Rhetorical Analysis Of The Ballot Or The Bullet

Civil rights activist, Malcolm X, in his speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” argues that to gain equality, African Americans must open their eyes and become politically mature. He supports this claim by using repetition, then anaphora, and finally the appeal to fear. Malcolm X’s purpose is to inform his audience of the urgency of ballot or the bullet in order to choose the correct politicians to vote for. He adopts a resentful tone about segregation for his followers.
Malcolm X begins his speech by illustrating that African Americans will do whatever it takes to gain equality. He uses repetition to inform his audience that they have suffered enough by stating “all of us have suffered here, in the 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,” and “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.” He joins his audience in their anger to stress the unjust ways of the government. He adopts a resentful tone about how the government deals with the civil rights issue for his audience of civil rights followers.
He uses anaphora to point out to his audience that African Americans need to use their vote wisely to make a difference by stating “the ballot or the bullet” repeatedly, and “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.” He informs his audience of the unfairness they have received by government officials in order to get them impassioned about the civil rights movement. He adopts a contemptuous tone towards white people for his audience of civil rights