The Ballot or the Bullet
Malcolm X used Black Nationalism to make blacks see that they need their own power in their own communities. He used his speeches to push people, and language that was confrontational, and reflected his anger for the established white social control. He had a very powerful voice and he knew how to use it. He drew great crowds of people to listen to him speak, not only blacks but also some whites. Malcolm X also uses a lot of repetition to get his points across. Malcolm X pushed people to make changes in the way they viewed money in their communities.
One of Malcolm X’s ideas’ for controlling money in the black communities was spending their money in their own communities. Black Nationalism was very important to him. He thought that his people needed to be educated on the importance of knowing where to spend their money. “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. Then what happens? The community in which you live becomes a slum” Malcolm X wanted blacks to take control of their own communities by spending their money within them, not out in the white communities, or in their own communities in white businesses.
Another way that Malcolm X wanted blacks to take control of their money was to rent, or buy their homes from blacks, not whites. “If you and I are going to live in a black community and that’s where we are going to live.” Malcolm X thought that if they kept their people together, renting and buying their homes from their own people, their communities would become more fruitful, and they would depend on the whites less.
Lastly Malcolm X thought that his people should own and operate their own businesses. He explains “The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we should own and...