Background Image

...

For 12 Long Years I Lived Within The Narrow-minded Confines Of The 'straightjacket World' Created By My Strong Belief That Elijah Muhammad Was A Messenger Direct From God Himself, And My Faith In What I Now See To Be A Pseudo-religious Philosophy That He Preaches.... I Shall Never Rest Until I Have Undone The Harm I Did To So Many Well-meaning, Innocent Negroes Who Through My Own Evangelistic Zeal Now Believe In Him Even More Fanatically And More Blindly Than I Did.

-Malcolm X

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

For 12 Long Years

Malcolm X

...

For 12 Long Years I Lived Within The Narrow-minded Confines Of The 'straightjacket World' Created By My Strong Belief That Elijah Muhammad Was A Messenger Direct From God Himself, And My Faith In What I Now See To Be A Pseudo-religious Philosophy That He Preaches.... I Shall Never Rest Until I Have Undone The Harm I Did To So Many Well-meaning, Innocent Negroes Who Through My Own Evangelistic Zeal Now Believe In Him Even More Fanatically And More Blindly Than I Did.

Views: 4

Topic

More From Malcolm X

This Religion (islam) Recognizes All Men As Brothers. It Accepts All Human Beings As Equals Before God, And As Equal Members In The Human Family Of Mankind.

I Might Add, The Whites Who Came Here Only Say 50 Years Ago As Immigrants Have Come Into This Country, They Have Set Up Businesses. They've Developed These Businesses Into An Industry.

My Father Didn't Know His Real Name. My Father Got His Name From His Grandfather And He Got His Name From His Grandfather And He Got It From The Slave Master.

The Prison Systems In This Country Actually Are Exploitative And They Are Not In Any Way Rehabilitative.

Times Change So Quickly That If You And I Don't Keep Up With The Times, We'll Find Ourselves With An Umbrella In Our Hand, Over Our Head, When The Sun Is Out. Or We'll Find Ourselves Standing In The Rain, With The Umbrella Inside The Door.

As Long As The Factories Are In The Hands Of The Whites, The Housing Is In The Hands Of The Whites, The School System Is In The Hands Of The Whites, You Have A Situation Where The Blacks Are Constantly Begging The Whites Can They Use This Or Can They Use That. That's Not Any Kind Of Equality Of Opportunity, Nor Does It Lend Toward One's Dignity.

I Don't Encourage Any Act Of Murder Nor Do I Glorify In Anybody's Death, But I Do Think That When The White Public Uses Its Press To Magnify The Fact That There Are The Lives Of White Hostages At Stake, They Don't Say "hostages," Every Paper Says "white Hostages." They Give Me The Impression That They Attach More Importance To A White Hostage And A White Death, Than They Do The Death Of A Human Being, Despite The Color Of His Skin.

Just As Uncle Tom, Back During Slavery Used To Keep The Negroes From Resisting The Bloodhound Or Resisting The Ku Klux Klan By Teaching Them To Love Their Enemies Or Pray For Those Who Use Them Despitefully, Today Martin Luther King Is Just A Twentieth-century Or Modern Uncle Tom Or Religious Uncle Tom, Who Is Doing The Same Thing Today To Keep Negroes Defenseless In The Face Of Attack That Uncle Tom Did On The Plantation To Keep Those Negroes Defenseless In The Face Of The Attack Of The Klan In That Day.

I Believe In The Brotherhood Of All Men, But I Don't Believe In Wasting Brotherhood On Anyone Who Doesn't Want To Practice It With Me. Brotherhood Is A Two-way Street.

Brotherhood Of Man

If The So-called 'christianity' Now Being Practiced In America Displays The Best That World Christianity Has Left To Offer - No One In His Right Mind Should Need Any Much Greater Proof That Very Close At Hand Is The End Of Christianity.

Ralph Bunche, Who Is An Internationally Recognized And Respected Diplomat, Can't Stay In A Hotel In Georgia, Which Means That No Matter What The Accomplishment, The Intellectual, The Academic, Or Professional Level Of A Negro Is, Collectively He Stands Condemned.

The Greatest Mistake Of The Movement Has Been Trying To Organize A Sleeping People Around Specific Goals. You Have To Wake The People Up First, Then You'll Get Action.

You Don't Integrate With A Sinking Ship.

You Don't Have To Be A Man To Fight For Freedom. All You Have To Do Is To Be An Intelligent Human Being.

The War Of Armageddon Has Already Started... God Is Using His Many Weapons. He Is Sending Hurricanes So Fast That [the Blue-eyed Devils] Can't Name Them. He Is Drowning Them In Floods And Causing Their Cars To Crash And Their Airplanes Cannot Stay Up In The Sky. Their Boats Are Sinking Because Allah Controls All Things And He Is Using All Methods To Begin To Wipe The Devils Off The Planet, [and] The Enemy Is Dying Of Diseases That Have Never Been So Deadly.

I Was Going Through The Hardest Thing, Also The Greatest Thing, For Any Human Being To Do; To Accept That Which Is Already Within You, And Around You.

The Same As In A German Neighborhood, The Stores Are Run By Germans, And In A Chinese Neighborhood They're Run By Chinese. In The Negro Neighborhood The Businesses Should Be Owned And Operated By Negroes And, Thereby, They Would Be Creating Employment For Negroes.

A Revolution Is Bloody. Revolution Is Hostile. Revolution Knows No Compromise. Revolution Overturns And Destroys Everything That Gets In Its Way.

...the Collective White Man Had Acted Like A Devil In Virtually Every Contact He Had With The World's Collective Non-white Man.

Now, The Black Man Here Was So-called Free By [abe] Lincoln 100 Years Ago. The Black Man In America Has An - Has A Purchasing Power Of 20 Billion Dollars. Now, And He's Educated.

During The Past Eleven Days Here In The Muslim World, I Have Eaten From The Same Plate, Drunk From The Same Glass, And Slept On The Same Rug - While Praying To The Same God - With Fellow Muslims, Whose Eyes Were The Bluest Of Blue, Whose Hair Was The Blondest Of Blond, And Whose Skin Was The Whitest Of White. And In The Words And In The Deeds Of The White Muslims, I Felt The Same Sincerity That I Felt Among The Black African Muslims Of Nigeria, Sudan And Ghana.

You Can Always Chase A Dream But It Will Not Count If You Never Catch It.

Respect Me, Or Put Me To Death.

The Law Of Nature Gives A Man The Right To Defend Himself When He's Attacked. And God's Law Itself Gives A Man The Right To Defend Himself When He's Attacked.

Just Like Pharaoh Couldn't Get A Solution To His Problem Until He Talked To Moses, Or Nebuchadnezzar Or Belshazzar Couldn't Get A Solution To His Problem Until He Talked To Daniel, The White Man In America Today Will Never Understand The Race Problem Or Come Anywhere Near Getting A Solution To The Race Problem Until He Talks To The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

When I Am Dead--i Say It That Way Because From The Things I Know, I Do Not Expect To Live Long Enough To Read This Book In Its Finished Form--i Want You To Just Watch And See If I'm Not Right In What I Say: That The White Man, In His Press, Is Going To Identify Me With "hate". He Will Make Use Of Me Dead, As He Has Made Use Of Me Alive, As A Convenient Symbol, Of "hatred"--and That Will Help Him Escape Facing The Truth That All I Have Been Doing Is Holding Up A Mirror To Reflect, To Show, The History Of Unspeakable Crimes That His Race Has Committed Against My Race.

I'm For Truth, No Matter Who Tells It.

To Have Once Been A Criminal Is No Disgrace. To Remain A Criminal Is The Disgrace

People Involved In A Revolution Don't Become Part Of The System; They Destroy The System... The Negro Revolution Is No Revolution Because It Condemns The System And Then Asks The System It Has Condemned To Accept Them.

Only The Whites In The South Aren't Hypocritical About It. You Don't Find Any More Inter - There Is Just As Much Social Intermixing In The South As There - Between The Races As There Is In The North. Only They - In The South They Let You Know - Where They Stand, And In The North They Take A Hypocritical Approach Or Attitude Or Reaction.

Renaissance Or The Reawakening Of Europe. And, And This Reawakening Actually Involved An Era During Which The People Of Europe, Who Were Coming Out Of The Dark Ages, Were Then Adopting The Value System Of The People In The East, In The, Of The Oriental Society.

Everybody Has A God And Believes That His God Will Deliver Him And Protect Him From His Enemies!

You Can’t Hate The Roots Of The Tree Without Ending Up Hating The Tree. You Can’t Hate Your Origin Without Ending Up Hating Yourself. You Can’t Hate The Land, Your Motherland, The Place That You Come From, And We Can’t Hate Africa Without Ending Up Hating Ourselves. The Black Man In The Western Hemisphere—north America, Central America, South America, And In The Caribbean—is The Best Example Of How One Can Be Made, Skillfully, To Hate Himself That You Can Find Anywhere On This Earth.

Our Accent Will Be Upon Youth: We Need New Ideas, New Methods, New Approaches. We Will Call Upon Young Students Of Political Science Throughout The Nation To Help Us. We Will Encourage These Young Students To Launch Their Own Independent Study, And Then Give Us Their Analysis And Their Suggestions. We Are Completely Disenchanted With The Old, Adult, Established Politicians. We Want To See Some New Faces -- More Militant Faces.

Education Is An Important Element In The Struggle For Human Rights. It Is The Means To Help Our Children And Thereby Increase Self-respect. Education Is Our Passport To The Future, For Tomorrow Belongs To The People Who Prepare For It Today.

It's Hard For Anyone Intelligent To Be Nonviolent. Everything In The Universe Does Something When You Start Playing With His Life, Except The American Negro. He Lays Down And Says, 'beat Me, Daddy.'

In My 39 Years On This Earth, The Holy City Of Makka Had Been The First Time I Had Ever Stood Before The Creator Of All And Felt Like A Complete Human Being

They Cripple The Bird's Wing, And Then Condemn It For Not Flying As Fast As They.

I Don’t Feel That I Am A Visitor In Ghana Or In Any Part Of Africa. I Feel That I Am At Home.

In This Country, These Negro Leaders Have Negroes Sittin' - Sitting Down, Thinking That That - There's Dignity Towards Sitting In.

When You Are Equal With Another Person, The Problem Of Integration Doesn't Even Arise.

Anytime You Have To Rely Upon Your Enemy For A Job You're In Bad Shape.

If You're Not Careful, The Newspapers Will Have You Hating The People Who Are Being Oppressed, And Loving The People Who Are Doing The Oppressing.

The Ability To Read Awoke Inside Of Me Some Long Dormant Craving To Be Mentally Alive.

It's Got To Be The Ballot Or The Bullet. The Ballot Or The Bullet. If You're Afraid To Use An Expression Like That, You Should Get Back In The Cotton Patch, You Should Get Back In The Alley.

In America You Have The Mouse Now Trying To Sit Down On The Elephant, Thinking That He's Going Somewhere. And It's - And It's Absurd.

The Black People Of America Have Been Victims Of Violence At The Hands Of The White Men For Four Hundred Years, And Following The Ignorant Negro Preachers, We Have Thought That It Was Godlike To Turn The Other Cheek To The Brute That Was Brutalizing Us.

Not A State Within A State, But The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Is, Is Saying That The Black Man, Since The White Man, Has Found It Impossible To Bring About Integration, Other Than Toke On A Ta - Other Than On A Token Basis, And Which Proves That The, The Two Of Us, The Ex-slave And The Master, Can't Live In The Same House As Equals.

I Think Teaching A Man To Hate Himself Is Much More Criminal Than Teaching A Man To Hate Someone Else.

The Real Names Of Our People Were Destroyed During Slavery. The Last Name Of My Forefathers Was Taken From Them When They Were Brought To America And Made Slaves, And Then The Name Of The Slave Master Was Given, Which We Refuse, We Reject That Name Today And Refuse It. I Never Acknowledge It Whatsoever.

Just As A Tree Without Roots Is Dead, A People Without History Or Cultural Roots Also Becomes A Dead People.

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.

African American

I'm Not A Republican, Nor A Democrat, Nor An American, And Got Sense Enough To Know It.

Now, You Integration-minded Negroes Are Trying To Force Yourselves On Your Former Slave Master, Trying To Make Him Accept You In His Drawing Room; You Want To Hang Out With His Women Rather Than The Women Of Your Own Kind.

Whether We Are Christians Or Muslims Or Nationalists Or Agnostics Or Atheists, We Must First Learn To Forget Our Differences. If We Have Differences, Let Us Differ In The Closet; When We Come Out In Front, Let Us Not Have Anything To Argue About Until We Get Finished Arguing With The Man. If The Late President Kennedy Could Get Together With Khrushchev And Exchange Some Wheat, We Certainly Have More In Common With Each Other Than Kennedy And Khrushchev Had With Each Other.

That Morning Was When I First Began To Reappraise The 'white Man.' It Was When I First Began To Perceive That 'white Man,' As Commonly Used, Means Complexion Only Secondarily; Primarily It Described Attitudes And Actions.

Never Allow Your Enemies To Educate Your Children.

Only Those Who Have Already Experienced A Revolution Within Themselves Can Reach Out Effectively To Help Others.

A New World Order Is In The Making, And It Is Up To Us To Prepare Ourselves That We May Take Our Rightful Place In It.

Just Take The Negro Child. Take The White Child. The White Child, Although It Has Not Committed Any Of The Per - As A Person Has Not Committed Any Of The Deeds That Has Produced The Plight That The Negro Finds Himself In, Is He Guiltless? The Only Way You Can Determine That Is, Take The Negro Child Who's Only Four-years-old. Can He Escape, Though He's Only Four Years Old, Can He Escape The Stigma Of Discrimination And Segregation? He's Only Four-years-old.

Anything I Do Today, I Regard As Urgent.

Just As Plagues Were Visited On Pharaoh So Will Pestilences And Disasters Be Visited On The White Man. Why, It Has Already Started: God Has Begun To Send Them Heat When They Expect Cold; He Sends Them Cold When They Expect Heat. Their Crops Are Dying, Their Children Are Being Born With All Kinds Of Deformities, The Rivers And Lakes Are Coming Out Of The Belly Of The Earth To Wash Them Away.

He [liberal White Person] May Stand With You Through Thin, But Not Thick; When The Chips Are Down, You'll Find That As Fixed In Him As His Bone Structure Is His Sometimes Subconscious Conviction That He's Better Than Anybody Black.

Be Nonviolent Only With Those Who Are Nonviolent To You. And When You Can Bring Me A Nonviolent Racist, Bring Me A Nonviolent Segregationist, Then I'll Get Nonviolent. But Don't Teach Me To Be Nonviolent Until You Teach Some Of Those Crackers To Be Nonviolent.

A Wise Man Can Play The Part Of A Clown, But A Clown Can't Play The Part Of A Wise Man.

The Same Rebellion, The Same Impatience, The Same Anger That Exists In The Hearts Of The Dark People In Africa And Asia Is Existing In The Hearts And Minds Of 20 Million Black People In This Country Who Have Been Just As Thoroughly Colonized As The People In Africa And Asia.

No Sane Black Man Really Wants Integration! No Sane White Man Really Wants Integration!

The Negro Is Nothing But An Ex-slave Who Is Now Trying To Get Himself Integrated Into The Slave Master's House.

What Does A Black Man Look Like Begging For A Cup Of Coffee In A White Restaurant, And Doesn't Have A Job To Back Up His - To Pay For It When, When - When He Does Get The Coffee? It's Putting The Cart Before The Horse.

I'm Trying To Get At This. That Is, A Man May Know That He Belongs To, Say, A Group - This Group Or That Group - But He Feels Himself Lost Within That Group, Trapped Within His Own Deficiencies And Without Personal Purpose.

The Main Part Of The Tree Is The Root, And The Root Is Always Beneath The Ground. It Never Is Brought Out Into The Light.

Internal Differences Within The Nation Of Islam Forced Me Out Of It. I Did Not Leave Of My Own Free Will. But Now That It Has Happened, I Intend To Make The Most Of It. Now That I Have More Independence Of Action, I Intend To Use A More Flexible Approach Toward Working With Others To Get A Solution To This Problem.

Jews Who Have Been Guilty Of Exploiting The Black People In America, Economically, Civically, And Otherwise, Hide Behind - Hide Their Guilt By Accusing The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Of Being Anti-semitic, Simply Because He Teaches Our People To Go Into Business For Ourselves And Take Over The Economic Leadership In Our Own Community.

When The Snakes Out In That Field Begin To Realize That If One Of Their Members Get Out Of Line, It's Going To Be Detrimental To All Of Them, They'll Keep That, Perhaps They'll Then Take The Necessary Steps To Keep Their Fellow Snakes Away From My Chickens Or Away From My Children If The Responsibility Is Placed Upon Them.

We Must Control The Politics And The Politicians Of Our Community. They Must No Longer Take Orders From Outside Forces. We Will Organize, And Sweep Out Of Office All Negro Politicians Who Are Puppets For The Outside Forces.

Mankind's History Has Proved From One Era To Another That The True Criterion Of Leadership Is Spiritual. Men Are Attracted By Spirit. By Power, Men Are Forced. Love Is Engendered By Spirit. By Power Anxieties Are Created.

I Had Begun To Read Books And Things And, In Fact, One Of The Persons Who Started Me Thinking Seriously Was An Atheist That I, Another Negro Inmate Whom I'd Heard In A Discussion With White Inmates And Who Was Able To Hold His Own At All Levels. And He Impressed Me With His Knowledge, And I Began To Listen Very Carefully To Some Of The Things He Said.

There Is Nothing In Our Book, The Koran, That Teaches Us To Suffer Peacefully. Our Religion Teaches Us To Be Intelligent.

If I Go Home And Someone, And My Child Has Blood Running Down Her Leg And Someone Tells Me That A Snake Bit Her, I'm Going Out And Kill The Snake. And When I Find The Snake, I'm Not Going To Look And See If He Has Blood On His Jaws.

I Don't Know - Too Much About Robert Williams Tactics, But If He Was Trying To Defend Himself, He Was Within His God-given Rights And Within - And He Was Also Within His Natural Right, Because First Law Of Nature Is Self-preservation.

Most People Who Work In Prison Earn Money Through Contraband.

The Junkie Can Never Start To Cure Himself Until He Recognizes His True Condition.

At This Point I Hadn't Yet Gotten Deep Into The Historic Condition That Negroes In This Country Are Confronted With, But At That Point In My Prison Studies I, I Read, I Studied Islam As A Religion More So Than As I Later Come To Know It In Its Connection With The Plight Or Problem Of Negroes In This Country.

I See America Through The Eyes Of The Victim. I Don’t See Any American Dream; I See An American Nightmare.

Education Is The Passport To The Future, For Tomorrow Belongs To Those Who Prepare For It Today.

Revolutions Are Never Peaceful.

You Get Your Freedom By Letting Your Enemy Know That You'll Do Anything To Get It. Then You'll Get It. It's The Only Way You'll Get It.

Well, The White Race In America Is The Same Way. As Individuals It Is Impossible For Them To Escape The Collective Crime Committed Against The Negroes In This Country, Collectively.

Today's Uncle Tom Doesn't Wear A Handkerchief On His Head. This Modern, Twentieth-century Uncle Thomas Now Often Wears A Top Hat. He's Usually Well-dressed And Well-educated. He's Often The Personification Of Culture And Refinement. The Twentieth-century Uncle Thomas Sometimes Speaks With A Yale Or Harvard Accent. Sometimes He Is Known As Professor, Doctor, Judge, And Reverend, Even Right Reverend Doctor. This Twentieth-century Uncle Thomas Is A Professional Negro -by That I Mean His Profession Is Being A Negro For The White Man.

Only In This Form Of Separation The Black Man Is Exploited. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Says That We Should Be Separate, All Right, But In This Separate State Or Separate Existence, The Black Man Should Be Given The Opportunity And The Incentive To Do For Himself What The White Man Has Done For Himself.

Why Can't The Black Man Have A God? What's So Wrong When A Black Man Says His God Will Protect Him Form His White Foe? If Jehovah Can Slay Philistines For The Jews, Why Can't Allah Slay Crackers For The So-called Negro?

Instead Of The Negro Leaders Having The Black Man Begging For A Chance To - To Dine In White Restaurants, The Negro Leader Should Be Showing The Black Man How To Do Something To Strengthen His Own Economy.

Negroes Just Can't Judge Each Other According To Color, Because We Are All Colors, All Complexions.

Any Group, Any Group That Can't Work With All Other Groups, If They Are Genuinely Interested In Solving The Problems Of The Negro Collectively Why, I Don't Think That That Group Is Really Sincerely Motivated Toward Reaching A Solution.

[the Man] Thinks He's Being Condemned Because Of His Color But Actually He's Being Condemned Because Of His Deeds, His Conscious Behavior.

In Order For A Man To Really Understand Himself He Must Be Part Of A Nation; He Must Have Some Land Of His Own, A God Of His Own, A Language Of His Own. Most Of All He Must Have Love And Devotion For His Own Kind.

The Government Has Departments To Deal With The Special Interest Groups That Make Themselves Heard And Felt. A Department Of Agriculture Cares For The Farmers' Needs. There Is A Department Of Health, Education And Welfare. There Is A Department Of The Interior - In Which The Indians Are Included. Is The Farmer, The Doctor, The Indian, The Greatest Problem In America Today? No - It Is The Black Man! There Ought To Be A Pentagon-sized Washington Department Dealing With Every Segment Of The Black Man's Problems.

Who Taught You To Hate The Color Of Your Skin? Who Taught You To Hate The Texture Of Your Hair? Who Taught You To Hate The Shape Of Your Nose And The Shape Of Your Lips? Who Taught You To Hate Yourself From The Top Of Your Head To The Soles Of Your Feet?

I Have Never Seen White People Who Would Sit, Who Would, Who Would Approach A Solution To Their Own Problems Nonviolently Or Passively. It's Only When They Are So-called "fighting For The Rights Of Negroes" That They Nonviolently, Passively, And Lovingly, You Know, Approach The Situation.

It's Easy. [black Man] Is - He's Separate Already. The Fact That You Have Harlem, The Fact That You Have The Negro Ghetto And The So-called Negro Slum, He's Already Separate.

It's Impossible For A White Person To Believe In Capitalism And Not Believe In Racism.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Says That If The - What Should Happen Is The Black Man Himself Should Learn How To Develop Himself, In The Same Sense That The White Man Has Developed Himself. Then They Can Both Come Together And Recognize Each Other As Equals.

Either You Are A Citizen Or You Are Not A Citizen At All. If You Are Citizen, You Are Free; If Youre Not A Citizen You Are A Slave.

You Show Me A Capitalist, And I'll Show You A Bloodsucker.

If You Form The Habit Of Taking What Someone Else Says About A Thing Without Checking It Out For Yourself, You'll Find That Other People Will Have You Hating Your Friends And Loving Your Enemies.

History Is A People's Memory, And Without A Memory, Man Is Demoted To The Lower Animals.

Never Have I Witnessed Such Sincere Hospitality And The Overwhelming Spirit Of True Brotherhood As Is Practiced By People Of All Colours And Races Here In This Ancient Holy Land, The Home Of Abraham, Muhammad, And All The Other Prophets Of The Holy Scriptures. For The Past Week, I Have Been Utterly Speechless And Spellbound By The Graciousness I See Displayed All Around Me By People Of All Colours.

It Is Only After The Deepest Darkness That The Greatest Light Can Come; It Is Only After Extreme Grief That The Greatest Joy Can Come.

I Asked Inmate In New York, Warden Fay At That Time If, If It Didn't Make A Better Inmate Out Of The Negroes Who Accepted It And He Said, "yes." So I Asked Him Then What Was It About It That He Considered To Be So Danger, And He, Dangerous, And He Pointed Out That It Was The Cohesiveness That It Produced Among The Inmates. They Stuck Together.

When You Go To A Church And You See The Pastor Of That Church With A Philosophy And A Program That's Designed To Bring Black People Together And Elevate Black People, Join That Church. Join That Church. If You See Where The Naacp Is Preaching And Practicing That Which Is Designed To Make Black Nationalism Materialize, Join The Naacp. Join Any Kind Of Organization, Civic, Religious, Fraternal, Political, Or Otherwise That's Based On Lifting The Black Man Up And Making Him Master Of His Own Community.

The British Empire Was So Vast And So Powerful, The Sun Would Never Set On It. This Is How Big It Was, Yet These 13 Little Scrawny States, Tired Of Taxation Without Representation, Tired Of Being Exploited And Oppressed And Degraded, Told That Big British Empire, Liberty Or Death.

It Gives [a Man] The Incentive To Develop His Dormant Potential So That When He Becomes A Part Of The Brotherhood Of Islam, And Is Identified Collectively In The Brotherhood Of Islam With The Brothers In Islam, At The Same Time This Also Gives Him The, It Has The Psychological Effect Of Giving Him The Incentive As An Individual To Develop All Of His Dormant Potential To Its Fullest Extent.

I Myself Would Go For Nonviolence If It Was Consistent, If Everybody Was Going To Be Nonviolent All The Time. I'd Say, Okay, Let's Get With It, We'll All Be Nonviolent. But I Don't Go Along With Any Kind Of Nonviolence Unless Everybody's Going To Be Nonviolent. If They Make The Ku Klux Klan Nonviolent, I'll Be Nonviolent. If They Make The White Citizens Council Nonviolent, I'll Be Nonviolent. But As Long As You've Got Somebody Else Not Being Nonviolent, I Don't Want Anybody Coming To Me Talking Any Nonviolent Talk.

The Most Unprotected Person In America Is The Black Woman.

These Were African-arab-asian Values. The Only Section Of Europe That Had A High Value System During The Dark Ages Was The, Were Those On The Iberian Peninsula In The Spanish-portuguese Area, Southern France.

The White Man Is Too Intelligent To Let Someone Else Come And Gain Control Of The Economy Of His Community. But You Will Let Anyone Come In And Take Control Of The Economy Of Your Community, Control The Housing, Control The Education, Control The Jobs, Control The Businesses, Under The Pre-text That You Want To Integrate. No, You Outta Your Mind.

When 'i' Replaced With 'we', Even The Illness Becomes Wellness.

I Think The Only Way One Can Really Determine Whether Extremism In The Defense Of Liberty Is Justified, Is Not To Approach It As An American Or A European Or An African Or An Asian, But As A Human Being. If We Look Upon It As Different Types, Immediately We Begin To Think In Terms Of Extremism Being Good For One And Bad For Another, Or Bad For One And Good For Another. But If We Look Upon It, If We Look Upon Ourselves As Human Beings, I Doubt That Anyone Will Deny That Extremism In Defense Of Liberty, The Liberty Of Any Human Being, Is No Vice.

All Of Us Were Mischievous At Some Time Or Another, I More So Than Any Of The Rest. [my Brother] Philbert And I Kept A Battle Going. ... Even In Our Fighting, There Was A Feeling Of Brotherly Union.

In All Our Deeds, The Proper Value And Respect For Time Determines Success Or Failure.

The White Man Supports Reverend Martin Luther King, Subsidizes Reverend Martin Luther King, So That Reverend Martin Luther King Can Continue To Teach The Negroes To Be Defenseless - That's What You Mean By Nonviolent - Be Defenseless In The Face Of One Of The Most Cruel Beasts That Has Ever Taken People Into Captivity - That's This American White Man, And They Have Proved It Throughout The Country By The Police Dogs And The Police Clubs.

It Is The Attitude Of The American White Man That Is Making Him Stand Condemned Today Before The Eyes Of The Entire Dark World And Even Before The Eyes Of The Europeans. It Is His Attitude, His Haughty, Holier-than-thou Attitude.

Since I Learned The Truth In Mecca, My Dearest Friends Have Come To Include All Kinds - Some Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Agnostics, And Even Atheists! I Have Friends Who Are Called Capitalists, Socialists, And Communists! Some Of My Friends Are Moderates, Conservatives, Extremists - Some Are Even Uncle Toms! My Friends Today Are Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, And White!

Don't Condemn If You See A Person Has A Dirty Glass Of Water, Just Show Them The Clean Glass Of Water That You Have. When They Inspect It, You Won't Have To Say That Yours Is Better." -said By Elijah Muhammad To Malcolm X

To Me, The Thing That Is Worse Than Death Is Betrayal.

Betraying Friends

Look At Yourselves. Some Of You Teenagers, Students. How Do You Think I Feel And I Belong To A Generation Ahead Of You - How Do You Think I Feel To Have To Tell You, 'we, My Generation, Sat Around Like A Knot On A Wall While The Whole World Was Fighting For Its Hum An Rights - And You've Got To Be Born Into A Society Where You Still Have That Same Fight.' What Did We Do, Who Preceded You ? I'll Tell You What We Did. Nothing. And Don't You Make The Same Mistake We Made.

Whenever You're Going After Something That Belongs To You, Anyone Who's Depriving You Of The Right To Have It Is A Criminal. Understand That. Whenever You Are Going After Something That Is Yours, You Are Within Your Legal Rights To Lay Claim To It. And Anyone Who Puts Forth Any Effort To Deprive You Of That Which Is Yours, Is Breaking The Law, Is A Criminal.

They Came Up With A Civil Rights Bill In 1964, Supposedly To Solve Our Problem, And After The Bill Was Signed, Three Civil Rights Workers Were Murdered In Cold Blood. And The Fbi Head, Hoover, Admits That They Know Who Did It, They've Known Ever Since It Happened, And They've Done Nothing About It. Civil Rights Bill Down The Drain.

I Don't Think That The Objective Of The American Negro Is White Middle-class Values Because What Are White Middle-class Values?

The Negro Fought And Bled And Died In Every War The White Man Waged, And He Still Won't Give You Justice. You Nursed His Baby And Cleaned Behind His Wife, And He Still Won't Give You Freedom; You Turned The Other Cheek While He Lynched You And Raped Your Women, But He Still Won't Give You Equality.

The White Man Is Not Inherently Evil, But America's Racist Society Influences Him To Act Evilly. The Society Has Produced And Nourishes A Psychology Which Brings Out The Lowest, Most Base Part Of Human Beings.

The Number One Thing That Has To Be Done, [black Men] Has To Be Retaught, Be Given - He Has To Be Reeducated And Made To Know That He's A Man, Like Anyone Else, And Then He Can Stand On His Own Two Feet, Like Others Have Done.

The Problem [ Of The Twenty-two Million Afro-americans] Is So Broad That It's Going To Take The Inner Working Of All Organizations.

We're All In The Same Boat And We All Are Going To Catch The Same Hell From The Same Man.

22 Million African-americans - That's What We Are - Africans Who Are In America.

Power Never Takes A Back Step Only In The Face Of More Power.

How Can A Negro Say America Is His Nation? He Was Brought Here In Chains; He Was Put In Slavery An Worked Like A Mule For Three Hundred Years; He Was Separated From His Land, His Culture, His God, His Language!

Wyatt Walker Can Walk Through Harlem. No One Would Know Him.

Usually When People Are Sad, They Don't Do Anything. They Just Cry Over Their Condition. But When They Get Angry, They Bring About A Change.

I Think That The Black People In This Country Have The Reached The Point Where They Should Reserve The Right To Do Whatever Is Necessary To See That They Exercise Complete Control Over The Politicians In The Politician, In The Politics Of Their Own Community By Whatever Means Necessary.

I Believe That It Would Be Almost Impossible To Find Anywhere In America A Black Man Who Has Lived Further Down In The Mud Of Human Society Than I Have; Or A Black Man Who Has Been Any More Ignorant Than I Have; Or A Black Man Who Has Suffered More Anguish During His Life Than I Have. But It Is Only After The Deepest Darkness That The Greatest Joy Can Come; It Is Only After Slavery And Prison That The Sweetest Appreciation Of Freedom Can Come.

Some Things Are Better Done Than Said.

When You Have To Pass A Law To Make A Man Let Me Have A House, Or You Have To Pass A Law To Make A Man Let Me Go To School, Or You Have To Pass A Law To Make A Man Let Me Walk Down The Street, You Have To Enforce That Law And You'd Have To Be Living Actually In A Police State. It Would Take A Police State In This Country.

I Was With Essien Udom In Nigeria.

Since The White People Collectively Have Practiced The Worst Form Of Hatred Against Negroes In America And They Know That They Are Guilty Of It, Now When The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Comes Along And Begins To List The Historic Deed - The Historic Attitude, The Historic Behavior Of The White Man In This Country Toward The Black People In This Country, Again, The White People Are So Guilty And They Can't Stop Doing These Things To Make Mr. Muhammad Appear To Be Wrong, So They Hide Their Wrong By Saying "he Is Teaching Hatred."

Any Time You Demonstrate Against Segregation And A Man Has The Audacity To Put A Police Dog On You, Kill That Dog, Kill Him, I'm Telling You, Kill That Dog. I Say It If They Put Me In Jail Tomorrow, Kill That Dog. Then You'll Put A Stop To It.

I Admire A Man Who Fights A Battle Against Opposition, And If There Wasn't Something About [reverend] Galamison That The People, I Notice That The Power Structure Is Against Galamison.

You're Going To Have A Racial Explosion, And A Racial Explosion Is More Dangerous Than An Atomic Explosion. It's Going To Explode Because Black People Are Dissatisfied; They're Dissatisfied Not Only With The White Man, But They're Dissatisfied With These Negroes Who Have Been Sitting Around Here Posing As Leaders And Spokesmen For Black People And Actually Making The Problem Worse Instead Of Making The Problem Better.

I Might Add How In The World Can You Say, Or Can Anyone Say, That It Will Dignify The American Negro To Beg In Or Wade [?] In Or Plead In When The People In Hungary Didn't Beg In? They Were Freedom Fighters. And They Fought For Their Freedom.

Much Of What I Say Might Sound Bitter, But It's The Truth. Much Of What I Say Might Sound Like It's Stirring Up Trouble, But It's The Truth. Much Of What I Say Might Sound Like Its Hate, But It's The Truth

What The White Man In America Needs To Realize Is There's A New Thinking Among Black People Today Which Makes Them Not Willing To Sit Around And Wait For Five Years To Get This Problem Solved, Much Less A Hundred Years.

I, For One, Will Join In With Anyone -- I Don't Care What Color You Are -- As Long As You Want To Change This Miserable Condition That Exists On This Earth.

My Suspicious Nature Is That There's Something That [ Reverend ] Galamison, About Galamison That Must Have Some Good In It Or Some Right In It.

If He [uncle Sam] Can't Do This [integration], Then They Will - It Will Alienate Them. And All Of The Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars Or Billions Of Dollars That He Has Sent Abroad Trying To Buy The Friendship Of The Dark World Will Go Right Down The Drain.

For One To Control One's Thoughts And Feelings Means One Can Actually Control One's Atmosphere And All Who Walk Into Its Sphere Of Influence.

As Long As You Are Convinced You Have Never Done Anything, You Can Never Do Anything.

This Was My First Lesson About Gambling: If You See Somebody Winning All The Time, He Isn't Gambling, He's Cheating. Later On In Life, If I Were Continuously Losing In Any Gambling Situation, I Would Watch Very Closely.

If You Read The Story Of Slavery And See The Part That The Uncle Tom Played In The Plantation, And Then You See How The White Man Today Has Changed His Tactics, But He Still Occupies The Same Position, In That Same Context You Find Uncle Tom. He Has Changed His Tactics But He Still Occupies The Same Position.

America Needs To Understand Islam, Because This Is The One Religion That Erases From Its Society The Race Problem. Throughout My Travels In The Muslim World, I Have Met, Talked To, Even Eaten With People Who In America Would Have Been Considered 'white,' But The 'white' Attitude Had Been Removed From Their Minds By The Religion Of Islam.

Don't Be Bitter. Remember Lot's Wife When They Kill Me, And They Surely Will. You Have To Use All Of Your Energy To Do What It Is You Have To Do. [to His Wife Betty Shabazz]

When The People Who Are In Power Want To Use Again, Create An Image, To Justify Something That's Bad, They Use The Press. And They'll Use The Press To Create A Humanitarian Image, For A Devil, Or A Devil Image For A Humanitarian. They'll Take A Person Who's A Victim Of The Crime, And Make It Appear He's The Criminal, And They'll Take The Criminal And Make It Appear That He's The Victim Of The Crime.

When You Expand The Civil-rights Struggle To The Level Of Human Rights, You Can Then Take The Case Of The Black Man In This Country Before The Nations In The Un. You Can Take It Before The General Assembly. You Can Take Uncle Sam Before A World Court. But The Only Level You Can Do It On Is The Level Of Human Rights. Civil Rights Keeps You Under His Restrictions, Under His Jurisdiction. Civil Rights Keeps You In His Pocket.

You Have A Race Problem That Must Be Solved, Or Else You Will Alienate Every Non-white Person On This Earth Within The Next Few Years, Or Within The Next Few Months.

As Bad As I Was, As Much Trouble And Worry As I Caused My Mother, I Loved Her.

We Need More Light About Each Other. Light Creates Understanding, Understanding Creates Love, Love Creates Patience, And Patience Creates Unity.

I Will Be Happy To Give My Life To See Some Of These White Devils Die.

Most Of The, Or I Should Say Many Of The Negro Leaders Actually Suffer Themselves From An Inferiority Complex Even Though They Say They Don't.

When You Aren't Affiliated With Anything, And Then You Look At Something, You Look At It With Your Eye To The Best Of Your Ability.

A Cat That's Inside Of Your House That Is Angry And Dissatisfied And Hostile Is More Dangerous To You Than A Full-grown Lion Is On The Outside.

Nowhere In History Has The White Man Been Brotherly Toward Anyone.

I Am Not A Racist In Any Form Whatsoever. I Don't Believe In Any Form Of Discrimination Or Segregation.

What Is A Dixiecrat? A Democrat. A Dixiecrat Is Nothing But A Democrat In Disguise.

Anytime You Find Someone More Successful Than You Are, Especially When You're Both Engaged In The Same Business - You Know They're Doing Something That You Aren't.

To Me, Political Action Involves Making The Politician Who Represents Us Know That He Either Produces Or He Is Out, And He's Out One Way Or Another.

Daring To Reach, To Climb, To Crawl, To Scratch, To Get Back Up When You've Been Knocked Down, To Push Forward - Ever Forward - To Forgive. It Means Sacrificing Everything If Necessary, To Carve Out A Place For Your Own Existence. It Means Living.

Sacrificing Everything

Here You Have 22 Million Afro-americans, Black People Today, Catching More Hell Than Patrick Henry Ever Saw. And I'm Here To Tell You, In Case You Don't Know It, That You Got A New - You Got A New Generation Of Black People In This Country, Who Don't Care Anything Whatsoever About Odds. They Don't Want To Hear You Old Uncle Tom Handkerchief Heads Talking About The Odds.

Each Of Us Should Make The Most Of Our Lives. We Should Give Life Our Best-let Us Use Our Lives More Wisely To Chase Our Dreams, Find Our True Purpose, And Be As Happy And Successful As Possible.

If Christianity Had Asserted Itself In Germany, Six Million Jews Would Have Lived.

The Messenger Has Seen God. He Was With Allah And Was Given Divine Patience With The Devil. He Is Willing To Wait For Allah To Deal With This Devil. Well, Sir, The Rest Of Us Black Muslims Have Not Seen God, We Don't Have This Gift Of Divine Patience With The Devil. The Younger Black Muslims Want To See Some Action.

The 22 Million Or 30 Million, Whatever The Case May Be, Afro-americans In The United States Were Still Africans.

If You Stick A Knife Nine Inches Into My Back And Pull It Out Three Inches, That Is Not Progress.

Anytime You Live In A Society Supposedly Based Upon Law And It Doesn't Enforce Its Own Laws Because The Color Of A Man's Skin Happens To Be Wrong, Then I Say Those People Are Justified To Resort To Any Means Necessary To Bring About Justice When The Government Can't Give Them Justice.

I Remember One Night At Muzdalifa With Nothing But The Sky Overhead I Lay Awake Amid Sleeping Muslim Brothers And I Learned That Pilgrims From Every Land--every Color, And Class, And Rank; High Officials And The Beggar Alike--all Snored In The Same Language.

It Is The System Itself That, That Is Incapable Of Producing Freedom For The Twenty-two Million Afro-americans. Just Like A Chicken Can't Lay A Duck Egg, A Chicken Can't Lay A Duck Egg, Because The System Of The Chicken Isn't Constructed In The Way To Produce A Duck Egg. And Just As That Chicken System Can't Produce, Is Not Capable To, Of Producing A Duck Egg, The Political And Economic System Of This Country Is Absolutely Incapable Of Producing Freedom And Justice And Equality And Human Dignity For The Twenty-two Million Afro-americans.

I Could Turn Around As Wyatt Walker Said To Me About, Not You Personally, But About The Whole Black Muslim Movement. That If You Go Outside Of New York City, Dr. [martin Luther] King Is Known To 90 Percent Of The Negroes In The United States And Is Respected And, And Is Identified More Or Less With Him, At Least As A Hero Of One Kind Or Another. That The Black Muslim, Outside Of One Or Two Communities Like New York, Are Unknown.

The Same Thing That Uncle Tom Did On The Plantation Before [abe] Lincoln Issued The So-called Emancipation Proclamation.i Have No Thinking On The Matter. But He's Teaching The Black People To Suffer Peacefully, Patiently, Until The White Man Makes Up His Mind That You're A Human Being The Same As He.

For The White Man To Ask The Black Man If He Hates Him Is Just Like The Rapist Asking The Raped, Or The Wolf Asking The Sheep, 'do You Hate Me?' The White Man Is In No Moral Position To Accuse Anyone Else Of Hate! Why, When All Of My Ancestors Are Snake-bitten, And I'm Snake-bitten, And I Warn My Children To Avoid Snakes, What Does That Snake Sound Like Accusing Me Of Hate-teaching?

Time Is On The Side Of The Oppressed Today, It's Against The Oppressor. Truth Is On The Side Of The Oppressed Today, It's Against The Oppressor. You Don't Need Anything Else.

Now The Goal Of Dr. Martin Luther King Is To Give Negroes A Chance To Sit In A Segregated Restaurant Beside The Same White Man Who Has Brutalized Them For Four Hundred Years.

We Don't Think That We're Begging For Anything. We Think We're Demanding What Is Ours By Right. And All We're Asking For Is An Opportunity To Do Something For Ourselves, Rather Than To Sit Around As A Beggar, Begging For Jobs And Begging For Education From - For Someone Else For The Rest Of Our Lives.

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.

It Is Incorrect To Classify The Revolt Of The Negro As Simply A Radical Conflict Of Black Against White Or As A Purely American Problem. Rather, We Are Today Seeing A Global Rebellion Of The Oppressed Against The Oppressor, The Exploited Against The Exploiter.

The Constitution Of The United States Of America Clearly Affirms The Right Of Every American Citizen To Bear Arms. And As Americans, We Will Not Give Up A Single Right Guaranteed Under The Constitution.

Most Of The Negro Leaders Who Get The Support Of The Power Structure End Up Being Against [reverend] Galamison.

I Believe In Islam. I Am A Muslim And There Is Nothing Wrong With Being A Muslim, Nothing Wrong With The Religion Of Islam. It Just Teaches Us To Believe In Allah As The God. Those Of You Who Are Christian Probably Believe In The Same God, Because I Think You Believe In The God Who Created The Universe. That's The One We Believe In, The One Who Created Universe - The Only Difference Being You Call Him God And We Call Him Allah. The Jews Call Him Jehovah. If You Could Understand Hebrew, You Would Probably Call Him Jehovah Too. If You Could Understand Arabic, You Would Probably Call Him Allah.

Nonviolence With Dr. [martin Luther ]king Is Only A Method. That's Not His Objective.

Dr Martin Luther King

If You're Black, You Were Born In Jail, In The North As Well As The South. Stop Talking About The South. Long As You South Of The Canadian Border, You're South.

You Are Either Free Or Not Free

It's Easy To Become A Satellite Today Without Even Being Aware Of It. This Country Can Seduce God. Yes, It Has That Seductive Power; The Power Of The Dollar.

It Is Only The Negro Leadership, The Bourgeois, Hand-picked, Handful Of Negroes Who Think That They're Going To Get Some Kind Of Respect, Recognition, Or Protection From The Government.

Trending Author

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Category