I’ve been reading Malcolm X’s The Ballot or The Bullet speech. It’s an incredible speech, which changed my mind about many things.
X addresses the failure of the legislature to follow through on campaign promises made to black Americans:
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? Four years in office, and just now getting around to some civil-rights legislation. Just now, after everything else is gone, out of the way, they’re going to sit down now and play with you all summer long — the same old giant con game that they call filibuster. All those are in cahoots together. Don’t you ever think they’re not in cahoots together, for the man that is heading the civil-rights filibuster is a man from Georgia named Richard Russell. When Johnson became president, the first man he asked for when he got back to Washington, D.C., was “Dicky” — that’s how tight they are. That’s his boy, that’s his pal, that’s his buddy. 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.
I grew up hearing that Malcolm X advocated violence. But reading this speach, I see that X is advocating something much more profound:
When ever 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.
As I understand it, X is not advocating violence, X is advocating self defense. X is saying that if someone’s rights are being infringed upon by the very people who are supposed to be protecting their rights, they are then forced fight for those rights, and should not be ashamed to die for them.
Tonight I was also reading about the violent resistance which broke out in Brooklyn in 1966 in response to the city’s failure to follow through on promises to create a review board that would create some accountability for the city’s police. When you cannot trust the police to protect you under the law, and when you have no representation in the government, and when you are systematically excluded from voting, where else can you turn but violent resistance?
Reading all of this, I’m constantly reminded of current events. Voter disenframchisement. Racist police. Lack of political representation and failure to follow through on campaign promises. I’ve seen them all in the news in the last few years, if not months.