As we celebrate the birth of Malcolm X on March 19, we must recognize how much of an impact he made in our lives before his passing and even more so after his death. Malcolm’s teachings are still prevalent today.
The phrase “history repeats itself” is one we tend to marvel at in disbelief. When I look at the recent events surrounding COVID-19 and the inequalities relative to the quality of life and death, racial disparities, the political climate, and the current struggle for “basic” human rights–it is unbelievable that these issues are uniquely similar to the issue that Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for in their time. To me, the battle is the same.
In fact, for all the advances and glass ceilings we break, we are still treated and looked at, by many, as less than… We must regain our focus, UNITE, and FIGHT for human rights.
Sherri Darden
ScoopUSA Media
The Ballot or the Bullet (excerpts)
Malcolm X shared some of his views in a now-historic speech entitled “The Ballot or the Bullet,” though we think we have grown and developed as a nation and a people, many of the same concerns he spoke of are still relevant now, more than 50 years later.
Here are some excerpts from “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech made by Malcolm X on April 12, 1964, at King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit, just a month after he left the Nation of Islam.
The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that the Black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community. The time when white people can come into our community and get us to vote for them so that they can be our political leaders and tell us what to do and what not to do is long gone.
By the same token the time when that same white man, knowing that your eyes are too far open, can send another Negro in the community and get you and me to support him so that he can use him to lead us astray, those days are long gone too.
The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that if you and I are going to live in a Black community – and that’s where we’re going to live, ’cause as you move out of the Black community into their community, it’s mixed for a period of time, but (soon) they’re gone–and you’re right there all by yourself again.
We must understand the politics of our community, and we must know what politics is supposed to produce. We must know what part politics plays in our lives. And until we become politically mature, we will always be misled, led astray, or deceived, or maneuvered into supporting someone politically who doesn’t have the good of our community at heart. So the political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we will have to carry on a program, a political program, of reeducation – to open our people’s eyes and make us become more politically conscious politically mature. And then, we will—whenever we are ready to cast our ballot—that ballot will be cast for a man of the community who has the good of the community at heart.
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