WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Who taught you to hate the color of your skin? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose, and the shape of your lips? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Who taught you to hate yourself, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Who taught you to hate your own kind? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Who taught you to hate the race that you belong to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So much so that you don't want to be around each other 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You know. Before you come asking Mr. Muhammad does he teach hate, you should ask yourself 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 who taught you to hate being what God made you. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Most of us, blacks, or negroes as he called us, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 really thought we were free, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 without being aware that in our subconscious, all those chains we thought had been struck off were still there 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And there were many ways, where what really motivated us 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was our desire to be loved by the white man. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Malcolm meant to lance that sense of inferiority. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He knew it would be painful. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He knew that people could kill you because of it, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but he dared to take that risk. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He was saying something, over and above that of any other leader of that day 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 While the other leaders were begging for entry into the house of their oppressor, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 he was telling you to build your own house. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He expelled fear for African Americans. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He said "I will speak out loud what you've been thinking" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and he said "You'll see, people will hear, and it will not do anything to us, necessarily, ok? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But I will not speak it for the masses of people." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When he said it in a very strong fashion, in this very manly fashion, in this fashion that says, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "I am not afraid to say what you've been thinking all these years." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's why we loved him 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He said it out loud, not behind closed doors, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He took on America for us. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And I, for one, as a Muslim believe that the white man is intelligent enough. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If he were made to realize how Black people really feel 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and how fed up we are without that old compromising sweet talk 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Why, you're the one who make it hard for yourself. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The white man believes you when you go through with that old sweet talk 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 'cause you've been sweet talking to him ever since he brought you here 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Stop sweet talking him! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Tell him how you feel! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Tell him how, what kind of hell you've been catching, and let him know that if he's ready to clean his house up, if he's not ready to clean his house up, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He shouldn't have a house. It should catch on fire, and burn down... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 On these Harlem street corners, for most of this century, Black people have celebrated their culture, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and argued the question of race in America. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It was here that Malcolm first joined the street orators who gave voice to Harlem's hope, and its anger. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I've taught nationalism, and that means that I want to go out of this white man's country, because integration will never happen 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You will never, as long as you live, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 integrate into the white men's system 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A hundred and twenty-fifth street and Seventh Avenue was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the center of activity among the black street orators. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When Malcolm arrived, technically he had no corner. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So he established his base, you might say, in front of Elder Michaux's bookstore. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When Malcolm would ascent the little platform, he didn't, he couldn't talk for the first four, five minutes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The people would be making such a praise-shout to him 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and he would stand there, taking his due. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then he would open his mouth. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They call Mr. Muhammad a hate-teacher 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because he makes you hate dope and alcohol. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They call Mr. Muhammad a black supremacist 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because he teaches you and me not only that we are as good as the white man, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but better than the white man. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Yes, better than the white man. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You are better than the white man 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and that's not saying anything. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's not saying, you know we're just as equal with him. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Who is he to be equal with? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You look at his skin 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You can't compare your skin with his skin, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Why your skin look like gold beside his skin. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There was a time when we used to drool in the mouth over white people. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We thought they were pretty 'cause we were blind, we were dumb. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We couldn't see them as they are. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But since the honorable Elijah Muhammad has come and taught us the religion of Islam, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which have cleaned us up, and made us so we can see for ourselves 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 now we can see that old pale thing to look exactly as he look 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 nothing but an old, pale thing. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I came away from that rally feeling that with him 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 once you heard him speak, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you never went back to where you were before. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You had to, even if you kept your position you had to rethink it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We weren't accustomed to being told that we were devils 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and that we were oppressors up herein our wonderful northern cities. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He was speaking for a silent mass of black people 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and sang it out front on the devil's own airwaves, and that was an act of war. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When he came off the stage, I jumped off the island, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 walked up to him, and of course when I got to him the bodyguards, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you know, moved in front, and he just pushed them away. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And I went in front of him and extended my hand, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and said "I liked some of what you said. I didn't agree with what, all that you said, but I liked some of what you said" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And he looked at me, held my hand in a very gentle fashion and says 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "One day you will, Sister. One day you will, Sister", and he smiled. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 To make his message clear, Malcolm used his own life as a lesson for all black Americans. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He preached it in fables and parables 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and later, in writing his autobiography with Alex Haley, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 he sought some control over how his life would be interpreted in the future. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I would be rather taken by a statement he would make of himself 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He would say "I am a part of all I have met" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and by that he meant that all the things he had done in his earlier life had exposed him to things 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and taught him skills of one or another sort, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 all of which had synthesized into the Malcolm who became the spokesman for the Nation of Islam. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You were born in Omaha, is that right? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Yes sir 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And you left, your familiy left Omaha when you were about one year old? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I imagine about a year old. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Why did they leave Omaha? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Well, to my understanding, the Ku Klux Klan burned down one of their homes in Omaha 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There's a lot of Ku Klux Klan