Source: The Ballot or the Bullet (1964), Speech in Cleveland, Ohio (April 3, 1964)
Context: The political philosophy of black nationalism means that the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community; no more. The black man in the black community has to be re-educated into the science of politics so he will know what politics is supposed to bring him in return. Don’t be throwing out any ballots. A ballot is like a bullet. You don’t throw your ballots until you see a target, and if that target is not within your reach, keep your ballot in your pocket.
“As soon as one of the anti-American presidents is elected, one of us goes in and says, “Hey, congratulations Mr. President. Now that you are president, I just want to tell you that I can make you very, very rich, you and your family. It’s several million dollars in this pocket, if you play the game our way. If you decide not to, over in this pocket, I’ve got a gun with a bullet with your name on it, in case you decide to keep your campaign promises and throw us out. Sell our oil companies your oil real cheap, or vote with us at the next UN vote, or send troops in support of ours to some place in the world such as Iraq”, and in that way, we have managed to build a world empire with very few people actually knowing that we have done this.”
Zeitgeist Addendum (2008)
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John Perkins 5
American author 1945Related quotes
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On Barack Obama after he criticized Venezuela’s ties with Iran and Cuba http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70694.html#ixzz1pBQ11D9Z/.
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Source: [Quote Investigator: Exploring the Origin of Quotes, http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/08/20/glad-to-see/]
Source: [The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations, https://books.google.com/books?id=whg05Z4Nwo0C&pg=PA625]
As quoted by President Jimmy Carter during his Malaise Speech, delivered on 15 July 1979 http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/whistlestop/2015/07/when_ted_kennedy_challenged_incumbent_president_jimmy_carter_for_the_democratic.html.
1970s