PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Breakdown FM_ Celebrating Malcolm X-Our Shining Black Prince
by Ytzhak Sunday, May. 20, 2007 at 4:13 AM
montfu65@hotmail.com

"I'm still a Muslim. That is, my religion is still Islam. My religion is still Islam. I still credit Mr. Mohammed for what I know and what I am. He's the one who opened my eyes....America is just as much a colonial power as England ever was. America is just as much a colonial power as France ever was. And in fact, America is more so of a colonial power than they, because she's a hypocritical colonial power. What do you call second-class citizenship? Why, that's colonization. Second class citizenship is nothing but 20th century slavery. How you are going to tell me that you are a second-class citizen. They don't have second-class citizenship than any other government on this earth. They have slaves and people who are free. This country is a hypocrite. They claim they set you free by calling you a second-class citizen. No, you are nothing but a 20th century slave. Just as they took nationalism to remove colonialism from Asia and Africa, it will take Black Nationalism today to remove colonialism from the backs and the minds of the 22 million African-Americans here in this country."-- malik shabazz

ph_malcolm3b.jpg, image/jpeg, 200x247

Breakdown FM_ Celebrating Malcolm X-Our Shining Black Prince

http://cleveland.indymedia.org/uploads/2007/05/breakdown_fm__celebrating_malcolm_x-our_shining_black_prince.mp3

MALCOLM X: America is just as much a colonial power as England ever
was. America is just as much a colonial power as France ever was. And
in fact, America is more so of a colonial power than they, because
she's a hypocritical colonial power. What do you call second-class
citizenship? Why, that's colonization. Second class citizenship is
nothing but 20th century slavery. How you are going to tell me that
you are a second-class citizen. They don't have second-class
citizenship than any other government on this earth. They have slaves
and people who are free. This country is a hypocrite. They claim they
set you free by calling you a second-class citizen. No, you are
nothing but a 20th century slave. Just as they took nationalism to
remove colonialism from Asia and Africa, it will take Black
Nationalism today to remove colonialism from the backs and the minds
of the 22 million African-Americans here in this country.


Breakdown FM: Celebrating Malcolm X-Our Shining Black Prince:

http://media.odeo.com/3/3/6/Breakdown_FM-MalcolmB-Day06.mp3

http://odeo.com/audio/12636543/view

POSITIVELY BLACK

Junious Ricardo Stanton

Malcolm X vs. US Imperialism

"I could see that America itself is a society where there is no
brotherhood, and that this society is controlled primarily by racists
and segregationists. And from Washington, D.C., they exercise the same
forms of brutal oppression against dark-skinned people in South and
North Vietnam, or in the Congo, or in Cuba, or in any other place on
this earth where they're trying to exploit and oppress. This is a
society whose government doesn't hesitate to inflict the most brutal
form of punishment and oppression upon dark-skinned people all over
the world."-Malcolm X

As we pause to honor and celebrate the life and legacy of the man many
of us knew as Malcolm X, let us do so in the African tradition. Let us
hold him up as a model to be emulated not merely for his personal
transformation from drug user, street hustler and crook to an upright
family man but also an active and engaged leader who dedicated his
life to the liberation of his people. The road Malcolm traveled was
fraught with danger, scorn, misunderstanding but also much respect
both open and secret. Even though many Negroes were frightened by
Malcolm X both during his time in the Nation of Islam and upon his
break from that organization, just as many loved and respected him!
Malcolm X was not murdered because he called white people devils
(others had done that) or because he had a public falling out with
Elijah Muhammad, (although the US government through its COINTELPRO
used that situation to promote his "neutralization") Malcolm X was
murdered because he had the courage boldness and audacity to attempt
to bring the United States of AmeriKKKa before the United Nations'
World Court for its crimes of genocide, human rights violations and
its racist imperialist foreign policies.

Like Paul Robeson before him Malcolm knew the only way the ruling
elites would alter their systemic brutality and oppression against
Africans in America was would be through adverse world opinion. He
knew moral suasion and social demonstrations alone were not enough to
bring US brutality at home and abroad to an end. Malcolm was astute
enough to realize Martin Luther King's push for civil rights wasn't
sweeping enough nor was it designed to bring attention to AmeriKKKa's
role as a vicious imperialistic power. Malcolm understood the
propaganda implications of the "Cold War" and Western Neo-Colonialism
as the United States attempted to bring newly "independent" nations of
Africa and Asia under their hegemony and keep them from aligning with
the Soviet Union or China. Malcolm saw through the hypocrisy of
AmeriKKKan rhetoric about peace, freedom and democracy and focused on
AmeriKKKa's criminal behavior around the world. As part of his plan he
made frequent visits to Africa and Arabia meeting with heads of state
who shared his anti-imperialism and anti Neocolonialism concerns.
Malcolm X was received by world leaders like: Gamel Abdel Nasser of
Egypt, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Julius Nyere of Tanzania, Kwame Nkrumah
of Ghana and Sekou Toure of Guinea Conakry. He kept his position in
racial and nationalist focus courting the African, Asian and Arab
leaders to win sympathy for his move to charge the US with egregious
human rights violations. The last thing the AmeriKKKan elites wanted
was their racist attitudes, behavior and agenda exposed for the whole
world to see. Malcolm X had an uncanny way of deriding white
AmeriKKKa's self-delusion it was a civilized society. He was so
effective unnerving and struck so much fear in the ruling elites, they
sent agents to trail him who attempted to poison him during one of his
trips to Africa. Malcolm X (like Martin Luther King would do years
later) put the Afro-American struggle in global terms. Malcolm clearly
understood AmeriKKKa was the new torch barer for four centuries of
Western imperialism.

Malcolm chided the US for its hypocrisy. "America is just as much a
colonial power as England ever was. America is just as much a colonial
power as France or Portugal ever was but she is more so because she is
a hypocritical colonial power at that." Malcolm understood world
history and current trends was relentless in his focus and refused to
be dissuaded. He meant to embarrass AmeriKKKa before the world. In
many ways the US oligarchy had moved to reduce their liabilities from
the negative PR around the world by superficially embracing Martin
Luther King's non-violent Civil Rights struggle. The very idea that
Malcolm X was seriously going to indict and prove AmeriKKKa guilty
before the world (because AmeriKKKa was and still is guilty) meant the
psychopaths running this country had to kill him. Several years later,
Martin Luther King Jr. linked the struggle for human rights here with
the struggle against US global imperialism and the need to
redistribute wealth in AmeriKKKa which resulted in his assassination
also. Things have not changed much. In fact AmeriKKKa today is more
repressive and fascist than when Malcolm and Martin waged their
struggle to raise consciousness and affect change. The world still
labors under the yoke of AmeriKKKan psychopathy. Let us learn from
history, instead of having a single leader the ruling elites can cut
down let us develop an empowered mass of conscious and catalytic
activist/change agents to resist AmeriKKKan fascism and global
domination, by every means necessary!

-30-


--

Malcolm X

The Ballot or the Bullet


delivered 12 April, 1964 in Detroit, MI

Audio mp3 of Address
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/politicalspeeches/malcolmxballotorbullet666666666666666666555555555555555555.mp3


[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from
audio. (2)]

Mr. Moderator, Reverend Cleage, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters,
and friends -- and I see some enemies. In fact, I think we'd be
fooling ourselves if we had an audience this large and didn't realize
that there were some enemies present.

This afternoon we want to talk about "The ballot or the bullet." The
ballot or the bullet explains itself. But before we get into it, since
this is the year of the ballot or the bullet, I would like to clarify
some things that refer to me personally -- concerning my own personal
position.

I'm still a Muslim. That is, my religion is still Islam. My religion
is still Islam. I still credit Mr. Mohammed for what I know and what I
am. He's the one who opened my eyes. At present, I'm the Minister of
the newly founded Muslim Mosque, Incorporated, which has its offices
in the Teresa Hotel, right in the heart of Harlem -- that's the black
belt in New York city. And when we realize that Adam Clayton Powell is
a Christian minister, he's the -- he heads Abyssinian Baptist Church,
but at the same time, he's more famous for his political struggling.

And Dr. King is a Christian Minister, in Atlanta -- from Atlanta
Georgia -- or in Atlanta, Georgia, but he's become more famous for
being involved in the civil rights struggle. There's another in New
York, Reverend Galamison -- I don't know if you've heard of him out
here -- he's a Christian Minister from Brooklyn, but has become famous
for his fight against a segregated school system in Brooklyn. Reverend
Cleage, right here, is a Christian Minister, here in Detroit. He's the
head of the "Freedom Now Party." All of these are Christian Ministers
-- All of these are Christian Ministers, but they don't come to us as
Christian Ministers. They come to us as fighters in some other
category.

I'm a Muslim minister. The same as they are Christian Ministers, I'm a
Muslim minister. And I don't believe in fighting today in any one
front, but on all fronts. In fact, I'm a "Black Nationalist Freedom
Fighter." Islam is my religion, but I believe my religion is my
personal business. It governs my personal life, my personal morals.
And my religious philosophy is personal between me and the God in whom
I believe; just as the religious philosophy of these others is between
them and the God in whom they believe.

And this is best this way. Were we to come out here discussing
religion, we'd have too many differences from the outstart and we
could never get together. So today, though Islam is my religious
philosophy, my political, economic, and social philosophy is Black
Nationalism. You and I -- As I say, if we bring up religion we'll have
differences; we'll have arguments; and we'll never be able to get
together. But if we keep our religion at home, keep our religion in
the closet, keep our religion between ourselves and our God, but when
we come out here, we have a fight that's common to all of us against a
[sic] enemy who is common to all of us.

The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that the
black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own
community. The -- The time -- The time when white people can come in
our community and get us to vote for them so that they can be our
political leaders and tell us what to do and what not to do is long
gone. By the same token, the time when that same white man, knowing
that your eyes are too far open, can send another negro into the
community and get you and me to support him so he can use him to lead
us astray -- those days are long gone too.

The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that if you
and I are going to live in a Black community -- and that's where we're
going to live, 'cause as soon as you move into one of their -- soon as
you move out of the Black community into their community, it's mixed
for a period of time, but they're gone and you're right there all by
yourself again. We must -- We must understand the politics of our
community and we must know what politics is supposed to produce. We
must know what part politics play in our lives. And until we become
politically mature we will always be mislead, lead astray, or deceived
or maneuvered into supporting someone politically who doesn't have the
good of our community at heart. So the political philosophy of Black
Nationalism only means that we will have to carry on a program, a
political program, of re-education to open our people's eyes, make us
become more politically conscious, politically mature, and then we
will -- whenever we get ready to cast our ballot, that ballot will be
-- will be cast for a man of the community who has the good of the
community of heart.

The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we should
own and operate and control the economy of our community. You would
never -- You can't open up a black store in a white community. White
men won't even patronize you. And he's not wrong. He's got sense
enough to look out for himself. It's you who don't have sense enough
to look out for yourself. The white man -- The white man is too
intelligent to let someone else come and gain control of the economy
of his community. But you will let anybody come in and control the
economy of your community, control the housing, control the education,
control the jobs, control the businesses, under the pretext that you
want to integrate. No, you're outta your mind.

The political -- The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only
means that we have to become involved in a program of reeducation to
educate our people into the importance of knowing that when you spend
your dollar out of the community in which you live, the community in
which you spend your money becomes richer and richer; the community
out which you take your money becomes poorer and poorer. And because
these negroes, who have been mislead, misguided, are breaking their
necks to take their money and spend it with The Man, The Man is
becoming richer and richer, and you're becoming poorer and poorer. And
then what happens? The community in which you live becomes a slum. It
becomes a ghetto. The conditions become run down. And then you have
the audacity to -- to complain about poor housing in a run-down
community. Why you run it down yourself when you take your dollar out.

And you and I are in a double-track, because not only do we lose by
taking our money someplace else and spending it, when we try and spend
it in our own community we're trapped because we haven't had sense
enough to set up stores and control the businesses of our community.
The man who's controlling the stores in our community is a man who
doesn't look like we do. He's a man who doesn't even live in the
community. So you and I, even when we try and spend our money in the
block where we live or the area where we live, we're spending it with
a man who, when the sun goes down, takes that basket full of money in
another part of the town.

So we're trapped, trapped, double-trapped, triple-trapped. Anywhere we
go we find that we're trapped. And every kind of solution that someone
comes up with is just another trap. But the political and economic
philosophy of Black Nationalism -- the economic philosophy of Black
Nationalism shows our people the importance of setting up these little
stores and developing them and expanding them into larger operations.
Woolworth didn't start out big like they are today. They started out
with a dime store and expanded and expanded and then expanded until
today, they're are all over the country and all over the world, and
they get to some of everybody's money. Now this is what you and I --
General Motors [is] the same way. They didn't start out like it is. It
started out just a little rat race type operation. And it expanded and
it expanded until today it's where it is right now. And you and I have
to make a start and the best place to start is right in the community
where we live.

So our people not only have to be reeducated to the importance of
supporting black business, but the black man himself has to be made
aware of the importance of going into business. And once you and I go
into business, we own and operate at least the businesses in our
community. What we will be doing is developing a situation wherein we
will actually be able to create employment for the people in the
community. And once you can create some -- some employment in the
community where you live it will eliminate the necessity of you and me
having to act ignorantly and disgracefully, boycotting and picketing
some practice some place else trying to beg him for a job.

Anytime you have to rely upon your enemy for a job, you're in bad
shape. When you have -- He is your enemy. Let me tell you, you
wouldn't be in this country if some enemy hadn't kidnapped you and
brought you here. On the other hand, some of you think you came here
on the Mayflower.

So as you can see brothers and sisters, today -- this afternoon, it's
not our intention to discuss religion. We're going to forget religion.
If we bring up religion, we'll be in an argument, and the best way to
keep away from arguments and differences, as I said earlier, put your
religion at home -- in the closet. Keep it between you and your God.
Because if it hasn't done anything more for you than it has, you need
to forget it anyway.

Whether you are -- Whether you are a Christian, or a Muslim, or a
Nationalist, we all have the same problem. They don't hang you because
you're a Baptist; they hang you 'cause you're black. They don't attack
me because I'm a Muslim; they attack me 'cause I'm black. They attack
all of us for the same reason; all of us catch hell from the same
enemy. We're all in the same bag, in the same boat. We suffer
political oppression, economic exploitation, and social degradation --
all of them from the same enemy. The government has failed us; you
can't deny that. Anytime you live in the twentieth century, 1964, and
you walkin' around here singing "We Shall Overcome," the government
has failed us.

This is part of what's wrong with you -- you do too much singing.
Today it's time to stop singing and start swinging. You can't sing up
on freedom, but you can swing up on some freedom. Cassius Clay can
sing, but singing didn't help him to become the heavyweight champion
of the world; swinging helped him become the heavyweight champion.
This government has failed us; the government itself has failed us,
and the white liberals who have been posing as our friends have failed
us.

And once we see that all these other sources to which we've turned
have failed, we stop turning to them and turn to ourselves. We need a
self help program, a do-it -- a-do-it-yourself philosophy, a
do-it-right-now philosophy, a it's-already-too-late philosophy. This
is what you and I need to get with, and the only time -- the only way
we're going to solve our problem is with a self-help program. Before
we can get a self-help program started we have to have a self-help
philosophy.

Black Nationalism is a self-help philosophy. What's so good about it?
You can stay right in the church where you are and still take Black
Nationalism as your philosophy. You can stay in any kind of civic
organization that you belong to and still take black nationalism as
your philosophy. You can be an atheist and still take black
nationalism as your philosophy. This is a philosophy that eliminates
the necessity for division and argument. 'Cause if you're black you
should be thinking black, and if you are black and you not thinking
black at this late date, well I'm sorry for you.

Once you change your philosophy, you change your thought pattern. Once
you change your thought pattern, you change your -- your attitude.
Once you change your attitude, it changes your behavior pattern and
then you go on into some action. As long as you gotta sit-down
philosophy, you'll have a sit-down thought pattern, and as long as you
think that old sit-down thought you'll be in some kind of sit-down
action. They'll have you sitting in everywhere. It's not so good to
refer to what you're going to do as a "sit-in." That right there
castrates you. Right there it brings you down. What -- What goes with
it? What -- Think of the image of a someone sitting. An old woman can
sit. An old man can sit. A chump can sit. A coward can sit. Anything
can sit. Well you and I been sitting long enough, and it's time today
for us to start doing some standing, and some fighting to back that
up.

When we look like -- at other parts of this earth upon which we live,
we find that black, brown, red, and yellow people in Africa and Asia
are getting their independence. They're not getting it by singing "We
Shall Overcome." No, they're getting it through nationalism. It is
nationalism that brought about the independence of the people in Asia.
Every nation in Asia gained its independence through the philosophy of
nationalism. Every nation on the African continent that has gotten its
independence brought it about through the philosophy of nationalism.
And it will take black nationalism -- that to bring about the freedom
of 22 million Afro-Americans here in this country where we have
suffered colonialism for the past 400 years.

America is just as much a colonial power as England ever was. America
is just as much a colonial power as France ever was. In fact, America
is more so a colonial power than they because she's a hypocritical
colonial power behind it.

What is 20th -- What do you call second class citizenship? Why, that's
colonization. Second class citizenship is nothing but 20th century
slavery. How you gonna tell me you're a second class citizen? They
don't have second class citizenship in any other government on this
earth. They just have slaves and people who are free. Well this
country is a hypocrite. They try and make you think they set you free
by calling you a second class citizen. No, you're nothing but a 20th
century slave.

Just as it took nationalism to move -- to remove colonialism from Asia
and Africa, it'll take black nationalism today to remove colonialism
from the backs and the minds of 22 million Afro-Americans here in this
country.

And 1964 looks like it might be the year of the ballot or the bullet.

Why does it look like it might be the year of the ballot or the
bullet? Because Negroes have listened to the trickery, and the lies,
and the false promises of the white man now for too long. And they're
fed up. They've become disenchanted. They've become disillusioned.
They've become dissatisfied, and all of this has built up frustrations
in the black community that makes the black community throughout
America today more explosive than all of the atomic bombs the Russians
can ever invent. Whenever you got a racial powder keg sitting in your
lap, you're in more trouble than if you had an atomic powder keg
sitting in your lap. When a racial powder keg goes off, it doesn't
care who it knocks out the way. Understand this, it's dangerous.

And in 1964 this seems to be the year, because what can the white man
use now to fool us after he put down that march on Washington? And you
see all through that now. He tricked you, had you marching down to
Washington. Yes, had you marching back and forth between the feet of a
dead man named Lincoln and another dead man named George Washington
singing "We Shall Overcome." He made a chump out of you. He made a
fool out of you. He made you think you were going somewhere and you
end up going nowhere but between Lincoln and Washington.

So today, our people are disillusioned. They've become disenchanted.
They've become dissatisfied, and in their frustrations they want
action.

And in 1964 you'll see this young black man, this new generation
asking for the ballot or the bullet. That old Uncle Tom action is
outdated. The young generation don't want to hear anything about the
odds are against us. What do we care about odds?

When this country here was first being founded there were 13 colonies.
The -- The whites were colonized. They were fed up with this taxation
without representation, so some of them stood up and said "liberty or
death." Though I went to a white school over here in Mason, Michigan,
the white man made the mistake of letting me read his history books.
He made the mistake of teaching me that Patrick Henry was a patriot,
and George Washington, wasn't nothing non-violent about old Pat or
George Washington.

Liberty or death was what brought about the freedom of whites in this
country from the English. They didn't care about the odds. Why they
faced the wrath of the entire British Empire. And in those days they
used to say that the British Empire was so vast and so powerful when
the sun -- the sun would never set on it. This is how big it was, yet
these 13 little scrawny states, tired of taxation without
representation, tired of being exploited and oppressed and degraded,
told that big British Empire "liberty or death."

And here you have 22 million Afro-American black people today catching
more hell than Patrick Henry ever saw. And I'm -- I'm here to tell you
in case you don't know it -- that you got a new -- you got a new
generation of black people in this country who don't care anything
whatsoever about odds. They don't want to hear you old Uncle Tom
handkerchief heads talking about the odds. No. This is a new
generation. If they're gonna draft these young black men and send them
over to Korea or South Vietnam to face 800 million Chinese -- if
you're not afraid of those odds, you shouldn't be afraid of these
odds.

Why is -- Why does this loom to be such an explosive political year?
Because this is the year of politics. This is the year when all of the
white politicians are going to come into the Negro community. You
never see them until election time. You can't find them until election
time. They're going to come in with false promises, and as they make
these false promises they're gonna feed our frustrations and this will
only serve to make matters worse.

I'm no politician. I'm not even a student of politics. I'm not a
Republican, nor a Democrat, nor an American, and got sense enough to
know it. I'm one of the 22 million black victims of the Democrats, one
of the 22 million black victims of the Republicans, and one of the 22
million black victims of Americanism. And when I speak, I don't speak
as a Democrat, or a Republican, *nor an American.* I speak as a victim
of America's so-called democracy. You and I have never seen democracy;
all we've seen is hypocrisy. When we open our eyes today and look
around America, we see America not through the eyes of someone who
have -- who has enjoyed the fruits of Americanism, we see America
through the eyes of someone who has been the victim of Americanism. We
don't see any American dream; we've experienced only the American
nightmare. We haven't benefited from America's democracy; we've only
suffered from America's hypocrisy. And the generation that's coming up
now can see it and are not afraid to say it.

If you -- If you go to jail, so what? If you black, you were born in
jail. If you black, you were born in jail, in the North as well as the
South. Stop talking about the South. Long as you south of the -- Long
as you south of the Canadian border, you're south. Don't call Governor
Wallace a Dixie governor; Romney is a Dixie governor.

Twenty-two million black victims of Americanism are waking up and
they're gaining a new political consciousness, becoming politically
mature. And as they become -- develop this political maturity, they're
able to see the recent trends in these political elections. They see
that the whites are so evenly divided that every time they vote the
race is so close they have to go back and count the votes all over
again. And that...which means that any block, any minority that has a
block of votes that stick together is in a strategic position. Either
way you go, that's who gets it. You're -- You're in a position to
determine who will go to the White House and who will stay in the dog
house. You're the one who has that power. You can keep Johnson in
Washington D.C., or you can send him back to his Texas cotton patch.
You're the one who sent Kennedy to Washington. You're the one who put
the present Democratic Administration in Washington D.C. The whites
were evenly divided. It was the fact that you threw 80 percent of your
votes behind the Democrats that put the Democrats in the White House.

When you see this, you can see that the Negro vote is the key factor.
And despite the fact that you are in a position to -- to be the
determining factor, what do you get out of it? The Democrats have been
in Washington D.C. only because of the Negro vote. They've been down
there four years, and they're -- all other legislation they wanted to
bring up they brought it up and gotten it out of the way, and now they
bring up you. And now, they bring up you. You put them first, and they
put you last, 'cause you're a chump, a political chump.

In Washington D.C., in the House of Representatives, there are 257 who
are Democrats; only 177 are Republican. In the Senate there are 67
Democrats; only 33 are Republicans. The Party that you backed controls
two-thirds of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and still
they can't keep their promise to you, 'cause you're a chump. Anytime
you throw your weight behind a political party that controls
two-thirds of the government, and that Party can't keep the promise
that it made to you during election time, and you're dumb enough to
walk around continuing to identify yourself with that Party, you're
not only a chump, but you're a traitor to your race.

And what kind of alibi do they come up with? They try and pass the
buck to the Dixiecrats. Now back during the days when you were blind,
deaf, and dumb, ignorant, politically immature, naturally you went
along with that. But today as your eyes come open, and you develop
political maturity, you're able to see and think for yourself, and you
can see that a Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat in disguise.

You look at the structure of the government that controls this
country; it's controlled by 16 senatorial committees and 20
congressional committees. Of the 16 senatorial committees that run the
government, 10 of them are in the hands of Southern segregationists.
Of the 20 congressional committees that run the government, 12 of them
in the -- are in the hands of Southern segregationists. And they're
going to tell you and me that the South lost the war.

You, today, have -- are in the hands of a government of
segregationists, racists, white supremacists who belong to the
Democratic party, but disguise themselves as Dixiecrats. A Dixiecrat
is nothing but a Democrat. Whoever runs the Democrats is also the
father of the Dixiecrats, and the father of all of them is sitting in
the White House. I say and I say it again: You got a President who's
nothing but a Southern segregationist from the state of Texas. They'll
lynch you in Texas as quick as they'll lynch you in Mississippi. Only
in -- in Texas they lynch you with a Texas accent; in Mississippi they
lynch you with a Mississippi accent.

And the first thing the cracker does when he comes in power, he takes
all the Negro leaders and invites them for coffee to show that he's
alright. And those Uncle Toms can't pass up the coffee. They come away
from the coffee table telling you and me that this man is alright
'cause he's from the South, and since he's from the South he can deal
with the South. Look at the logic that they're using. What about
Eastland? He's from the South. Make him the President. He can -- If
Johnson is a good man 'cause he's from Texas, and being from Texas
will enable him to deal with the South, Eastland can deal with the
South better than Johnson. Oh, I say you been mislead. You been had.
You been took.

I was in Washington a couple weeks ago while the Senators were
filibustering, and I noticed in the back of the Senate a huge map, and
on this map it showed the distribution of Negroes in America, and
surprisingly the same Senators that were involved in the filibuster
were from the states where there were the most Negroes. Why were they
filibustering the civil rights legislation? Because the civil rights
legislation is supposed to guarantee voting rights to Negroes in those
states, and those senators from those states know that if the Negroes
in those states can vote, those senators are down the drain. The
Representatives of those states go down the drain. And in the
Constitution of this country it has a stipulation wherein whenever the
rights, the voting rights, of people in a certain district are
violated, then the Representative who -- who's from that particular
district, according to the Constitution, is supposed to be expelled
from the Congress. Now, if this particular aspect of the Constitution
was enforced, why you wouldn't have a cracker in Washington D.C. But
what would happen when you expel the Dixiecrat, you're expelling the
Democrat. When you destroy the power of the Dixiecrat, you're
destroying the power -- power of the Democratic Party. So how in the
world can the Democratic Party in the South actually side with you in
sincerity, when all of its power is based in the -- in the South?

These Northern Democrats are in cahoots with the Southern Democrats.
They're playing a giant con game, a political con game. You know how
it goes. One of them -- One of them comes to you and makes believe
he's for you, and he's in cahoots with the other one that's not for
you. Why? Because neither one of them is for you, but they got to make
you go with one of them or the other. So this is a con game. And this
is what they've been doing with you and me all these years.

First thing Johnson got off the plane when he become President, he
asked "Where's Dicky?" You know who "Dicky" is? Dicky is old Southern
cracker Richard -- Richard Russell. Look here, yes. Lyndon B.
Johnson's best friend is the one who is the head, who's heading the
forces that are filibustering civil rights legislation. You tell me
how in the hell is he going to be Johnson's best friend? How can
Johnson be his friend and your friend too? No, that man is too tricky.
Especially if his friend is still old Dicky.

Whenever the Negroes keep the Democrats in power, they're keeping the
Dixiecrats in power. Is this true? A vote for a Democrat is nothing
but a vote for a Dixiecrat. I know you don't like me saying that, but
I...I'm not the kind of person who come here to say what you like. I'm
going to tell you the truth whether you like it or not.

Up here, in the North you have the same thing. The Democratic Party
don't -- don't do it -- they don't do it that way. They got a thing
that they call gerrymandering. They -- They maneuver you out of power.
Even though you can vote, they fix it so you're voting for nobody;
they got you going and coming. In the South, they're outright
political wolves. In the North, they're political foxes. A fox and a
wolf are both canine, both belong to the dog family. Now you take your
choice. You going to choose a Northern dog or a Southern dog? Because
either dog you choose I guarantee you you'll still be in the dog
house.

This is why I say it's the ballot or the bullet. It's liberty or it's
death. It's freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody. America today
finds herself in a unique situation. Historically, revolutions are
bloody. Oh, yes, they are. They haven't never had a blood-less
revolution, or a non-violent revolution. That don't happen even in
Hollywood. You don't have a revolution in which you love your enemy,
and you don't have a revolution in which you are begging the system of
exploitation to integrate you into it. Revolutions overturn systems.
Revolutions destroy systems.

A revolution is bloody, but America is in a unique position. She's the
only country in history in a position actually to become involved in a
blood-less revolution. The -- The Russian revolution was bloody;
Chinese revolution was bloody; French revolution was bloody; Cuban
revolution was bloody; and there was nothing more bloody then the
American Revolution. But today this country can become involved in a
revolution that won't take bloodshed. All she's got to do is give the
black man in this country everything that's due him -- everything.

I hope that the white man can see this, 'cause if he don't see it
you're finished. If you don't see it you're going to be coming --
you're going to become involved in some action in which you don't have
a chance. And we don't care anything about your atomic bomb; it's --
it's useless because other countries have atomic bombs. When two or
three different countries have atomic bombs, nobody can use them, so
it means that the white man today is without a weapon. If you're gonna
-- If you want some action, you gotta come on down to Earth. And
there's more black people on Earth than there are white people on
Earth.

I only got a couple more minutes. The white man can never win another
war on the ground. His days of war, victory, his great -- his days of
that ground victory are over. Can I prove it? Yes. Take all the action
that's going on on this earth right now that he's involved in. Tell me
where he's winning. Nowhere.

Why some rice farmers -- some rice farmers -- some rice eaters ran him
out of Korea. Yes, they ran him out of Korea. Rice eaters with nothing
but gym shoes and a rifle and a bowl of rice took him and his tanks
and his napalm and all that other action he's supposed to have and ran
him across the Yalu. Why? 'Cause the day that he can win on the ground
has passed.

Up in French Indo-China those little peasants, rice growers, took on
the might of the French army and ran all the Frenchmen -- you remember
Dien Bien Phu. No.

The same thing happened in Algeria, in Africa. They didn't have
anything but a rifle. The French had all these highly mechanized
instruments of warfare, but they put some guerilla action on, and a --
and a -- and a white man can't fight a guerilla warfare. Guerilla
action takes heart, takes nerve, and he doesn't have that. He's brave
when he's got tanks. He's brave when he's got planes. He's brave when
he's got bombs. He's brave when he got a whole lot of company along
with him, but you take that little man from Africa and Asia, turn him
loose in the woods with a blade, with a blade -- that's all he needs,
all he needs is a blade –- and when the sun comes down -- goes down
and it's dark, it's even-steven.

So it's the -- it's the ballot or the bullet. Today our people can see
that we're faced with a government conspiracy. This government has
failed us. The senators who are filibustering concerning your and my
rights, that's the government. Don't say it's Southern senators. This
is the government; this is a government filibuster. It's not a
segregationist filibuster. It's a government filibuster. Any kind of
activity that takes place on the floor of the Congress or the Senate,
that's the government. Any kind of dilly-dallying, that's the
government. Any kind of pussy-footing, that's the government. Any kind
of act that's designed to delay or deprive you and me right now of
getting full rights, that's the government that's responsible. And any
time you find the government involved in a conspiracy to violate the
citizenship or the civil rights of a people, then you are wasting your
time going to that government expecting redress. Instead, you have to
take that government to the World Court and accuse it of genocide and
all of the other crimes that it is guilty of today.

So those of us whose political, and economic, and social philosophy is
Black Nationalism have become involved in the civil rights struggle.
We have injected ourselves into the civil rights struggle, and we
intend to expand it from the level of civil rights to the level of
human rights. As long as you're -- As long as you're fighting on the
level of civil rights, you're under Uncle Sam's jurisdiction. You're
going to his court expecting him to correct the problem. He created
the problem. He's the criminal. You don't take your case to the
criminal; you take your criminal to court. When the government of
South Africa began to trample upon the human rights of the people of
South Africa, they were taken to the U.N. When the government of
Portugal began to trample upon the -- the rights of our brothers and
sisters in Angola, it was taken before the U.N. Why even the white man
took the Hungarian question to the U.N. And just this week Chief
Justice Goldberg was crying over 3 million Jews in Russia about their
human rights, charging Russia with violating the U.N. charter because
of its mistreatment of the human rights of Jews in Russia.

Now you tell me how can the plight of everybody on this earth reach
the halls of the United Nations, and you have 22 million
Afro-Americans whose churches are being bombed, whose little girls are
being murdered, whose -- whose leaders are being shot down in broad
daylight. Now you tell me why the leaders of this struggle have never
taken it before the United Nations.

So our next move is to take the entire civil rights struggle problem
into the United Nations and let the world see that Uncle Sam is guilty
of violating the human rights of 22 million Afro-Americans....

[short audio gap...content uncertain]

[Uncle Sam...] and still has the audacity or the nerve to stand up and
represent himself as the leader of the free world. Not only is he a
crook, he's a hypocrite. There he is standing up in front of other
people, Uncle Sam, with the blood of your and mine mothers and fathers
on his hands, with the blood dripping down his jaws like a
bloody-jawed wolf, and still got the nerve to point his finger at
other countries. You can't even get civil rights legislation. And this
man has got the nerve to stand up and talk about South Africa, or talk
about Nazi Germany, or talk about [unclear]. Nah, no more days like
those.

So, I say in my conclusion the only way we're going to solve it -- we
gotta unite in unity and harmony, and Black Nationalism is the key.
How we gonna overcome the tendency to be at each other's throats that
always exists in our neighborhoods? And the reason this tendency
exists, the strategy of the white man has always been divide and
conquer. He keeps us divided in order to conquer us. He tells you I'm
for separation and you're for integration to keep us fighting with
each other. No, I'm not for separation and you're not for integration.
What you and I is for is freedom. Only you think that integration will
get you freedom, I think separation will get me freedom. We both got
the same objective. We just got different ways of getting at it.

So I...studied this man, Billy Graham, who preaches White Nationalism.
That's what he preaches. I say that's what he preaches. The whole
church structure in this country is White Nationalism. You go inside a
white church -- that's what they preaching: White Nationalism. They
got Jesus white, Mary white, God white, everybody white -- that's
White Nationalism. So what he does -- the way he -- the way he -- the
way he circumvents the -- the jealousy and envy that he ordinarily
would incur among the heads of the church, wherever he go into an area
where the church already is you going into trouble, 'cause they got
that thing -- what you call it -- syndicated, they got a syndicate
just like the Racketeers have. I'm going to say what's on my mind
'cause the churches are, the preachers already proved to you that they
got a syndicate.

And when you're out in the rackets, whenever you're getting in another
man's territory, you know, they gang up on you. And that's the same
way with you -- you ran into the same thing. So how Billy Graham gets
around that, instead of going into somebody else's territory, like he
going to start up a new church, he don't -- he doesn't try to start a
church. He just goes in preaching Christ. And he says everybody who
believe in Him, you go wherever -- you go wherever you find him. So
this helps all the churches and so since it helps all the churches
they don't fight him.

Well, we gonna do the same thing, only our gospel is Black
Nationalism. His gospel is White Nationalism; our gospel is Black
Nationalism. And the gospel of Black Nationalism, as I told you, means
you should control your own -- the politics of your community, the
economy of your community, and all of the society in which you live
should be under your control. And...once you...feel that this
philosophy will solve your problem, go join any church where that's
preached. Don't join a church where White Nationalism is preached. Now
you can go to a negro church and be exposed to White Nationalism,
'cause you are -- when you walk in a negro church and a white Mary and
some white angels -- that Negro church is preaching White Nationalism.

But 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. Join that
church. If you see where the NAACP is preaching and practicing 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.

It'll be -- It'll be the -- the ballot or it'll be the bullet. It'll
be liberty or it'll be death. And if you're not ready to pay that
price don't use the word freedom in your vocabulary.

One more thing: I was on a program in Illinois recently with Senator
Paul Douglas, a so-called liberal, so-called Democrat, so-called white
man, at...which time he told me that our African brothers were not
interested in us in Africa. He said the Africans are not interested in
the American Negro. I knew he was lying, but during the next two or
three weeks it's my intention and plan to make a tour of our African
homeland. And I hope that when I come back, I'll be able to come back
and let you know how our African brothers and sisters feel toward us.
And I know before I go there that they love us. We're one; we're the
same; the same man who has colonized them all these years, colonized
you and me too all these years. And all we have to do now is wake up
and work in unity and harmony and the battle will be over.

I want to thank the Freedom Now Party and the [unclear]. I want to
thank Milton and Richard Henley for inviting me here this afternoon,
and also Reverend Cleage. And I want them to know that anything that I
can ever do, at any time, to work with anybody in any kind of program
that is sincerely designed to eliminate the political, the economic,
and the social evils that confront all of our people, in Detroit and
elsewhere, all they got to do is give me a telephone call and I'll be
on the next jet right on into the city.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/malcolmxballotorbullet.htm


Breakdown FM_ Celebrating Malcolm X-Our Shining Black Prince

audio:

http://cleveland.indymedia.org/uploads/2007/05/breakdown_fm__celebrating_malcolm_x-our_shining_black_prince.mp3

he always spoke the truth

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/malcolmxballotorbullet.htm

www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/malcolmxballotorbullet.htm

Breakdown FM_ Celebrating Malcolm X-Our Shining Black Prince
by Ytzhak Sunday, May. 20, 2007 at 4:13 AM
montfu65@hotmail.com

audio link: MP3 at 14.7 mebibytes

"I'm still a Muslim. That is, my religion is still Islam. My religion
is still Islam. I still credit Mr. Mohammed for what I know and what I
am. He's the one who opened my eyes...." -- malik shabazz

www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/malcolmxballotorbullet.htm