Language

Say hello to Einstein and the gigantic booger hanging out of his left eye.

In today's class, I watched Do The Right Thing for the millionth time. In the end, two quotes, one by Martin Luther King and one by Malcom X, regarding violence are shown on the screen. What's interesting is that once we realize that both quotes fully contradict each other, we see a photo of Martin Luther King and Malcom X together, smiling and laughing as if they were brothers. It's a pretty powerful statement. I wish more people in this world would respect each other's views, but, unfortunately, not many people are as sensible as MLK and Malcom X were.

Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys a community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don't even call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence.
- Malcolm X

[For the record, I wholeheartedly agree with MLK.]