Rootsie

Malcolm X was assassinated on Feb. 21, 1965 -- forty years ago this Monday. He was born May 19, 1925 -- eighty years ago this year. The following are some of his statements. Malcolm X broke with the Nation of Islam in early 1964; a chronology is available at BrotherMalcolm.net.

"The entire American economy is based on white supremacy. Even the religious philosophy is, in essence, white supremacy. A white Jesus. A white Virgin. White angels. White everything. But a black Devil, of course."
-- From a May 1963 Playboy interview.

"We need to expand the civil-rights struggle to a higher level -- to the level of human rights. Whenever you are in a civil-rights struggle, whether you know it or not, you are confining yourself to the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam. ... [T]he Negro problem is never brought before the UN. This is part of the conspiracy. This old, tricky blue-eyed liberal who is supposed to be your and my friend, supposed to be in our corner, supposed to be subsidizing our struggle, and supposed to be acting in the capacity of an adviser, never tells you anything about human rights."
-- "The Ballot or the Bullet," April 3, 1964.

"There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white."
-- Letter from the Hajj (pilgrimage) in Mecca, April 20, 1964.

"They have a new gimmick every year. They're going to take one of their boys, black boys, and put him in the cabinet so he can walk around Washington with a cigar. Fire on one end and fool on the other end. And because his immediate personal problem will have been solved he will be the one to tell our people: 'Look how much progress we're making. I'm in Washington, D.C., I can have tea in the White House. I'm your spokesman, I'm your leader.' While our people are still living in Harlem in the slums. Still receiving the worst form of education."

"But how many sitting here right now feel that they could [laughs] truly identify with a struggle that was designed to eliminate the basic causes that create the conditions that exist? Not very many. They can jive, but when it comes to identifying yourself with a struggle that is not endorsed by the power structure, that is not acceptable, that the ground rules are not laid down by the society in which you live, in which you are struggling against, you can't identify with that, you step back."

"It's easy to become a satellite today without even realizing it. This country can seduce God. Yes, it has that seductive power of economic dollarism. You can cut out colonialism, imperialism and all other kind of ism, but it's hard for you to cut that dollarism. When they drop those dollars on you, you'll fold though."
-- "The Prospects for Freedom in 1965," at the Militant Labor Forum, New York City, Jan. 7, 1965.
Additional audio.

"While I was traveling, I had a chance to speak in Cairo, or rather Alexandria, with President [Gamal Abdel] Nasser for about an hour and a half. He's a very brilliant man. And I can see why they're so afraid of him, and they are afraid of him -- they know he can cut off their oil. And actually the only thing power respects is power."

"This is a society whose government doesn't hesitate to inflict the most brutal form of punishment and oppression upon dark-skinned people all over the world. To wit, right now what's going on in and around Saigon and Hanoi and in the Congo and elsewhere. They are violent when their interests are at stake. But all of that violence that they display at the international level, when you and I want just a little bit of freedom, we're supposed to be nonviolent. They're violent. They're violent in Korea, they're violent in Germany, they're violent in the South Pacific, they're violent in Cuba, they're violent wherever they go. But when it comes time for you and me to protect ourselves against lynchings, they tell us to be nonviolent."

[On the Congo:] "And they're able to take these hired killers, put them in American planes, with American bombs, and drop them on African villages, blowing to bits Black men, Black women, Black children, Black babies, and you Black people sitting over here cool like it doesn't even involve you. You're a fool."

"And with the press they feed these statistics to the public, primarily the white public. Because there are some well-meaning persons in the white public as well as bad-meaning persons in the white public. And whatever the government is going to do, it always wants the public on its side. ... So they use the press to create images."
-- "The Last Message," address to the Afro-American Broadcasting Company, Detroit, Michigan, Feb. 14, 1965, the night his home was firebombed and a week before his assassination.

http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=987

Hello Rootsie,

              Thank you for reminding us of the anniversary of Malcom X's assassination.  I recently read his autobiography and it had a terrific impact upon me.  It has been a while since I posted, the last time you recommended I read Paulo Friere and bell hooks.  I got both books and was heartened and influenced by what I read.  It was good to know I'm on the right track.  I also read your archives and am working my way through the list of books fronted on your site.
     I am still working in the prison teaching Jamaican men to read and am approaching the end of my PGCE teaching certificate.  I am a different person to the woman who began this in 2003.
     I spent two weeks in Jamaica last November, staying as a guest in the ghetto at Ocho Rios, and I saw, something of, the real Jamaica first hand.  I travelled to the country and met 'sufferers'; went to Hurricane Ivan ravaged Portland Cottages where I met people who had lost everything; I met people who depend upon Ganga growing for their livelihood only to have their crops destroyed by insecticides and flamethrowers.  The visit completely changed me for ever.
     I am currently writing my dissertation on the  educating, training and empowering of Jamaican prisoners in English prisons.  It is shameful that we perpetuate the horror of slavery by putting these men to work packing screws and making poppies (to sell on our Remembrance Sunday) for the three years of their stay.
    These men were driven to their acts of drug smuggling through desperation.  So many say they will do it again.  A Rasta fisherman on my course told me;

    ' Me do the drug ting again.  No choice mon.  Me have five pickney dem and me boat all mash up'.

   I agree that we have a responsibility to open others eyes to oppression.  Not always easy though.  My own father - horrified that his 50 year old daughter is suddenly talking about black oppression and white priviledge  - said to me 'but all that slavery stuff was thousands of years ago'!  I gently, but firmly, corrected him.  However, it can be done.  Music is the perfect messenger.  My 19 year old daughter and her friends have been awakened to Rastafarianism through Richie Spice, Jah Cure, Fantan Mojah and the other wonderful Roots musicians riding high in Jamaica. I encourage them to listen to the words. There is black entertainment to be found on English television.  We watch BEN and OBE and am becoming increasingly conscious. There are occassional documentaries on television, but too few.  Black history is buried deep.
   I thank you Rootsie for your experience and wisdom, I have a way to go yet but know, that now, there is no turning back for me.  Jax
       

Hey Jax.

Well it never ends, really, this having a way to go. I am glad to be helpful.

Rootsie