Malcolm X's Speech 'The Ballot Or The Bullet'

Prescribed Question: How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?

Title of Text: X, Malcolm. "The Ballot or Bullet." Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality. Cleveland, Ohio. 12 Dec. 2016. Speech

Part of Course: Part 1: Language and Cultural Text

Outline: In Malcolm X’s speech The Ballot or the Bullet, he represents the black community as disadvantaged and unites them by attributing the segregation in the 1960’s to historic events.

• In the beginning, he attempts to unite the black community against whites encouraging self-identification and self-empowerment within African American individuals

• Then, he describes the segregation against blacks by a corrupted US government

• Eventually, he references to events in history

for comparison and reflection

Malcolm X’s Representation of the Black Community
During the 1960’s segregation between blacks and whites was believed to be at its peak in the 20th century. Civil rights activist Malcolm X was a driven and determined believer of equality amongst the black community. In Cleveland, Ohio on April 3rd, 1964 he gave one of his most famous speeches for the Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality. In Malcolm X’s speech The Ballot or the Bullet, he represents the black community as disadvantaged and united by attributing the segregation in the 1960’s to historic events.
The author believed that encouraging the black community to isolate themselves from anything that influences the belief of superiority that whites may inject.

Malcolm X claimed that to avoid By surrounding themselves by philosophies that galvanize black equality and attending only black churches. Malcolm X told his audience, “economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we should own and operate and control the economy of our community”. He explains that this way of thinking would benefit his people to start their own businesses so the white people can stop overruling in the black community. The author inspires his audience to join him in taking a stand in the civil rights movement by encouraging them to “join any kind of organization, civic, religious, fraternal, political, or otherwise that’s based on lifting the black man up and making him master of his own community.” Malcolm X states where he stands in this dispute he calls the start of a revolution claiming, “It’ll be the ballot or it’ll be the bullet. It’ll be liberty or it’ll be death.” In his speech Malcolm X spoke about being ready to die if you fight and he wanted the black community to support this belief at all costs

possible.
Malcolm X found many ways to move his audience in his speech, and finding flaws in the federal government got their attention.

In the voting system, Malcolm X uncovered a technique used by some states to cheat votes. He says, “they got a thing that they call gerrymandering. They maneuver you out of power. Even though you vote, they fix it so you’re voting for nobody; they’ve got you going and coming.”. Malcom X makes it very clear that the government and the state have no representation for African American’s; “it’s just smoked mirrors with piped American dream nightmare” stating that “You and I in America are faced not with a segregationist conspiracy, were faces with a government conspiracy.” Malcolm X felt that there was no action that was going to take place in the US courts because the system was being run by the oppressors. He stated, “Senators from the southern States violate the rights they give people to vote”. He believed that the issue was beyond civil and he was seeking the vote from the UN. In his speech he declares their “next move is to take the entire civil rights struggle problems into the United Nations, and let the world see that Uncle Sam is guilty of violating the human rights of 22 million AfroAmericans.” He also believed that this was a violation of human rights, rights that were given by God and wanted the oppressor’s held accountable of human rights violation. Malcolm X described the corrupt government to persuade and entice the black

community to join him in his revolution he claims to have established.
Malcolm X spoke about the time of colonization and how America fought and won its freedom from oppression from the British. He states that the original “13 little, scrawny states, tired of taxation without representation, tired of being exploited and oppressed and degraded, told that big British Empire “liberty or death” He uses this piece of history to compare the African American civil rights dispute to the American Revolution. He emphasizes that the country has “2 million Afro-American black people today catching more hell than Patrick Henry ever saw.” Malcolm X tries to make the point that if the Americans had thousands of followers in the 1770s then the black community should not be hesitating to establish their own revolution for equality of African Americans in the 1960s.
Malcolm X was strongly against asking for something that was granted his from the day he was born and he claimed that using his ideas of fighting violence with violence were rational. Malcolm X mentioned that the approach of non-violence had been tried for too long with no success. He spoke not only aggressively, but pleadingly by encouraged philosophies and organizations that fought for blacks to have control of the politics in their community and be able to define their own measures. In his speech, Malcom X makes sure to grasp the possibility of empowerment and individualism that the black community, highlight resistance towards the oppressors, and creating reflections and reflections to events in history that illustrate the conditions in each era.

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