Malcolm X - Quotations and Make It Plain Documentary Film

1. View the Documentary

2. Malcolm X - Quotations
By Any Means Necessary...
"We declare our right on this earth...to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be
given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to
bring into existence by any means necessary."
"Our objective is complete freedom, justice and equality by any means necessary."
"The day that the black man takes an uncompromising step and realizes that he's within his
rights, when his own freedom is being jeopardized, to use any means necessary to bring about his
freedom or put a halt to that injustice, I don't think he'll be by himself."
Malcolm X |Make It Plain

3. Education, Students, the Youth...
"Without education, you're not going anywhere in this world."
"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it
today."
"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...."
"If you've studied the captives being caught by the American soldiers in South Vietnam, you'll
find that these guerrillas are young people. Some of them are just children and some haven't
reached their teens. Most are teenagers. It is the teenagers abroad, all over the world, who are
actually involving themselves in the struggle to eliminate oppression and exploitation. In the
Congo, the refugees point out that many of the Congolese revolutionaries, they shoot all the way
down to seven years old - that's been reported in the press. Because the revolutionaries are
children, young people. In these countries, the young people are the ones who most quickly
identify with the struggle and the necessity to eliminate the evil conditions that exist. And here in
this country, it has been my own observation that when you get into a conversation on racism
and discrimination and segregation, you will find young people more incensed over it - they feel
more filled with an urge to eliminate it."
On Martin Luther King, Jr...
"He got the peace prize, we got the problem.... If I'm following a general, and he's leading me
into a battle, and the enemy tends to give him rewards, or awards, I get suspicious of him.
Especially if he gets a peace award before the war is over."
"I'll say nothing against him. At one time the whites in the United States called him a racialist,
and extremist, and a Communist. Then the Black Muslims came along and the whites thanked
the Lord for Martin Luther King."
"Dr. King wants the same thing I want -- freedom!"
"I want Dr. King to know that I didn't come to Selma to make his job difficult. I really did come
thinking I could make it easier. If the white people realize what the alternative is, perhaps they
will be more willing to hear Dr. King."
Malcolm X |Make It Plain

4. Dr. King on Malcolm X:
"You know, right before he was killed he came down to Selma and said some pretty passionate
things against me, and that surprised me because after all it was my territory there. But
afterwards he took my wife aside, and said he thought he could help me more by attacking me
than praising me. He thought it would make it easier for me in the long run."
"The goal has always been the same, with the approaches to it as different as mine and Dr.
Martin Luther King's non-violent marching, that dramatizes the brutality and the evil of the white
man against defenseless blacks. And in the racial climate of this country today, it is anybody's
guess which of the "extremes" in approach to the black man's problems might personally meet a
fatal catastrophe first -- "non-violent" Dr. King, or so-called "violent" me."
Violence, Nonviolence, Self-Defense...
"Concerning nonviolence: It is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself, when he is the
constant victim of brutal attacks. It is legal and lawful to own a shotgun or a rifle. We believe in
obeying the law."
"It doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time, I am not against using violence in
self-defense. I don't call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence."
"If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending
black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to
draft us, and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us,
and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is
necessary to defend our own people right here in this country."
"I don't mean go out and get violent; but at the same time you should never be nonviolent unless
you run into some nonviolence. I'm nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me. But when
you drop that violence on me, then you've made me go insane, and I'm not responsible for what I
do."
"I don't favor violence. If we could bring about recognition and respect of our people by peaceful
means, well and good. Everybody would like to reach his objectives peacefully. But I'm also a
realist. The only people in this country who are asked to be nonviolent are black people."
"Last but not least, I must say this concerning the great controversy over rifles and shotguns. The
only thing I've ever said is that in areas where the government has proven itself either unwilling
or unable to defend the lives and the property of Negroes, it's time for Negroes to defend
themselves. Article number two of the Constitutional amendments provides you and me the right
to own a rifle or a shotgun. It is constitutionally legal to own a shotgun or a rifle. This doesn't
Malcolm X |Make It Plain

5. mean you're going to get a rifle and form battalions and go out looking for white folks, although
you'd be within your rights - I mean, you'd be justified; but that would be illegal and we don't do
anything illegal. If the white man doesn't want the black man buying rifles and shotguns, then let
the government do its job. That's all."
The White Man...
"If I have a cup of coffee that is too strong for me because it is too black, I weaken it by pouring
cream into it. I integrate it with cream. If I keep pouring enough cream in the coffee, pretty soon
the entire flavor of the coffee is changed; the very nature of the coffee is changed. If enough
cream is poured in, eventually you don't even know that I had coffee in this cup. This is what
happened with the March on Washington. The whites didn't integrate it; they infiltrated it.
Whites joined it; they engulfed it; they became so much a part of it, it lost its original flavor. It
ceased to be a black march; it ceased to be militant; it ceased to be angry; it ceased to be
impatient. In fact, it ceased to be a march."
"But it does make the black people in this country who are jobless and unemployed and standing
in the welfare line very much discouraged to see a government that can't solve our problem, can't
provide job opportunities for us, and at the some time not only Cubans but Hungarians and every
other type of white refugee imaginable can come to this country and get everything this
government has to offer."
"I've never seen a sincere white man, not when it comes to helping black people. Usually things
like this are done by white people to benefit themselves. The white man's primary interest is not
to elevate the thinking of black people, or to waken black people, or white people either. The
white man is interested in the black man only to the extent that the black man is of use to him.
The white man's interest is to make money, to exploit."
"The common enemy is the white man."
Repayment (or Lack Thereof)...
"An integrated cup of coffee isn't sufficient pay for four hundred years of slave labor."
"How can you thank a man for giving you what's already yours? How then can you thank him for
giving you only part of what is yours?"
"I can't turn around without hearing about some 'civil rights advance'! White people seem to
think the black man ought to be shouting 'hallelujah'! Four hundred years the white man has had
his foot-long knife in the black man's back - and now the white man starts to wiggle the knife
out, maybe six inches! The black man's supposed to be grateful? Why, if the white man jerked
the knife out, it's still going to leave a scar!
Malcolm X |Make It Plain

6. Freedom, Death, and the Oppressed...
"Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression."
"Truth is on the side of the oppressed."
"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his
freedom."
"You don't have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent
human being."
"If you're not ready to die for it, put the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary."
"The price of freedom is death."
"Respect me, or put me to death."
"When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will
not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the
next breath he is going to tell you what he won't do to get it, or what he doesn't believe in doing
in order to get it, he doesn't believe in freedom. A man who believes in freedom will do anything
under the sun to acquire...or preserve his freedom."
I Am Not a Racist...
"I am not a racist. I am against every form of racism and segregation, every form of
discrimination. I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such,
regardless of their color."
"I am not a racist.... In the past I permitted myself to be used...to make sweeping indictments of
all white people, the entire white race and these generalizations have caused injuries to some
whites who perhaps did not deserve to be hurt. Because of the spiritual enlightenment which I
was blessed to receive as a result of my recent pilgrimage to the Holy city of Mecca, I no longer
subscribe to sweeping indictments of any one race. I am now striving to live the life of a
true...Muslim. I must repeat that I am not a racist nor do I subscribe to the tenants of racism. I
can state in all sincerity that I wish nothing but freedom, justice and equality, life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness for all people."
"I am not a racist in any form whatsoever. I don't believe in any form of discrimination or
segregation."
Malcolm X |Make It Plain

7. Unity, Brotherhood, Objectives...
"It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That's
the only thing that can save this country."
"Our people have made the mistake of confusing the methods with the objectives. As long as we
agree on objectives, we should never fall out with each other just because we believe in different
methods, or tactics, or strategy. We have to keep in mind at all times that we are not fighting for
separation. We are fighting for recognition as free humans in this society."
"The only way we'll get freedom for ourselves is to identify ourselves with every oppressed
people in the world. We are blood brothers to the people of Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti... Cuba - yes
Cuba too."
"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! If you
see where the NAACP is preaching and practising 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."
"I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don't believe in brotherhood with anybody
who doesn't want brotherhood with me. I believe in treating people right, but I'm not going to
waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn't know how to return the treatment."
"We black men have a hard enough time in our own struggle for justice, and already have
enough enemies as it is, to make the drastic mistake of attacking each other and adding more
weight to an already unbearable load."
"There can be no black-white unity until there is first some black unity.... We cannot think of
uniting with others, until after we have first united among ourselves. We cannot think of being
acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves."
Revolution...
"Who ever heard of angry revolutionists all harmonizing 'We shall overcome ... Suum Day...'
while tripping and swaying along arm-in-arm with the very people they were supposed to be
angrily revolting against ? Who ever heard of angry revolutionists swinging their bare feet
together with their oppressor in lily-pad park pools, with gospels and guitars and 'I have a dream'
speeches? And the black masses in America were--and still are--having a nightmare."
"The white man knows what a revolution is. He knows that the Black Revolution is worldwide in
scope and in nature. The Black Revolution is sweeping Asia, is sweeping Africa, is rearing its
Malcolm X |Make It Plain

8. head in Latin America. The Cuban Revolution - that's a revolution. They overturned the system.
Revolution is in Asia, revolution is in Africa, and the white man is screaming because he sees
revolution in Latin America. How do you think he'll react to you when you learn what a real
revolution is?"
"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 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."
"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 for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and
the basic causes that produce it, they'll create their own program, and when the people create a
program, you get action."
Africans in America...
"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, unless you eat some of what's on that plate.
Being here in America doesn't make you an American.... 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.... I'm speaking as a victim of
this American system. And I see America through the eyes of a victim. I don't see any American
dream; I see an American nightmare."
"We're not Americans, we're Africans who happen to be in America. We were kidnapped and
brought here against our will from Africa. We didn't land on Plymouth Rock - that rock landed
on us."
"One of the things that made the Black Muslim movement grow was its emphasis upon things
African. This was the secret to the growth of the Black Muslim movement. African blood,
African origin, African culture, African ties. And you'd be surprised - we discovered that deep
within the subconscious of the black man in this country, he is still more African than he is
American."
"Twenty-two million African-Americans - that's what we are - Africans who are in America."
"When I'm traveling around the country, I use my real Muslim name, Malik Shabazz. I make my
hotel reservations under that name, and I always see the same thing I've just been telling you. I
Malcolm X |Make It Plain

9. come to the desk and always see that 'here-comes-a-Negro' look. It's kind of a reserved, coldly
tolerant cordiality. But when I say 'Malik Shabazz,' their whole attitude changes: they snap to
respect. They think I'm an African. People say what's in a name? There's a whole lot in a name.
The American black man is seeing the African respected as a human being. The African gets
respect because he has an identity and cultural roots. But most of all because the African owns
some land. For these reasons he has his human rights recognized, and that makes his civil rights
automatic."
Politics and 'isms...
When asked if he would accept outer help from the Communists:
"Let me tell you a little story. It's like being in a wolf's den. The wolf sees someone on the
outside who is interested in freeing me from the den. The wolf doesn't like that person on the
outside. But I don't care who opens the door and lets me out."
"Then your answer is yes?"
"No, I'm talking about a wolf."
"The zionist argument to justify Israel's present occupation of Arab Palestine has no intelligent or
legal basis in history."
"It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some
blood to suck. Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it's more like a vulture. 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, the capitalism has less victims, less to suck, and it becomes
weaker and weaker. It's only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely."
"I might point out here that colonialism or imperialism, as the slave system of the West is called,
is not something that is just confined to England or France or the United States. The interests in
this country are in cahoots with the interests in France and the interests in Britain. It's one huge
complex or combine, and it creates what's known not as the American power structure or the
French power structure, but an international power structure. This international power structure
is used to suppress the masses of dark-skinned people all over the world and exploit them of their
natural resources."
"I think that an objective analysis of events that are taking place on this earth today points
towards some type of ultimate showdown. You can call it political showdown, or even a
showdown between the economic systems that exist on this earth which almost boil down along
racial lines. I do believe that there will be a clash between East and West. I believe that there will
ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there
Malcolm X |Make It Plain

10. will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those
who want to continue the systems of exploitation."
"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."
"A ballot is like a bullet. You don't throw your ballots until you see a target, and if that target is
not in reach, keep your ballot in your pocket."
"We, the Black masses, don't want these leaders who seek our support coming to us representing
a certain political party. They must come to us today as Black Leaders representing the welfare
of Black people. We won't follow any leader today who comes on the basis of political party.
Both parties (Democrat and Republican) are controlled by the same people who have abused our
rights, and who have deceived us with false promises every time an election rolls around."
Hypocrisy, Delusion, Honesty...
"They don't stand for anything different in South Africa than America stands for. The only
difference is over there they preach as well as practice apartheid. America preaches freedom and
practices slavery."
"I would like to point something out so that we'll understand each other better. I don't want you
to think in the statements I made that I'm being disrespectful towards you as white people. I'm
being frank. And I think that my statements will give you a better insight on the mind of a black
man than most statements you get from most people who call themselves Negroes, who usually
tell you what they want you to hear with the hope...that will make them draw closer to you and
create a better possibility of getting from you some of the crumbs that you might let fall from
your table. Well, I'm not looking for crumbs so I'm not trying to delude you."
"You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong,
no matter who does it or who says it."
Women...
"If you are in a country that is progressive, the woman is progressive. If you're in a country that
reflects the consciousness toward the importance of education, it's because the woman is aware
of the importance of education. But in every backward country you'll find the women are
backward, and in every country where education is not stressed its because the women don't have
education."
Humans, Human Rights, Humanity...
"I believe in human rights for everyone, and none of us is qualified to judge each other and that
none of us should therefore have that authority."
Malcolm X |Make It Plain

11. "It is not a case of our people...wanting either separation or integration. The use of these words
actually clouds the real picture. The 22 million Afro-Americans don't seek either separation or
integration. They seek recognition and respect as human beings."
"I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a
human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as
a whole."
"We have to keep in mind at all times that we are not fighting for integration, nor are we fighting
for separation. We are fighting for recognition...for the right to live as free humans in this
society."
"I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being - neither white, black, brown, or
red; and when you are dealing with humanity as a family there's no question of integration or
intermarriage. It's just one human being marrying another human being or one human being
living around and with another human being."
Who Am I?
When asked: "Do you consider yourself militant?"
"I consider myself Malcolm!"
"I'm the man you think you are.... If you want to know what I'll do, figure out what you'll do. I'll
do the same thing -- only more of it."
"I am neither a fanatic nor a dreamer. I am a black man who loves peace, and justice, and loves
his people."
"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."
"I may say, though, that I don't think it should ever be put upon a black man, I don't think the
burden to defend any position should ever be put upon the black man, because it is the white man
collectively who has shown that he is hostile toward integration and toward intermarriage and
toward those other strides toward oneness. So as a black man, and especially as a black
American, any stand that I formerly took, I don't think that I have to defend it because it's still a
reaction to the society, and it's a reaction that was produced by the society; and I think that it is
the society that produced this that should be attacked, not the reaction that develops among the
people who are the victims of that negative society."
"I am and always will be a Muslim. My religion is Islam."
Malcolm X |Make It Plain

12. The NOI (Nation of Islam)/"Black Muslims"
"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."
"I had blind faith in him. My faith in Elijah Muhammad was more blind and more
uncompromising than any faith that any man has ever had for another man. And so I didn't try
and see him as he actually was."
"The thing that you have to understand about those of us in the Black Muslim movement was
that all of us believed 100 percent in the divinity of Elijah Muhammad. We believed in him. We
actually believed that God, in Detroit by the way, that God had taught him and all of that. I
always believed that he believed in himself. And I was shocked when I found out that he himself
didn't believe it. And when that shock reached me, then I began to look everywhere else and try
to get a better understanding of the things that confront all of us so that we can get together in
some kind of way to offset them."
"Before the Black Muslim movement came along, the NAACP was looked upon as radical; they
were getting ready to investigate it. And then along came the Muslim movement and frightened
the white man so hard that he began to say, 'Thank God for old Uncle Roy, and Uncle Whitney,
and Uncle A. Philip....' "
"I think you'll find, brother, that there are Muslims everywhere. Wherever you find militancy
today among so-called Negroes, watch real closely. You're liable to be looking at a Muslim."
Before True Islam...
"I am a Muslim, because it's a religion that teaches you an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
It teaches you to respect everybody, and treat everybody right. But it also teaches you if someone
steps on your toe, chop off their foot. And I carry my religious axe with me all the time."
"There is nothing in our book, the Qur'an, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion
teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if
someone lays a hand on you, send him to the cemetery."
Islam...
"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
Malcolm X |Make It Plain

13. 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...."
"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, and even
eaten with people who in America would have been considered white, but the white attitude was
removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true
brotherhood practiced by all together, irrespective of their color."
"I believe in a religion that believes in freedom. Any time I have to accept a religion that won't
let me fight a battle for my people, I say to hell with that religion."
"True Islam taught me that it takes all of the religious, political, economic, psychological, and
racial ingredients, or characteristics, to make the Human Family and the Human Society
complete."
"At one or another college or university, usually in the informal gatherings after I had spoken,
perhaps a dozen generally white-complexioned people would come up to me, identifying
themselves as Arabian, Middle Eastern or North African Muslims who happened to be visiting,
studying, or living in the United States. They had said to me that, my white-indicting statements
notwithstanding, they felt I was sincere in considering myself a Muslim -- and they felt if I was
exposed to what they always called 'true Islam,' I would 'understand it, and embrace it.'
Automatically, as a follower of Elijah, I had bridled whenever this was said. But in the privacy of
my own thoughts after several of these experiences, I did question myself: if one was sincere in
professing a religion, why should he balk at broadening his knowledge of that religion?
Those orthodox Muslims whom I had met, one after another, had urged me to meet and talk with
a Dr. Mahmoud Youssef Shawarbi. . . . Then one day Dr. Shawarbi and I were introduced by a
newspaperman. He was cordial. He said he had followed me in the press; I said I had been told
of him, and we talked for fifteen or twenty minutes. We both had to leave to make appointments
we had, when he dropped on me something whose logic never would get out of my head. He
said, 'No man has believed perfectly until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.' "
"I am and always will be a Muslim. My religion is Islam."
Miscellaneous...
"If we don't stand for something, we may fall for anything."
"Early in life I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise."
"My alma mater was books, a good library.... I could spend the rest of my life reading, just
satisfying my curiosity."
Malcolm X |Make It Plain

14. "Anytime you see someone more successful than you are, they are doing something you aren't."
"History is a people's memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals."
The End...
"Here I am, back in Mecca. I am still traveling, trying to broaden my mind, for I've seen too
much of the damage narrow-mindedness can make of things, and when I return home to
America, I will devote what energies I have to repairing the damage."
"In my recent travels into African countries and others, I was impressed by the importance of
having a working unity among all peoples, black as well as white."
"For the freedom of my 22 million black brothers and sisters here in America, I do believe that I
have fought the best that I know how, and the best that I could, with the shortcomings that I have
had...I know that societies often have killed people who have helped to change those societies.
And if I can die having brought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that will help
destroy the racist cancer that is malignant in the body of America then, all of the credit is due to
Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine."
"I always knew it would end like this."
"All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds."
Source: http://www.malcolm-x.org/quotes.htm
Malcolm X |Make It Plain