The Life and Teachings of Martin Luther King Jr

Oppression is when one is the victim of unjust control or tyranny, and accordingly to Martin Luther King jr. (MLK) there are three ways one can deal with oppression. The first being acquiescence, where in people just push down their feelings and give up the hope that the situation will ever change, they learn to live with being oppressed. A good example of this would be the driving ban on women in Saudi Arabia. As we are aware, women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia because the country follows strict Sharia law, which states that women should not leave the house without a male relative, and should not engage in interactions with unknown men. Although there is no law that states that women are not allowed to drive, however women are not issued driver’s licenses, without which no-one is allowed to drive. According to the government, if women start driving, it may lead to them leaving the house more often and also increase their interaction with unknown men if they were to meet with an accident, go to fill gas in their car or even to a garage for any kind of repair works. Thus this would be a perfect example of acquiescence, since most women in Saudi Arabia have accepted this and learned to live with it.

The last form of dealing with oppression that MLK discusses is ways on non-violence, which he thinks is the best. In this form of oppression, the oppressed battle against the oppressors through nonviolent forms such as peaceful protests, fasting and marches. The best example of this would be the recent anti-rape protests in Delhi. This protest was held after a 23 year old pharmaceutical student was brutally gang-raped in a moving bus by 5 men. Her injuries were so horrific, that even after several surgeries, she could not make it, and it resulted in her death 6 days later. This incident caused much anger amongst the citizens of India and they decided to protest against the government, because there is never any immediate action taken against such rapists, court cases like these drag on for years before they finally make a decision and till then these rapists roam around town freely. What started off as being a peaceful protest by the civilians of the city, turned out to be an ugly mess after the oppressors (the government) intervened and commanded policemen to use water cannons and throw tear gas bombs into the crowd to disperse them and dampen their spirits. This clearly shows how the government of the world’s largest democracy was trying to oppress the civilians and take undue advantage of their resilience.

MLK suggests that the student movement, that is centered around the under non-violent resistance, believes in “means must be as pure as the end”. This statement explains that the ends and means must be similar in nature and be in coherence. The means to achieve the end should be equally worthy, moral and respectable as the end. The means should justify the end. MLK contrasts this view with communism which believes

...