As we celebrate the birth of Malcolm X on May 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. As 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 issues that Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for in their time. The battle is the same, but there are different facts and perspectives, but the desire for equality and freedom is still the objective.
The Ballot or the Bullet (excerpts)
Malcolm X shared some of his views in a now-historic speech entitled, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” and 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” by Malcolm X, 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 com- munity 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 peoples’ eyes, 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.
The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we should own and operate and control the economy of our community. You would never (open a Black-owned store) in a white community. They won’t even patronize you. And he’s not wrong. He got sense enough to look out for himself. It’s you who don’t have sense enough to look out for yourself.
They are too intelligent to let someone else come and gain control of the economy of his community. But you will let anybody come in and control the economy of your community, control the housing, control the education, control the jobs, control the businesses, under the pretext that you want to integrate. Nah, you’re out of your mind.
The political …the economic philosophy of Black Nationalism, only means that we have to become involved in a program of reeducation, to educate our people into the importance of knowing that when you spend your dollar out of the community in which you live, the community in which you spend your money becomes richer and richer, the community out of which you take your money becomes poorer and poorer. And because these Negroes, who have been misled, misguided, are breaking their necks to take their money and spend it with the man, the man is becoming richer and richer, and you’re becoming poorer and poorer. And then what happens? The community in which you live becomes a slum. It becomes a ghetto. The condi- tions become run down. And then you have the audacity to complain about poor housing in a rundown community, while you’re running down yourselves when you take your dollar out.
And you and I are in a double trap because not only do we lose by taking our money someplace else and spending it when we try and spend it in our own community we’re trapped because we haven’t had sense enough to set up stores and control the businesses of our community. The man who is controlling the stores in our community is a man who doesn’t look like we do. He’s a man who doesn’t even live in the community. So you and I, even when we try and spend our money on the block where we live or the area where we live, we’re spending it with a man who, when the sun goes down, takes that basket full of money in another part of the town. [applause]
So our people not only have to be reeducated on the importance of supporting Black business, but the Black man himself has to be made aware of the importance of going into business. And once you and I go into business, we own and operate at least the businesses in our community. What we will be doing is developing a situation, wherein, we will actually be able to create employment for the people in the community. And once you can create some employment in the community where you live, it will eliminate the necessity of you and me having to act ignorantly and disgracefully, boycotting and picketing someplace else, trying to beg “him” for a job.
So I say in my conclusion, the only way we’re going to solve it: we got to unite. We got to work together in unity and harmony. And Black Nationalism is the key. How are we gonna overcome the tendency to be at each other’s throats that always exists in our neighborhood? And the reason this tendency exists – (is because their) strategy has always been divide and conquer. He keeps us divided in order to conquer us. He tells you, I’m for separation, and you’re for integration, and (that) keeps us fighting with each other.
No, I’m not for separation, and you’re not for integration — what you and I are for is freedom. Only, you think that integration will get you freedom. I think that separation will get me freedom. We both got the same objective, we just got different ways of gettin’ at it.
These are just a few excerpts of The Ballot or the Bullet. You are encouraged to look up and read this speech in its entirety. It will definitely leave you thinking.
