Analysis Of Malcolm X's Speech: The Ballot Or The Bullet

To quote from Malcolm X “Usually when people are sad, they don 't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.” His Speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet” On April 3, 1964,a month after Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam, Malcolm delivered “The Ballot or the Bullet a meeting that was sponsored by the chapter of Congress for Racial Equality. (Cone 194) The phrase, the ballot or the bullet; the ballot referred to freedom and the bullet meant the violence they would use if they didn’t get the ballot. Malcolm X captivated people everywhere with his speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet” but why were they so interested? Was it his strong and sturdy voice, or his philosophies? While these did play

"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

He wanted to make the audience members angry, because anger has the ability to make people take action. "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." (The Ballot or the Bullet). Later on in the speech Malcolm X talked about how the political parties maneuver the blacks out of power, which also was used to make the blacks angry and cause action. “Even though you vote, they fix it so that you’re voting for nobody; they’ve got you going and coming. In the South, they’re out right political wolves. In the North they are political foxes. A wolf and a fox are both canine, both belonging to the dog family.” (The Ballot or the Bullet) X wanted to appeal to the audience emotions so he explained that no leader had brought up the fact that African Americans choices were bound, little girls murdered, and leaders shot in the daylight to the United Nations. Thus, Malcolm took matters into his own hands, “So our 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 Afro-Americans.” About three fourths into his speech, Malcolm X stated that, “Uncle Sam 's hands are dripping with blood, dripping with