Unemployment
rates are not just numbers, but Obama has never heard
anyone but his Wall Street and Harvard friends. Non-Wall
Streeters and non-Harvard people lost their livelihoods,
their incomes, homes, health care! People lost whatever
they had - before! But “considering what we’ve been through.”
Who is “we”? Is he included in the loss of livelihood,
income, home, health care? “People are opening businesses,
and looking over their families, taking care of their
responsibilities.” – In their struggle to remain afloat
- they are scrambling! Keep taking on your responsibilities,
90 percent of you Blacks who will vote for me! Keep it
up, you who are economically poor! “So there’s still a
lot of good stuff happening…”
Folks,
the president said, are “frustrated.” Just frustrated!
Hey, you know what, you know what…Hey, cackle, cackle,
cackle. Hey…I’m everyman of the Empire! “Larry Summer
did a heck of a job.”
Sounds
like a duck! Larry Summer’s did a “heck of a job” and
Obama’s own “heck of a job” as Commander and Chief in
Afghanistan
and in Pakistan. (But he
cannot cackle about the continuation of war, torture,
and the killing of civilians on the Daily Show
because “we” cannot further frustrate the American public,
can we - with the election a few days away?).
Don’t ask and we won’t tell you! Check out the smiling,
cackling ducks offer you! Just vote - in our one party
system!
Let
us return to reality!
Let
us return to someone who never was cackling duck!
As
I once told a student in one of my classes - Let Malcolm
speak to you!
From
“Ballot or the Bullet”:
If
we don’t do something real soon, I think you’ll have to
agree that we’re going to be forced either to use the
ballot or the bullet. It’s one or the other in 1964. It
isn’t that time is running out - time has run out! [ii]
1964
threatens to be the most explosive year America
has ever witnessed. The most explosive year. Why? It’s
also a political year. It’s the year when all of the white
politicians will be back in the so-called Negro community
jiving you and me for some votes. The year when all of
the white political crooks will be right back in your
and my community with their false promises, building up
our hopes for a letdown, with their trickery and their
treachery, with their false promises which they don’t
intend to keep…
I’m
not a politician, not even a student of politics; in fact,
I’m not a student of much of anything. I’m not a Democrat.
I’m not a Republican, and I don’t even consider myself
an American…
Well,
I am one who doesn’t believe in deluding myself. 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. Being here in America
doesn’t make you an American. Being born here in America doesn’t make you an American. Why, if
birth made you American, you wouldn’t need any legislation;
you wouldn’t need any amendments to the Constitution;
you wouldn’t be faced with civil-rights filibustering
in Washington,
D.C., right now…
No,
I’m not an American. I’m one of the 22 million black people
who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million
black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing
but disguised hypocrisy. So, I’m not standing here speaking
to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter,
or a flag-waver - no, not I. 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.
These
22 million victims are waking up. Their eyes are coming
open…
lt
was the black man’s vote that put the present administration
in Washington, D.C. Your vote, your dumb vote, your
ignorant vote, your wasted vote put in an administration
in Washington,
D.C., that has seen fit to pass every
kind of legislation imaginable, saving you until last,
then filibustering on top of that. And your and my leaders
have the audacity to run around clapping their hands and
talk about how much progress we’re making. And what a
good president we have…
In
this present administration they have in the House of
Representatives 257 Democrats to only 177 Republicans.
They control two-thirds of the House vote. Why can’t they
pass something that will help you and me? In the Senate,
there are 67 senators who are of the Democratic Party.
Only 33 of them are Republicans. Why, the Democrats have
got the government sewed up, and you’re the one who sewed
it up for them. And what have they given you for it?...
But
they’re playing that old con game. One of them makes believe
he’s for you, and he’s got it fixed where the other one
is so tight against you, he never has to keep his promise…
So
it’s time in 1964 to wake up. And when you see them coming
up with that kind of conspiracy, let them know your eyes
are open. And let them know you - something else that’s
wide open too. It’s got to be the ballot or the bullet.
The ballot or the bullet. If you’re afraid to use an expression
like that, you should get on out of the country; you should
get back in the cotton patch; you should get back in the
alley. They get all the Negro vote, and after they get
it, the Negro gets nothing in return. 
All
they did when they got to Washington was give a few big Negroes big jobs. Those big Negroes didn’t
need big jobs, they already had jobs. That’s camouflage,
that’s trickery, that’s treachery, window-dressing. I’m
not trying to knock out the Democrats for the Republicans.
We’ll get to them in a minute. But it is true; you put
the Democrats first and the Democrats put you last.
Look
at it the way it is. What alibis do they use, since they
control Congress and the Senate? What alibi do they use
when you and I ask, “Well, when are you going to keep
your promise?” They blame the Dixiecrats. What is a Dixiecrat?
A Democrat. A Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat in disguise.
The titular head of the Democrats is also the head of
the Dixiecrats, because the Dixiecrats are a part of the
Democratic Party. The Democrats have never kicked the
Dixiecrats out of the party. The Dixiecrats bolted themselves
once, but the Democrats didn’t put them out. Imagine,
these lowdown Southern segregationists put the Northern
Democrats down. But the Northern Democrats have never
put the Dixiecrats down. No, look at that thing the way
it is. They have got a con game going on, a political
con game, and you and I are in the middle. It’s time for
you and me to wake up and start looking at it like it
is, and trying to understand it like it is; and then we
can deal with it like it is.
The
Dixiecrats in Washington, D.C., control the
key committees that run the government. The only reason
the Dixiecrats control these committees is because they
have seniority. The only reason they have seniority is
because they come from states where Negroes can’t vote.
This is not even a government that’s based on democracy.
lt. is not a government that is made up of representatives
of the people…
I
say again, I’m not anti-Democrat, I’m not anti-Republican,
I’m not anti-anything. I’m just questioning their sincerity,
and some of the strategy that they’ve been using on our
people by promising them promises that they don’t intend
to keep. When you keep the Democrats in power, you’re
keeping the Dixiecrats in power… A vote for a Democrat
is a vote for a Dixiecrat. That’s why, in 1964, it’s time
now for you and me to become more politically mature and
realize what the ballot is for; what we’re supposed to
get when we cast a ballot; and that if we don’t cast a
ballot, it’s going to end up in a situation where we’re
going to have to cast a bullet. It’s either a ballot or
a bullet…
So,
what I’m trying to impress upon you, in essence, is this:
You and I in America are faced not with a segregationist conspiracy,
we’re faced with a government conspiracy. Everyone who’s
filibustering is a senator - that’s the government. Everyone
who’s finagling in Washington,
D.C., is a congressman - that’s the government. You don’t have anybody
putting blocks in your path but people who are a part
of the government. The same government that you go abroad
to fight for and die for is the government that is in
a conspiracy to deprive you of your voting rights, deprive
you of your economic opportunities, deprive you of decent
housing, deprive you of decent education. You don’t need
to go to the employer alone, it is the government itself,
the government of America that is responsible
for the oppression and exploitation and degradation of
black people in this country. And you should drop it in
their lap. This government has failed the Negro. This
so-called democracy has failed the Negro. And all these
white liberals have definitely failed the Negro.
So,
where do we go from here? First, we need some friends.
We need some new allies. The entire civil-rights struggle
needs a new interpretation, a broader interpretation.
We need to look at this civil-rights thing from another
angle - from the inside as well as from the outside…
How
can you thank a man for giving you what’s already yours?
How then can you thank him for giving you only part of
what’s already yours? You haven’t even made progress,
if what’s being given to you, you should have had already.
That’s not progress… There’s more racial animosity, more
racial hatred, more racial violence today in 1964, than
there was in 1954. Where is the progress?...
Well,
we’re justified in seeking civil rights, if it means equality
of opportunity, because all we’re doing there is trying
to collect for our investment. Our mothers and fathers
invested sweat and blood. Three hundred and ten years
we worked in this country without a dime in return - I
mean without a dime in return. You let the white man walk
around here talking about how rich this country is, but
you never stop to think how it got rich so quick. It got
rich because you made it rich.
You
take the people who are in this audience right now. They’re
poor. We’re all poor as individuals. Our weekly salary
individually amounts to hardly anything. But if you take
the salary of everyone in here collectively, it’ll fill
up a whole lot of baskets. It’s a lot of wealth. If you
can collect the wages of just these people right here
for a year, you’ll be rich - richer than rich. When you
look at it like that, think how rich Uncle Sam had to
become, not with this handful, but millions of black people.
Your and my mother and father, who didn’t work an eight-hour
shift, but worked from “can’t see” in the morning until
“can’t see” at night, and worked for nothing, making the
white man rich, making Uncle Sam rich. This is our investment.
This is our contribution, our blood.
Not
only did we give of our free labor, we gave of our blood.
Every time he had a call to arms, we were the first ones
in uniform. We died on every battlefield the white man
had. We have made a greater sacrifice than anybody who’s
standing up in America today. We
have made a greater contribution and have collected less…
I
might stop right here to point out one thing. Whenever
you’re going after something that belongs to you, anyone
who’s depriving you of the right to have it is a criminal.
Understand that. Whenever you are going after something
that is yours, you are within your legal rights to lay
claim to it. And anyone who puts forth any effort to deprive
you of that which is yours, is breaking the law, is a
criminal. And this was pointed out by the Supreme Court
decision. It outlawed segregation.
Which
means segregation is against the law. Which means a segregationist
is breaking the law. A segregationist is a criminal. You
can’t label him as anything other than that. And when
you demonstrate against segregation, the law is on your
side. The Supreme Court is on your side.
Now,
who is it that opposes you in carrying out the law? The
police department itself. With police dogs and clubs.
Whenever you demonstrate against segregation, whether
it is segregated education, segregated housing, or anything
else, the law is on your side, and anyone who stands in
the way is not the law any longer. They are breaking the
law; they are not representatives of the law. Any time
you demonstrate against segregation and a man has the
audacity to put a police dog on you, kill that dog, kill
him, I’m telling you, kill that dog. I say it, if they
put me in jail tomorrow, kill that dog. 
Then
you’ll put a stop to it. Now, if these white people in
here don’t want to see that kind of action, get down and
tell the mayor to tell the police department to pull the
dogs in. That’s all you have to do. If you don’t do it,
someone else will.
If
you don’t take this kind of stand, your little children
will grow up and look at you and think “shame.” If you
don’t take an uncompromising stand, I don’t mean go out
and get violent; but at the same time you should never
be nonviolent unless you run into some nonviolence. I’m
nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me. But
when you drop that violence on me, then you’ve made me
go insane, and I’m not responsible for what I do. And
that’s the way every Negro should get. Any time you know
you’re within the law, within your legal rights, within
your moral rights, in accord with justice, then die for
what you believe in. But don’t die alone. Let your dying
be reciprocal. This is what is meant by equality. What’s
good for the goose is good for the gander.
When
we begin to get in this area, we need new friends, we
need new allies. We need to expand the civil-rights struggle
to a higher level - to the level of human rights. Whenever
you are in a civil-rights struggle, whether you know it
or not, you are confining yourself to the jurisdiction
of Uncle Sam. No one from the outside world can speak
out on your behalf as long as your struggle is a civil-rights
struggle. Civil rights comes within the domestic affairs
of this country. All of our African brothers and our Asian
brothers and our Latin-American brothers cannot open their
mouths and interfere in the domestic affairs of the United
States. And as long as it’s civil
rights, this comes under the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam.
But
the United Nations has what’s known as the charter of
human rights; it has a committee that deals in human rights.
You may wonder why all of the atrocities that have been
committed in Africa and in Hungary
and in Asia, and in Latin America
are brought before the UN, and the Negro problem is never
brought before the UN. This is part of the conspiracy.
This old, tricky blue-eyed liberal who is supposed to
be your and my friend, supposed to be in our corner, supposed
to be subsidizing our struggle, and supposed to be acting
in the capacity of an adviser, never tells you anything
about human rights. They keep you wrapped up in civil
rights. And you spend so much time barking up the civil-rights
tree, you don’t even know there’s a human-rights tree
on the same floor.
When
you expand the civil-rights struggle to the level of human
rights, you can then take the case of the black man in
this country before the nations in the UN. You can take
it before the General Assembly. You can take Uncle Sam
before a world court. But the only level you can do it
on is the level of human rights. Civil rights keeps you
under his restrictions, under his jurisdiction. Civil
rights keeps you in his pocket. Civil rights means you’re
asking Uncle Sam to treat you right. Human rights are
something you were born with. Human rights are your God-given
rights. Human rights are the rights that are recognized
by all nations of this earth. And any time any one violates
your human rights, you can take them to the world court.
Uncle
Sam’s hands are dripping with blood, dripping with the
blood of the black man in this country. He’s the earth’s
number-one hypocrite. He has the audacity - yes, he has
- imagine him posing as the leader of the free world.
The free world! And you over here singing “We Shall Overcome.”
Expand the civil-rights struggle to the level of human
rights. Take it into the United Nations, where our African
brothers can throw their weight on our side, where our
Asian brothers can throw their weight on our side, where
our Latin-American brothers can throw their weight on
our side, and where 800 million Chinamen are sitting there
waiting to throw their weight on our side.
Let
the world know how bloody his hands are. Let the world
know the hypocrisy that’s practiced over here. Let it
be the ballot or the bullet. Let him know that it must
be the ballot or the bullet.
When
you take your case to Washington,
D.C., you’re taking it to the criminal who’s responsible; it’s like
running from the wolf to the fox. They’re all in cahoots
together. They all work political chicanery and make you
look like a chump before the eyes of the world. Here you
are walking around in America, getting ready to be drafted
and sent abroad, like a tin soldier, and when you get
over there, people ask you what are you fighting for,
and you have to stick your tongue in your cheek. No, take
Uncle Sam to court, take him before the world.
By
ballot I only mean freedom. Don’t you know - I disagree
with Lomax on this issue - that the ballot is more important
than the dollar? Can I prove it? Yes. Look in the UN.
There are poor nations in the UN; yet those poor nations
can get together with their voting power and keep the
rich nations from making a move. They have one nation
- one vote, everyone has an equal vote. And when those
brothers from Asia, and Africa and the darker parts of this earth get together, their voting
power is sufficient to hold Sam in check. Or Russia in check. Or some other section of the
earth in check. So, the ballot is most important.
Right
now, in this country, if you and I, 22 million African-Americans
- that’s what we are - Africans who are in America…
So,
you’re dealing with a man whose bias and prejudice are
making him lose his mind, his intelligence, every day.
He’s frightened. He looks around and sees what’s taking
place on this earth, and he sees that the pendulum of
time is swinging in your direction. The dark people are
waking up. They’re losing their fear of the white man.
No place where he’s fighting right now is he winning.
Everywhere he’s fighting, he’s fighting someone your and
my complexion. And they’re beating him. He can’t win any
more. He’s won his last battle. He failed to win the Korean
War. He couldn’t win it. He had to sign a truce. That’s
a loss.
Any
time Uncle Sam, with all his machinery for warfare, is
held to a draw by some rice eaters, he’s lost the battle.
He had to sign a truce. America’s not supposed to sign a truce. She’s
supposed to be bad. But she’s not bad any more. She’s
bad as long as she can use her hydrogen bomb, but she
can’t use hers for fear Russia might use
hers. Russia
can’t use hers, for fear that Sam might use his. So, both
of them are weapon-less. They can’t use the weapon because
each weapon nullifies the other. So the only place where
action can take place is on the ground. And the white
man can’t win another war fighting on the ground. Those
days are over The black man knows it, the brown man knows
it, the red man knows it, and the yellow man knows it.
So they engage him in guerrilla warfare. 
That’s
not his style. You’ve got to have heart to be a guerrilla
warrior, and he hasn’t got any heart. I’m telling you
now…
I
would like to say, in closing, a few things concerning
the Muslim Mosque, Inc., which we established recently
in New York City.
It’s true we’re Muslims and our religion is Islam, but
we don’t mix our religion with our politics and our economics
and our social and civil activities - not any more We
keep our religion in our mosque. After our religious services
are over, then as Muslims we become involved in political
action, economic action and social and civic action. We
become involved with anybody, any where, any time and
in any manner that’s designed to eliminate the evils,
the political, economic and social evils that are afflicting
the people of our community.
The
political philosophy of black nationalism means that the
black man should control the politics and the politicians
in his own community; no more. The black man in the black
community has to be re-educated into the science of politics
so he will know what politics is supposed to bring him
in return. Don’t be throwing out any ballots. A ballot
is like a bullet. You don’t throw your ballots until you
see a target, and if that target is not within your reach,
keep your ballot in your pocket…
Black
people are fed up with the dillydallying, pussyfooting,
compromising approach that we’ve been using toward getting
our freedom. We want freedom now, but we’re not going
to get it saying “We Shall Overcome.” We’ve got to fight
until we overcome.
The
economic philosophy of black nationalism is pure and simple.
It only means that we should control the economy of our
community. Why should white people be running all the
stores in our community? 
Why
should white people be running the banks of our community?
Why should the economy of our community be in the hands
of the white man? Why? If a black man can’t move his store
into a white community, you tell me why a white man should
move his store into a black community. The philosophy
of black nationalism involves a re-education program in
the black community in regards to economics. Our people
have to be made to see that any time you take your dollar
out of your community and spend it in a community where
you don’t live, the community where you live will get
poorer and poorer, and the community where you spend your
money will get richer and richer.
Then
you wonder why where you live is always a ghetto or a
slum area. And where you and I are concerned, not only
do we lose it when we spend it out of the community, but
the white man has got all our stores in the community
tied up; so that though we spend it in the community,
at sundown the man who runs the store takes it over across
town somewhere. He’s got us in a vise. So the economic
philosophy of black nationalism means in every church,
in every civic organization, in every fraternal order,
it’s time now for our people to be come conscious of the
importance of controlling the economy of our community.
If we own the stores, if we operate the businesses, if
we try and establish some industry in our own community,
then we’re developing to the position where we are creating
employment for our own kind. Once you gain control of
the economy of your own community, then you don’t have
to picket and boycott and beg some cracker downtown for
a job in his business.
The
social philosophy of black nationalism only means that
we have to get together and remove the evils, the vices,
alcoholism, drug addiction, and other evils that are destroying
the moral fiber of our community. We, ourselves, have
to lift the level of our community, the standard of our
community to a higher level, make our own society beautiful
so that we will be satisfied in our own social circles
and won’t be running around here trying to knock our way
into a social circle where we’re not wanted. 
So
I say, in spreading a gospel such as black nationalism,
it is not designed to make the black man re-evaluate the
white man - you know him already - but to make the black
man re-evaluate himself. Don’t change the white man’s
mind - you can’t change his mind, and that whole thing
about appealing to the moral conscience of America
- America’s
conscience is bankrupt. She lost all conscience a long
time ago. Uncle Sam has no conscience.
They
don’t know what morals are. They don’t try and eliminate
an evil because it’s evil, or because it’s illegal, or
because it’s immoral; they eliminate it only when it threatens
their existence. So you’re wasting your time appealing
to the moral conscience of a bankrupt man like Uncle Sam.
If he had a conscience, he’d straighten this thing out
with no more pressure being put upon him. So it is not
necessary to change the white man’s mind. We have to change
our own mind. You can’t change his mind about us. We’ve
got to change our own minds about each other. We have
to see each other with new eyes. We have to see each other
as brothers and sisters. We have to come together with
warmth so we can develop unity and harmony that’s necessary
to get this problem solved ourselves. How can we do this?
How can we avoid jealousy? How can we avoid the suspicion
and the divisions that exist in the community? I’ll tell
you how…
It’s
time for you and me to stop sitting in this country, letting
some cracker senators, Northern crackers and Southern
crackers, sit there in Washington, D.C., and come to a
conclusion in their mind that you and I are supposed to
have civil rights. There’s no white man going to tell
me anything about my rights. Brothers and sisters, always
remember, if it doesn’t take senators and congressmen
and presidential proclamations to give freedom to the
white man, it is not necessary for legislation or proclamation
or Supreme Court decisions to give freedom to the black
man. You let that white man know, if this is a country
of freedom, let it be a country of freedom; and if it’s
not a country of freedom, change it.
We
will work with anybody, anywhere, at any time, who is
genuinely interested in tackling the problem head-on,
nonviolently as long as the enemy is nonviolent, but violent
when the enemy gets violent. We’ll work with you on the
voter-registration drive, we’ll work with you on rent
strikes, we’ll work with you on school boycotts…
A
segregated district or community is a community in which
people live, but outsiders control the politics and the
economy of that community. They never refer to the white
section as a segregated community. It’s the all-Negro
section that’s a segregated community. Why? The white
man controls his own school, his own bank, his own economy,
his own politics, his own everything, his own community;
but he also controls yours. When you’re under someone
else’s control, you’re segregated. They’ll always give
you the lowest or the worst that there is to offer, but
it doesn’t mean you’re segregated just because you have
your own. You’ve got to control your own. Just like the
white man has control of his, you need to control yours.
You
know the best way to get rid of segregation? The white
man is more afraid of separation than he is of integration.
Segregation means that he puts you away from him, but
not far enough for you to be out of his jurisdiction;
separation means you’re gone. And the white man will integrate
faster than he’ll let you separate. So we will work with
you against the segregated school system because it’s
criminal, because it is absolutely destructive, in every
way imaginable, to the minds of the children who have
to be exposed to that type of crippling education.
Last
but not least, I must say this concerning the great controversy
over rifles and shotguns. The only thing that I’ve ever
said is that in areas where the government has proven
itself either unwilling or unable to defend the lives
and the property of Negroes, it’s time for Negroes to
defend themselves. Article number two of the constitutional
amendments provides you and me the right to own a rifle
or a shotgun. It is constitutionally legal to own a shotgun
or a rifle. This doesn’t mean you’re going to get a rifle
and form battalions and go out looking for white folks,
although you’d be within your rights - I mean, you’d be
justified; but that would be illegal and we don’t do anything
illegal. If the white man doesn’t want the black man buying
rifles and shotguns, then let the government do its job.
That’s
all. And don’t let the white man come to you and ask you
what you think about what Malcolm says - why, you old
Uncle Tom. He would never ask you if he thought you were
going to say, “Amen!” No, he is making a Tom out of you.”
So, this doesn’t mean forming rifle clubs and going out
looking for people, but it is time, in 1964, if you are
a man, to let that man know. If he’s not going to do his
job in running the government and providing you and me
with the protection that our taxes are supposed to be
for, since he spends all those billions for his defense
budget, he certainly can’t begrudge you and me spending
$12 or $15 for a single-shot, or double-action. I hope
you understand. 
Don’t
go out shooting people, but any time - brothers and sisters,
and especially the men in this audience; some of you wearing
Congressional Medals of Honor, with shoulders this wide,
chests this big, muscles that big - any time you and I
sit around and read where they bomb a church and murder
in cold blood, not some grownups, but four little girls
while they were praying to the same God the white man
taught them to pray to, and you and I see the government
go down and can’t find who did it…
Let
two or three American soldiers, who are minding somebody
else’s business way over in South Vietnam, get
killed, and he’ll send battleships, sticking his nose
in their business. He wanted to send troops down to Cuba
and make them have what he calls free elections - this
old cracker who doesn’t have free elections in his own
country.
No,
if you never see me another time in your life, if I die
in the morning, I’ll die saying one thing: the ballot
or the bullet, the ballot or the bullet.
If
a Negro in 1964 has to sit around and wait for some cracker
senator to filibuster when it comes to the rights of black
people, why, you and I should hang our heads in shame.
You talk about a march on Washington
in 1963, you haven’t seen anything. There’s some more
going down in ‘64…
The
black nationalists aren’t going to wait. Lyndon B. Johnson
is the head of the Democratic Party. If he’s for civil
rights, let him go into the Senate next week and declare
himself. Let him go in there right now and declare himself.
Let him go in there and denounce the Southern branch of
his party. Let him go in there right now and take a moral
stand - right now, not later. Tell him, don’t wait until
election time. If he waits too long, brothers and sisters,
he will be responsible for letting a condition develop
in this country which will create a climate that will
bring seeds up out of the ground with vegetation on the
end of them looking like something these people never
dreamed of. In 1964, it’s the ballot or the bullet.
Thank
you.
BlackCommentator.com
Editorial Board member, Lenore Jean Daniels, PhD, has a Doctorate
in Modern American Literature/Cultural Theory. Click here
to contact Dr. Daniels.
