Civil rights leader, Malcolm X, in his speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet” uses the teachings of Black Nationalism to assert that black people must take political action to gain equal rights. X hopes to unite the Black Community, so they can take action against a government that has denied them their rights. X uses an emphatic tone to rally his African American brothers and sisters in the fight for political representation. X needs his audience, whom he admits may be his enemies, to trust him in order to fulfill his purpose.(1). X uses words that characterize him positively in the eyes of the audience when he describes his understanding as “little” and “humble (1). By describing his ideas as humble X is characterizing himself as humble,