Scarlet Masque Theatre Journal New Beginnings and Fond Farewells Vol. 1 | Page 68

Maloney 5
Pizzaria and demands the money Sal owes him as payment for his weekly salary. After their
brief, tense dialogue, the screen fades to black and two quotations scroll in front of the
audience. The first is from Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the other from Malcolm X. They
read, respectively:
“Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It
is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law
of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate
the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to
convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys a
community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather
than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors
and brutality in the destroyers.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of
bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power
and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the
situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to
that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am
not against using violence in self-defense. I don't even call it violence when it's
self-defense, I call it intelligence.” – Malcolm X
The film largely left its audiences stunned, and left its critics sore and asking questions.
The following pages will seek to explain that soreness and respond to some of those questions.