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.

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