The City College of New York
English 11000 Honors
October of 2013
Omar Rafael
A Call For Action
As 1965 approached, the Civil Rights Movement was slowly reaching its culmination. In their endeavor to end segregation and racial discrimination, African-Americans had exhausted the practices of boycotts, sit-ins, and marches and had slowly started to gain support. However, for some, this was not enough. Around this time, Malcolm X emerged as a prominent leader within the African-American struggle and adopted an unconventional approach of how African-Americans should fight for their rights. Instead of voicing for peaceful and pacifist practices, Malcolm X wanted his fellow Blacks to adopt a more proactive approach. In Malcolm X’s speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet”, although Malcolm X intends to emphasize the importance of the African-American vote, his speech is really a calling for them to wake up and adopt a much more insistent role in fighting for their innate rights.
Malcolm X successfully touches upon many issues throughout his speech however, the most salient one from which he branches out is the issue of voting. Early on, Malcolm X explains that 1964 is an important year as elections are right around the corner:
It's the year when all of the white politicians will be back in the so-called Negro community jiving you and me for some votes. The year when all of the white political crooks will be right back in your and my community with their false promises, building up our hopes for a letdown, with their trickery and their treachery, with their false promises which they don't intend to keep (Malcolm X, 1-2).
Here, Malcolm X fervently and explicitly states that white politicians head to African-American communities and make all these false promises not because they intend to help their struggle for equality, but merely because they seek to gain office. As Malcolm X impeccably phrases it: “That's why, in 1964, it's time now for you and me to become more politically mature and realize what the ballot is for; what we're supposed to get when we cast a ballot; and that if we don't cast a ballot, it's going to end up in a situation where we're going to have to cast a bullet. It's either a ballot or a bullet” (4). From this premise, Malcolm X successfully ventures out and urges his audience to stop turning a blind eye and instead, be much more mindful of who they vote for.
Throughout his speech, Malcolm X employs the use of various rhetorical techniques that help his speech come to life. From the very beginning, an immediate aspect that stands out is Malcolm X’s tone. Malcolm X’s extreme degree of bluntness along with the logic and analysis he presents creates a mood where the reader is able to feel the anger and dissatisfaction that he feels towards the not only the white man, but also his fellow Blacks. In his speech, Malcolm X goes through the usual formalities that one would expect of anyone presenting a speech to an audience. He begins by introducing himself, by providing the public with some background information about himself, and by starting to hint at what his speech will concern. Immediately following these formalities however, he switches into full gear when he states why he is here today: “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... We're all in the same boat and we all are going to catch the same hell from the same man. He just happens to be a white man” (1). Shortly thereafter, he continues by stating that everyone has suffered at the hands of the white man, “All of us have suffered here, in this country, political oppression at the hands of the white man, economic exploitation at the hands of the white man, and social degradation at the hands of the white man” (1). It is important and significant to note that Malcolm X wastes no time with formalities. Instead, he immediately delves into the matter at hand. This therefore provides an indication of the fact that this was a pressing matter in his eyes. The words that he uses are also important. “Hell”, “oppression”, “degradation”. These are very powerful words that not only seek reactions from his audience, they also serve to convey Malcolm X’s anger and dissatisfaction.
Malcolm X is not only angry and dissatisfied by the white man’s inability to recognize African-Americans as the Americans that they are, he is also dissatisfied by his fellow African-Americans’ degree of passiveness towards the situation that they are in. Malcolm X presents a picture where it is as if African-Americans naively believe that voting for democrats would help their situation take a turn for the better. To this, Malcolm X tells them that they have to wake up.
To get his audience thinking, Malcolm X points out that both the House of Representatives and the Senate have had a democratic majority for a while now and yet, African-Americans have not made any progress. “What alibis do they use, since they control Congress and the Senate? What alibi do they use when you and I ask, "Well, when are you going to keep your promise?" They blame the Dixiecrats. What is a Dixiecrat? A Democrat” (3). A crucial element that Malcolm X repeatedly employs throughout his speech is the concept of rhetorical questioning. It is evident that Malcolm X recognizes the power of a question as here, he is not seeking answers from his audience, he is simply using these to keep his audience attentive so that they will ruminate on the statements he is making. “... I love my Brother Lomax, the way he pointed out we're right back where we were in 1954. We're not even as far up as we were in 1954. We're behind where we were in 1954. There's more segregation now than there was in 1954. There's more racial animosity, more racial hatred, more racial violence today in 1964, than there was in 1954. Where is the progress?” (5). In this quote, Malcolm X’s meticulous and strategic placement of the rhetorical question not only conveys his dissatisfaction, it also begins to make his audience really assimilate what he is saying. By now it is evident that Malcolm X knows that getting his audience to arrive at his conclusions on their own is a much more effective way to bring about the changes he proposes later on than if he simply tells them to take what he says at face value. Malcolm X’s anger and dissatisfaction is readily apparent when he address them and states:
It was the black man's vote that put the present administration in Washington, D.C. Your vote, your dumb vote, your ignorant vote, your wasted vote put in an administration in Washington, D.C., that has seen fit to pass every kind of legislation imaginable, saving you until last, then filibustering on top of that. And your and my leaders have the audacity to run around clapping their hands and talk about how much progress we're making... (2).
Malcolm X’s level of directness, his persistent attempts to get his audience to associate with what he is saying, and his logic all lead me to conclude that he was more than successful in his efforts to make his audience understand the importance and severity of not only their vote but also, their fight for rights as the Americans that they were.
Although the title of this speech may be “The Ballot or the Bullet”, as readers approach the final sections of his speech, it appears that there is a bigger and broader message that Malcolm X is trying to get out. By the end, Malcolm X explicitly states that African-Americans have to stop waiting around for the white man to eventually change his opinions of them. He proposes that the African-American community take matters into their own hands:
“If you don't take this kind of stand, your little children will grow up and look at you and think "shame." ... I don't mean go out and get violent... I'm nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me. But when you drop that violence on me, then you've made me go insane, and I'm not responsible for what I do. And that's the way every Negro should get. Any time you know you're within the law, within your legal rights, within your moral rights, in accord with justice, then die for what you believe in (7).
Although Malcolm is essentially telling Blacks to treat their opposition as they treat them, Malcolm is also planting a little seed that advocates for a more active approach in fighting for their rights. “We want freedom now, but we're not going to get it saying "We Shall Overcome." We've got to fight until we overcome” (9). This marks a point where Malcolm X blatantly points out that nonviolence can only get them so far. The whole notion that they will not get their freedom by saying “We Shale Overcome” alludes to all the times they have peacefully demonstrated. Now, Malcolm X seeks to get them to fight until they overcome.
“It's time for you and me to stop sitting in this country, letting some cracker senators, Northern crackers and Southern crackers, sit there in Washington, D.C., and come to a conclusion in their mind that you and I are supposed to have civil rights. There's no white man going to tell me anything about my rights. Brothers and sisters, always remember, if it doesn't take senators and congressmen and presidential proclamations to give freedom to the white man, it is not necessary for legislation or proclamation or Supreme Court decisions to give freedom to the black man. You let that white man know, if this is a country of freedom, let it be a country of freedom; and if it's not a country of freedom, change it” (11).
With these words providing a sense of closure, Malcolm X is really urging his fellow compatriots to stop sitting around and instead wake up to the reality at hand: that if they truly wanted to progress, that they had to adopt a more forcible stance and fight for their rights as Americans.
Malcolm X’s “The Ballot or the Bullet” is more than successful in not only cautioning African-Americans about the way that they exercise their right to vote, but also in urging his audience to stop turning a blind eye to their current situation and instead to adopt a more proactive role in efforts to finally receive the rights they deserved as Americans. Malcolm X’s extreme bluntness along with the logic and analysis that he presents creates a mood where the reader is more than able to feel his dissatisfaction and anger at both the white man and the black community. With the aforementioned elements, Malcolm X has the power to shock his audience into realizing the harsh truth that simple noncompliance will not help them more than it already has. Instead, he urges them to take action. This does not necessarily have to mean that the will go out and buy guns, as he points out in his speech, rather it means that they have to start by judiciously exercising their right to vote, by adopting a sense of black nationalism, and by adopting a more insistent role in fighting for their rights. Malcolm X expresses that only after this is done will they begin to gain ground.
Works Cited
Please excuse the formatting. As I copied and pasted the final draft, the formatting was completely lost and I couldn't fix it
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