Through his descriptions of the injustices Africans Americans faced, Malcom X reveals an “Us-Them” attitude. The description “Us-Them” mindset comes from the philosopher Walter Kaufmann, an American immigrant from Germany who fled from the oppression of the Nazis (Princeton). Kaufmann defines the perennial attitude “Us-Them” by giving descriptions of the qualities of both “Us” and “Them. Examining Malcom X’s speech in the context of the “Us-Them” mindset will help reveal the ideologies Malcom X had. The prerogatives of “Us” include: righteousness, intelligence, integrity, humanity, and victory whereas, “Them” includes: wickedness, stupidity, hypocrisy, brutality, and ultimate defeat (Rhetoric Book pg.132). Malcom X says, “[Although] my religion is still Islam…I am not here to change your religion…it’s time for us to submerge our differences and realize…we have the same problem.” Malcom X wanted all the African American’s within the audience to realize despite their differences they all faced a common problem. …show more content…
X by disclosing his differences to the audience made him more trustworthy to the audience because of his show of honesty.
Furthermore X “Us-Them” attitude becomes more apparent when he says, “We are all in the same boat and we are all going to catch hell from the same man. He just happens to be the white man.” Malcom X not only identifies the problem (the white man), but he also makes the audience (African American’s) realize the problem relates to their daily life’s. Throughout the speech, Malcom X gives several examples of the wickedness and hypocrisy of the white man. Statements made by Malcom X such as, “[The white’s] get all the Negro vote, and after they get it, the Negro gets nothing in return” and “Uncle Sam's hands are dripping with blood, dripping with the blood of the black man in this
country. He's the earth's number-one hypocrite. He has the audacity…[to] pose as the leader of the free world” exemplify the characteristics of “Them.” In addition, the repetition of the phrase “dripping with blood” invokes brutality another characteristic of “Them.” Malcom X wanted African American’s to have victory over the oppression of racial equality. As result, Malcom X gives the African American men and women in attendance instructions on how they can start to ensure victory when he says, “we have to get together and remove the evils, the vices, alcoholism…that are destroying the moral fiber of our community.” In the context of the “Us-Them” mindset, “Us” in Malcom X’s speech would most resemble the black community and removing the “evils” from the black community would result in a more “righteous” society which further exemplifies “Us.”
In this essay “Saved,”’ by Malcolm X. Malcolm is talking about how he went to prison and how that made him want to improve his language. So he got a holed of a dictionary and read it. while doing this, he though to himself he also could improve his hand writing so when he would read the dictionary he would also write down what he read. than he would read what he wrote down out loud, this made him a faster writer and a good reader. Now because of this, Malcolm loved reading he said he would stay up all night reading and only would get 4 to 5 hours of sleep, but that was all he needed.
The only exception Locke provides to the desired goal of equality among all humans is if “God·, the lord and master of them all, were to declare clearly and explicitly his wish that some one person be raised above the others and given an undoubted right to dominion and sovereignty” (Locke 77). However, God certainly never said people who has ancestry from Africa were inferior to those in Europe, so all that remains is one of the view “rights” Locke says is both inarguable and easy to articulate: “the right that an injured party has to get reparation” (79). Black Americans undoubtedly qualify as an “injured party”, and as a result Locke and Malcolm X once more share reasoning for taking action. Even though Malcolm X was a devout Muslim, he did not see Islam as a necessary part of being a black nationalist. He implores listeners to keep their own religion “between you and your God. Because if it hasn’t done anything more for you than it has, you need to forget it anyway”, and instead to derive the need to resist from whatever theological source one ascribes to (X 75). By viewing existence as an implicit contract with a higher power to prosper whenever possible, Malcolm X forms an argument for rising up against oppression that structurally could
The Nation of Islam, which Malcolm X was an important member of, is not a religious organization as the name suggests but rather an organization whose goal was to make the lives of African Americans better instead of actually teaching the proper ethics of Islam. One of the main objectives of this organization was Black Nationalism, through which Black leaders can control the areas where there is a majority of African Americans. This cause was greatl...
autobiography. He also illustrates his early experiences of segregation, as early as before he was born:
the sense that they must stand together against the suppression of the whites and that they must endure their "non-Americanism" amongst the company of one another,. Yet, as soon as he has done this, Malcolm X. turns to make, what might seem, a paradoxical and fairly non-artistic.
Malcolm X is an important figure in human history because he was a human rights activist and fought for equality among people. He was a proficient public speaker who spoke for minorities, mostly African Americans. By reading Malcolm X’s story, I visualize on how a man suffered from the effects of prejudice and his whole disposition was formed from it. I see how a very angry man stayed angry at the "white devils" f...
In his speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” Malcolm X’s tone is objective, yet motivating and optimistic, as he describes the theory of black nationalism, which he thinks all blacks must embrace in order to unite as a community under a single goal, to achieve equality. Through the use of factual evidence, schemes, and personal pronouns, Malcolm X builds on his ethos as he makes himself a more credible, trustworthy speaker about the dire situation of blacks. In the beginning of the speech, Malcolm X builds a personal profile of himself, as he mentions that he is a Muslim. However, after doing so, he disregards religion, claiming it does not matter. He states, “Whether we are Christians or Muslims or nationalists or agnostics, or atheists, we must first learn to forget our differences.” His authoritative and didactic tone here contributes to his ethos as it makes him sound credible.
This paper will discuss the different stages of thought processes the former Nation of Islam minister, Malcolm X went through during his lifetime in terms of how he viewed white people, but more specifically “the white man” in America. The reason the focus is on White Americans is because these were the people outside of the Nation of Islam that shaped his life good or bad and put him on the path where he eventually transformed from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X who was one of the most polarizing and controversial figures during his lifetime and even nearly 50 years after his death the name Malcolm X causes certain people to shudder. Malcolm X became a well-known figure during the 50’s and 60’s during the civil rights movement which involved figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. This was a pivotal era in American history because for the first time that there was major push towards full rights for African Americans. When Malcolm X came on the scene he put fear into White people because they weren’t used to hearing the truth about race relations in America and many of them felt that things were just fine because they themselves were living life high on the hog while at the same time exploiting Blacks. Because this type of talk from a black person was new to them they misinterpreted his views as “hate speech” and accused him of trying to incite violence when he was simply trying wake his people up to properly deal with what was happening to them.
"I 'm not here to argue or discuss anything that we differ about, because it 's time for us to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first see that we have the same problem, a common problem..." (The Ballot or the Bullet). Here, he was able to work off situated ethos since he was publically known as a militant black leader. When Malcolm X had made a statement about a person that was negative, he would explain that it wasn’t the person, or group of people that he was against but instead how they acted. "I 'm not anti-Democrat, I 'm not anti-Republican, I 'm not anti-anything. I 'm just questioning their sincerity, and some of the strategy that they 've been using on our people by promising them promises that they don 't intend to keep." This showed that Malcolm X’s interest in the issue wasn’t based off prejudices, rather, his genuine passion to help his fellow African Americans. "Now in speaking like this, it doesn 't mean that we 're anti-white, but it does mean we 're anti-exploitation, we 're anti-degradation, we 're anti-oppression. And if the white man doesn 't want us to be anti-him, let him stop oppressing and exploiting and degrading us." Malcolm wanted to clarify that he had nothing against the groups, but
Malcolm X begins breaking down the bridge between Black and White America at the beginning of the speech, phrasing his sentences in such a way as to convince his audience of the fact that your place of residence does not determine who you are, and therefore blacks shouldn't identify with White America. Though blacks are considered "citizens" of the United States, Malcolm X asserts "Everything that came out of Europe, every blue-eyed thing, is already an American. As long as you and I have been over here, we aren't Americans yet." Malcolm X continuously refers back to the concept for the rest of his speech, stating that blacks are not Americans; rather, they are "just" Africans. He begins the sentence with "Everything that came out of Europe," creating the impression that absolutely everybody from Europe was accepted into American society, including low class criminals and other people of such low moral character, while all blacks, even highly educated individuals such as MLK, Jr. are still looked down upon in societythis statement fuels the already passionate and strong hatred of his black audience.
The Negro revolution is a stagnant fight; the black revolution is a fight with one decisive winner. In this talk of revolution he also pointed out the hypocrisy of the American people on the subject of violence. How many black people will to go war for a country that hates them and do not even want them in the country, but when a white man strikes them they turned a blind eye because “peace” is the answer. “If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad”(MalcomX, Message to the Grassroots), many people would agree with this sentiment. Why condemn those who want to fight for something they believe in using violence when we as a country are doing the same thing overseas. Later in the speech, Malcolm X calls out the modern house Negros we have today in the United States. A house Negro was the slaves who stayed in the living quarter with their master and were maids and butlers and tended to the children. The latter are the filed Negros who worked in the fields and stayed in
In the essay by Garry Willis called “Two Speeches Based Upon Race”, he references important beliefs that Lincoln held about the United States while also referencing Obama who had a subtle theme that is also present in some of Martin Luther King Jr’s writings.
...e and perseverance, another lesson taught by Malcolm X. He states in his Letters from Mecca, that brotherhood can save America from imminent racial disaster and remove the “cancer of racism” (Griffith, 516). Even though the media made him look bad, he knew that he could not lash out, get frustrated and give up. He kept going. He never gave up and today he is looked back upon to be one of the greatest men in American history due to his efforts in changing America. To end, while many take some time to learn about the truth, several others believe what they hear and spread the lies. The truth can only be found if one seeks it and in order to seek the truth ignorance and blind belief needs to be eliminated. America was founded on the basis of freedom of religion and that is what Americans need to continue to uphold by educating themselves and accepting all religions.
A big way for the truth to become lost would be institutionally speaking how teachers stray away from topics because there isn’t enough “time” or they don’t have enough knowledge to teach about a certain subject. Within an instructor’s power they can put things that they deem more important into the curriculum which then can cause erasure and misinformation. For example, in my history classes throughout K-12 there was always this framework of Martin Luther King Jr. vs. Malcom X and constantly belittling what Malcom X did. The institution was trying to teach that MLK Jr. was better than the “savage” Malcom X which always confused me because they both were activist making strides. If anything, Malcom X was hardly mentioned at all and it was
...alcolm X starts off the speech stating that blacks need to unite against the common enemy but then goes on to call out some blacks as Uncle Toms. If he really wanted to present his speech as one about unity, and not about religion he should have discuss that theme in a different light. Present a way for blacks to unite, without putting down one another. Exactly what he’s speaking against, he was a bit guilty of doing as well.