"Revolution is never based on begging somebody for an integrated cup of coffee. Revolutions are never fought by turning the other cheek. Revolutions are never based upon love-your-enemy and pray-for-those-who-spitefully-use-you. And revolutions are never waged singing 'We Shall Overcome.'...Revolutions are never based upon that which is begging a corrupt system to accept us into it. Revolutions overturn systems. And there is no system on this earth which has proven it selfmore corrupt, more criminal, than this system that in 1964 still colonizes 22

million African-Americans, still enslaves 22 million Afro-Americans." April 8, 1964

"It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism need some blood to suck....It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody's blood whether they were strong or not. But now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the helpless. As the nations of the world free themselves, then capitalism

has fewer victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and weaker. It is only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely." Jan. 18, 1965 interview

"(If America were nonviolent), America couldn't continue to exist as a country. Is American nonviolent in the Congo, or is she nonviolent in

South Vietnam? You can't point to a place where America's nonviolent. The only people that they want to be nonviolent are American Negroes. We're

supposed to be nonviolent. When the world becomes nonviolent, I'll become nonviolent." Interview with Claude Lewis, December 1964

No, I'm not an American. I'm one of the 22 million Black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 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." April 3, 1964

"We are in a society where the power is in the hands of those who are the worst breed of humanity." Feb. 16, 1965

"But since the white man, your friend, took your language away from you during slavery, the only language you know is his language. You know,your

friend's language. So you call for the same God he calls for. When he's putting a rope around your neck, you call for God and he calls for

God. [laughter] And you wonder why the one you call on never answers you." Feb. 14, 1965

"Elijah believes that God is going to come and straighten things out.I believe that too. But whereas Elijah is willing to sit and wait, I'mnot

willing to sit and wait on God to come. If he doesn't come soon, it will be too late. I believe in religion, but a religion that includes

political, economic, and social action designed to eliminate some of these things, and make a paradise on earth while we're waiting for the other. I believe in brotherhood, but my religion does not blind me to the fact that I am living in a society where brotherhood cannot exist." Feb. 3,

1965

"As long as we wait for the Congress and the Senate and the Supreme Court and the president to solve our problems, you'll have us waiting for

another thousand years." Feb. 16, 1965

"We're not against people because they're white. But we're against those who practice racism. We're against those who drop bombs on people because their color happens to be of a different shade than yours. And because we're against it, the press says we're violent. We're not for

violence; we're for peace. But the people that we're up against are for violence. You can't be peaceful when you're dealing with them." 2/16/65

"It is the system itself that is incapable of producing freedom for the twenty-two million Afro-Americans. It is 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 a way to produce a duck egg; and 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." Interview with Robert Penn Warren, March 1964

"For one, when a white man comes to me and tells me how liberal he is,the first thing I want to know, is he a nonviolent liberal, or the other

kind. I don't go for any nonviolent white liberals. If you are for me and my problems--when I say me, I mean us, our people--then you have to be willing to do as old John Brown did." Jan. 7, 1965

"You think you can win in South Vietnam? The French were deeply entrenched. They had the best weapons of warfare, a highly mechanized

army, everything that you would need. And the guerillas came out of the rice paddies with nothing but sneakers on and a rifle and a bowlof

rice, nothing but gym shoes and a rifle and a bowl of rice. And you know what they did in Dien Bien Phu...." Feb. 11, 1965

"I don't want you to think that I came here to make an anti-American speech. [laughter] I wouldn't come here for that. I came to make a

speech, to tell you the truth. And if the truth is anti-American, then blame the truth, don't blame me." Feb. 11, 1965



"Back during slavery, when Black people like me talked to the slaves,they didn't kill 'em, they sent some old house Negro aroudn behind him toundo

what he said....There were two kinds of Negroes. There was that old house Negro and the field Negro. And the house Negro always looked out for his master. When the field Negroes got too much out of line, he held them back in check. He put 'em back on the plantation. The house Negro could afford to do that because he lived better than the field Negro. He ate better, he dressed better, and he lived in a better house. He lived right up next to the master--in the attic or the

basement. He ate the same food his master ate and wore his same clothes. And he could talk just like his master--good diction. And he loved his master more than the master loved himself. That's why he didn't want his master hurt. If the master got sick, he'd say, 'What's the matter, boss, we sick'? When the master's house caust afire, he'd try to put the fire out. He didn't

want his master's house burned. He never wanted his master's property threatened. That was the house Negro. But then you had some field Negroes, who lived in huts, had nothing to

lose. They wore the worst kind of clothes. They ate the worst food. And they caught hell. They felt the sting of the lash. They hated their

master; oh yes, they did. If the master got sick, they'd pray that the master died. If the master's house caught afire, they'd pray for a strong wind to come along. This was the difference between the two. And today you still have house Negroes and field Negroes." Feb. 3, 1965

"Any time you throw your weight behind a political party that controls two-thirds of the government, and that party can't keep the promises that it made to you during election time, and you're dumb enough to walk around

continuing to identify yourself with that political party, you're notonly a chump but you're a traitor to your race." April 12, 1964

Malcolm: "You have to wake the people up first, then you'll get action."

Q: "Wake them up to their exploitation?"

Malcolm: "No, to their humanity, to their own worth, and to their heritage." interview in Village Voice, Feb. 1965

"I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I belive 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. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don't think that it will be based upon thecolor

of the skin." Jan. 19, 1965 television interview

Claude Lewis: " When you get old and retire..."

Malcolm: "I'll never get old."

Lewis: "What does that mean?"

Malcolm: "Well, I'll tell you what that means. You'll find very few people who feel like I felt that live long enough to get old. I'll tell youwhat I mean and why I say that. When I say 'by any means necessary,' I mean it

with all my heart, and my mind and my soul. But a black man should give his life to be free, but he should also be willing to take the life of

those who want to take his. It's reciprocal. And when you really think like that, you don't live long. And if freedom doesn't come to your

lifetime, it'll come to your children. Another thing about being an old man, that never has come across my mind. I can't even see myself old."

Lewis: "Well, how would you like to be remembered by your black brothers and sisters around the world--twenty years from now?"

Malcolm: "Sincere. In whatever I did or do, even if I made mistakes,they were made in sincerity. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong in sincerity. I thinkthat

the best a person can be--he can be wrong, but if he's sincere you can put up with him. But you can't put up with a person who's right, if he's

insincere. I'd rather deal with a person's sincerity, and respect a person for their sincerity than anything else. Especially when you're living in a world that's so hypocritical." Interview with Claude Lewis, December1964



James Baldwin, from a 1972 essay (reproduced in "Malcolm X: As They Knew Him," ed. David Gallen, 1992):

The others were discussing the past or the future, or a country which may once have existed, or one which may yet be brought into existence--Malcolm was speaking of the bitter and unanswerable present. And it was too important that this be heard for anyone to attempt to soften it.It was important, of course, for white people to hear it, if they were stillable

to hear; but it was of the utmost importance for black people to hear it, for the sake of their morale. It was important for them to know that there was someone like them in public life, telling the truth about their condition.

Malcolm considered himself to be the spiritual property of the people who produced him. He did not consider himself to be their savior, he was far too modest for that, and gave that role to another; but he considered himself to be their servant and, in order not to betray that trust, he was willing to die, and died.

Malcolm was not a racist, not even when he thought he was. His intelligence was far too complex than that; furthermore, if he had beena

racist, not many in this racist country would have considered him dangerous. He would have sounded familiaar and even comforting, his

familiar rage confirming the reality of white power, and sensuously inflaming a bizarre species of guilty eroticism without which, I am

beginning to believe, most white Americans of the more or less liberal persuasion cannot draw a single breath.

What made him unfamiliar and dangerous was not his hatred for white people but his love for blacks, his apprehension of the horror of the black condision and the reasons for it, and his determination so to work on their hearts and minds that they would be enabled to see their condition and change it themselves.



-*-

*Students for a Free Society: http://qcsfs.tripod.com

"We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected

as a human being, to be given the right of a human being in this society,

on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by

any means necessary." -Malcolm X