Why We Can't Wait

Within Martin Luther King’s novel, Why We Can’t Wait, many of our class discussions were tied into the reading. The most clear connection between the class discussions and this particular reading is when King introduces Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. King dismisses Booker T. Washington’s idea of “letting down your buckets where you are” because this idea pleased the white man and kept the inequality content. Right after that, he introduced the “talented tenth” in W.E.B. Du Bois’s argument. King states, “it was a tactic for an aristocratic elite who would themselves be benefited while leaving behind the ‘untalented’ 90 percent,” (page 25). This quote stated by King was a very good summary of the debate of Washington versus Du Bois in class. Another thing that stuck out to me tremendously was the chapter title, “The Sword That Heals”. This chapter title is very eye-opening because of the irony within the title. Protesting in a non violent manner reduces the physical violence, yet this way of protesting is just as powerful as any weapon. This quote states, “It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals,” (page 16). Nonviolence is a unique way of protesting that gives honor to people who are protesting the intense problems in society. People holding the “sword” were willing to put their families, their jobs, and themselves at risk. These brave people who seeked for justice went beyond what others have done to perform a peaceful, yet powerful protest. The “sword” was the nonviolent protests that helped diminish injustice within all types of environments. After this “sword” cut the fixed society, justice could be served and the society would be able to heal into an integrated, nondiscriminatory place.

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