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

942 Words2 Pages

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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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