to the war on terror, we can garner truths about civilized society from his words as well. The point is that when battling an enemy within a civilized society as opposed to in a war, violence should not be used. The highest form of moral courage is when it is used to fight through peace. A perfect example of this type of moral courage is Martin Luther King, Jr., with his peaceful marches and speeches. One person who exhibited moral courage but not in this form is Malcolm X, with his "by any means necessary" mantra. King's ideology shows the proper way to achieve social justice …show more content…
King was a Baptist minister in Montgomery, AL, who was involved in social justice for much of his life. His Christian faith caused him to preach a message of peace throughout his campaign. His speeches were impassioned and strong, and racists and others who opposed him caused violence for years, but through it all, he was somehow able to continue to keep the peace in his own actions. This is how societal change must be brought about: through peaceful demonstrations and through rhetoric. The only way to achieve change in a civilized society without compromising the civilization of that society is through a battle of minds and of the truth, not through violence, even if the violence is committed against the most vile among us. We can all learn from King in this way. Sometimes authority will do things we believe to be unfair. In these situations, the only way to protest is peacefully. Though peaceful protest was often ineffective during the Holocaust, people did rebel against the Nazis peacefully by hiding Jews. And though violence often was the only option during the Holocaust, it is antithetical to a civilized society. Another important aspect of King's ideology was that all people should be treated equally as individuals, not as part of a group. We must stop being so focused on demographics if we want equality. Activists today can learn the direction their movement should take from King …show more content…
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little, but he later change his last name to X. This was because he believed that little was a slave name, and represented the oppression by white society of black people, so the X represented his lost tribal name. This one factoid illustrates quite well his belief system. He believed, especially in his early years of activism, that societal oppression of blacks ran so deep that it could not be solved through integration, and blacks should essentially have a separate society where they had control over their own economy and politics. Malcolm wanted not integration and simple inconsequentiality of race, but separation and a society where race divided its citizens even more. Another component of Malcolm X's ideology was "by any means necessary." He believed that sometimes the only way blacks could escape from oppression was through violence. He condoned protests to the point of violent insubordination if a law was unjust and if one believed that violence was necessary to change that law. This is the easier road in societal change. When one is working toward change, it is much easier to work through violence to achieve these ends than to keep peaceful while violence is done all around you. Malcolm X allowed violence to penetrate his way of protesting oppression. Though his moral courage in standing up for what he believed in was unmatched, his way of

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