The Ballot or the Bullet

“Today it’s time to stop singing and start swinging. You can’t sing up freedom, but you can swing up on some freedom.” 

Malcolm’s ability to orate effectively, using the colloquial language that was familiar to his audience, makes him more relatable than some other civil rights leaders, particularly to an audience that is working class and less educated. His alliterative verb and gerund choices juxtapose the mainstream civil rights movement’s passive action—singing to get its message across—with his more militant belief in being forceful, sometimes violent, in the pursuit of justice. Malcolm uses language that refers to boxing, alluding to his relationship to Muhammad Ali, and the reputation that boxers long held in the black community as proxies in their fight against white supremacy.

“We need a self-help program, a do-it-yourself philosophy, a do-it-right-now philosophy, a [sic] it’s already-too-late philosophy. This is what you and I need to get with, and the only way we are going to solve our problem is with a self-help program. Before we can get a self-help program started we have to have a self-help philosophy.” 

Malcolm’s concepts of “self-help” and “do-it-yourself” are not unrelated to the American concept of “pulling oneself up by the bootstraps,” achieving success as a result of one’s own efforts and not seeking help from elsewhere. They also connect to Booker T. Washington’s ideas about self-sufficiency. From Malcolm’s perspective, black people will not be able to help themselves until they develop an understanding of their problems.

“As long as you gotta sit-down philosophy, you’ll have a sit-down thought pattern, and as long as you think that old sit-down thought you’ll be in some kind of sit-down action. They’ll have you sitting in everywhere. It’s not so good to refer to what you’re going to do as a sit-in. That right there castrates you. Right there it brings you down […] An old woman can sit. An old man can sit. A chump can sit. A coward can sit. Anything can sit. Well you and I been sitting long enough, and it’s time today for us to start doing some standing, and some fighting to back that up.” 

In 1960, a group of young black men integrated a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, by sitting and refusing to move until they were served. The 1963 Birmingham Campaign led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference also promoted sit-ins. Malcolm dismisses sit-ins because he believes more forcefulness is necessary for white America to pay attention to black Americans’ needs. In reality, those who participated in sit-ins withstood physical and verbal abuse but remained immovable, refusing to react violently, which often proved far more frustrating to racists who would have relished a physical altercation. 

“I’m not a Republican, nor a Democrat, nor an American, and got sense enough to know it. I’m one of the 22 million black victims of the Democrats, one of the 22 million black victims of the Republicans, and one of the 22 million black victims of Americanism. And when I speak, I don’t speak as a Democrat, or a Republican, nor an American. I speak as a victim of America’s so-called democracy.” 

Malcolm eschews party sympathies, arguing that neither major political party has a vested interest in the well-being of black people. He also eschews national loyalty, asserting himself instead as black, which reinforces his later avowal of common cause with those fighting for freedom in Africa. He characterizes America’s self-concept as a democracy as false because of its history of victimizing black citizens. 

“We don’t see any American dream; we’ve experienced only the American nightmare.” 

Malcolm critiques the idea of the American Dream, which arguably depended on the oppression of non-white peoples. His “we” refers to the black Americans in the audience, but it can apply more broadly to any group of Americans that face systemic oppression. The metaphorical “nightmare” refers to the history of slavery, segregation, lynching, ghettoization, police brutality, and other horrors visited upon African Americans. 

“If you go to jail, so what? If you black, you were born in jail. If you black, you were born in jail, in the North as well as the South. Stop talking about the South. Long as you south of the Canadian border, you’re south.”

Malcolm argues that there is little to no difference between Northern and Southern racism. He also claims that for black people in the U.S., particularly black men, the limitations imposed on their movements, their economic progress, and even their access to the vote are a form of incarceration. Malcolm’s grammatically incorrect rhetoric reinforces the sense that he’s not unlike many of the people in his audience. He deliberately avoids the collegiate polish of other civil rights activists.

“Oh, I say you’ve been misled. You been had. You been took.” 

In one of Malcolm X’s best-known quotes, he uses colloquial speech to reinforce the fact that black people have been betrayed by those whom they have entrusted with their faith (i.e., the Democratic Party). 

“In the South, they’re outright political wolves. In the North, they’re political foxes. A fox and a wolf are both canine, both belong to the dog family. Now you take your choice. You going to choose a Northern dog or a Southern dog? Because either dog you choose I guarantee you you’ll still be in the dog house. This is why I say it’s the ballot or the bullet. It’s liberty or it’s death. It’s freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody.” 

Malcolm argues that there is no difference between Northern and Southern politicians; both are eager to prey on black voters. Northerners are more surreptitious, using gerrymandering to deprive black people of the vote, while Southerners use more aggressive methods, such as citizenship tests and terrorism. Malcolm also uses the metaphor of being “in the dog house”—whether dealing with both the viciousness of white Northerners or Southerners, black people end up being victimized and ostracized. Finally, Malcolm appropriates Patrick Henry’s famous statement to illustrate the urgency of the moment and black people’s willingness to sacrifice life for freedom.

“But today this country can become involved in a revolution that won’t take bloodshed. All she’s got to do is give the black man in this country everything that’s due him, everything.” 

Malcolm contrasts the revolution he views as necessary in the United States in the 1960s to those that preceded it—the American, French, and Russian Revolutions, which were bloody. He emphasizes that black people’s demands are meager and simple in comparison. All that would be required are legislative changes. He feminizes the United States by referring to the country as “she.” In this way, America becomes a woman who provides for and nourishes black people, hopefully with the promise of freedom.

“[A] white man can’t fight a guerilla warfare. Guerilla action takes heart, takes nerve, and he doesn’t have that. He’s brave when he’s got tanks. He’s brave when he’s got planes. He’s brave when he’s got bombs. He’s brave when he’s got a whole lot of company along with him, but you take that little man from Africa and Asia, turn him loose in the woods with a blade—that’s all he needs, all he needs is a blade—and when the sun goes down and it’s dark, it’s even-steven.” 

Malcolm describes why he thinks it is unlikely that the revolution on American soil would become a bloody one. He compares the possibility of warfare between blacks and whites at home with the wars already being fought in former European colonies, particularly Vietnam. Malcolm’s words will prove prophetic: The United States has just entered the Vietnam War but will soon realize that it is, indeed, unprepared for Vietnamese guerilla war tactics.

“[T]he strategy of the white man has always been divide and conquer. He keeps us divided in order to conquer us. He tells you I’m for separation and you for integration to keep us fighting with each other. No, I’m not for separation and you’re not for integration. What you and I is for is freedom.” 

“Divide and conquer” is a phrase first used by Julius Caesar, and Malcolm is likely referring to a war tradition in European culture that goes back to the Classical era. Among black people, the tactic is to sow discord by pointing out the supposedly stark ideological differences between black militants and integrationists or Christians and Muslims, when both are interested in a common cause. 

“The whole church structure in this country is white nationalism […] They got Jesus white, Mary white, God white, everybody white—that’s white nationalism.” 

Malcolm views American Christianity as an assimilationist tool. He argues that, going back to the antebellum era, whites convinced black people to worship idols who didn’t resemble them. A key part of the revolution of the 1960s was to reverse the religious brainwashing that had reinforced white supremacy. Reverend Cleage, whom Malcolm mentions at the beginning of his speech, played a role in this by featuring black representations of Christian figures in his Detroit-based church.

“He said the Africans are not interested in the American Negro. I knew he was lying, but during the next two or three weeks it’s my intention and plan to make a tour of our African homeland.” 

The “he” to whom Malcolm is referring is Illinois Senator Paul Douglas who supported civil rights but, according to Malcolm, didn’t support alliances between black Americans and Africans. To Malcolm, Douglas represents the hypocrisy of many white liberals who claim to support black liberation, but only in contexts with which they are comfortable. Malcolm believes they want black people to remain, to some degree, dependent on whites for guidance instead of aligning with other black people. Malcolm expresses his opposition to this sentiment by announcing his upcoming trip to Africa to reconnect with the heritage of which he and other black Americans have been deprived.