Reaction to Malcolm X's "The Ballot or the Bullet".

I've always found the contrast between the philosophies between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. very thought provoking. There is a lot more attention paid to Martin Luther King Jr. when the civil rights movement is talked about, and understandably so, as Malcolm X's earlier rhetoric is extremist and his endorsement of violence now seems naïve. Yet I find Malcolm X's story and his many transformations to be fascinating, and his speech here is an important insight into where the movement might have gone.
I can't help but wonder how big the role of the black nationalist movement was in the passing of civil rights. Often times it is the work of the more peaceful activists (the ones that I support both philosophically and strategically) that get the credit for bringing about social change. However, the lingering threat of violence must have impacted congress in some way. While there were a number of well thought-out strategies, such as spending your money within your own community, and electing only black candidates to public office, there was also an undercurrent of the threat of violence against white people as a last resort.
Eventually Malcolm X would renounce this racist sentiment, and was eventually assassinated himself for doing so. Yet, he never got absorbed into the mainstream the way Martin Luther King Jr. did. You simply don't hear many white people singing Malcolm X's praises. This is a good thing, in my opinion. There is a tendency for mainstream white America to assimilate movements and the “good” activist leaders into itself. While Martin Luther King Jr. was also seen as a radical in his time, today you would be hard pressed to find a mainstream white person who would dispute his greatness. Malcolm X does not get the same treatment. He has remained a controversial figure, and will hopefully remain this way. Because as far as this country has come in the last 50 years, we still have a long way to go. The assertion that we are all of the sudden “post-racial” because we elected Barack Obama as president is nonsense. There is still only one black member of the Senate (and even he got there under dubious circumstances). The House fairs marginally better, with 42 members in a 435-member caucus. There is also the complicated issue of “tokenism” in this post-racial sentiment. This is one of the points that Malcolm X got at that I absolutely agree with. While I strive to be knowledgeable to the various forms of discrimination that a black person has to put up with, I also am aware that I will never fully understand what it is like to live as a black person. I'm not by any means suggesting apathy towards black issues, but a more humbled attitude of not taking on black issues as my own, with the arrogant assumption that I completely understand them. On the other hand, I think it should be obvious to say that the success of Barack Obama does not represent the collective condition of every single black person in America. Yet he is often portrayed this way in the media, which I think is a form of racial tokenism. Whether this is done intentionally to obstruct debate or an actual display of ignorance by the mainstream media, I'm not sure, but regardless it is still harmful to portray race issues in this manner.