I recently got into an argument with someone who persisted that there is no oppression towards people of color in America. My instinct was to question this statement because he is white. I thought, how can you have that opinion when you have no idea what it’s like to be a black man in America? I wanted so badly to use this as a means to invalidate his opinions, but I knew that would not be effective. I did not know how to explain oppression of people of color to him without then suppressing his opinions, thus limiting his free speech. In “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, however, Martin Luther King expresses this perfectly. He says, “Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters…” (King 3). This chilling quote remains true even fifty years after it was written. It is so important for white people to read things such as this, pieces of writing from other perspectives, because that is what gives opinions validity: personal experience and the understanding of other people’s personal experiences.