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Malcolm X: Front Page Challenge, January 5, 1965

  • White Interviewer #1: Sometimes, whether you may have or not, and I think probably you have, have sometimes, seems to me, been preaching hate to meet hate.
  • Malcolm X: I don't advocate any kind of hate, but I think that-
  • White Interviewer #1: But there's a lot of talk that sounds very much like it.
  • Malcolm X: No, I think that the guilt complex of the American white man is so profound, until when you begin to analyze the real condition of the Black man in America, instead of the American white man eliminating the causes that create that condition, he tries to cover it up by accusing his accusers of teaching hate, but actually they're just exposing him for being responsible for what exists.
  • White Interviewer #1: Well, that's something of an argument, but I've heard speeches made by some of the people of your group. I think I've heard you make speeches. It seems to me that you are advocating violence to meet the serious injuries that have been done to your people with which I totally agree.
  • Malcolm X: I don't call that violence. I don't in any way encourage Black people to go out and initiate acts of aggression indiscriminately against whites. But I do believe that the Black man in the United states, and any human being anywhere, is well within his right to do whatever is necessary, by any means necessary, to protect his life and property, especially in a country where the federal government itself has proven that it is either unable or unwilling to protect the lives and property of those human beings.
  • White Interviewer #2: Are you still a Muslim?
  • Malcolm X: Oh, yes. I'm a Muslim. I believe in the religion of Islam which believes in brotherhood; complete brotherhood of all people. But at the same time that I believe in this brotherhood, I don't believe enforcing my desire for brotherhood upon those who aren't willing to accept it.
  • White Interviewer #2: The Christians would say that they also believe in brotherhood. What would you say to that?
  • Malcolm X: I'd say they believe in it but don't practice it.
  • White Interviewer #3: Mr. X, since your split with the Black Muslim movement, have you formed your own group?
  • Malcolm X: Yes.
  • White Interviewer #3: And also, you say that you don't believe that Martin Luther King has solutions. What are your solutions?
  • Malcolm X: Well, first we formed two groups. The split resulted in the formation of two groups. Those who left the Black Muslim movement regrouped into what has now become known as the Muslim Mosque Incorporated, which is strictly religious; based upon the religion as it is taught in Mecca and Cairo, and other centers of Islamic religious learning. Then, realizing that our problem in America, that we are Black Americans; we have a problem that goes beyond religion. We formed the group known as the Organization of Afro-American Unity, and the objective of this organization-It's nonreligious, number one. Any negro can belong to it. And the objective of that organization is to bring about a condition that will guarantee respect and recognition of the 22 million Black Americans as human beings. And-
  • White Interviewer #3: Now, this is very radical, but how?
  • Malcolm X: By any means necessary. We feel that the problem, number one, of the Black man in America, is beyond America's ability to solve. It's a human problem, not an American problem or a Negro problem. And as a human problem, or a world problem, we feel that it should be taken out of the jurisdiction of the United States government and the United States courts, and taken into the United Nations in the same manner that the problems of the Black man in South Africa, Angola, and other parts of the world, and even the way they're trying to bring the problems of the Jews in Russia into the United Nations because of violation of human rights. We believe that our problem is one not of violation of civil rights, but a violation of human rights. Not only are we denied the right to be a citizen in the United States, we're denied the right to be a human being.
  • Interviewers: .......
Tags: malcolm x never lied
March 11, 2013
543 notes
Quote
"The civil rights bill was passed only because it cannot be enforced. It’s like the government writing a check to be cashed at a bank in Peking and then stamping” Not for travel in China” on your passport. It is my view the civil rights bill was passed to misguide the states of Africa into accepting an angelic image of [America]."

—

Malcolm X

Taken from February 1965: The Final Speeches (page 46).

(via disciplesofmalcolm)

True. True. True. True. And TRUE. And people call X just “an agitator”… yet, nearly 50 years later, I dare someone to dispute this!

I’m anxiously waiting with my facts over here….  

Tags: Malcolm X Civil Rights Civil Rights Bill Racism Government
December 28, 2012
103 notes
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Malcolm X Interview February 4, 1965

  • Question: Are you in agreement with Dr. King's nonviolent-
  • Malcolm X: I don't believe in any kind of nonviolence. I believe that it is right to be nonviolent with people who are nonviolent. But when you're dealing with an enemy that doesn't know what nonviolence is, as far as I'm concerned you're wasting your time.
Tags: Malcolm X
December 28, 2012
2,550 notes
Quote
"The Western press is the strongest weapon of imperialism."

—

Fron an article where Malcolm X was interviewed. Taken from February 1965: The Final Speeches (Page 33). We all have to be aware that the West uses the press to make the criminal the victim and the victim the criminal.

An example of how this was used was in the Congo in Africa. The imperialist agent Thsombe murdered Patrice Lumumba while the press lied to boost Thsombe’s image at the expense of Lumumba who was the rightful leader. If we’re not careful with the press, we’ll end up loving our enemies and hating our friends. It’s the same pattern against all the dark skinned people all over the world.

(via disciplesofmalcolm)

Tags: Malcolm X Press News Africa Patrice Lumumba
December 28, 2012
76 notes
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knowledgeequalsblackpower: Butterfly McQueen achieved fame primarily as a film actress in the 1940s…She was born Thelma McQueen on January 8, 1911, in Tampa, Florida, the only child of a stevedore (waterfront-related, like the loading/unloading ships) and a cleaning woman.  She attended grammar school and cultivated her interests in music and dance. From, the Negro Youth Project to the Federal Theater Project, McQueen was able to play in many productions. Her performance in the musical “Swingin’ in Dream” brought her to the attention of David O. Selznick, producer of “Gone with the Wind.” McQueen got great reviews for her role as Prissy, however, in retrospect, many African-Americans regretted her performance. Malcolm X, for example, recalled feeling both anger and shame the first time he saw Prissy on screen. However, to be fair to McQueen, she herself thought Prissy backward. She also resisted many offensive characterizations. She refused to eat watermelon in one scene and only after she made sure everyone was aware of her displeasure did she submit to the scene where Scarlett O’Hare (played by Vivien Leigh) to slap her after she speaks the immortal line Lawdy, Miz Scarlett, I don’t know nuthin’ ‘bout birthin’ babies! All of her subsequent roles, for the most part, were a variation of Prissy. McQueen had to “act stereotypes or starve.”  To protest the lines she was asked to speak as a colored servant on Jack Benny’s radio program, she walked out of the studio, and when she declined similar motion picture assignments, casting agents boycotted her for more than a year. The actress retired from films in 1947. “I didn’t mind playing a maid the first time, because I thought that was how you got into the business… but after I did the same thing over and over I resented it. I didn’t mind being funny, but I didn’t like being stupid.” She briefly returned to Hollywood in the 50s, but left again. For the next the 50 years, she did menial jobs. In 1975, at age 64, she earned a Bachelor of Arts major in Spanish and immersed herself in social welfare projects. She occasionally still acts (as she did in “The Mosquito Net” starring Harrison Ford), however, for her stand against racist stereotyping, she was, in effect, punished by the Hollywood establishment and her acting career never recovered. (via Black Women in America Encyclopedia)

knowledgeequalsblackpower:

Butterfly McQueen achieved fame primarily as a film actress in the 1940s…She was born Thelma McQueen on January 8, 1911, in Tampa, Florida, the only child of a stevedore (waterfront-related, like the loading/unloading ships) and a cleaning woman. 

She attended grammar school and cultivated her interests in music and dance. From, the Negro Youth Project to the Federal Theater Project, McQueen was able to play in many productions. Her performance in the musical “Swingin’ in Dream” brought her to the attention of David O. Selznick, producer of “Gone with the Wind.”

McQueen got great reviews for her role as Prissy, however, in retrospect, many African-Americans regretted her performance.

Malcolm X, for example, recalled feeling both anger and shame the first time he saw Prissy on screen.

However, to be fair to McQueen, she herself thought Prissy backward. She also resisted many offensive characterizations. She refused to eat watermelon in one scene and only after she made sure everyone was aware of her displeasure did she submit to the scene where Scarlett O’Hare (played by Vivien Leigh) to slap her after she speaks the immortal line

Lawdy, Miz Scarlett, I don’t know nuthin’ ‘bout birthin’ babies!

All of her subsequent roles, for the most part, were a variation of Prissy. McQueen had to “act stereotypes or starve.” 

To protest the lines she was asked to speak as a colored servant on Jack Benny’s radio program, she walked out of the studio, and when she declined similar motion picture assignments, casting agents boycotted her for more than a year. The actress retired from films in 1947. “I didn’t mind playing a maid the first time, because I thought that was how you got into the business… but after I did the same thing over and over I resented it. I didn’t mind being funny, but I didn’t like being stupid.”

She briefly returned to Hollywood in the 50s, but left again. For the next the 50 years, she did menial jobs. In 1975, at age 64, she earned a Bachelor of Arts major in Spanish and immersed herself in social welfare projects.

She occasionally still acts (as she did in “The Mosquito Net” starring Harrison Ford), however, for her stand against racist stereotyping, she was, in effect, punished by the Hollywood establishment and her acting career never recovered.

(via Black Women in America Encyclopedia)

Tags: butterfly mcqueen actress hollywood films movies gone with the wind stereotypes racism history malcolm x
December 24, 2012
614 notes
Photoset

Learn. Get Inspired. 

(Source: , via lahiiipower)

Tags: marcus garvey nelson mandela paul robeson malcolm x huey newton martin luther king jr
December 18, 2012
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"I learned early that crying out in protest could accomplish things. My older brothers and sister had started to school when, sometimes, they would come in and ask for a buttered biscuit or something and my mother, impatiently, would tell them no. But I would cry out and make a fuss until I got what I wanted. I remember well how my mother asked me why I couldn’t be a nice boy like Wilfred; but I would think to myself that Wilfred, for being so nice and quiet, often stayed hungry. So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise."

— Malcolm X (via itsjustdiamond)

(via inconsistendey-deactivated20121)

Tags: black history Malcolm X The Autobiography of Malcolm X black leaders books life
December 17, 2012
150 notes
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disciplesofmalcolm: Malcolm X speaking at Corn Hill Methodist Church, Rochester, New York, February 16.

disciplesofmalcolm:

Malcolm X speaking at Corn Hill Methodist Church, Rochester, New York, February 16.

Tags: Malcolm X
December 06, 2012
28 notes
Video

weareallafricans:

Malcolm X was the Truth

He still is

(Source: youtube.com, via blackmanonthemoon)

Tags: malcolm x
November 26, 2012
87 notes
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The Sun's not yellow it's chicken: For the record: Malcom X was murdered by black Muslims, not white people, and JFK was a staunch supporter of civil...

jtem:

native-detroiter:

I’m sure white folks were happy that he was dead though. and Kennedy placated to the segregationists too much.

You’re certainty was never in doubt, only your sanity…

So Malcom X is murdered by black Muslims, and you’re angry because you imagine that some people were happy for it.

And JFK did more for civil rights than any President before him, and you still haven’t forgiven him…

You’re fucked up.

So, you were serious?

image

#1 You missed the ENTIRE point of Malcolm X’s words. We should not be celebrating Lincoln. And we should NOT be celebrating JFK. What did they do? The problem is still here. There’s a problem.. and it’s not fixed, so what did they actually do, then? Whites force down our throats the names of these White men like they’re some great heroes because it brainwashes us.The powers that be want you to think that these men solved the problem of racial oppression and inequality (the fact that it had to be “solved” TWICE is the hint that it hasn’t be solved).  They want you to think that the issue is solved so that you won’t be inclined to investigate your environment (only to realize that the issue is still here). These political figures are full of romanticized hot air. Before JFK, it was Lincoln. And one of the main reasons why the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum was because it was approaching 1965, a full hundred years after Emancipation.. a full hundred years after Lincoln had allegedly freed the slaves.. and Black people were forced to look around as the centennial approached and they realized that they weren’t free. That’s what Malcolm was saying. We can’t depend on the White man to free us… how can we? Look at the history.. the facts. At any given point in time, the issue of racial oppression could be solved. Point blank. It’s been 500 years for Christ’s sake. But you look around, and here it is.  

#2, You know NOTHING about JFK outside of a basic K-12 education. Do you know how I can tell? Cause you used a damn History Channel link, a tertiary source, as your source to combat against Malcolm X’s own words… X WAS THERE, alive. He is a primary source, whether you like it or not. His words trump all that shit you posted. Let’s delve deeper though… shall we?

If you would have even looked at your own link more closely, you would have realized that it only concerns 1963. JFK came into office in 1961………. The entire time between 1961 and 1963, people were harassed, abused, and murdered! Keep in mind people are, I dunno……… marching…. integrating the bus systems.. holding sit-ins…. disturbing White peace… etc.. .etc. In essence, the oppressed are making their OWN change and showing that the majority of people in the country want the oppression against Blacks to end (or at least make it less pronounced so they won’t have to see it on the news and feel White guilt so they can go to sleep at night feeling all cuddly like they’re a good person and not feel complicit in a system that oppresses others). JFK ain’t do shit but wait for the popular opinion to be in the clear majority. Only then did he move to be a decent human being. He was a politician like all other politicians. Nothing more. He played the fence on the issue as long as he could because he was running on the Democratic ticket and the South, or The Solid South as it is called, had voted Democratic since the end of Reconstruction. He didn’t want to lose those votes unless he knew he was covered and he had to let the very same White supremacists in the South that got him elected in the first place have their way (of course his later half-assed support for the Civil Rights Movement would have the South voting Republican, which they did in the very next election and which they continue to do to this very day…. just look at the last election results). And GOD, if it weren’t for the Cold War, he probably wouldn’t have done a damn thing at all. You can’t convince newly decolonized and independent African nations not to become allies with Russia when they turn on their televisions and see you treating the people that look like them like shit. So, it wasn’t simply that he finally decided to do the right thing. It was an issue of national security against Communism as well. 

You say that JFK did so much for Civil Rights, but I urge you to go do some actual research. And you will see, that he didn’t do much at all. After you look at what he did do, which culminates really into a Civil Rights bill which stalled in Congress when he was alive, so really the credit should possibly go to LBJ for that one, make a list of all the things he could have done/things he declined to do. You will undoubtedly find that he’s been greatly romanticized.  

#3 You know NOTHING… absolutely nothing about Malcolm X. You know how I can tell? You said he did nothing for Black people which is ABSOLUTELY GROSSLY DISGUSTINGLY MISINFORMED AND STRAIGHT UP FALSE. I can only direct you to this PBS documentary Malcolm X: Make it Plain. You have to know that that’s false though.. like, with your common sense, you should be able to tell. If he did nothing, why would we even be having this conversation? Would you even know his name if he did nothing? That documentary will also clear up for you why he was assassinated. Cause, I dunno wtf you think it was about…. but it’s not as simple as you think it is. You make it seem like X did something wrong so he was assassinated. Your common sense, especially since you’re so fond of JFK, should tell you that people don’t usually get assassinated for doing the wrong things. I wish they did. But alas… in America, people assassinate you for the right things that you did.

And it’s kinda funny, the straw that broke the camels back and made the Nation oust X was because he openly vocalized how didn’t give a damn about JFKs assassination. Lol. He said the chickens had come home to roost, which I’ve always taken to mean, JUST LIKE X MENTIONS IN THE ORIGINAL QUOTE THAT SPARKED THIS DISCUSSION,by playing the fence and bullshitting around, JFK let these White terrorist roam free and let them abuse and kill whoever they pleased… and he had blood on his hands. You let White people walk around thinking they can do whatever they want and kill whoever they want, it’s only a matter of time before one decides that he’s mad at you and kills you. That’s what X “popped off” about… the very topic of the quote.

All of these mentioned facts are things you should have known before you chose to enter the conversation. 

(Source: history.com)

Tags: malcolm x jfk
November 23, 2012
1,376 notes
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