Analyse af Malcolm X's tale 'The Ballot or the Bullet'

Malcolm Little also known as Malcolm X, was a black nationalist, a Muslim, and a civil rights leader. He became a spokesman of ‘Nation Of Islam’ during his prison time and started to gain international popularity. He was then killed by the same political group in 1965. The rhetorical speech “The Ballot or the Bullet” is about his opinion, on how the whites treat the Afro-Americans in the United States, and how it is time to fight back. The title “The Ballot” meaning freedom and “the Bullet” meaning violence, is used to procure the equality of the black people, if they don’t get the ballot. He uses the rhetorical approach of ethos, to tell about who he is, who they are, where they come from. E.g. ‘No, I'm not an American. I'm one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism’. Malcolm telling about who they all are, and what they’re all going through, makes the audience more trustworthy towards him because he’s also the right person to talk about that subject. He also manages to use the rhetorical appeals of ‘pathos’ ‘I'm speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare’. In this quote, Malcolm talks about ‘I see America through the eyes of the victim’, he is a part of the victimism just like the other 22 million blacks. They’re all treated like they are inferior, and they have to stand up together. And an example of logos, ‘No, I'm not an American. I'm one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism’. Where he in this quote uses actual facts to describe who they are, and they are going through. 22 million ‘black’ people who are seen as victims. In the speech, Malcolm speaks in a serious, informal, and motivational way. He is of course very serious when it comes to this subject because this is about humanity and equality. He does not only speak of his own behalf but the behalf of the 22 million black people. ‘It's time for you and me to stop sitting in this country… and come to a conclusion in their mind that you and I are supposed to have civil rights’. By the way, he speaks, he’s making them stand up for each other and fight together to solve the problem. In the speech, Malcolm manages to use a lot of metaphors as, ‘I'm not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a ‘diner’. Sitting at the table doesn't make you a ‘diner’, unless you eat some of what's on that plate’. He uses the word ‘diner’ to allude to whether you’re a part of something or not. Just because you sit in a ‘diner’ doesn’t make you a ‘diner’ (a guest) unless you eat, just as you’re not American just because you are born there. E.g. white Europeans don’t have to pass civil-rights legislation to be an American, but if the individual is black, he does have to. Looking different means making amendments. Another metaphor is, ‘I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare’, where ‘American dream’ symbolizes something good, and ‘American nightmare’ symbolizes something bad has/is happening. The words ‘the ballot or the bullet’ is constantly said, to make the audience have the thought of ‘freedom or violence’. It must be the ballot or the bullet. Malcolm X’s intention with this speech was to motivate African Americans to keep fighting for civil rights, or else they’re not going to achieve freedom.