Research Paper on "Speech What Martin Luther King"

Research Paper 7 pages (2706 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Speech

What Martin Luther King Would Not Say

Clinton's 1993 speech "What Would Martin Luther King Say," was presented to an audience of black ministers in Memphis. The speech focused on the President's perception of social decay in America and its relationship to civil rights. On the surface, the speech seemed like an attempt to build many racial bridges, as emphasized by the white, upper class president referring to himself as "one of " the assembled black pastors. He seems to be urging morality and peace on earth, which are noble enough goals. However, critics have pointed out that underneath the surface of his words are some very ugly social comments. Clinton, in this speech, subtly argues that the civil rights movement and the integration of society was the cause of the social decay he perceives in America, and that the main problems which afflict black Americans are of their own making. It is somewhat curious that the work would have such strong biases in it, considering that Clinton credited as his speech writer a Latina woman, Carolyn Curiel, who incidentally denies having written the text, saying that she "only gave him talking points, not text." (Bogue) All in all, the speech was relatively well received and has been credited as one of his most eloquent and well-turned-out orations, despite the rather obvious historical and social flaws.

This speech begins with Clinton's generalized bragging about his success in office, passing family leave laws, NAFTA, tax reform, and that ill-fated health plan. It quickly moves on into speculation on what Martin Luther King would say about the state of America today. Clinton claims that the great civil rights leader would be very proud of the state of American politics regarding race. According to the speech, race relations are quite peachy here, and America has done a fine job in electing people regardless of race, in sharing political power with other races, in creating a black middle class, and in promoting black Americans in the armed forces, and in desegregating its neighborhoods (actually, the precise words were "letting people who have the ability to do so live wherever they want to live," which is a subtle acknowledgment of that fact that neighborhoods today remain remarkably segregated. According to a peer-reviewed journal report, urban segregation has decreased by less than 9% in the past fifty years. [Denton] but, as Clinton points out, at least it is legal to live anywhere where one is 'able' to afford housing and brave enough to withstand the neighbors). This praise, conveniently place in a dead man's mouth, quickly turns to criticism.

The president does not criticize continued educational inequality, disparity in income and treatment within the justice system, or continued racial segregation in every sector of society except, perhaps, the military (where lower-income black soldiers serve and die in disparate large numbers -- they represent 22% of soldiers and 12% of the population, according to IMDiversity.com.) His gall is turned entirely on a perceived moral decay in the black American community, and here he focuses on stories of young black males committing crimes and young black women having children out of wedlock, speaking out about the lack of "structure, role-modeling, discipline..." In black families. After discussing Martin Luther King's supposed pride in the strides made so far in our culture, Clinton moved immediately to discussing a recent case in which a 13-year-old black child committed murder with an automatic weapon, killing other children. He continued to suggest that Martin Luther King would be outraged if he knew how black people supposedly abuse their freedoms. Clinton imagined King saying: "I fought for freedom... But not for the freedom of people to kill each other with reckless abandon, not for the freedom of children to impregnate each other with babies and then abandon them, nor for the freedom of adult fathers of children to walk away from the children they created and abandon them, as if they didn't amount to anything."

At this point Clinton uses a number of touching stories, trying to get across how terrible life is among young black people. For example, he describes an 11-year-old girl planning her own funeral. One wonders why an upper-class white man needs to tell stories of the plights of impoverished black children to a congregation of black ministers, but this sort of self-doubt does not enter into the speech. This story is emphasized by Clinton saying it takes place "right here in Washington," which one assumes is meant to show his personal connection with the case

From this emotional position, Clinton continues to moralize that "it is our moral duty to change this around."

He proposes to do so with a draconian crime reform law that will not only outlaw assault weapons and put more police on the streets, but also increase penalties for criminals of all stripes, something which he assumes will come as good news to a community in which more than a quarter of adult males will spend time in prison. He also proceeds to exhort the ministers to take action in changing their communities.

Here Clinton explains painfully that there are two sources of change, one from outside a person or community (and here he lists all the branches of government, which are reportedly doing a very good job changing society, as he claims: "From the outside, we're doing our best...") and the other from inside a person or community. It is this internal work which is at fault for the state of affairs, Clinton seems to suggest, as he exhorts the pastors to hold their parishoners to higher standards of inner morality. "We have to make a partnership -- all the government agencies, all the business folks. But where there are no families, where there is no order," he says, effectively blaming all the problems of the struggling black culture firmly on the lack of family values which, curiously, had previously been the sworn position of conservatives since the civil rights era.

This moral crusading is peppered with somewhat out-of-context buzzwords appealing to his current political concerns. He briefly discusses the need to make more jobs, and refers to the bane of military expenditure cuts as an interjection in the middle of another sentence, continuing the prior quote:."...where there is no order, where we have lost jobs because we had to reduce the size of the armed forces after the end of the cold war, who will be there...[for] these children?" He tells the pastors that they will, in fact, be responsible to these children, and that he intends to help by, one assumes, being a role-model of discipline and love.

As this summary may indicate, for this listener at least the speech did not sound particularly good. Technically, it has many strengths. The pathos of the children's plight and the appeal to Martin Luther King's noble life made one emotionally inclined to agree with whatever might be justified by such facts. The ethos-based arguments for stronger community morality certainly seemed compelling in the light of such horrors. However, the logical and technical side of the argument was somewhat lacking, as was that side in the argument which might be reality-based. Technically, the speech erred by inserting buzzwords and political topics at random into the dialog (as when the President casually and somewhat unexpectedly suggested that military budget cuts were responsible for the flagging morale of inner city youth). Even apart from such technicalities, the speech has three rather fatal flaws.

First, it failed to address the fact that the destruction of families in black culture, which he condemns as a cause of crime, is closely tied to a racially discriminatory war on drugs, overwhelming poverty and lack of access to birth control methods, and other such issues. Nowhere in the speech did their appear to be any indication that outside causes may be affecting this plague of violence, whether that be shockingly high poverty rates, or institutionalized racism. In failing to do so, he directly created the speech's second major flaw.

This second flaw is rather historically painful. Throughout the speech, Clinton was putting words into Martin Luther King's mouth that King himself would never have spoken.

For example, he condemns ghetto violence while simultaneously subtly claiming that the military is the answer to the black man's problem (when he equates it with the ideal of equality, and again when he links the loss of family with the loss of military funding). This is in direct opposition to some of the basic tenets of King's philosophy. Some critics of this speech have pointed that out. "The words Clinton put in King's mouth would ring hollow if mainstream reporters had checked what King -- a critic of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War who encouraged conscientious objection to military service -- had said on the matter." (Husseini) in 1967, King did indeed weigh in on precisely the same issues Clinton deals with here, saying quite the opposite of what Clinton seems to have… READ MORE

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