Almost 60 years ago, Malcolm X gave a speech which ranked 7th in the Top 100 American speeches of the 20th century. “The Ballot or the Bullet”, although originally perceived as very polemical and radical by White America, will soon be acknowledged as memorable and revolutionary. In this speech, Malcolm X stresses the importance of a wise use of the Black vote, alongside with the necessity of defending oneself if under the attack of White America. His speech is structured along the following bullet-points: the important value of the ballot, an analysis of the U.S. Government’s actions towards its Black citizens, the need to elevate the struggle of African-Americans from one of civil rights to one of human rights, the importance of Black Nationalism, the necessity of self-defense, and last but not least, the bullet and its correlation with the ballot. Now, in 2021, what can we learn from this speech? Have things changed? With whom lies the responsibility for current issues? Although the horizon doesn’t show much light for a better future, there is still a lot we can do as people of color for taking back control of our own communities and above all, of our own lives.
1 – The Ballot
“1964 threatens to be the most explosive year America has ever witnessed. The most explosive year. Why? It’s also a political year. It’s the year when all 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 treachery, with their false promises which they don’t intend to keep.”
Within the frame of our analysis, 2020 seems to have a lot in common with 1964. Indeed, at the end of last year, the United States elected a new president, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., a.k.a. Joe Biden. The latter, as per mainstream media’s discourse, represented the ultimate hope for a better future in America, for a more equal America, and above-all, for a more POC-friendly America. Black Americans in particular had hope for a leader who would hear them out and solve recurrent and grave issues such as that of police brutality, which remains extremely deadly and devastating for the African-American community. Following the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, the Black vote doubled in value in the eyes of a lot of politicians. Joe Biden happened to be one of them. Amidst the social unrest and the ongoing health crisis, coupled with a generalized anti-Trump climate, America’s 46th president made his entrance like a savior, ultimately “freeing America from Donald Trump”.
Nevertheless, what a lot of voters seem to have forgotten is that not being Trump has never meant being good. Not being Trump can mean being equally bad, immoral, or even unfit for duty as Trump was. Just because one person has demonstrated being inconsiderate, unethical, or mean, does not mean that their successor will do or be any better. The Left and the Right are, ultimately, wings from the same bird. They might differ in the manner in which they present themselves to the public (obnoxious vs. palatable, old-fashioned vs. modern, unrelatable vs. relatable, etc.) but what one needs to keep in mind is that their respective agenda does not differ in a great enough measure for one or the other to outwit the American system – a system, which has never had Black people’s backs, and still doesn’t to this day.
2 – The Government
“You and I in America are faced not with a segregationist conspiracy, we’re faced with a government conspiracy. Everyone who’s filibustering is a senator – that’s the government. Everyone who’s finagling in Washington, D.C., is a congressman – that’s the government. You don’t have anybody putting blocks in your path but people who are a part of the government. The same government that you go abroad to fight for and die for is the government that is in a conspiracy to deprive you of your voting rights, deprive you of your economic opportunities, deprive you of decent housing, deprive you of decent education.
You don’t need to go to the employer alone, it is the government itself, the government of America that is responsible for the oppression and exploitation and degradation of black people in this country. And you should drop it in their lap. This government has failed the Negro. This so-called democracy has failed the Negro. And all these white liberals have definitely failed the Negro.”
Despite a lot of people arguing that the “system” (what they mean by that is nothing but the government) no longer is racist, numbers seem to show otherwise. From Black Americans being more at risk of being injured or killed by the police than White Americans (or than any other ethnic minority in America), to Black Americans not receiving the same quality and quantity of healthcare than their White counterparts (as approached in my previous article), to predominantly Black school districts being underfunded in comparison to predominantly White districts, to the development and incorporation of racially biased technology in more and more strata of society, there are in fact more than enough evidences pointing towards the persistence of racism within the American system, and thus within the Government. Likewise, it sometimes isn’t by doing something that we notice racism and negrophobia, but rather by not doing anything. Indeed, in May 2021, amid attacks on Asian-Americans, Biden signed a bill against hate crimes directed towards this particular demographic. On the other hand, police brutality remains unaddressed while Black Americans (who have been suffering of racism in America for longer than their Asian counterparts) continue to wait for justice. Such gestures confirm the ethno-hierarchy through which America as a system operates. The more melanin, the less attention given.
3 – Human Rights
“When you expand the civil-rights struggle to the level of human rights, you can then take the case of the black man in this country before the nations in the U.N. You can take it before the General Assembly. You can take Uncle Sam before a world court. But the only level you can do it on is the level of human rights. Civil rights keeps you under his restrictions, under his jurisdiction. Civil rights keeps you in his pocket. Civil rights means you’re asking Uncle Sam to treat you right. Human rights are something you were born with. Human rights are your God-given rights. Human rights are the rights that are recognized by all nations of this earth. And any time anyone violates your human rights, you can take them to the world court.”
Something I have noticed with my own eyes when it comes to the violation of Black people’s rights is that the issue does not only lie in the pervasiveness and persistence of racial bias in society, but rather the ignorance of one’s rights, resulting in a recurrent absence of self-defense. A lot of us people of color do not know our own rights, and expect the world to treat us like our White counterparts. What we forget is that we are not perceived the same as our White counterparts by society, thereby making us more prone to unfair treatment. However, if we do not know our rights, and that society does not have our back, how can we expect to ever get justice when facing discrimination, hate, or persecution? By knowing our rights, we know where to draw the line, when to say no, when to say stop. We can take action, ask for help, seek justice. Without the knowledge of our rights, how can we expect things to ever change?
4 – Black Nationalism
“The social philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we have to get together and remove the evils, the vices, alcoholism, drug addiction, and other evils that are destroying the moral fiber of our community. We ourselves have to lift the level of our community, the standard of our community to a higher level, make our own society beautiful so that we will be satisfied in our own social circles and won’t be running around here trying to knock our way into a social circle where we’re not wanted. So I say, in spreading a gospel such as Black Nationalism, it is not designed to make the black man re-evaluate the white man – you know him already – but to make the black man re-evaluate himself. Don’t change the white man’s mind – you can’t change his mind, and that whole thing about appealing to the moral conscience of America – America’s conscience is bankrupt. She lost all conscience a long time ago. Uncle Sam has no conscience.”
Another thing the West hates, is when Black people stick together. As a matter of fact, they’ve even come up with a word to describe that: “communitarianism”. Yet, when a group of White individuals stick to each other and do not allow for any non-Whites to enter their circle, surprisingly enough, that is not labelled as communitarianism. Again, we’re hear dealing with some double standards. The same reason why the West hates and fear Black solidarity is the same reason why it has been carrying out a divisional policy – because strength lies in unity, and a united people is hairder to fool than a divided one. Although Black people in the West do not form a homogenous nation – Black existing in plurality rather than in singularity – we can all agree on the fact that the West does not see us as such.
The West does not care whether you’re Ethiopian, Trinidadian, Congolese or African-American. The West sees you as Black. With this in mind, we as people of color should try and see past our respective differences (religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) and strive to stick to each other more, for the West will not build for us. We need to build for ourselves.
5 – Self-defense
“Last but not least, I must say this concerning the great controversy over rifles and shotguns. The only thing that I’ve ever said is that in areas where the government has proven itself either unwilling or unable to defend the lives and the property of Negroes, it’s time for Negroes to defend themselves. Article number two of the constitutional amendments provides you and me the right to own a rifle or a shotgun. It is constitutionally legal to own a shotgun or a rifle. This doesn’t mean you’re going to get a rifle and form battalions and go out looking for white folks, although you’d be within your rights – I mean, you’d be justified; but that would be illegal and we don’t do anything illegal. If the white man doesn’t want the black man buying rifles and shotguns, then let the government do its job.”
The West sees a great difference between a White person owning a shotgun, and a Black person owning a shotgun. We see this drastic difference frequently (too frequently) in the media.
When a White teenage boy borrows his daddy’s rifle and plans a school shooting, the Western media presents the perpetrator as a sad misunderstood mentally-challenged teen. When a Black person uses a fire-weapon, whether for self-defense or aggression, they are immediately given the labels of terrorist, gangster, thug, or any other highly endearing term. Nevertheless, all Western opinions and judgements aside, one needs to keep in mind that if attacked, one has the right to defend themselves in whichever manner deemed appropriate to the circumstances. If a government to which Black people financially contribute on a daily basis has showed itself unable to defend its Black citizens, then it is entirely in the latter’s rights to defend themselves.
6 – The Bullet
“The Black Nationalists aren’t going to wait. Lyndon B. Johnson is the head of the Democratic Party. If he’s for civil rights, let him go into the Senate next week and declare himself. Let him go in there right now and declare himself. Let him go in there and denounce the Southern branch of his party. Let him go in there right now and take a moral stand – right now, not later. Tell him, don’t wait until election time. If he waits too long, brothers and sisters, he will be responsible for letting a condition develop in this country which will create a climate that will bring seeds up out of the ground with vegetation on the end of them looking like something these people never dreamed of. In 1964, it’s the ballot or the bullet.”
In 2020, in an almost dystopian climate, Black Americans casted a ballot, with the hope to stop the bullets. Almost a year later, in September 2021, we see in the news Black Haitian migrants being whipped by White border-protection officers patrolling on horseback. This scene, almost identically recreating the landscape of 18th-century America, happened under the administration of a man who claimed having Black people’s back. It happened under the watch of the first African-American, and first Indian-American female Vice President. It happened under the watch of an administration which gave its people the impression (or should I say the illusion) to be an ally. It turns out that once again, we did not understand the assignment. We still have not understood that a ballot can cost us a bullet.
Conclusion
I believe it is imperative to mature politically, and educate ourselves enough to understand the ropes of politics. The same way knowing the ingredients of the food you consume will help you understand what you put in your body, understanding the mechanisms of politics is essential to assess who deserves our ballot. While Republicans remain associated by the general public to conservatism, racism, sexism, homophobia, and overall to an unfriendliness towards minorities, Democrats only differ in the form they choose to take. Champions in performative activism and savant in public relations, the Democrats are only allies in appearance, for their actions speak louder than their words.
So what do you prefer? Someone who promises you the bare minimum and gives you the bare minimum, or someone who promises you the moon and gives you nothing but a pebble?
Aude Calloch 