“The only revolution ever based on loving your enemy is the Negro revolution…That’s no revolution”
Malcolm X, 1963 speech, (Message to the Grass Roots, 9).
“We want freedom now, but we're not going to get it saying 'We Shall Overcome.' We've got to fight to overcome"
1965 speech, Malcolm X (Malcolm X Speaks, 38)
Malcolm X with Haley, Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1965.
Malcolm on the difference between the "house Negro" and the "field Negro."
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan. 23 January 1963.
Transcribed text from audio excerpt. [read entire speech
So you have two types of Negro. The old type and the new type. Most of you know the old type. When you read about him in history during slavery he was called "Uncle Tom." He was the house Negro -- probably in the basement or the attic --but he lived in the master's house.
And during slavery you had two Negroes. You had the house Negro and the field Negro.
The house Negro usually lived close to his master. He dressed like his master. He wore his master's second-hand clothes. He ate the food his master left on the table. And he lived in his master's house--
So whenever that house Negro identified himself, he always identified himself in the same sense that his master identified himself. When his master said, "We have good food," the house Negro would say, "Yes, we have plenty of good food." "We" have plenty of good food. When the master said that "we have a fine home here," the house Negro said, "Yes, we have a fine home here." When the master would be sick, the house Negro identified himself so much with his master he'd say, "What's the matter boss, we sick?" His master's pain was his pain. And it hurt him more for his master to be sick than for him to be sick himself. When the house started burning down, that type of Negro would fight harder to put the master's house out than the master himself would.
