If your message is about love how could you profess to love everyone but yet and still hate yourself? In his Letter from the Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., contradicts his own fight for equality. Paul Laurence Dunbar sums it up best in his poem, We Wear the Mask. .
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., contradicts himself when he writes, " and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation-. He is basically saying in this passage that he wants unity for all people. It seems as if earlier in the Letter from the Birmingham Jail, he is not speaking of brotherhood, unity and equality for all. His dislike of the Nation of Islam is implied, because it sounds like he is calling for unity of many but leaving the few (Nation of Islam) unspoken for. .
In We Wear the Mask, Dunbar appears to be speaking directly to Dr. Martin L. King Jr.
We Wear the Mask.
We wear the mask that grins and lies, .
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,---.
This debt we pay to human gile;.
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, .
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be overwise, .
In counting all our tears and sighs?.
Nay, let them only see us, while.
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ our cries.
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile.
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;.
But let the world dream otherwise,.
We wear the mask!.
In conclusion, after reading against the grain, the not so obvious implications of Dr. King's letter come to light. Like Dunbar, King wears a mask which grins and lies. He wanted to save all humanity but still neglected his own home. Yet the world will still dream, through the few gifted hearts and minds of young students and scholars who will continue to read against the grain and discover that we wear the mask!.