Contrary to many civil rights activists of his era, Stokely Carmichael was not concerned about impressing authority figures or maintaining a pristine reputation. Because of his unapologetic manner, Carmichael was popular among radical reformers of the 1960s and toured the country giving speeches at different venues including colleges. On October 29th, 1966, students from the University of California, Berkley involved with the student activist group Students for a Democratic Society conducted a day-long conference on the matter of Black Power. Carmichael chose to be the key speaker at the conference. The audience was roughly 10,000 and consisted of mostly white, liberal students and teachers, and only a handful of African Americans.The first
…show more content…
From the beginning, Carmichael draws in his audience by using satire when referring to UC Berkley as “the white intellectual ghetto of the west.” This challenges societal norms by referring to an affluent and predominantly caucasian institution as a “ghetto” which is traditionally a concentration of impoverished blacks. The use of humor continues as Carmichael proceeds to refer to news reporters as “advertisers” who engage in “intellectual masturbation on the question of Black Power.” Although this is a crude description, the point made that reporters serve to exploit black culture and poverty is a strong and well supported one. Carmichael goes on to explain that discrimination against blacks occurs because of systematic white control “not because we eat watermelon and have good rhythm”. Playing upon these unfounded and harmful stereotypes with a humorous twist not only brings issues to light without being aggressive, but dismisses these generalizations as the joke that they are. A final way in which Carmichael displays humor is through his mock familiarity, saying “every time I see Lyndon on television” rather than referring to President Lyndon B. Johnson in a formal or respectful manner. This tactic dismisses authority figures as not being people to respect or admire, and reclaims some of the power given to white …show more content…
As a black male, he has seen firsthand that “the institutions that function in this country are clearly racist, and that they're built upon racism”. As someone who belongs to the demographic he is defending, Carmichael has much more credibility than an affluent white person would have. In addition to this, in powerful statements such as “we were never fighting for the right to integrate, we were fighting against white supremacy” he uses personal pronouns which both bring him down to the people’s level and unify his audience. Also his use of “we” and “our” shows that even if he hasn’t personally experienced certain injustices, such as when “fourteen (white) men (...) killed three (black) human beings”, the struggles of black people belong to all African-Americans, and racism towards one person impacts the entire community. Also his use of “you” makes the speech appear more personal and addressed to his audience. Finally, Carmichael uses his own voice to describe the collective experience of blacks trying to achieve voting rights when he states that “every time I tried (to vote) I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived”. The cruelties he describes are wakeup call to liberal whites to fix the corrupt system that they have power over. More than that, however, Carmichael again makes the point that the black
From the beginning, Carmichael draws in his audience by using satire when referring to UC Berkley as “the white intellectual ghetto of the west.” This challenges societal norms by referring to an affluent and predominantly caucasian institution as a “ghetto” which is traditionally a concentration of impoverished blacks. The use of humor continues as Carmichael proceeds to refer to news reporters as “advertisers” who engage in “intellectual masturbation on the question of Black Power.” Although this is a crude description, the point made that reporters serve to exploit black culture and poverty is a strong and well supported one. Carmichael goes on to explain that discrimination against blacks occurs because of systematic white control “not because we eat watermelon and have good rhythm”. Playing upon these unfounded and harmful stereotypes with a humorous twist not only brings issues to light without being aggressive, but dismisses these generalizations as the joke that they are. A final way in which Carmichael displays humor is through his mock familiarity, saying “every time I see Lyndon on television” rather than referring to President Lyndon B. Johnson in a formal or respectful manner. This tactic dismisses authority figures as not being people to respect or admire, and reclaims some of the power given to white …show more content…
As a black male, he has seen firsthand that “the institutions that function in this country are clearly racist, and that they're built upon racism”. As someone who belongs to the demographic he is defending, Carmichael has much more credibility than an affluent white person would have. In addition to this, in powerful statements such as “we were never fighting for the right to integrate, we were fighting against white supremacy” he uses personal pronouns which both bring him down to the people’s level and unify his audience. Also his use of “we” and “our” shows that even if he hasn’t personally experienced certain injustices, such as when “fourteen (white) men (...) killed three (black) human beings”, the struggles of black people belong to all African-Americans, and racism towards one person impacts the entire community. Also his use of “you” makes the speech appear more personal and addressed to his audience. Finally, Carmichael uses his own voice to describe the collective experience of blacks trying to achieve voting rights when he states that “every time I tried (to vote) I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived”. The cruelties he describes are wakeup call to liberal whites to fix the corrupt system that they have power over. More than that, however, Carmichael again makes the point that the black