Ballot or Bullet

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Ballot or Bullet

"The Ballot or the Bullet" is the title of a public speech by human rights activist Malcolm X. In the speech, which was delivered on two occasions the first being April 3, 1964, at the Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and the second being on April 12, 1964, at the King Solomon Baptist Church, in Detroit, Michigan. Malcolm X advised African Americans to judiciously exercise their right to vote, but he cautioned that if the government continued to prevent African Americans from attaining full equality, it might be necessary for them to take up arms. It was ranked 7th in the top 100 American speeches of the 20th century by 137 leading scholars of American public address. more »

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Solidarity - I ain’t scared of the opposition
Black fists for the baptists and politicians
Ballot or bullet, had a dream, saw a vision
I’m just a nigga, but with a mic, I’m a god killer
No hard feelings…motherfuck the law – cops
Killing niggas off, then call us all some cop killers
Rich telling the poor people “be calm and civil
While their disease gives emphysema to all our children
It's been 4 years too many, plenty eyes are openin
Went from hope to fear so many lies he's spoke
Choked in smoke and mirrors, they thought we can't handle
This revolution is televised, you can't change the channel
Your television will tell you that I’m a criminal
And in the same breath, obsesses over my genitals
Same culture claims that they’re protecting the women go and
Say that they’re in danger if they dress like a centerfold
Nah, you got it, flaunt it, you wear it or bear it your decision
Worth is never measured on the merits of a politician
Caught a vision, had a dream, by any means necessary
Ballot box, body bag, cemetery
I bury you niggas, you know I’m killing it like I’m living in Derry
Why you giving up all your energy
Rick Perry your figures; I’m putting y’all to task
But first put on the mask - Jim Carrey, my nigga
We went and put another racist in the oval office mobilizin
White supremacists, what type of shit is this
Civil war is imminent when dissonance is endin' in imprisonment
Man it's 2020 but we still need abolitionists
Time to finish it, start the reparations
Born victim to a system grown on plantations
Agitation seems to be the most effective way to break chains
Let's fuckin' take it to 'em 'til nobody remains
Another black man murdered - put the gat in his mouth
Claimed he was moving packs, shot him while he sat in his house
That’s why I’m strapped when I roll up to the crag in the south
The violence cycle that they started, we just acting it out
So we stomp in the holocaust with shotties and molotovs
For every crooked copper that be dropping the bodies off
Them crackers in the office steady watching us fall
They’d rather have us at the bottom, picking cotton and sewing cloth
America distracted, can’t imagine they’d lock us all
In chains, they pretending to defend it
A quote for the ending will suffice, and it’s cited to Michael Render
Even if you got seven figures, you still a nigga
Let's get it clear they not just watchin' while the black folks fall
In fact they pay and train assassins just to pick people off
Made it legal to murder for any reason at all
And gave those motherfuckers badges and they called 'em the law
So now we sawin' it off. Hoody, mask, and shades
You can read the body language like we playin' charades
Emmit Till to Jon Price can't let memories fade
So we mobbin' to the polling place lobbin' grenades
Because it's ballot or bullet we gotta dance with the devil
Cast a ballot but cock a hammer be damned if we settle
On the right side of history when the gunsmoke clears
The inscription on his grave says Cast your votes here

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