A co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, Alicia Garza, gives her speech to emphasize the current inequality of different races. She focuses on the fact that black people are mistreated across the globe and provides statistics to support her arguments. For instance, she mentions the number of black people locked in prisons and the growing statistics concerning the community’s members who are killed approximately every 28 hours by the police, supervisor, or vigilantes (Center for Constitutional Rights, 2015). However, Alicia Garza’s statistics seem controversial, considering that she emphasizes the unfairness only to black people, while white people suffer no less. That is why this speech may not be positively perceived by the white as she discriminates against their social circumstances to emphasize the ones of black people.
Dr. Martin Luther King presents to his audience relatively the same idea as Alicia Garzia. He emphasizes what he wishes for the black community and encourages the people to reach these objectives. Dr. King relates his speech not only to the black community in general but to himself, explaining his viewpoint of black society as his true dream (Rare Facts, 2017). He uses the words “I have a dream” to list how the black community can thrive in our world and not be discriminated against or belittled by anyone (Rare Facts, 2017). As a whole, Dr. King explains to his audience the faith he has that one-day black people will thrive, work, struggle, cry, and laugh together, which seems the most moving part of his speech.
Body language and delivery style are crucial aspects of any speech, considering that both are used to attract the audience’s attention. For example, Alicia Garzia has poor presentation skills compared to Dr. King, considering that she always looks at her notes while going from one side to another (Center for Constitutional Rights, 2015). It is highly distracting to the audience, and to add to that, she supports her arguments solely with statistics. It seems that the graphics presented on the full screen behind her could have made a tremendous difference as people find it difficult to comprehend numbers after just hearing them (Barnard, 2017). In contrast, Dr. King’s charisma and how he organizes his idea make the audience gasp, laugh, shed a tear, and simply clap for him for his inspirational message (Rare Facts, 2017). He uses repetitions so that his audience can relate to his dream and be encouraged by his determination to make the lives of the black community better one day.
Naturally, the location where the speeches are given can make a difference in how the audience connects with the messaging. To be more exact, if the place can support the presenter’s arguments or unite people who suffer from the matter discussed, the speech can eventually significantly affect the people. In the case of Dr. King’s message, the Lincoln Memorial served as a common ground for both black and white people who left their duties to listen to his speech (Rare Facts, 2017). As for the church, it is once again a place where both races could unite and understand the matter at hand to work together to thrive and leave in peace.
Overall, even though the speeches were given to present the difficulties of the black community, discrimination, and unfairness towards its members, it is doubtful that Garzia’s and Dr. King’s messages were perceived the same. In other words, the way they were presented is different, leading to the conclusion that the audience of Dr. King’s speech would not be struck by Garzia’s message. King explained the conditions of the black people relating to himself and their nation as a whole, while Alicia Garza stated the arguments supported by the statistics. Undoubtedly, such a delivery style probably did not impact the viewers or encourage them to make a significant change in the way society works.
References
Barnard, D. (2017). Why and how to bring statistics into your speech. VirtualSpeech. Web.
Center for Constitutional Rights. (2015). RadTalks: Alicia Garza [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Rare Facts. (2017). I have a dream speech by Martin Luther King Jr. [Video]. YouTube. Web.