Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From The Birmingham Jail

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“Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” - Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail The quote, for all intents and purposes, is rather self explanatory in concept. And yet, despite this, I don’t think people truly grasp what it means for any person of color in America. Nobody wishes to have their opinion mocked, because for many, their opinion is a piece of them. It has been forged in the fires of their lives, hammered into shape by actions and the words of others, and it isn’t pleasant to have their ideas be ridiculed by another. However, one thing I find to be more of an insult than blatant ridicule would be pity. I have nothing against empathy, I use it all the time in my own life, but pity seems to be a mockery of the experiences one must go through, and it can be especially annoying when pity is thrown out with no actual understanding or empathy for the situation. …show more content…
They’d watch black protesters get beaten and arrested unlawfully, but never would they lend a hand, only expressing pity and claiming change was required, despite not actively working for change. This was infuriating. It still is infuriating. There are times when it reaches a point where outright rejection is preferred over this pity party of undesired change. It makes things somewhat awkward, when your enemy is actively working against everything you work for, while your so-called allies have no intention of actually helping, making it feel as though you have been flanked in a two pronged
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