Homework, March 10th, 2017

This homework is due on Monday, March 13th. 

This is an extract from a speech delivered by the black civil rights leader Malcolm X in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 3, 1964. Read it and answer the questions that follow. 

Mr. Moderator, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, friends and enemies: I just can't believe everyone in here is a friend, and I don't want to leave anybody out. The question tonight, as I understand it, is "The Negro Revolt, and Where Do We Go From Here?" or What Next?" In my little humble way of understanding it, it points toward either the ballot or the bullet.

Before we try and explain what is meant by the ballot or the bullet, I would like to clarify something concerning myself. I'm still a Muslim; my religion is still Islam. That's my personal belief. Just as Adam Clayton Powell is a Christian minister who heads the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York, but at the same time takes part in the political struggles to try and bring about rights to the black people in this country; and Dr. Martin Luther King is a Christian minister down in Atlanta, Georgia, who heads another organization fighting for the civil rights of black people in this country; and Reverend Galamison, I guess you've heard of him, is another Christian minister in New York who has been deeply involved in the school boycotts to eliminate segregated education; well, I myself am a minister, not a Christian minister, but a Muslim minister; and I believe in action on all fronts by whatever means necessary.

Although I'm still a Muslim, I'm not here tonight to discuss my religion. I'm not here to try and change your religion. I'm not here to argue or discuss anything that we differ about, because it's time for us to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first see that we have the same problem, a common problem, a problem that will make you catch hell whether you're a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Muslim, or a nationalist. Whether you're educated or illiterate, whether you live on the boulevard or in the alley, you're going to catch hell just like I am. We're all in the same boat and we all are going to catch the same hell from the same man. He just happens to be a white man. All of us have suffered here, in this country, political oppression at the hands of the white man, economic exploitation at the hands of the white man, and social degradation at the hands of the white man.

Now in speaking like this, it doesn't mean that we're anti-white, but it does mean we're anti-exploitation, we're anti-degradation, we're anti-oppression. And if the white man doesn't want us to be anti-him, let him stop oppressing and exploiting and degrading us. Whether we are Christians or Muslims or nationalists or agnostics or atheists, we must first learn to forget our differences. If we have differences, let us differ in the closet; when we come out in front, let us not have anything to argue about until we get finished arguing with the man. If the late President Kennedy could get together with Khrushchev and exchange some wheat, we certainly have more in common with each other than Kennedy and Khrushchev had with each other.

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!

Questions:

1. What does Malcolm X say in the first paragraph that makes it sound like he and the people in the audience are all members of the same family?

2. Why do you think he does this?

3. Complete the sentence: ‘In my little humble way of ______________ it, it points toward either the ballot or the _______________.’

4. What literary device is the phrase ‘the ballot or the bullet’ an example of?

5. What religion is Malcolm X?

6. Which three people does Malcolm X mention in the second paragraph?

7. What is the effect on the reader/listener of him mentioning specific people?

8. Look at the third paragraph. Copy out one sentence in which Malcolm X tries to make it seem like he and the members of the audience are all in the same situation.

9. What technique doe Malcolm X use in the first sentence of the fourth paragraph?

10. Now have a go at the exam-style question below. It is worth 10 marks, so you will have to write around 200 words. You will need to include some quotes from the speech.

          How does Malcolm X try to persuade us that something needs to               be done about the problem of racism? Think about:

·        What he says

·        How he says it