Race, Equality, & Freedom Poli 110J 9.1 I seek the truth

The whole point in a joke Do you know what white racists call black Ph.Ds? He said something like, I believe I happen to not be aware of thatyou know, one of these ultra-proper talking Negroes. And I laid the word down on him, loud: Nigger! (327)

If Malcolm X were not a Negro, his autobiography would be little more than a journal of abnormal psychology, the story of a burglar, dope pusher, addict, and jailbird with a family history of insanitywho acquires messianic delusions and sets forth to preach an upside-down religion of brotherly hatred. Saturday Evening Post, Sept. 12, 1965

For the white man to ask the black man if he hates him, is just like the rapist asking the raped, or the wolf asking the sheep, Do you hate me? The white man is in no moral position to accuse anyone else of hate! (277)

The Jew will never forget that lesson [of the Holocaust]… they used violence to force the British help them take Palestine, and then the Jews set up Israel, their own countrythe one thing that every race of man in the world respects, and understands. (320) – Why is this something universally understood?

The Transformative Power of Truth Marcuse and the destructive & soteriological potential of the Truth over fact – Asceticism – Order – Transformation Nation of Islams 6-step recovery program 1. Admit youre a junkie – Usually fished by a converted friend & former junkie, overcoming distrust & suspicion

2. Understand why youre a junkie – Narcotizing themselves against being a black man in the white mans America. Helps to prove inferiority of the black man. (300) – Whats a black man buying Whiteys dope for but to make Whitey richerkilling yourself! – The Muslim often collects audiences of junkies. They listen only because they know the clean-cut proud Muslim had earlier been like them. (299)

3. The way to quit drugs is through the message of the Nation of Islam – Brought to a Muslim restaurant, the addict hears himself called, genuinely, Brother, Sir, and Mr. No one cares about his past.

4. The message of the Nation gives lets the addict realize that he has the inner strength to change. – For the first time he is feeling the effect of black self-pride. Thats a powerful motivation for a man who has been existing in the mud of society. In fact, once he is motivated no one can change more completely than the man who has been at the bottom. I call myself the best example of that.

5. Voluntarily go cold turkey – When the ordeal is over, he will never forget these brothers who stood by him during this time. He will never forget that it was the Nation of Islams program which rescued him from the special hell of dope. (301)

6. The convert in turn goes fishing – The ex-addict, when he is proud, clean, renewed, can scarcely wait to hit the same junkie jungle he was in, to fish out some buddy and salvage him! (301)

The only thing that anybody… could ever find me guilty of, was being open-minded. I said I was seeking for the truth… (428) – Deep commitment to truth – His faith in the Hon. Elijah Muhammed was the core of his being It felt as though something in nature had failed, like the sun, or the stars. (351) Who is he now?

The last conversion Takes the Hajj – On the Hajj, You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. – Everything about the pilgrimage atmosphere accented the Oneness of Man under one God (380) – Kindness & brotherhood with all Muslims, even those who would be white – The holy city of Mecca had been the first time that I had ever stood before the Creator of All and felt like a complete human being. (420) Double consciousness

White & black people not the problem, whiteness and blackness are the problem – That morning was when I first began to reappraise the white man. It was when I first began to perceive that white man, as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. In America, white man meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. (383) Whiteness is essentially defined in US by rejection of & dominance over non-whites

While approach to race changes, militancy does not – Racial cooperation I dont mind shaking hands with human beings. Are you one? (418) – Black militancy – Not black nationalism, but black inter-nationalism.

To come right down to it, if I take the kind of things in which I believe, then add to that the kind of temperament that I have, plus the one hundred percent dedication I have to whatever I believe inthese are the ingredients which make it just about impossible for me to die of old age. (435)

How is he received?