Martin Luther King and Malcom X are two African Americans fighting for
the same cause but believe in fighting in two totally different ways. King
believes the non-violence approach is the best way to fight discrimination and
Malcom believes to do whatever it takes. In Kings speech to the public, he wants
everyone to take a stand but do it silently. He tries to make his speech as
persuasive as possible by using several techniques. He uses fear as one of these
techniques. I think that one of his biggest and most effective techniques is
guilt or sympathy. King uses this story: A few years ago in the slum areas of
Atlanta, a Negro guitarist used to sing daily “been down so long that down
don’t bother me.” This is the type of negative freedom and resignation that
often engulfs the life of the oppressed.” In this story there is a huge sense
of guilt and sympathy. He uses this technique many times to try and persuade the
public to feel sorry. Malcom still uses the same techniques but in the opposite
way. His best technique is fear and guilt. For example, even in his title
“Necessary to Protect Ourselves” there is a faint sign of feeling sorry for
him. He believes that the violent approach is the right and only approach to
this war. Malcom says “we should get whatever is necessary to protect
ourselves in a country or in an area where the governmental ability to protect
us has broken down” it gives his listeners a sense of fear because is sounds
as if they have no other choice and their cornered in. This is a great example
of his ability to show fear to be more persuasive. He also uses sympathy and
rejection but not as much as King. When using persuasive techniques sympathy,
guilt, fear, and rejection are the best techniques. Society seems to relate to
those the best. Malcom X is the more persuasive of the two because people’s
biggest fear is fear.