i see him.
no, he's not gonna bust. but he's not gonna fix his face to please them, neither.
he's a new fish, mr. barnes. give him a break.
i know how you feel. like you want to lay down and die.
put it in a cup of water. it's nutmeg.
you need something. it's not a reefer, but it'll help some.
sit down or it might knock you down.
i can show you how to get out of prison. and it's no hype.
that's the last stuff you'll ever get from me.
'cause you needed it. 'cause you couldn't hear me without it.
i think you got more sense than any cat in this prison. how come you are such a fool?
when you go busting your fists against a stone wall, you're not using your brains. cause that's what the white man wants you to do. look at you.
why? why does everybody conk?
like what? looking like me? like a nigger?! why don't you want to look like what you are? what makes you ashamed of being black?
let it burn. maybe you'll hear me then.
sure, burn yourself, pain yourself, put all that poison into your hair, into your body -- trying to be white.
i thought you was smart. but you just another one of them cats strutting down the avenue in your clown suit with all that mess on you. like a monkey. and the white man sees you and he laughs. he laughs because he knows you ain't white.
the question is, who are you? you are in the darkness, but it's not your fault. elijah muhammad can bring you into the light.
elijah muhammad can get you out of prison. out of the prison of your mind. maybe all you want is another fix. i thought you were smart.
i'm staying.
what you sniffing around for? i told you i gave you your last fix.
what's he gonna do to me he ain't already done?
i respect myself. a man cuss because he hasn't got the words to say what's on his mind.
don't con me. don't try.
don't con me.
i read. i study. because the first thing a black man has to do is respect himself. respect his body and his mind. quit taking the white man's poison into your body: his cigarettes, his dope, his liquor, his white woman, his pork.
your mama had sense because the pig is a filthy beast: part rat, part cat, and the rest is dog.
i'm telling you god's words, not no hustle. i'm talking the words of elijah, the black man's god. i'm telling you, boy, that god is black.
did you ever study anything wasn't part of some con?
go on, fool; the marble shooters are waiting for you.
soiled with dirt, foul; sullen, hostile, forbidding -- as a black day. foully or outrageously wicked, as black cruelty. indicating disgrace, dishonor or culpability.
now look up "white."
they sure ain't no black man's books in here.
you got to learn everything the white man says and use it against him. the truth is laying there if you smart and read behind their words. it's buried there. you got to dig it out.
i'll pull your coat, daddy. cause lots of these can't nobody read, be he black or white or a ph.d. with their suspenders dragging the ground with degrees.
look 'em up and and out what they mean.
start at the beginning. page one, the first one. here--
read it and keep on reading.
if you take one step toward allah, he will take two steps toward you.
lemme tell you about history: black history. you listening?
the first men on earth were black. they ruled and there was not one white face anywhere. but they teach us that we lived in caves and swung from trees. black men were never like that.
sure, white man throw us a bone and that's supposed to make us forget 400 years.
i told you to go behind the words and dig out the truth. they let us sing and dance and smile -- and now they let one black man in the majors. that don't cancel out the greatest crime in history. when that blue-eyed devil locked us in chains -- 100,000,000 of us -- broke up our families, tortured us, cut us off from our language, our religion, our history.
no. that's the name of the slave-master who owned your family. you don't even know who you are. you're nothing. less than nothing. a zero. who are you?
who are you?
i told you we are a nation, the lost tribe of shabazz in the wilderness of north america.
allah has sent us a prophet, a black man named elijah muhammad. for if god is black, malcolm--
i knew you'd hear me. the white man is the devil. all white men are devils.
no. elijah muhammad does not say "that white man is a devil." he teaches us that the white man is the devil. all white men.
have you ever known a good white man in all your life? think back, did you ever meet one who wasn't evil?
the body is a holy repository.
a muslim must be strikingly upright. outstanding. so those in the darkness can see the power of the light.
but the key to islam is submission. that is why twice daily we turn to mecca, to the holy of holies, to pray. we bend our knees in submission.
for evil to bend its knee, admit its guilt, implore his forgiveness, is the hardest thing on earth--
--the hardest and the greatest.
for evil to bend its knee, admit its guilt, implore his forgiveness, is the hardest thing on earth--
--the hardest and the greatest.
have you ever bent your knees, malcolm?
tell him that.
you can grovel and crawl for sin, but not to save your soul. pick the lock, malcolm; pick it.
in the name of allah, the beneficent and the merciful to whom all praise is due.
"i wrote the mayor, the governor and the president, but for some reason i haven't heard from them".
why don't you try telling him that, sister betty?
i'm sure we can. this is a new sister, sister betty.
your holy apostle, dear messenger, i am your true servant and the brothers asked me to tell you malcolm is getting too much press. the brothers think he thinks _he_ is the nation of islam, that he has aspirations to lead the nation. it was you who made malcolm the man he is. you lifted him out of the darkness.
great benefit for himself.
what are you talking about -- "blackout"? some of the brothers are a little jealous. maybe they think you been a little -- overpublicized. that's all. forget it. it's nothing.
you want a new car? you want a new house? is that it? it's the money, right?
we feel this is a publicity stunt on the part of malcolm x. we hope this isn't a case of "if he can't keep the house, we won't get it either."