Imagine the white man telling you and me that Africa is a jungle. That everything over there is backward and if you go over there you won’t like living conditions. How are they living over there!? Why, we got to fight them over there to get them out—why don’t they get out of there? Why did Lumumba have to fight to get the Belgians out of the Congo?
A FEARLESS VISIONARY’S BIRTHDAY
Malcolm was born on May 19, 1925 and assassinated February 21, 1965.
To keep you here the government tells you and me that Africa is a jungle. Isn’t that what they say?
That Africans are savages. That Africans are backwards. They don’t have modern conveniences over there. That’s what they tell you.
Then they tell you ‘you must like white folks.’ What would you do? How would you live if you go back to Africa? And some of these old dumb brainwashed handkerchief head 20th century intellectual Negros, first thing they tell you when you say ‘let’s go back home,’ is ‘I haven’t lost anything in Africa.’ No, you lost it all! When you came over here you had it; but you lost it. You lost your name; you lost your language; you lost your mind; you lost your culture.
Don’t tell me you didn’t lose your mind. You came over here Black-minded; now you’re white-minded. Been brainwashed. All of the color has been taken from your heart and out of your mind. Now you’re running around not satisfied unless you can talk like white folk; unless you can walk like white folk; unless you can eat and sleep like white folk. You’re a white-Black man. White on the inside, Black on the outside.
You’re not here and you’re not there; Mr. In-between; and don’t nobody want you, because you don’t want yourself. Nobody wants Mr. In-between; you’re a middle man. They won’t let you be white and you don’t want to be Black—you don’t want to be African and you can’t be an American. So you run around like a nut-sitting on a bench. You’re in bad shape.
Imagine the white man telling you and me that Africa is a jungle. That everything over there is backward and if you go over there you won’t like living conditions. How are they living over there!? Why, we got to fight them over there to get them out—why don’t they get out of there?
Why did Lumumba have to fight to get the Belgians out of the Congo? Because the Congo was one of the most beautiful places on this earth. If it wasn’t beautiful, the white man wouldn’t be there. You got the white man allover there—living like a king. But they’re getting ready to send him.
No it’s not a jungle—it’s civilized. It’s cultured; it’s developed; it’s intelligent; high morals; high everything; good people; friendly people; hospitable people; brother to a brother. That’s how they kidnapped us. We were too hospitable. We saw some white man coming over the hill and we accepted him into our vicinity as a friend, and he shipped us into bondage.
This is one of the greatest mistakes that our people made—opening the doors in hospitality to the white man. When we first saw him coming we should have sent him; we never would be catching the hell we’ve been catching here in America for the last 400 years.
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