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Thoughts and analysis of malcolm x the ballot or the bullet
Malcolm X's famous speech "The Ballot or the Bullet" commentary
Malcolm X's famous speech "The Ballot or the Bullet" commentary
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“The Ballot or the Bullet” is a speech given by Malcolm X in 1964. It’s speculated that he may have had inspiration from an article written over a hundred years earlier, in 1959, by Frederick Douglass titled, “The Ballot or the Bullet.” In this article, Douglass talks about how “the ballot is needed” in order to abolish slavery and if nothing is done to get this going, “then the bullet” would be used. The theme of the ballot or the bullet found in Black Radicalism is an echo of a theory in American politics because this was the main rationale used in American anti-colonial liberation war from England. 1964 was a crucial presidential election period, and there were high expectations in the black community after the historic March on Washington …show more content…
(August 1963) and there was pressure from various Black leaders and allies to pass legislation to ensure African-Americans their rights as first class citizens in America. Just as Douglass was faced with the passage of anti-slavery laws, Malcolm X was faced with Civil Rights and declared that “this [just might be] the year of the ballot or the bullet.” The artifact I have chosen to analyze is the “Ballot or the Bullet” speech given by Malcolm X. In this speech, Malcolm sets stage to usher in more active engagement in the civil rights movement by offering his opinion of the capitalist political economy and its dominant political parties. The speech points out several instances where the black community wasn’t afforded proper rights in American even though they were its citizens and how they’ve “only experienced the American nightmare.” He emphasizes the importance of the ideology of Black Nationalism and how by following it, the black community will be able to ultimately achieve their means: the passage of a civil rights legislation. So in this paper, I seek to understand the mindset of Malcolm X and why he decided to introduce the concept of Black Nationalism as a means of obtaining civil rights. The pentadic criticism was created by Kenneth Burke as a means to understand why and how people use rhetoric and the effects of it. The foundation of this all lay within the motive: the reasons why people do the things they do. There was a belief that all life was a fictional drama and that we could discover motives of people by looking for their motivation in their acts and discourse. He created a pentad: five questions (who, what, when, where, why, and how) to ask of any discourse to begin pulling out the motive. In this case the five key terms are agent, act, purpose, scene, and agency which the critic identifies in the artifact. The critic then pairs these terms in ratios to determine the dominant term in which the motives lie. In my analysis, I found every pentads that could be used but I chose to focus on the importance of black participation talked about in the speech: • Agent: Malcolm X • Act: calls for black voting, unification and reeducation; “ballot or the bullet” • Agency: Joining of Black Nationalism cause • Scene: King Solomon Baptist Church, Detroit, Michigan • Purpose: effort to unite black community; to stress to African-Americans that it is necessary to use the right to vote wisely and if the government tries to take this right away, black population will need to take up arms The dominant term in this pentad would be the agent when paired with the other terms.
The agent is what is advocating for the agency and connects the act with the agency in order for the overall purpose to be fulfilled. The agent-act ratio suggests that in being a well-known civil rights leader, Malcolm X has the standing to call for black voting, unification and reeducation. He uses emotionally charged and compelling language to help evoke feelings of anger within the audience. He urges blacks to submerge their differences and realize that they all have a common problem – “political oppression, economic exploitation” , and social degradation at the hands of the white man. In the agency-purpose ratio, the agency is dominant because through joining the Black Nationalism cause, the whole choice of the ballot or the bullet is introduced; the black community need to start stepping up and have more active participation in politics in order to fix their own status in the US and in their own communities. African Americans are realizing that in Congress, when the white people are evenly divided, blacks can be that crucial swing vote to determine who’s going to get what position in government. And if they don’t cast a ballot, he warned, it’ll all end up in a situation where they’re going to have to cast a
bullet. The motive of the speech, is to send out an implicit warning that the black community wasn’t obligated to suffer peacefully in the face of the ongoing, unmitigated onslaught of a white supremacist system and its policies. They needed a “self-help program” but before they could start that, he suggested that “[they] have to have a self-help philosophy,” with Black Nationalism being that “self-help philosophy.” He sold Black Nationalism as the ideological framework for the Freedom Struggle plaguing the black community. He sought to make it plain by enunciating the practical meaning and claim of what some viewed as a debatable philosophy. In essence, Malcolm believed that the “black [community] should control the politics and the politicians in [their] own community where they are the majority” in order to maximize their freedom and self-determination. He also observed the obstinacy of southern Democrats, labeled “Dixiecrats” and the reluctance of many Republicans to agree with the civil rights legislation, and had little trust that either Party could be entrusted with promoting and defending the rights of the black community. My analysis of Malcolm X’s speech is an extraordinary example of using rhetoric to educate about and emotionally involve other people with an important issue. The speech is well prepared, organized, and emotionally captivating and is a successful example of proper rhetoric by Malcolm X. The speech suggests that when black voting and civil rights aren’t taken seriously and more drastic measures such as threatening to use violence to achieve them and such a large audience follows along with it, the government begins to move swiftly, to avoid a potential catastrophe, which in turn could thoroughly divide the nation even more so. He uses the words, "the ballot or the bullet" in order to keep the thought present in the head of the audience, and after completing every thought, he found a way to connect it back to the issue of the ballot or the bullet. A reader is able to see how the civil rights issue was tackled from a different point of view, one that is opposite from such pacifist civil rights leaders like Dr. King’s.
In Erik Gellman’s book Death Blow to Jim Crow: The National Negro Congress and the Rise of Militant Civil Rights, he sets out with the argument that the National Negro Congress co-aligned with others organizations in order to not only start a militant black-led movement for equal rights, but also eventually as the author states they “launch the first successful industrial labor movement in the US and remake urban politics and culture in America”. The author drew attention to the wide collection of intellectuals from the black community, labor organizers, civil rights activists, and members of the communist party, to separate them from similar organization that might have been active at the time. These activists, he argues “remade the American labor movement into one that wielded powerful demands against industrialists, white supremacists, and the state as never before, positioning civil rights as an urgent necessity.” In Gellman’s study of the National Negro Congress, he is able to discuss how they were able to start a number of grassroots protest movements to disable Jim Crow, while unsuccessful in dealing a “death blow to Jim Crow”, they were able to affect the American labor movement.
Hahn’s most important point is his idea that a large number of black activists put forth multi-racial and democratic vision of the nation in which birth and loyalty determined rights and citizenship rather than race. Because African Americans put forth this remarkably modern view of America, it brings up the question of who built and defined this great
Recently you have received a letter from Martin Luther King Jr. entitled “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In Dr. King’s letter he illustrates the motives and reasoning for the extremist action of the Civil Rights movement throughout the 1960’s. In the course of Dr. King’s letter to you, he uses rhetorical questioning and logistical reasoning, imagery and metaphors, and many other rhetorical devices to broaden your perspectives. I am writing this analysis in hopes you might reconsider the current stance you have taken up regarding the issues at hand.
“It’ll be the ballot or it’ll be the bullet. It’ll be liberty or it’ll be death.” These are the famous words of Malcolm X in his speech The Ballot or the Bullet. In April, 1964 Malcolm X stood in front of a large crowd in Cleveland, Ohio and explained what the ballot or bullet meant. He was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and fought to make all African-Americans equal. Malcolm X explained to his audience using a great appeal to ethos, pathos and logos that African-Americans should fight for racial economic and social justice without different religion views standing in the way. He told his audience instead of fighting, meaning the bullet, they could vote for their own leaders or better leaders to represent them, meaning the ballot.
The author is clear with the content and has no fear of telling the truth just as Malcolm X expressed himself. Malcolm 's character is strong and full of expression good and bad, Malcolm uses every inch of his time to become the exact person he wishes to be and strives to have the knowledge of whatever may be unknown. Malcolm had a love for his heritage history and what is also expressed is that African Americans are not always seen as the problem. There are many points in the book where it speaks of a white man being the “devil” which is a strong word used for the people who are generally always saying that African Americans are the problem and the ones to blame. The authors purpose is to educate the readers is many different ways and does it through every chapter in various amounts of writing, which describes the beauty and content incredibly
...ty of people, in this case, the black population, to take action against the corruption and oppression occurring in society. They are charged with standing up and fighting against such wrong-doings which are evident in society.
As mentioned earlier, the black community became a singular people and although unification can be a positive idea, with unification comes division, which leads to seclusion. This is because unification is created by a group sharing a common trait, however, there will always be those that do not have this trait and that is where division occurs and eventually seclusion is created. For this reason, Steele encourages his audience to move beyond “race-as-identity”. He explains that individualization can be beneficial because it prevents general associations from being formed and without these associations people will feel less compelled to conform to them. Moreover, he wishes to rid society of the victim-focused black identity because it “encourages the individual to feel that his advancement depends almost entirely on that of the group.
In addition, to understand the obstacles for justice that African American constantly face. President Johnson tries to influence the citizens appealing to the people’s emotions and also stating facts. In the passage it states, “ It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others...and that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders.” In that quote he stated that he felt as if African Americans should be treated fairly and he tried to connect to their emotions and gives valid points. In addition, the president tries to make the reader understand that blacks won’t give up no matter what obstacles are thrown in their way my stating, “every device of which human ingenuity is capable has been used to deny this right, negro citizen may go to register only to be told the day is wrong, or they are an hour late or maybe even given a test”(paragraph 18). This quote shows that the government tried every way to keep African Americans from voting and it did not work because they will go through that every time until they get their right to
Works Cited American Rhetoric. “Malcolm X: Ballot or the Bullet.” Web. 25 May 2010 .
Finally understanding the breadth of the black’s commitment to their cause, supporters of segregation began to feel threatened by the boycotters. Because of African Americans’ long-standing status as “property” and the widely held belief that they are inferior, the white Southerner’s unyielding faith in his ability to control blacks had never before seen such a threat. A rally meant to prevent integration held by the Central Alabama Citizens Council in February 1956 introduced a handbill modeled after the Declaration of Independence and portrayed African Americans as animalistic savages that would bring about the end of civilization. The author contorts the opening words of the Declaration in an attempt to deem whites the “original” Americans with the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of dead niggers”. This handbill attempted to negate the raised spirits of the African Americans and return the power to the hands of white extremists by threatening to “abolish the Negro race” by use of “guns, bows and arrows, sling shots and knives” (Handbill).
#4. While Booker T. Washington’s tactics of racial solidarity, peace, and non-confrontation became the foundation of the strategies needed for the success of civil rights mov...
Much of Edmund Morgan's text is a narrative history; starting with the initial stirrings of the colonial drive in England at the end of the sixteenth century continuing through the beginning of the eighteenth century; in which the firm establishment of African slavery and the momentum towards American Revolution coincide. But American Slavery American Freedom also reaches beyond narrative: it seeks to explicate how race ideology was developed within the context of colonial Virginia and it clearly demonstrates how race and racism were used as tools for political mobilization; a concept that transcends that one specific time and place.
According to James Farmer Jr’s closing argument in the film “The Great Debaters’’, it states the acceptance and unacceptance for citizens to protest against under laws. Back in 1935 when this all took place, the south such as Marshall Texas contained extremely racist contents. Black people or African Americans were not seen as human beings like white people. Therefore African Americans were treated with segregation, hate, and were even executed just for being an african American .For example, James Farmer Jr openly states in his speech “In Texas they lynch negroes.” Lynching negroes,that must been the most terrifying thing to ever hear let alone see. To sit and watch as a fellow negro struggles to find the slightest bit of air to travel down his windpipes, can scar a young black child to be ashamed of their own skin color.
In our day an age, we may read about the blatant systematic discrimination against minorities in the past in horror, wondering how the oppressors ever got away with it. But the truth is racism was the status quo at the time. Despite these challenges, many African American leaders responded to discrimination by organizing movements with the purpose of gaining the rights that were stolen from them. However, during different time periods, such as 1890s-1920s and 1950s-1960s, the goals and strategies of these leaders have differed greatly. Generally, leaders of these movements have been divided by contrasting beliefs on whether a passive, nonviolent approach was better or if a more aggressive campaign was necessary to advance.
During this time in American history, Black men and women were restricted from participating in the electoral system and their voices were not represented in government. To deal with the stress of segregation and the frustrations of being treated like a second-class citizen, many took part in rallies and demonstrations to express their sociopolitical concerns (Swain, 2010). These rallies were led by individuals such as Malcom X, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr and lasted for about a decade and a half. In the late 60’s, Black Americans finally got their chance to participate in the electoral system and cast their first vote. This example shows the importance of non-electoral political participation in democracies because it displays how groups of people used peaceful rallies and demonstrations as an instrument to influence government