Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. once said, "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the
oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." In other words, the
people who are discriminated against should not passively sit there and take
the oppression; they must speak up and stand up for what they believe is right.
This is evidently in correspondence to the Civil Rights movement throughout the
1950s-1960s. People should always actively seek their rights and demand it from
those who are in power. King was the primary leader of the civil rights
movement and ultimately led to black privilege and freedom, which has been
demanded for hundreds of years. Moreover, King has a similar view as Gandhi;
both believing in passiveness and demanding equal rights for all.
In “A White Woman of Color” by Julia
Alvarez, a type of oppression known as discrimination is evident throughout the
entire story. Julia, the main character, grew up in the Dominican Republic all
her life and emigrated to New York with her family in 1960. Her father’s side
of the family was the ethnic ones; possessed a darker complexion, nappy hair,
and “coarse” features. On the other hand, her mother’s side was white in terms
of color and class. They possessed fine features such as pale skin, flush hair,
and became adapted to the manners and habits of North Americans. A prime
example of injustice in the story is the way Alvarez describes the ways the
North American schools were; kids were constantly asking her where she was
originally from. When she replied, the kids told her to “Go back to where you
came from!” and hurled stones at her and her sisters. (Alvarez 169) The
oppressed (Julia) ultimately winded up demanding freedom from the oppressor by
applying to boarding schools where privilege transformed prejudice into
patronage, and eventually worked out for the better.
This famous quote by King can also
correspond to recent labor laws and the protest and reform for an increased
wage. Fast food and other unskilled labor workers make minimum wage or
sometimes even less than that and have to support their families off it. At the
time of August, fast food employees working for McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and
other eateries were making $7.25 an hour to support a growing family. “I’m not going to stay quiet,” said Shaniqua Davis, 20, a
Bronx resident and McDonald’s employee. “I’m going to continue to fight. ...
I’ve got a daughter to take care of. I struggle to make ends meet.” (NY Daily
News) In addition, a 44 year old married mother of a teenage daughter working
at a fast food chain stated how she received a weekly paycheck of $215, and
paid an electric bill of $218, losing money and unable to support her daughter
and herself. Due to the multiple remonstrations throughout this period, the
minimum wage went from $7.25 to $8.00 an hour, and was ratified on December 31,
2013. This wage freedom was not voluntarily given, but rather demanded by the
oppressed and in due course, worked out well in the end.
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