Day 3 – Q 1. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had once quoted that riots were the voice of the unheard. Do you agree with his statement? Does it not become an excuse for the angry mob to riot and inflict huge damages to public life and property? Critically comment.

1. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had once quoted that riots were the voice of the unheard. Do you agree with his statement? Does it not become an excuse for the angry mob to riot and inflict huge damages to public life and property? Critically comment.

डॉ। मार्टिन लूथर किंग, जूनियर ने एक बार उद्धृत किया था कि दंगे अनसुने की आवाज थे। क्या आप उनके कथन से सहमत हैं? क्या यह गुस्साई भीड़ को दंगा करने और सार्वजनिक जीवन और संपत्ति को भारी नुकसान पहुंचाने का बहाना नहीं बनता? समालोचनात्मक टिप्पणी करें।

डॉ। मार्टिन लूथर किंग, जूनियर ने एक बार उद्धृत किया था कि दंगे अनसुने की आवाज थे। क्या आप उनके कथन से सहमत हैं? क्या यह गुस्साई भीड़ को दंगा करने और सार्वजनिक जीवन और संपत्ति को भारी नुकसान पहुंचाने का बहाना नहीं बनता? समालोचनात्मक टिप्पणी करें।

Demand of the question: 

It expects students to write about whether riots can be justified along with critical analysis about the arguments of Dr. King’s statement being excuse for violence and damage for public and private property.  

Introduction:

Despite the civil war over slavery, and the civil rights movement for dignity and equality, systemic discrimination and violence against blacks persists. Racism continues unabated. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. explained riot as voice of unheard to give idea of injustice to the privileged sections. 

Body:

The viral video of George Floyd dying under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer was the spark. People have poured into the streets demanding justice and change, in protests that have spread like wildfire across not only the United States, but the world.

• Protests of Afro-American community led to violent clashes with police, destruction of private and public property and looting of stores.
• Violence cannot be justified on any grounds. Regardless of race, private or public property is hard work, savings, blood, sweat, and tears.
• Riot with loot stoking the passions of the otherwise peaceful, and turning away the otherwise allied.
• Riot symbolises unheard voices but is not the right way to get justice. Dr. King’s statement was taken out of context to justify riots. He was true gandhian and believed in idea of peaceful protests.

However, He believed certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots.

• Martin Luther King, Jr., has become a touchstone for those who seek to understand reasons behind riots. He explained it as nation failed to hear, the economic plight of black poor people has worsened but this doesn’t mean Martin Luther king was pro rioter. 
• King didn’t defend rioters but merely said there is understandable anger underlying actions of rioters.
• Riots are socially destructive and self-defeating. King still convinced that nonviolence is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and justice. Violence will only create more social problems than they will solve.
• He repeated in his speeches that the ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy, instead of diminishing it, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.

Conclusion:

He believed in idea of the salvation of the Negro will mean the salvation of the white man. And the destruction of life and of the ongoing progress of the Negro will be the destruction of the ongoing progress of the nation. To put it another way, destruction is not progress.