X is for Malcolm
Oshun_Auset:
Quotations by Malcolm X (or Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, as he is less well known)
"Without education, you are not going anywhere." -- Militant Labor Forum, New York, May 29, 1964, recorded in By Any Means Necessary; Speeches, Interviews, and a Letter by Malcolm X. Edited by George Breitman (Pathfinder, 1970)
"How can you thank a man for giving you what's already yours? How then can you thank him for giving you only part of what is yours?" -- from a speech (sometimes called "The Ballot or the Bullet") delivered on April 3, 1964, at the Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, recorded in The Voice of Black America. Edited by Philip S. Foner (Simon and Schuster, 1972)
"Twenty-two million African-Americans -- that's what we are -- Africans who are in America." -- from a speech (sometimes called "The Ballot or the Bullet") delivered on April 3, 1964, at the Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, recorded in The Voice of Black America. Edited by Philip S. Foner (Simon and Schuster, 1972)
"If I have a cup of coffee that is too strong for me because it is too black, I weaken it by pouring cream into it. I integrate it with cream. If I keep pouring enough cream in the coffee, pretty soon the entire flavor of the coffee is changed; the very nature of the coffee is changed. If enough cream is poured in, eventually you don't even know that I had coffee in this cup. This is what happened with the March on Washington. The whites didn't integrate it; they infiltrated it. Whites joined it; they engulfed it; they became so much a part of it, it lost its original flavor. It ceased to be a black march; it ceased to be militant; it ceased to be angry; it ceased to be impatient. In fact, it ceased to be a march." -- from a speech delivered December 4, 1963, recorded in The End of White World Supremacy: Four Speeches by Malcolm X. Edited by Benjamin Goodman (Merlin House, 1971)
"A ballot is like a bullet. You don't throw your ballots until you see a target, and if that target is not in reach, keep your ballot in your pocket." -- from a speech (sometimes called "The Ballot or the Bullet") delivered on April 3, 1964, at the Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, recorded in The Voice of Black America. Edited by Philip S. Foner (Simon and Schuster, 1972)
An integrated cup of coffee isn't sufficient pay for four hundred years of slave labor." -- from a speech at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City, April 8, 1964, recorded in The End of White World Supremacy: Four Speeches by Malcolm X. Edited by Benjamin Goodman (Merlin House, 1971)
"You can’t separate peace from freedom, because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." -- from a speech in New York City, January 7, 1965, recorded in Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements (Pathfinder, 1965)
"If you're not ready to die for it, put the word "freedom" out of your vocabulary." -- Chicago Defender, November 28, 1962, quoted by Peter Goldman in The Death and Life of Malcolm X. (Harper and Row, 1973)
"We, the Black masses, don't want these leaders who seek our support coming to us representing a certain political party. They must come to us today as Black Leaders representing the welfare of Black people. We won't follow any leader today who comes on the basis of political party. Both parties (Democrat and Republican) are controlled by the same people who have abused our rights, and who have deceived us with false promises every time an election rolls around." -- from a speech delivered in 1960 at a Muslim rally in Harlem, recorded in Black Nationalism in America. (Bobbs-Merrill, 1970)
"If you are in a country that is progressive, the woman is progressive. If you're in a country that reflects the consciousness toward the importance of education, it's because the woman is aware of the importance of education. But in every backward country you'll find the women are backward, and in every country where education is not stressed its because the women doen't have education." -- from an interview in Paris, November 1964, quoted in By Any Means Necessary: Speeches, Interviews, and a Letter by Malcolm X. Edited by George Breitman (Pathfinder, 1970)
"I'm not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on the plate." -- from a speech (sometimes called "The Ballot or the Bullet") delivered on April 3, 1964, at the Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, recorded in The Voice of Black America. Edited by Philip S. Foner (Simon and Schuster, 1972)
"It's time now for our people to become conscious of the importance of controlling the economy of our community. If we own the stores, if we operate the businesses, if we try and establish some industry in our own community, then we're developing to the position where we are creating employment for our own kind. Once you control the economy of your own community, then you don't have to picket and boycott and beg some cracker downtown for a job in his business." -- from a speech (sometimes called "The Ballot or the Bullet") delivered on April 3, 1964, at the Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, recorded in The Voice of Black America. Edited by Philip S. Foner (Simon and Schuster, 1972)
"I don't get involved in politics. But it does make the black people in this country who are jobless and unemployed and standing in the welfare line very much discouraged to see a government that can't solve our problem, can't provide job opportunities for us, and at the some time not only Cubans but Hungarians and every other type of white refugee imaginable can come to this country and get everything this government has to offer." -- from a speech in Philadelphia, fall 1963, recorded in The End of White World Supremacy: Four Speeches by Malcolm X. Edited by Benjamin Goodman (Merlin House, 1971)
"If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us and teach us how to be violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country."-- from a speech in Detroit, November 10, 1963, recorded in Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements (Pathfinder, 1965)
"My reason for believing in extremism, intelligently directed extremism, extremism in defense of liberty, is because I firmly believe in my heart that the day that the black man takes an uncompromising step and realizes that he's within his rights, when his own freedom is being jeoparized, to use any means necessary to bring about his freedom or put a hlat to that injustice, I don't think he'll be by himself." -- from the Oxford Union Society debate in which Malcolm spoke for the affirmation on a question of Barry Goldwater's statement "Extremism in the defense of library is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue," December 3, 1964, quoted in By Any Means Necessary: Speeches, Interviews, and a Letter by Malcolm X. Edited by George Breitman (Pathfinder, 1970)
"I don't favor violence. If we could bring about recognition and respect of our people by peaceful means, well and good. Everybody would like to reach his objectives peacefully. But I'm also a realist. The only people in this country who are asked to be nonviolent are black people." -- from an interviewed with Jack Barnes and Barry Sheppard, of the Young Socialist Alliance, on January 18, 1965, quoted in By Any Means Necessary: Speeches, Interviews, and a Letter by Malcolm X. Edited by George Breitman (Pathfinder, 1970)
"When I'm traveling around the country, I use my real Muslim name, Malik Shabazz. I make my hotel reservations under that name, and I always see the same thing I've just been telling you. I come to the desk and always see that "here-comes-a-Negro" look. It's kind of a reserved, coldly tolerant cordiality. But when I say "Malik Shabazz," their whole attitude changes: they snap to respect. They think I'm an African. People say what's in a name? There's a whole lot in a name. The American black man is seeing the African respected as a human being. The African gets respect because he has an identity and cultural roots. But most of all because the African owns some land. For these reasons he has his human rights recognized, and that makes his civil rights automatic. " -- from the Playboy interview, February 21, 1965
"Last but not least, I must say this concerning the great controversy over rifles and shotguns. The only thing I've ever said is that in areas where the government has proven itself either unwilling or unable to defend the lives and the property of Negroes, it's time for Negroes to defend themselves. Article number two of the Constitutional amendments provides you and me the right to own a rifle or a shotgun. It is constitutionally legal to own a shotgun or a rifle. This doesn't mean you're going to get a rifle and form battalions and go out looking for white folks, although you'd be within your rights -- I mean, you'd be justified; but that would be illegal and we don't do anything illegal. If the white man doesn't want the black man buying rifles and shotguns, then let the government do its job. That's all." -- from a speech (sometimes called "The Ballot or the Bullet") delivered on April 3, 1964, at the Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, recorded in The Voice of Black America. Edited by Philip S. Foner (Simon and Schuster, 1972)
"If you've studied the captives being caught by the American soldiers in South Vietnam, you'll find that these guerrillas are young people. Some of them are just children and some haven't reached their teens. Most are teenagers. It is the teenagers abroad, all over the world, who are actually involving themselves in the struggle to eliminate oppression and exploitation. In the Congo, the refugees point out that many of the Congolese revolutionaries, they shoot all the way down to seven years old -- that's been reported in the press. Because the revolutionaries are children, young people. In these countries, the young people are the ones who most quickly identify with the struggle and the necessity to eliminate the evil conditions that exist. And here in this country, it has been my own observation that when you get into a conversation on racism and discrimination and segregation, you will find young people more incensed over it -- they feel more filled with an urge to eliminate it." -- from the same Young Socialist Alliance interview, quoted in By Any Means Necessary: Speeches, Interviews, and a Letter by Malcolm X. Edited by George Breitman (Pathfinder, 1970)
"No, I'm not an American. I'm one of the twenty-two million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the twenty-two million black people who are the victims of democracy -- nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So I'm not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver -- no, not I. I'm speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare." -- from a speech in Cleveland, April 3, 1964, recorded in Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements (Pathfinder, 1965)
"Before the Black Muslim movement came along, the NAACP was looked upon as radical; they were getting ready to investigate it. And then along came the Muslim movement and frightened the white man so hard that he began to say, 'Thank God for old Uncle Roy, and Uncle Whitney, and Uncle A. Philip....'" -- from a speech in Detroit, February 14, 1965, recorded in Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements (Pathfinder, 1965)
"I've never seen a sincere white man, not when it comes to helping black people. Usually things like this are done by white people to benefit themselves. The white man's primary interest is not to elevate the thinking of black people, or to waken black people, or white people either. The white man is interested in the black man only to the extent that the black man is of use to him. The white man's interest is to make money, to exploit." -- from the Playboy interview, February 21, 1965
"I think you'll find, brother, that there are Muslims everywhere. Wherever you find militancy today among so-called Negroes, watch real closely. You're liable to be looking at a Muslim." -- in answer to a question following a speech in Philadelphia, fall 1963, recorded in The End of White World Supremacy: Four Speeches by Malcolm X. Edited by Benjamin Goodman (Merlin House, 1971)
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/x.html
Bantu_Kelani:
Great post Auset [smiley=grin.gif].
El Hajj Malik El Shabazz was a man both loved and feared! He ingrained attitudes of Black Pride and intellectual abilities in Black people (in me certainly!). He was very educated, conscious and an unselfish Black man.. He really was a real revolutionary who made his distinct contribution to our racial history! I LOVE Malcom X!
Bantu Kelani.
Oshun_Auset:
I love Malcolm also. We all should. He died for us, he gave his life in service for the African revolution. He paid the highest price for the forward movement of our people.
History is a people's memory, and without a memory man is demoted to the lower animals.
Malcolm X
Our people have made the mistake of confusing the methods with the objectives. As long as we agree on objectives, we should never fall out with each other just because we believe in different methods or tactics or strategy. We have to keep in mind at all times that we are not fighting for separation. We are fighting for recognition as free humans in this society.
Malcolm X
My belief in brotherhood would never restrain me in any way from protecting myself in a society from a people whose disrespect for brotherhood makes them feel inclined to put my neck on a tree at the end of a rope.
Malcolm X
If something is yours by right, then fight for it or shut up. If you can't fight for it, then forget it.
Malcolm X
London School of Economics, February, 1965
*"I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation."
Malcolm X
*" When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the next breath he is going to tell you what he won't do to get it, or what he doesn't believe in doing in order to get it, he doesn't believe in freedom. A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire . . . or preserve his freedom."
Malcolm X
"A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself."
Malcolm X
"We are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with us."
Malcolm X
Dr. King wants the same thing I want. Freedom."
Malcolm X
"I want Dr. King to know that I didn't come to Selma to make his job difficult. I really did come thinking I could make it easier. If the white people realize what the alternative is, perhaps they will be more willing to hear Dr. King." ...in a conversation with Mrs. Coretta Scott King."
Malcolm X
"I am not a racist. I am against every form of racism and segregation, every form of discrimination. I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color."
Malcolm X
Freedom, justice and equality are the principal ambitions of the Black Muslims. And to faithfully serve and follow the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the guiding goal of every Muslim. Mr. Muhammad teaches us the knowledge of our own selves, and of our own people. He cleans us up--morally, mentally and spiritually--and he reforms us of the vices that have blinded us here in the Western society. He stops black men from getting drunk, stops their dope addiction if they had it, stops nicotine, gambling, stealing, lying, cheating, fornication, adultery, prostitution, juvenile delinquency. I think of this whenever somebody talks about someone investigating us. Why investigate the Honorable Elijah Muhammad? They should subsidize him. He's cleaning up the mess that white men have made. He's saving the Government millions of dollars, taking black men off of welfare, showing them how to do something for themselves. And Mr. Muhammad teaches us love for our own kind. The white man has taught the black people in this country to hate themselves as inferior, to hate each other, to be divided against each other. Messenger Muhammad restores our love for our own kind, which enables us to work together in unity and harmony. He shows us how to pool our financial resources and our talents, then to work together toward a common objective. Among other things, we have small businesses in most major cities in this country, and we want to create many more. We are taught by Mr. Muhammad that it is very important to improve the black man's economy, and his thrift. But to do this, we must have land of our own. The brainwashed black man can never learn to stand on his own two feet until he is on his own. We must learn to become our own producers, manufacturers and traders; we must have industry of our own, to employ our own. The white man wants to keep the black man where he can be watched and retarded. The white man knows that once black men get off to themselves and learn they can do for themselves, the black man's full potential will explode and he will surpass the white man."
Malcolm X
Oshun_Auset:
MALCOLM X'S EULOGY
Eulogy delivered by Ossie Davis at the funeral of Malcolm X
Faith Temple Church Of God
February 27,1965
"Here - at this final hour, in this quiet place - Harlem has come to bid farewell to one of its brightest hopes -extinguished now, and gone from us forever. For Harlem is where he worked and where he struggled and fought - his home of homes, where his heart was, and where his people are - and it is, therefore, most fitting that we meet once again - in Harlem - to share these last moments with him. For Harlem has ever been gracious to those who have loved her, have fought her, and have defended her honor even to the death.
It is not in the memory of man that this beleaguered, unfortunate, but nonetheless proud community has found a braver, more gallant young champion than this Afro-American who lies before us - unconquered still. I say the word again, as he would want me to : Afro-American - Afro-American Malcolm, who was a master, was most meticulous in his use of words. Nobody knew better than he the power words have over minds of men. Malcolm had stopped being a 'Negro' years ago. It had become too small, too puny, too weak a word for him. Malcolm was bigger than that. Malcolm had become an Afro-American and he wanted - so desperately - that we, that all his people, would become Afro-Americans too.
There are those who will consider it their duty, as friends of the Negro people, to tell us to revile him, to flee, even from the presence of his memory, to save ourselves by writing him out of the history of our turbulent times. Many will ask what Harlem finds to honor in this stormy, controversial and bold young captain - and we will smile. Many will say turn away - away from this man, for he is not a man but a demon, a monster, a subverter and an enemy of the black man - and we will smile. They will say that he is of hate - a fanatic, a racist - who can only bring evil to the cause for which you struggle! And we will answer and say to them : Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch him, or have him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him? Did he ever do a mean thing? Was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance? For if you did you would know him. And if you knew him you would know why we must honor him.
Malcolm was our manhood, our living, black manhood! This was his meaning to his people. And, in honoring him, we honor the best in ourselves. Last year, from Africa, he wrote these words to a friend: 'My journey', he says, 'is almost ended, and I have a much broader scope than when I started out, which I believe will add new life and dimension to our struggle for freedom and honor and dignity in the States. I am writing these things so that you will know for a fact the tremendous sympathy and support we have among the African States for our Human Rights struggle. The main thing is that we keep a United Front wherein our most valuable time and energy will not be wasted fighting each other.' However we may have differed with him - or with each other about him and his value as a man - let his going from us serve only to bring us together, now.
Consigning these mortal remains to earth, the common mother of all, secure in the knowledge that what we place in the ground is no more now a man - but a seed - which, after the winter of our discontent, will come forth again to meet us. And we will know him then for what he was and is - a Prince - our own black shining Prince! -who didn't hesitate to die, because he loved us so."
Nazarite:
Eventhough he went to Mecca and saw that Islam was Multi-racial,he STILL kept his BLACK pride. :D
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