Malcolm XThe Ballot or the Bullet.docx

1、Malcolm X The Ballot or the BulletThe Ballot or the BulletMalcolm X, 3 April 1964, in Cleveland OHThe audio version differs from the text below. The audio version was delivered by Malcolm Xs Ballot 12 April 1964 in Detroit, Michigan at a meeting sponsored by the Cleveland chapter of the Congress of

2、Racial Equality.Mr. Moderator, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, friends and enemies: I just cant believe everyone in here is a friend, and I dont want to leave anybody out. The question tonight, as I understand it, is The Negro Revolt, and Where Do We Go From Here? or What Next? In my little hum

3、ble way of understanding it, it points toward either the ballot or the bullet.Before we try and explain what is meant by the ballot or the bullet, I would like to clarify something concerning myself. Im still a Muslim; my religion is still Islam. Thats my personal belief. Just as Adam Clayton Powell

4、 is a Christian minister who heads the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York, but at the same time takes part in the political struggles to try and bring about rights to the black people in this country; and Dr. Martin Luther King is a Christian minister down in Atlanta, Georgia, who heads another o

5、rganization fighting for the civil rights of black people in this country; and Reverend Galamison, I guess youve heard of him, is another Christian minister in New York who has been deeply involved in the school boycotts to eliminate segregated education; well, I myself am a minister, not a Christia

6、n minister, but a Muslim minister; and I believe in action on all fronts by whatever means necessary.Although Im still a Muslim, Im not here tonight to discuss my religion. Im not here to try and change your religion. Im not here to argue or discuss anything that we differ about, because its time fo

7、r 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, a problem that will make you catch hell whether youre a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Muslim, or a nationalist. Whether youre educated or illiterate, whether you live on

8、the boulevard or in the alley, youre going to catch hell just like I am. Were 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. All of us have suffered here, in this country, political oppression at the hands of the white man, econ

9、omic exploitation at the hands of the white man, and social degradation at the hands of the white man.Now in speaking like this, it doesnt mean that were anti-white, but it does mean were anti-exploitation, were anti-degradation, were anti-oppression. And if the white man doesnt want us to be anti-h

10、im, let him stop oppressing and exploiting and degrading us. Whether we are Christians or Muslims or nationalists or agnostics or atheists, we must first learn to forget our differences. If we have differences, let us differ in the closet; when we come out in front, let us not have anything to argue

11、 about until we get finished arguing with the man. If the late President Kennedy could get together with Khrushchev and exchange some wheat, we certainly have more in common with each other than Kennedy and Khrushchev had with each other.If we dont do something real soon, I think youll have to agree

12、 that were going to be forced either to use the ballot or the bullet. Its one or the other in 1964. It isnt that time is running outtime has run out!1964 threatens to be the most explosive year America has ever witnessed. The most explosive year. Why? Its also a political year. Its the year when all

13、 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 treacher

14、y, with their false promises which they dont intend to keep. As they nourish these dissatisfactions, it can only lead to one thing, an explosion; and now we have the type of black man on the scene in America todayIm sorry, Brother Lomaxwho just doesnt intend to turn the other cheek any longer.Dont l

15、et anybody tell you anything about the odds are against you. If they draft you, they send you to Korea and make you face 800 million Chinese. If you can be brave over there, you can be brave right here. These odds arent as great as those odds. And if you fight here, you will at least know what youre

16、 fighting for.Im not a politician, not even a student of politics; in fact, Im not a student of much of anything. Im not a Democrat. Im not a Republican, and I dont even consider myself an American. If you and I were Americans, thered be no problem. Those Honkies that just got off the boat, theyre a

17、lready Americans; Polacks are already Americans; the Italian refugees are already Americans. Everything that came out of Europe, every blue-eyed thing, is already an American. And as long as you and I have been over here, we arent Americans yet.Well, I am one who doesnt believe in deluding myself. I

18、m not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesnt make you a diner, unless you eat some of whats on that plate. Being here in America doesnt make you an American. Being born here in America doesnt make you an American.

19、Why, if birth made you American, you wouldnt need any legislation; you wouldnt need any amendments to the Constitution; you wouldnt be faced with civil-rights filibustering in Washington, D.C., right now. They dont have to pass civil-rights legislation to make a Polack an American.No, Im not an Amer

20、ican. Im one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, Im not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waverno, not I. Im

21、 speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I dont see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.These 22 million victims are waking up. Their eyes are coming open. Theyre beginning to see what they used to only look at. Theyre becoming poli

22、tically mature. They are realizing that there are new political trends from coast to coast. As they see these new political trends, its possible for them to see that every time theres an election the races are so close that they have to have a recount. They had to recount in Massachusetts to see who

23、 was going to be governor, it was so close. It was the same way in Rhode Island, in Minnesota, and in many other parts of the country. And the same with Kennedy and Nixon when they ran for president. It was so close they had to count all over again. Well, what does this mean? It means that when whit

24、e people are evenly divided, and black people have a bloc of votes of their own, it is left up to them to determine whos going to sit in the White House and whos going to be in the dog house.It was the black mans vote that put the present administration in Washington, D.C. Your vote, your dumb vote,

25、 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 ho

26、w much progress were making. And what a good president we have. If he wasnt good in Texas, he sure cant be good in Washington, D.C. Because Texas is a lynch state. It is in the same breath as Mississippi, no different; only they lynch you in Texas with a Texas accent and lynch you in Mississippi wit

27、h a Mississippi accent. And these Negro leaders have the audacity to go and have some coffee in the White House with a Texan, a Southern crackerthats all he isand then come out and tell you and me that hes going to be better for us because, since hes from the South, he knows how to deal with the Sou

28、therners. What kind of logic is that? Let Eastland be president, hes from the South too. He should be better able to deal with them than Johnson.In this present administration they have in the House of Representatives 257 Democrats to only 177 Republicans. They control two-thirds of the House vote.

29、Why cant they pass something that will help you and me? In the Senate, there are 67 senators who are of the Democratic Party. Only 33 of them are Republicans. Why, the Democrats have got the government sewed up, and youre the one who sewed it up for them. And what have they given you for it? Four ye

30、ars in office, and just now getting around to some civil-rights legislation. Just now, after everything else is gone, out of the way, theyre going to sit down now and play with you all summer longthe same old giant con game that they call filibuster. All those are in cahoots together. Dont you ever

31、think theyre not in cahoots together, for the man that is heading the civil-rights filibuster is a man from Georgia named Richard Russell. When Johnson became president, the first man he asked for when he got back to Washington, D.C., was Dickythats how tight they are. Thats his boy, thats his pal,

32、thats his buddy. But theyre playing that old con game. One of them makes believe hes for you, and hes got it fixed where the other one is so tight against you, he never has to keep his promise.So its time in 1964 to wake up. And when you see them coming up with that kind of conspiracy, let them know your eyes are open. And let them know yousomething else thats wide open too. Its got to be the ballot or the bullet. The ballot or the bullet. If youre afraid to use an expression like that, you should get on out of the country; you should get back in the cotton pa