Importance of Body Language While Delivering a Speech
Instructions
Social Movements are only as important as the person leading them. The person(s) leading a social movement must have charisma and be able to captivate an audience. Political scientists and historians are taught to analyze body language, especially during debates and speeches.
For this assignment, you will watch Dr Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream (Links to an external site.) speech and a speech by Alicia Garza of the Black Lives Matter movement (Links to an external site.) and answer questions listed below. Pay special attention to the following aspects in the two speeches.
Importance of body language while delivering the speech.
Gestures, cadence and delivery style.
Answer the following
Provide a summary of the two speeches.
Compare Dr. King’s leadership, charisma, power and passion to capture his audience to Alicia Garza’s speech. What are the similarities, if any? What are the differences, if any?
How does the location of the speeches support their messaging? Dr. King’s speech was held in a church and at the Lincoln Memorial, whereas today we have social networking and more avenues to relay messages. Does messaging make a difference?
Describe how the audience in Dr. King’s speeches relate to the Alicia Garza’s audience. Do you see a similarity or differences in the speeches and in the audience?
Please use : Greenberg, E. S & Page, B. I. (2018). The Struggle for Democracy, 2018 Elections, and Updates Edition. (12th Ed.). Pearson.
As one of the 3 sources needed.
Sample Answer
Provide a Summary of the Two Speeches
The speech by Alicia Garza is delivered in a lecture Hall in the center for constitutional rights. In the speech, Alicia generally provides many reasons that highlight racial inequality in the US and underlines the speaker’s main message that black lives do not currently matter in the US and across the world. In the speech, Alicia Garza concludes that racism is still prevalent in the US because of the massive disproportionate incarceration of black people. Alicia also highlights that there is still significant disproportionate supervision of African-Americans by authorities and frequent murders of African-Americans by the police, security guards, and vigilantes. Alicia also highlights income inequalities between races in the US which make African-American women earn less than their White counterparts, highlighting the continued racial inequality in the US (Center for Constitutional Rights, 2015).
On the other hand, the ‘I have a dream speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr highlights the importance of racial equality and the abolishment of racial segregation in the US. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech is there based on the main thing that all human beings are created equal. In his speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, therefore, highlights the continued segregation and racial discrimination in various states across the US, such as Mississippi and Georgia, and calls for an end to racial discrimination and segregation in such States. Dr. Martin Luther King speech is also guided on a strong belief that one day America would become a truly free and equal society where the people of all races would be treated equally and judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character (Rare Facts, 2017).
Compare Dr. King’s leadership, charisma, power and passion to capture his audience to Alicia Garza’s speech. What are the similarities, if any? What are the differences, if any?
The main similarity between Dr. King’s Speech and Alicia Garza’s speech is that both speeches cover a similar topic of racial inequality. The main goal of each of the speakers is, therefore, to provide a verdict that America is not yet racially equal and that more needs to be done to support racial equality in the US.
On the other hand, the main difference between Dr. King speech and Alicia Garza speech is that Dr. King relies on his charisma and narrative skill to paint a picture of the progress that the US has made towards racial equality but also point the nation to the ideal standard of racial equality that should be achieved. In contrast, Alicia Garza adopts an activist tone and relies on unverified statistics to rile her audience into believing that inequality still exists and not much progress has been made in terms of racial equality in the US.
How does the location of the speeches support their messaging? Dr. King’s speech was held in a church and at the Lincoln Memorial, whereas today we have social networking and more avenues to relay messages. Does messaging make a difference?
The location of Dr. King’s speech supports his message. Therefore by delivering his speech at Lincoln Memorial and talking about freedom for all people and equality of all races, Dr. King wants to tap into the ideal of the founding fathers of America who believed in equality and liberty for all people, including Abraham Lincoln, who made the emancipation declaration (Greenberg & Page, 2018). On the other hand, Alicia Garza’s speech is made in a lecture hall in a nonprofit that supports constitutional rights. Such a setting, therefore, supports Alicia Garza’s activist messages (de Stefani & de Marco, 2019).
Describe how the audience in Dr. King’s speeches relate to the Alicia Garza’s audience. Do you see a similarity or differences in the speeches and in the audience?
The audience in Dr. King’s speech is made up of people of different races. On the other hand, Alicia Garza’s audience appears to be mainly made up of African-Americans. Dr. King’s Speech, therefore, a more calculated and accommodating, while Alicia Garza’s speech appears more charged (Goldin-Meadow & Alibali, 2016).
