Professor Chris Lebron Recently Asked the Only Pertinent Racial Question — Malcolm X Answered It

© 2015 Peter Free

 

23 June 2015

 

 

Is already too much from the “white demons” ever going to foster a smack-back?

 

Professor Chris Lebron asked us to choose between two responses:

 

 

1. The Negro must love the white man, because the white man needs his love to remove his tensions, insecurities and fears.

 

2. You do too much singing. Today it is time to stop singing, and start swinging.

 

Should we heed Martin’s [Luther King Jr’s] counsel and open our arms in embrace or should we be wary of yet another painful and bloody era of speaking and acting in bad faith, and as Malcolm [X] advised, close our fists?

 

© 2015 Chris Lebron, Time for a New Black Radicalism, New York Times (22 June 2015)

 

 

Malcolm X had the correct answer for today’s conditions

 

The struggle is about bringing resistive violence to bear.

 

Malcolm X understood power’s realities fifty years ago:

 

 

Power never takes a back step — only in the face of more power. Power doesn’t back up in the face of a smile, or in the face of a threat, or in the face of some kind of nonviolent loving action.

 

It’s not the nature of power to back up in the face of anything but some more power.

 

© 1965 George Breitman (editor), Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements (Grove Press, 1965) (at page 150) (quoting Malcolm X in “Prospects for Freedom in 1965” — New York City, 07 January 1965) (paragraph split)

 

 

Nothing will change . . .

 

. . .  unless we rub Oppression’s Face in its own malicious crap:

 

 

Never at any time in the history of our people in this country have we made advances or progress in any way based upon the internal good will of this country.

 

So don’t run around here trying to make friends with somebody who’s depriving you of your rights. They’re not your friends, no, they’re your enemies.

 

Treat them like that and fight them, and you’ll get your freedom; and after you get your freedom, your enemy will respect you.

 

I’m not going to let somebody who hates me tell me to love him.

 

© 1965 George Breitman (editor), Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements (Grove Press, 1965) (at pages 142 and 145) (quoting Malcolm X in “To Mississippi Youth” — New York City, 31 December1964) (paragraphs split)

 

 

Government looks only after Establishment interests

 

Regarding disrespected selves:

 

Uncle Sam has no conscience.

 

They don’t know what morals are. They don’t try and eliminate an evil because it’s evil, or because it’s illegal, or because it’s immoral; they eliminate it only when it threatens their existence.

 

So you’re wasting your time appealing to the moral conscience of a bankrupt man like Uncle Sam.

 

We will work with anybody, anywhere, at any time, who is genuinely interested in tackling the problem head-on, nonviolently as long as the enemy is nonviolent, but violent when the enemy gets violent.

 

If the white man doesn’t want the black man buying rifles and shotguns, then let the government do its job.

 

© 1965 George Breitman (editor), Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements (Grove Press, 1965) (at pages 40, 42 and 43) (quoting Malcolm X in “The Ballot or the Bullet” — Cleveland, 03 April 1964) (paragraph split)

 

Breaking out of Bigotry’s Imposed Shackles is required

 

Be clear, Malcolm says:

 

 

Revolution is always based on land. Revolution is never based on begging someone 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 based on bloodshed.

 

There is no system more corrupt than a system that represents itself as the example of freedom, the example of democracy, and can go all over this earth telling other people how to straighten out their house, when you have citizens of this country who have to use bullets if they want to cast a ballot.

 

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 as human beings.

 

© 1965 George Breitman (editor), Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements (Grove Press, 1965) (at pages 50-51) (quoting Malcolm X in “The Black Revolution” — New York City, 08 April 1964) (paragraphs split)

 

 

When we continue as cannon and slave fodder, something is ethically amiss

 

The math is simple:

 

 

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 Americans 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.

 

© 1965 George Breitman (editor), Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements (Grove Press, 1965) (at page 8) (quoting Malcolm X in “Message to the Grass Roots” — Detroit, 10 November 1963) (paragraph split)

 

 

Toadying American media are part of the problem

 

They lie:

 

 

When you explode legitimately against injustices that have been heaped upon you, they use the press to make it look like you’re a vandal.

 

The press is so powerful in its image-making role, it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim, and make the victim look like he’s the criminal.

 

© 1965 George Breitman (editor), Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements (Grove Press, 1965) (at pages 92-93) (quoting Malcolm X in “At the Audubon” — New York City, 13 December1964) (paragraphs split)

 

 

Liberty’s enemies are not hard to spot

 

Their hypocrisy is not our friend:

 

 

I’m for anybody who’s for freedom. I’m for anybody who’s for justice. I’m for anybody who’s for equality.

 

I’m not for anybody who tells me to turn the other cheek when a cracker is busting up my jaw.

 

I’m not for anybody who tells black people to be nonviolent while nobody is telling white people to be nonviolent.

 

I say that a black man’s freedom is as valuable as a white man’s freedom.

 

I say that you and I will never get our freedom nonviolently and patiently and lovingly.

 

© 1965 George Breitman (editor), Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements (Grove Press, 1965) (at pages 112-113) (quoting Malcolm X in “With Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer” — New York City, 20 December1964) (paragraph split)

 

 

The moral? — The power is in us

 

Unleash it with ethical purpose.