Critical Analysis of Malcolm X’s “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Malcolm X: His very name is a disregard to the beliefs of the white supremacists of his time. The "X" symbolizes his rejection of slave-names and the absence of an inherited African name to take its place. Similarly, in his speech "The Ballot or the Bullet", Malcolm X denounces the actions of the white population, without any attempts to appeal to them. His approach to the civil rights issue is in complete opposition to the tactics of other civil rights leaders of his time, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. Rather than trying to integrate the black community into the white, he focuses on the complete separation of them. He does not want the blacks to integrate into the white hotels; he wants blacks to own the hotels. Malcolm believed that the black population had to break the psychological, cultural, economic, and political dependency on their oppressors. By using tactical phrasing of his sentences that connects to his audience emotionally, Malcolm X attacked the tendency of African-Americans to identify with white America. He also insists they should identify with Africans, their ancestors. It is in this way he promotes his purpose: to instill a feeling of self-respect and self-help in his fellow African-Americans, which in turn is the stepping stone to the liberation of the black people. Malcom uses various forms of ethos, pathos, and logos to drive home his points to the audience.
Malcolm X utilizes logos and tones of pathos to break down the bridge between black and white America at the beginning of the speech. He phrased his sentences in such a way as to convince his audience of the fact that their place of residence does not determine they are. Therefore, blacks should not identify with white America. Though blacks are considered "citizens" of the United States, Malcolm asserts, "Everything that came out of Europe, every blue-eyed thing, is already an American. As long as you and I have been...