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Old 11-30-2011, 06:35 PM   #210
Saya
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 9,548
Yeah, but you specifically quoted him from his Letters from a Birmingham Jail. He was criticized as an extremist for protesting there and was jailed as a result, and this letter is where he reclaims the label of "extremist". He also praises nonviolence and condemns other activists who according to him, are close to approaching violence. Its a long letter but he's not exactly ambigous about what his intentions were:

"You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I began thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self respect and a sense of "somebodiness" that they have adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle-class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible "devil."

I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the "do nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest."

As for Gandhi, its not just the leftists who like to discredit him, I can't remember the last time took him as an important historical figure since like, high school history class. Activists of all ideologies have dismissed him as idealistic and naive at best, and a contemptible horrible man at worst.
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