Specifying what upholds hegemony as a persuasive strategy in mlks letter

The obstruction of the political liberties of citizens in America in mid-20th century mainly resulted from the coercion of the people in a manner that deliberately interfered with their actions in a context where they could previously be free to act otherwise. The political coercion that limited the activities of American citizens was as a result of a hegemonic government which ruled by politico-military ideologies that segmented the American society into racial groups that went a long way in sustaining the dominant ideologies. Through racial formations in the early times, the black community found themselves on the unfavorable side of the hegemonic rule imposed on them through the dominant ideologies. In his letter from the Birmingham jail, Martin Luther King writes to eight clergymen who opposed his peaceful protests that aimed at discouraging the discrimination against the black people.

In this letter, Martin Luther King makes his counterhegemonic argument that justice differs from legality by specifying what upheld hegemony and discrediting what sustained it at the time to be out of harmony with the moral codes. Therefore by specifying the unjust laws as what upheld hegemony in America and explaining the sinful nature of these laws, Martin Luther King effectively uses this persuasive strategy to support his counterhegemonic argument. The next strength in using this persuasive strategy also lies in line with how unjust the segregation laws were. An unjust law in this context is a law that lacks any linkage to the moral foundations of a particular country, and is also not connected to the natural or eternal in any way.

In this regard, Martin Luther King points out social exclusion as the other factor that upholds hegemony. Democracy which is the unconditional inclusion of people in the decision making processes that affect their lives in any way is vital in fostering peace in a country, and the fact that the black people were not allowed to vote explains why the segregation laws were passed with not so much resistance. Such vigilante groups include the Ku Klux Klan among other racist groups in the states of South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Orleans. In this letter, Martin Luther is revealing a similar situation by pointing out how the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 which outlawed segregation was being assumed during his time (Martin Luther, 3).

By pointing out the disobedience to the anti-segregation laws, martin Luther also appears to have successfully used the strategy of specifying what upholds hegemony to support his argument. The last point to note in this category is that the segregation laws created an excellent breeding ground for racial formations. For hegemony to be sustained through the segregation laws in the American society, the racialization of communities like the black people had to be effected to make it easy to separate them from the white people in accessing social amenities and other public utilities. Therefore the weakness in this argument is that given the tensions, King’s call for demonstrations could have cost America more than it could have earned if in case the tensions could have led to bloody violence (Martin Luther, 2).

King also points out that social exclusion especially in voting for the Alabama law is one of the factors that upheld hegemony. Given the time it took for the freedom in Christianity to be realized, the weakness to this argument is therefore aligned to impatience as the blacks could have waited on the system to get their voting rights instead of putting America in a tense situation with the demonstrations. After all is said and done, the strengths of this strategy exceed the limitations given the fact that the limitations are just expected but not yet realized, while on the other hand, the moral discordance has been proven and the black people are feeling the impacts of segregation laws. Works Cited.