Phenomenon Of Global Citizenship

The Phenomenon of Global Citizenship Through the Example of Martin Luther King Jr.
According to Ronald S. Israel (2012), a global citizen is a person who would be identified as the part of the emerging world community whose actions would help to build the values and practices of this community. Throughout the history, it is seen that humans have generally formed communities around people who are alike, and who share similar social identities. Such shared social identities have been formed through different human needs, some of which are political, others - religious or social. In a group these identities become stronger, and the group with the same identities organize themselves into communities. They start sharing similar values and create

The values that Martin Luther King stood up for - social equality, racial equality, compassion, love and justice what forms the very essence of global citizenship. Global citizenship believes that even though people have their own individual social identities, yet they are part of the same Earth, and therefore are equal in every sense, have a collective responsibility towards each other and the world, and should live together with compassion, understanding and love. Global citizenship is the very message that Martin Luther King spread through his Civil Rights Movement during the mid-1950s. He wanted the African Americans to be treated equally to the white Americans and he wanted the African Americans have the same legal rights as the white Americans. He didn't want distinctions between people based on color, race, and religion. He understood that everybody is born equal and color, ethnicity and national identities are just accidents of birth and not reasons to divide and mistreat each

There might not be a segregated society were two races are divided by laws, but, yet racial discrimination does exist even to this day. Stereotypes are another challenges that need to be fought like Martin Luther King Jr. fought racial segregation. The biggest stereotype that the world faces today is the comparison of particular religions with terrorism. Such stereotypes are the biggest threat to global citizenship and need to be fought with the same ideals of equality and compassion that Martin Luther King believed in. Martin Luther King would have never advocated dividing and pushing away people of other religions. Martin Luther King would have never believed in stereotyping and punishing groups of people for the mistakes of some individuals. Martin Luther King would never advocate violence against communities of people who are different. Martin Luther King wouldn't advocate oppressing people of different sexual orientations and not giving them proper legal rights. Martin Luther King wanted to see a world where people would be judged with the content of their characters rather the color of their skin or their religion or their sexual orientation. Accepting each other despite the differences and realizing no matter what country or what religion or what race a person belongs to, that person still is a citizen of