Essay Sample on the Non-Violent Protests Against Racial Discrimination

Martin Luther King's letter was a response to another letter written by other eight clergymen of the White Church from the south. His letter focused more on addressing equality for the blacks in America. King uses his platform to persuade his audience that the Black society should stop waiting for the right time instead they stand up now if they really want racial equality. Unlike many other influential leaders, King had a different perspective on how they should fight for their rights; He takes an approach to peace and harmony rather than violent protests. He requests for nonviolent protests throughout the campaign of racial equality. Recently, in a one NFL match a San Francisco49ers player, Colin Kaepernick refused to stand during the pre-match singing of the national anthem. Collins later told NFL Media that his reason for protesting the national anthem was that he was standing up for the oppressed people. I will briefly describe how King's letter, Kaepernick's NFL anthem protest, and Black lives matter relate or contribute to advocating for racial equality in the United States.

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When King quotes, Thomas Aquinas describing unjust laws is a law that does not comply with either eternal or natural laws he talks to other clergymen in a way that they can easily understand and relate to since it is in their scope of the profession. His letter was open to the public. Therefore he also educated other political and religious leaders of how they can use their platforms in advocating for racial quality. Kaepernick would have chosen just to remain standing during the national anthem and wait for a more convenient time to express his freedom of speech; maybe more humbly. Instead, he decided not to procrastinate his feelings about police brutality against the minority and took the difficult choice to speak up where he thinks he can have a significant influence on the world. He argued that it was not right for other races to have the chance to kill and get away with murder in courts and especially if the victim of the case is a Black citizen.

Most of the people critiqued his idea and suggested that he could have followed the concept of Martin Luther King Jr. Some see his sense of not standing up during the national anthem was a sign of disrespect to the country. In his perspective, he says that to him the issue of racial equality was bigger than football. Due to the conflicting freedom of religion and expression, give him the choice of whether to participate in standing up or not during the national anthem. Therefore, constitutionally he was right when he decided not to stand up, and I cannot critique why he chose not to stand up. Since MLK inspired leaders to use their platform to advocate for racial equality non-violently, therefore Kaepernick was exercising King`s message when since he is most influentially at the pitch and to his success his message reached almost everyone in the US. Black lives movement has snowballed in the race of ensuring there is racial equality, especially against police brutality crimes. After the Trayvon Martin's and Michael Brown killings, many people and celebrities have joined to support the movement. Recently #BlackLivesMatter is a social site hashtag that trends worldwide in addressing any scenario that stills act as a barrier in liberating and rebuilding the Black community from racism and oppression.