Afro 298--First Post

As I read Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, there were so many parts that stood out to me and I had a couple of points that he spoke about that I wanted to touch upon so please bear with me from the quotes that I will use. I loved the flow and style of the letter; I felt that it was all truth in what he said and he wasn’t afraid to voice his opinion or anyone else’s. One of the first things he talked about was “If I had sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence…”. This says so much about his character itself. Dr. King had confidence in everything he said and did. I enjoyed reading this letter because I felt there were things that were directly to me. I understand justice and injustice in ways I’ve never thought of before.

The main quote that stood out to me was when Dr. King was talking about experiencing segregation and he explained different ways that this happened in daily lives and one statement was “your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are)”. This statement stuck out to me because I remember a friend of mine discussing an experience that he had with this. He said that when he was out with his uncle an older white man referred to him as boy and his uncle became furious with this. Then he didn’t understand what this meant but now he understands his the way his uncle reacted. This was a very good read and I cannot wait to immerse myself more into historical events that we will learn about during this trip.

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When I first began reading Obama’s speech “A More Perfect Union”, I kept wondering how this speech was given. I ended up finding the speech on YouTube and following along with my reading as Obama gave the speech. Being able to physically see this I felt a certain connection. I admire his ability to speak about race in such a confident and assertive tone; especially when he spoke about his former pastor. His commendation on his personal experience that he had with his was very interesting to me. There will always be those people in your ear asking all of these questions about why you haven’t did this and that but those are always outsiders looking in and not knowing personal details. One of the underlying messages that I got from this speech was that race is still a factor in almost everything that is done in this country as well all know. For Obama to address this in different forms in his presidential position is something that I really truly respect.