Frantz Fanon grew up in a wealthy family in French colonial Martinique. He studied in France and became a psychiatrist. After volunteering in the Free French Army during World War II, Fanon spent several years in the French colony of Algeria before and during the revolution (Zaidi). Through his life and education, Fanon had a unique perspective to critique and deconstruct colonialism and decolonization. Using a Marxist perspective, he theorized that because colonies were created and maintained through violence, a colony could only decolonize itself through violence. He saw violence as the best way to get rid of the false consciousness of colonialism and envisioned a brotherhood or camaraderie of free and equal people. It is Fanon's similarity to Martin Luther King Jr. that is most interesting. In Letter from a Birmingham Jail, King uses many of the same arguments as Fanon, but proposes a better solution revolving around justice. Fanon's obsession with violence is central to his argument, but nonviolent direct action, according to King, would be a better way to achieve freedom and equality because, ultimately, unjust action does not does not bring justice. Fanon begins his argument by describing how colonialism and decolonization are violent affairs. It depicts the colonized and the colonizer as old adversaries whose first encounter was rooted in violence and whose ongoing relationship has been maintained at gunpoint (Fanon, p. 2). He goes on to assert that the colonized person is a person made by the colonizer and that the colonizer validates himself, via wealth, through the colonial relationship. Decolonization is therefore the destruction of these productions and the liberation of the paper environment. Only by bringing these issues of injustice to the forefront and creating tension around them can space be created for understanding and change (King, p. 172). The role of violence in the fight against injustice is delicate. If an oppressor is willing to use violence to maintain control, shouldn't the oppressed use violence to achieve liberation? Franz Fanon would say that pent-up anger and frustration must be released through violent action to overthrow the oppressive regime. However, there is a better solution: the non-violence and understanding championed by Martin Luther King Jr. Only by creating tension around injustice through non-violent direct action can we begin a conversation around mutual understanding and justice. It is this justice achieved by non-violent means that will endure, because violent action is ultimately inherently unjust..