THE EDITOR: They could not have come from more disparate worlds. One is white, wealthy, a member of the ruling class, a successful businessman and powerful political figure. The other is a product of the same processes that created such hegemony and privilege.

He came from the slums/ghetto and was a hustler, robber, drug addict who ended up in prison. The latter too rose to worldwide political prominence as a voice for and of the poor and oppressed thanks to the intervention of the Elijah Mohammed in his life.

But history is full of twists, turns and quirks. Who would have imagined that we could find ourselves, six decades later, looking at Donald Trump, ex-president and presidential nominee through the prism of Malcolm X's legendary speech, "The ballot or the bullet.''

Malcolm X suggested that white America had an option of change at the ballot box or the bullet. It seems that in the nether lands of the deep state, the hidden hand that runs the US since the end of World War Two runs Joe Biden, who selects Kamala Harris to contest the election, and someone has decided to include the bullet as an option for resolving the upcoming election. They want to get the rid of Donald Trump by ''any means necessary,'' to borrow Malcolm's famous phrase.

Another irony is that Malcolm would have preferred to deal with Trump rather than the others. Malcolm often spoke of the racist segregationist as being preferable to the "friend of the Negro.” The former was the wolf who showed his teeth up front. The latter was the cunning sly fox who tries to gain your trust but who has the same intent as the wolf.

We do not know how this election will end. It matters not. Humpty Dumpty has fallen off the wall, is in free fall and will crash-land on November 5. Someone would have been elected and subsequently sworn in as president in January.

Assuming that the process does get that far, and Trump does not receive the bullet, in which case a different kind of hell will break loose in a nation where teenagers walk into schools and massacre infants, or disgruntled postal and other workers settle grievances with automatic assault rifles.

Those of us outside of America can only look on as the empire comes crashing down.

RAE SAMUEL

Balmain

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