Para. 1

Now, in order to answer the question, "Where do we go from here?" which is our theme, we must first honestly recognize where we are now. When the Constitution was written, a strange formula to determine taxes and representation declared that the Negro was 60 percent of a person. Today another curious formula seems to declare he is 50 percent of a person. Of the good things in life, the Negro has approximately one half those of whites. Of the bad things of life, he has twice those of whites. Thus half of all Negroes live in substandard housing. And Negroes have half the income of whites. When we view the negative experiences of life, the Negro has a double share. There are twice as many unemployed. The rate of infant mortality among Negroes is double that of whites and there are twice as many Negroes dying in Vietnam as whites in proportion to their size in the population.

Q: How does the speaker begin the speech?

A: In the first sentence of this paragraph, the speaker raises the question of “Where we are now”. He links this up with the theme of the speech —“Where do we go from here?” It is highly logical. In order to know where we go from here we must first recognize where we are now. Without knowing our present situation, how can we design a policy for the future?

Para. 2

In other spheres, the figures are equally alarming. In elementary schools, Negroes lag one to three years behind whites, and their segregated schools receive substantially less money per student than the white schools. One twentieth as many Negroes as whites attend college. Of employed Negroes, 75 percent hold menial jobs.

Q: What is the life of Negroes like in America, according to this paragraph?

A: They are prejudiced against in many fields, such as education and work. In terms of education, the kind of knowledge which a white kid would master in Grade 3 would be grasped by a black kid sometime between Grade 4 and Grade 6. The number of white college students is twenty times that of black students or for every black student in college there are twenty whites. In terms of work, the jobs Negroes do are often unskilled, low-pay jobs, as in domestic work or laborer’s work.

Para. 3

This is where we are. Where do we go from here? First, we must massively assert our dignity and worth. We must stand up amidst a system that still oppresses us and develop an unassailable and majestic sense of values. We must no longer be ashamed of being black. The job of arousing manhood within a people that have been taught for so many centuries that they are nobody is not easy.

Q1: What role does Paragraph 3 play?

A1: It is a transitional paragraph. The first sentence “This is where we are” sums up the first two paragraphs, linking this paragraph with the previous ones. The second sentence, on this basis, raises the question “Where do we go from here?” The third sentence starting with “first” begins to answer the question. The paragraph is well organized and ideas develop logically.

Q2: Why does the speaker use “unassailable” and “majestic” to modify “sense of values”?

A2: The two adjectives stress one important point, that is, the Negroes should cultivate a confidence that they possess some valuable qualities which no one can deny and thus they should be given due respect.

Para. 4

Even semantics have conspired to make that which is black seem ugly and degrading. In Roget's Thesaurus there are 120 synonyms for blackness and at least 60 of them are offensive, as for example, blot, soot, grim, devil and foul. And there are some 134 synonyms for whiteness and all are favorable, expressed in such words as purity, cleanliness, chastity and innocence. A white lie is better than a black lie. The most degenerate member of a family is a "black sheep." Ossie Davis has suggested that maybe the English language should be reconstructed so that teachers will not be forced to teach the Negro child 60 ways to despise himself, and thereby perpetuate his false sense of inferiority, and the white child 134 ways to adore himself, and thereby perpetuate his false sense of superiority.

Q: Does English have such phrases as “white lie” and “black lie”?

A: White lie is a set phrase, meaning a lie concerning a trivial matter, often one told to spare someone’s feelings. Black lie is coined by the speaker playing on the earlier mentioned definition of black by Roget’s Thesaurus.

Para. 5

The tendency to ignore the Negro's contribution to American life and to strip him of his personhood, is as old as the earliest history hooks and as contemporary as the morning's newspaper. To upset this cultural homicide, the Negro must rise up with an affirmation of his own Olympian manhood. Any movement for the Negro's freedom that overlooks this necessity is only waiting to be buried. As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery. No Lincolnian Emancipation Proclamation or Johnsonian Civil Rights Bill can totally bring this kind of freedom. The Negro will only be free when he reaches down to the inner depths of his own being and signs with the pen and ink of assertive manhood his own Emancipation Proclamation. And, with a spirit straining toward true self-esteem, the Negro must boldly throw off the manacles of self-abnegation and say to himself and to the world, "I am somebody. I am a person. I am a man with dignity and honor. I have a rich and noble history. How painful and exploited that history has been. Yes, I was a slave through my foreparents and I am not ashamed of that. I'm ashamed of the people who were so sinful to make me a slave." Yes, we must stand up and say, "I'm black and I'm beautiful," and this self-affirmation is the black man's need, made compelling by the white man's crimes against him.

Q1: What is the main idea of this paragraph?

A1: The main idea is the African-American must “rise up with an affirmation of his own Olympian manhood”. That is to say, he/she must rid himself/herself of any inferiority complex. This is considered by Dr. King as the first task in the struggle for genuine freedom.

Q2: What is the tendency mentioned here?

A2: The tendency is two-fold: the first is not acknowledging that the Negroes have made great contributions to the development of the United States: in the War of Independence, in the Civil War, in WWII, in the development of science and technology, in education, arts and literature and architecture. The second is to spread and sustain the fallacy that the Negroes，as an ethnic group，are inferior to the Whites.

Q3: Is the tendency an old one or a new one?

A3: It is both old and new. In the earliest history books you find this tendency. But you can also detect such a tendency today in the newspapers you read every day.

Q4: Why does the speaker compare the tendency to “cultural homicide”?

A4: Cultural homicide here means the killing of the minds of an ethnic group by training, cultivation. If the Negro was subject to the fallacy, from childhood to adulthood, that he/she was born inferior, it would amount to conditioning him/her to a sense of inferiority. That is why the author considers this as cultural homicide.

Q5: Identify the rhetorical devices in this paragraph.

A5: In the sentence “As long as …can never be free”, antithesis is used here: mind vs. body, enslaved vs. free. The part, “the long night of physical slavery”, is a metaphor, comparing the long history of slavery to a long night. The word “night” is used here to indicate a period of darkness or gloom, a period of moral degeneration. A Chinese translation might be: 肉体奴役的漫漫长夜。Antithesis is also employed in this statement: psychological freedom vs. physical slavery.

Q6: What shouldn’t the Negro be ashamed of and what should he be ashamed of, according to the author?

A6: The Negro should not be ashamed of the fact that his ancestors were slaves. In other words, being a slave is nothing to be ashamed of. Rather, those who willfully enslaved the black people were immoral and they should feel ashamed for them.

Para. 6

Another basic challenge is to discover how to organize our strength in terms of economic and political power. No one can deny that the Negro is in dire need of this kind of legitimate power. Indeed, one of the great problems that the Negro confronts is his lack of power. From old plantations of the South to newer ghettos of the North, the Negro has been confined to a life of voicelessness and powerlessness. Stripped of the right to make decisions concerning his life and destiny he has been subject to the authoritarian and sometimes whimsical decisions of this white power structure. The plantation and ghetto were created by those who had power. both to confine those who had no power and to perpetuate their powerlessness. The problem of transforming the ghetto, therefore, is a problem of power-confrontation of the forces of power demanding change and the forces of power dedicated to the preserving of the status quo. Now power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political and economic change. Walter Reuther defined power one day. He said, "Power is the ability of a labor union like the U.A.W. to make the most powerful corporation in the world, General Motors, say 'Yes' when it wants to say 'No.' That's power."

Q1: What is the role of Para. 6? And how is the paragraph organized?

A1: It introduces the second task. The introduction is indicated by “another basic challenge”. The first sentence is the topic sentence. Then the author points out that the Negro is in need of power which is followed by illustrations. After that, the author gives his definition of power, that is, the ability to achieve purpose. He ends the paragraph with a quotation from Walter Reuther which is used to reinforce his definition.

Q2: Why does the speaker view the transformation of the ghetto as a problem of power?

A2: Since the ghetto was created by those who had power to confine those who had no power and to perpetuate their powerlessness, these people would do their best to maintain the ghetto. Those who had no power in the ghetto, that is, the Negro, wanted to change the situation. Therefore, whether the ghetto can be transformed or not depends on who prevails over whom, that is? whether the forces for change can prevail over the forces for status quo or not.

Q3: What is the speaker’s definition of “power”?

A3: He defines power as “ability to achieve purpose” and “strength required to bring about social, political and economic change”.

Q4: What is the meaning of the example given by Walter Reuther?

A4: The example is intended to show that when a trade union puts forward a demand, a most powerful corporation has to accept it however unwillingly, that is power. The example goes to illustrate the speaker’s definition.

Para. 7

Now a lot of us are preachers, and all of us have our moral convictions and concerns, and so often have problems with power. There is nothing wrong with power if power is used correctly. You see, what happened is that some of our philosophers got off base. And one of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites—polar opposites—so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love.

Q1: What is the connection between “being preachers” and “having problems with power”?

A1: Preachers are supposed to spread God’s teaching, that is, peace on earth and love. The common concept of power is force, physical force. So these two things have been contrasted £5 polar opposites. That is why preachers have problems with power.

Q2: Does the speaker think this should be the case?

No, he thinks that the concepts of love and power should not be incompatible.

Q3: What rhetorical device is used here? Please explain.

A3: Antithesis is used here. The speaker works on the two words “love” and “power” in order to bring out the contrast.

Q4: Why do people consider love and power incompatible?

A4: This is a misinterpretation caused by some philosophers over history.

Para. 8

It was this misinterpretation that caused Nietzsche, who was a philosopher of the will to power, to reject the Christian concept of love. It was this same misinterpretation which induced Christian theologians to reject the Nietzschean philosophy of the will to power in the name of the Christian idea of love. Now, we've got to get this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love. And this is what we must see as we move on. What has happened is that we have had it wrong and confused in our own country, and this has led Negro Americans in the past to seek their goals through power devoid of love and conscience.

Q1: Point out the rhetorical device used here.

A1: There are parallel structures, with attention to rhythm:

power without love is 'reckless and a'busive

love without power is 'sentimental and a'nemic

power at its best love implementing demands of justice

justice at its best power correcting against love

Q2: What is the consequence of misinterpreting the relation between love and power in the United States?

A2: It has led Negro Americans to think that they should achieve their goal through power without love.

Para. 9

This is leading a few extremists today to advocate for Negroes the same destructive and conscienceless power that they have justly abhorred in whites. It is precisely this collision of immoral power with powerless morality which constitutes the major crisis of our times.

Q1: Who are the extremists referred to by the speaker?

A1: They may be those led by Malcolm X or members of the Black Panthers.

Q2: What do the extremists advocate?

A2: They advocate the use of power, that is armed revolt, against the white power structure. Such use of violence, according to the speaker, is destructive and immoral. The Negro Americans rightly detest and hate the abuse of power of the White supremacists but now the extremists are advocating the use of the same kind of destructive power.