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A Rhetorical Analysis: The Ballot Or The Bullet By Malcolm X

925 Words4 Pages

Vicki Chacon
20063 WRT101 English Composition I
McCloy
2-5-2023

"The Ballot or The Bullet" by Malcolm X: A Rhetorical Analysis

The iconic delivery of an equally controversial stance. With this speech Malcolm X defined an often unrecognized take on the civil rights movement. Operating a tactical approach Malcolm was able to employ his own audience's anger towards the discrimination laws of 1960s America, to further push the credibility of his stance. Which we have come to know as the name of this speech, ‘the ballot or the bullet.’ To start, it is important to note that Malcolm X had a very unique way of persuasion. As an activist, Malcolm has always taken a direct take on civil rights, heavily based in his values. Those values being that …show more content…

Unlike other black activists of the time, Malcolm's perspective was coined as controversial because he, like his enemy on the other side of the civil rights war, believed in a segregated America. “Only, you think that integration will get you freedom; I think that separation will get me freedom. We both got the same objective, we just got different ways of getting' at it.”(Malcolm X.) He states this because his point since the start was to push Black nationalism, in fact he shamed any African American who didn't follow the philosophy of black nationalism “This is a philosophy that eliminates the necessity for division and argument, 'cause if you're black, you should be thinking black. And if you're black and you not thinking black at this late date, well, I'm sorry for you.”(Malcolm X) And his drive was to show white Americans that black nationalism would not be held back, even if it meant taking the fight by legislation or by force. To exemplify how controversial he was, his push for self-sufficiency in the black community was in deep contrast to the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. Throughout the speech he makes multiple jabs at King's passive approach. He uses the phrase “we shall overcome” after speaking on situations where the black man is truly helpless without action. “When we look at other parts of this Earth upon which we live, we find that black, brown, red and yellow people in Africa and Asia are getting their independence. They're not getting it by singing, 'We Shall Overcome.``(Malcolm X.) This is in reference to a phrase used by Martin Luther King that, much like the ballot or the bullet, defined his take on the civil rights

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