英语演讲7. Malcolm X - The Ballot or the Bullet

英语演讲7. Malcolm X - The Ballot or the Bullet

7. Malcolm X - The Ballot or the Bullet

Mr. Moderator, Reverend Cleage, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, and
Malcolm friends --and I see some enemies.

In fact, I think we’d be fooling

Read Abourselves if we had an audience this large and didn’t realize that there
History were some enemies present.

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This afternoon we want to talk about "The ballot or the bullet." The ballot BlackHisto
or the bullet explains itself. But before we get into it, since this is the year
of the ballot or the bullet, I would like to clarify some things that refer to
me personally --concerning my own personal position.

The DNA Project.

I'm still a Muslim. That is, my religion is still Islam. My religion is still

Trace you Islam. I still credit Mr. Mohammed for what I know and what I am. He's the
ancestraone who opened my eyes. At present, I'm the Minister of the newlyDNA Dis
founded Muslim Mosque, Incorporated, which has its offices in the Teresaethnic o

Hotel, right in the heart of Harlem --that’s the black belt in New York city. www.dnaa
And when we realize that Adam Clayton Powell is a Christian minister, he’s
the --he heads Abyssinian Baptist Church, but at the same time, he’s more
famous for his political struggling.


And Dr. King is a Christian Minister, in Atlanta --from Atlanta Georgia --or TripleGro.
in Atlanta, Georgia, but he’s become more famous for being involved in the
civil rights struggle. There’s another in New York, Reverend Galamison --I
don’t know if you’ve heard of him out here --he’s a Christian Minister from
Brooklyn, but has become famous for his fight against a segregated school
system in Brooklyn. Reverend Cleage, right here, is a Christian Minister,
here in Detroit. He’s the head of the “Freedom Now Party.”
All of these are
Christian Ministers --All of these are Christian Ministers, but they don’t
come to us as Christian Ministers. They come to us as fighters in some
other category.

I’m a Muslim minister. The same as they are Christian Ministers, I’ma
Muslim minister. And I don’t believe in fighting today in any one front, but
on all fronts. In fact, I’m a "Black Nationalist Freedom Fighter." Islam is my
religion, but I believe my religion is my personal business. It governs my
personal life, my personal morals. And my religious philosophy is personal
between me and the God in whom I believe; just as the religious
philosophy of these others is between them and the God in whom they
believe.

And this is best this way. Were we to come out here discussing religion,
we’d have too many differences from the outstart and we could never get
together. So today, though Islam is my religious philosophy, my political,
economic, and social philosophy is Black Nationalism. You and I --As I say,
if we bring up religion we’ll have differences; we’ll have arguments; and
we’ll never be able to get together. But if we keep our religion at home,
keep our religion in the closet, keep our religion between ourselves and our
God, but when we come out here, we have a fight that’s common to all of
us against a [sic] enemy who is common to all of us.


The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that the black
man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community.
The --The time --The time when white people can come in 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 into the community and get you and me to support
him so 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 soon as you move into one of their --soon as you move out
of the Black community into their community, it’s mixed for a period of
time, but they’re gone and you’re right there all by yourself again. We
must --We must understand the politics of our community and we must
know what politics is supposed to produce. We must know what part
politics play in our lives. And until we become politically mature we will
always be mislead, lead 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 re-education to open
our people's eyes, make us become more politically conscious, politically
mature, and then we will --whenever we get ready to cast our ballot, that
ballot will be --will be cast for a man of the community who has the good
of the community of 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 --You can’t open up a black store in a white community. White men
won’t even patronize you. And he’s not wrong. He’s got sense enough to
look out for himself. You the one who don’t have sense enough to look out
for yourself. The white man --The white man is too intelligent to let
someone else come and gain control of the economy of his community. But
you will let anybody come in and take control of 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. No,
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 which you take
your money becomes poorer and poorer. And because these negroes, who
have been mislead, 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
conditions become run down. And then you have the audacity to --to
complain about poor housing in a run-down community. Why you run it
down yourself when you take your dollar out.

And you and I are in a double-track, 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’s 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 in 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.

So we’re trapped, trapped, double-trapped, triple-trapped. Anywhere we
go we find that we’re trapped. And every kind of solution that someone
comes up with is just another trap. But the political and economic
philosophy of Black Nationalism --the economic philosophy of Black
Nationalism shows our people the importance of setting up these little
stores and developing them and expanding them into larger operations.
Woolworth didn’t start out big like they are today. They started out with a
dime store and expanded and expanded and then expanded until today,
they’re are all over the country and all over the world, and they get to
some of everybody’s money. Now this is what you and I --General Motors
[is] the same way. They didn’t start out like it is. It started out just a little
rat race type operation. And it expanded and it expanded until today it's
where it is right now. And you and I have to make a start and the best
place to start is right in the community where we live.