Malcolm X: His Wit and Wisdom (1969) | Best Speeches OOP LP

right now in this country, if you and I are 22 million African Americans, that's what we are Africans, then you call yourself a black African, you don't understand, you know you don't have to pass civil rights bills for petitioners, you can go wherever you want, right? now you want to just stop being a black, change your knees, so who made Google dumb by waiting? Maybe you're dealing with what a dumb man, my friend, whose very job put a tower on his head and walked into a restaurant in Atlanta before they called himself. desegregate and went to a white restaurant, it was that time they served him and he said what would happen: the first black man in India to settle in a place as black as night wouldn't dare come in yet, so you're dealing with a man who you are dealing with a being whose prejudice is making him lose his mind give me collagen every day whether you are educated or illiterate whether you live on the boulevard or in the alley you are going to get hell just like me we are all in the same boat and We are all going to suffer the same hell from the same man, he just happens to be a white man, we have all suffered here in this country, political oppression at the hands of white men, economic exploitation at the hands of white men and social degradation at the hands of the white man now thinking like this does not mean that we are anti-white but it does mean that we are against exploitation we are within segregation we are against oppression and if the white man does not want us to be against him, he should stop oppressing and exploiting.

And I am not a politician, not even a student of politics. You think I'm not a student of much of anything. I'm not a democrat. I'm not a Republican, I don't even consider myself in America, if you and I were Americans there wouldn't be a problem as long as you and I have been here, we're not Americans yet, well I'm someone who doesn't believe in fooling myself I'm not going to sit at your table and what you eat with nothing on my plate and I call myself a diner sitting at the table does not make you a diamond eating something that is here in the United States, no It does not make you an American to be here in the United States United does not make you the United States.

Why maybe to be an American you wouldn't need any legislation? You would not make any amendments to the Constitution. You wouldn't stand up to obstruction of civil rights in Washington. DC currently does not have to pass civil rights legislation to poll the United States. No, I'm not American. I am one of the 22 million blacks who are victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people. who are the victims of democracy nothing more than autocracy of this type, so I'm not here speaking to you as an American or a patriot or earthquakes, a looter or a flag waving, no, I'm speaking as a victim of this American system.

I see the United States. through the eyes of a victim i don't see any american dream i see an american nightmare the next thing you're going to see here in america and please don't blame me when you see it you're going to see the same things that have taken place among other people on this land whose condition it was parallel to that of the 22 million African Americans in this country time is on the side of the oppressed today it is against the oppressor and the truth is on the side of the oppressed today it is against the oppressor you don't need it just I would like to say this in my conclusion you will see it you will see terrorism that will terrify and if you do not believe that you will see it you are trying to blind yourself to the The historical development of everything is taking place on this earth today you will see other things, why will you see them?

Because as soon as people realize that it is impossible for a chicken to produce a duck egg even though they both belong to the same bird family. the so-called bird, a chicken simply does not have within its system the possibility of producing a duck egg, it cannot do so, it can only produce according to what that particular system was built to produce, the system of this country cannot produce freedom for a person. African American is impossible for this system, this economic system, this political system, this social system, this system, period, it is impossible for someone as he is at birth to produce freedom at this moment for the black man in this country, it is impossible and if Once a chicken made a duck egg.

I'm pretty sure you'd say he certainly was our revolutionary. Well, we are justified in talking about civil rights if that means equal opportunity because what we are doing there is trying to raise funds for our investment. mothers and fathers we invested sweat and blood three hundred and ten years we worked in this country without a cent in return I mean without a cent in return do that if you let the right man walk around here talking about how rich this country is but never Stop to think how he got rich so fast he got rich, you made him rich, you take the people who are in this audience right now, they are poor, we are all poor as individuals, our weekly salary individually amounts to almost nothing, but if you take The salary of everyone here together will fill a lot of baskets.

It is a lot of wealth. If you can collect the salaries of just these people here for a year, you will be rich, richer than rich when you look at it. So, think about how rich Uncle Sam had to become, not with this handful but with millions of black people. You are my mother and father, who didn't want to eat our ship, but they work from when I can't see in the morning until I can't see. at night then work for free making the white man rich make Uncle Sam rich this is our investment this is our contribution blow not only did we give raw and free work we gave a lot of blood at the time when the age of guns we were the first In uniform we die on a battlefield with the white man.

We have made a greater sacrifice than anyone standing in America today. We have made a greater contribution and corrected the rights to the investment philosophy that is black nationalism. now don't even wait for next year give it to us yesterday all these practices belong to the Democratic Party that is the party they belong to the same you belong to the same one that you support the same one that you say will get you this and will get you the part of the Democratic Party for that reason is in the South if the base of this Authority is in the South the head of the Democratic Party is sitting in the White House he could have taken a hit at FEMA in Atlantic City he could have opened his mouth and had his seat Hubert Humphrey could have opened mouth and head to our seat waiting in the mirror right here, pull your mouth and use your weight on the necessary headings, don't talk about some cookies in Mississippi and Alabama in Georgia, they We're all playing the same game Lincoln.

I don't want to step on your toes or say things you didn't think I was going to say, but don't follow me here to talk about Mississippi if this is where it's controlled from the North Mississippi is controlled from the north Alabama is controlled from the northeast The boats of the North are in cahoots with the solvent scandal, only these northern practitioners smile in your face and show their teeth and slide the knife in your back when you at least turn around. you know what that man is doing down there and you know how to deal with it all I'm saying is this this is all I said so when you start talking about one talk about the other when you start worrying about the part or the piece worry about the whole and if the fifty don't work and that Prai doesn't work because it all comes out of the thin plate and is made of the same ingredient number two of the constitutional amendments gives you and me the right to own a right or a shotgun It is constitutionally legal to own a shotgun.

Well, this wasn't me trying to get a rifle and form battalions and go out looking for white balls. Oh, you would be within your rights. I mean, it would be justified, but then it would be illegal. We don't make anything you eat, if the white man doesn't want the black man to buy rifles and shotguns then let the government do its job it's wrong and don't let the right man come up to you and ask you what you think . about Malcolm, you are a man, he is not going to do his job and for any you and me with the protection that that city has, how many billions, the first event for the defense sent you and me, I hope to understand, don't go away absolutely Pete, but any time brothers and sisters and especially the men in this audience swimming to the end congressional medals on shoulders this broad chest this big muscle back be silly read where they do politics cold blooded murder listen big ass girl grown up why they frame to see I have great respect and admiration for someone who has the nerve to tie his hand and then go out and let a brute brutalize him.

I have to respect him because he could do something that I don't understand what he is doing is beyond my power to even come up with. he understood that it would be equivalent to putting handcuffs on me and putting me in the ring and telling me to fight Cassius Clay Oh, Sonny Liston non-violently, I don't think he can do it and whoever can do it, I have to know how. I do, but all I'm saying is that when you're in this city, when you're dealing with an enemy, you have to be able to listen, there has to be some dialogue, you have to be able to communicate, you can't. end the medium the medium of communication is usually the language you must speak the language that other people understand when you are in Mississippi speaking the language of morality or the language of nonviolence you are not communicating you are speaking the language that they do not understand at all what I suggest and do not suggest as a condemnation of cocoa or snails.

I know many of them, they are brave students and all that is not your focus as you say. tactical attack before the attack suit a tactical approach is designed to achieve certain results if the dinah keeps you alive it is designed to achieve victory why can't we just say that victory has been achieved let me tell you something I was in Africa and I read what they did to Jeanne they said they beat up that black this they shot the other two they said they beat up Cheverus boom all the bones were broken now you know what I think the people who say to our people that our almost agent is not violent until 1959 NASA was dominated by the colonial power and by the colonial powers of Europe having total control over Africa they projected the negative image of Africa late they projected Africa always in the negative light wild jungles cannibals nothing civilized and one In a natural way it was negative until it was negative for you and me and you and I started to hate it.

We didn't want anyone to say everything about a person and much less called us in Africa and by hating atlases and hating Africans we ended up even hate ourselves without even realizing it because you can't hate the roots of a tree and not eat the tree you can't heat your order and not end up heating yourself you can't hate Africa and not eat yourself and show me one of these people hence the ones who have been thoroughly brainwashed and who have a negative attitude towards Africa and I will show you one who has a negative attitude towards himself, you cannot have it, you cannot have a negative attitude towards your companions, a positive attitude towards yourself and a negative attitude towards Africa at the same time, to the same extent that your attitude and your understanding of an attitude towards Africa becomes positive, you will find that your understanding and your attitude towards yourself will also become positive and this is what white man so they very cleverly made you hate our african identity african characteristics you know yourself and we have been a people who hated our african characteristics we hate our hair we hate the shape of our nose we wanted one of those long dog noses you know, yes, we hated the color of our skin, we hated the blood of Africa that was in our veins and by hating our features in our skin, in our blood, why did we have to end up hating ourselves and we hate ourselves, our color It became for us a change that we felt was holding us back, we bet our color came to us, it became for us like a prison that we felt was keeping us confined, it didn't let us go from one place to another and we felt that all these restrictions were based solely on our color in the psychological reaction to that, which has to be that as long as we felt imprisoned or chained or trapped by black skin, black features and black blood, skin and those features and that blood that automatically held us back had he became hateful to us and became hateful to us. made us feel inferior made us feel inadequate made us feel powerless and when we fell victim to this feeling of inadequacy or inferiority or helplessness we turned to another person to show us the way we didn't trust another black man to show us the way or blacks to show us the way in those days we didn't like a black man can do anything but do some damage you know I'm obligated and make you happy with some songs and that way we went with something inferior as far as our food, clothing and shelter, in our education, we turn to the man we never think of in termsTo bring these things into existence for ourselves, we never thought in terms of doing things for ourselves because we felt helpless and what made us feel helpless was our self-hatred and our heat of self-hatred stealing from others. our teachers of things that to understand this we have to go back to what the young brother here refers to as the black house and the field. black back during the dream there were two types of slavers there was the black house in the black field the black house they lived in the house with mats they dressed quite well they were good because they eat his food but he left but still near the nest and they loved to the teacher more than to the teacherbully themselves they would give their lives to save their critical master of the house in the teacher would be the house Black if the teacher said we have a good house here the house we have a good house said let's tell the black house lady. yes, the Master's house caught fire the Negro house would fight harder to put out the fire then the master yes, the master got sick the Negro house said what's the problem boss identified with his master more than his master identified with himself same and if You came to the house and he grew up and said: let's run away, let's escape, let's separate that house.

Negro crazy with you, crazy, crazy means to separate, if it is a better house than this current time, we have better clothes than this present, it is better food for this era that house Black in those days they called it a house and that is what we call it do because we still have some houses running around here this modern house Black closed his mess must be a visionary to pay three times more than the the house is worth just a small master and then brag about the house alone black here I'm the only one at my job I'm the only one in the school you will be nothing more than a black house and if someone comes to you right now and says, let's separate you say the same thing that the black house was on the planet what do you mean separated from America this good light man what are you going to do? get a better job you got here how do you say nothing in Africa that's what you say right let your mind