Malcolm X on White Liberals
An excerpt from a 1963 speech by Bro. Malcolm X entitled “God’s Judgement of White America.”
In this deceitful American game of power politics, the Negroes (i.e., the race problem, the integration and civil rights issues) are nothing but tools, used by one group of whites called Liberals against another group of whites called Conservatives, either to get into power or to remain in power.
Among whites here in America, the political teams are no longer divided into Democrats and Republicans. The whites who are now struggling for control of the American political throne are divided into “liberal” and “conservative” camps. The white liberals from both parties cross party lines to work together toward the same goal, and white conservatives from both parties do likewise.
The white liberal differs from the white conservative only in one way: the liberal is more deceitful than the conservative. The liberal is more hypocritical than the conservative.
Both want power, but the white liberal is the one who has perfected the art of posing as the Negro’s friend and benefactor; and by winning the friendship, allegiance, and support of the Negro, the white liberal is able to use the Negro as a pawn or tool in this political “football game” that is constantly raging between the white liberals and white conservatives.
Politically the American Negro is nothing but a football and the white liberals control this mentally dead ball through tricks of tokenism: false promises of integration and civil rights. In this profitable game of deceiving and exploiting the politics of the American Negro, those white liberals have the willing cooperation of the Negro civil rights leaders. These “leaders” sell out our people for just a few crumbs of token recognition and token gains. These “leaders” are satisfied with token victories and token progress because they themselves are nothing but token leaders….
The white liberals hate The Honorable Elijah Muhammad because they know their present position in the power structure stems form their ability to deceive and to exploit the Negro, politically as well as economically.
They know that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s divine message will make our people (1) wake up, (2) clean up, (3) stand up. They know that once The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is able to resurrect the Negro from this mental grave of ignorance, by teaching him the truth about himself and his real enemy, the Negro will then be able to see and think for himself. Once the Negro learns to think for himself, he will no longer allow the white liberal to use him as a helpless football in the white man’s crooked game of “power politics.”
Let us examine briefly some of the tricky strategy used by white liberals to harness and exploit the political energies of the Negro.
The crooked politicians in Washington, D.C., purposely make a big noise over the proposed civil rights legislation. By blowing up the civil rights issue they skillfully add false importance to the Negro civil rights “leaders.” Once the image of these Negro civil rights “leaders” has been blown up way beyond its proper proportion, these same Negro civil rights “leaders” are then used by white liberals to influence and control the Negro voters, all for the benefit of the white politicians who pose as liberals, who pose as friends of the Negro.
The white conservatives aren’t friends of the Negro either, but they at least don’t try to hide it. They are like wolves; they show their teeth in a snarl that keeps the Negro always aware of where he stands with them. But the white liberals are foxes, who also show their teeth to the Negro but pretend that they are smiling. The white liberals are more dangerous than the conservatives; they lure the Negro, and as the Negro runs from the growling wolf, he flees into the open jaws of the “smiling” fox.
The job of the Negro civil rights leader is to make the Negro forget that the wolf and the fox both belong to the (same) family. Both are canines; and no matter which one of them the Negro places his trust in, he never ends up in the White House, but always in the dog house.
The white liberals control the Negro and the Negro vote by controlling the Negro civil rights leaders. As long as they control the Negro civil rights leaders, they can also control and contain the Negro’s struggle, and they can control the Negro’s so-called revolt.
The Negro “revolution” is controlled by these foxy white liberals, by the government itself. But the black revolution is controlled only by God.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Wow. As a liberal and one who works closely with many White Liberals this description is true of some - but not necessarily all White Liberals. But it is a tangly web. The problematic White Liberals bother me, too. They definitely suffer from “unconscious racism”. Not that they necessarily intend to do harm or take advatange of others (I don’t dare pretend to KNOW what’s in someone’s mind or their intentions, I can only guess), but some of the “best intentions” are based on the presumptive that ‘they know better than others’ and that they are the ultimate problem solvers.
As if you couldn’t help people by not first making them subordinate to you (figuratively, intellectually, and in power).
June 18th, 2008 at 12:31 am
To The Urban Scientist and everyone:
This is the Truth, the Whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth!
June 18th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Shabazz’s words at the time were certainly apropos. I have heard many black Americans since, who lived in the deep South, say that they preferred white racist southerners over liberal white Americans from the north. With respect to the white racist southerner they said, you knew where he or she was coming from.
The NAACP Headquarters ought to be able to speak to that issue since their primary donors were historically white liberals; and the same whites often tried to control the narrative and to dictate the agenda at the NAACP, even to the point of ostracizing undesirable blacks! Even Zora Neale Hurston and many of the other black writers and poets were often controlled by the liberal white donors who underwrote the Harlem Renaissance.
The latest coalition to form that is composed of white liberals, black racists and non-black racists concerns me! I wonder if it will hold together because it seems to me that everyone is using the other in order to get what they want! This fortuitous writing by Brother Malcolm speaks from the grave and is instructive in my opinion!
June 19th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Not many people under 50 that I know have heard more Malcolm X speeches than I have. I have not heard them all, but not many can tell me much about him other than the people who lived in his era. One of his most spectacular ones was when he was reading the replies he got from many Black leaders at the time when he was giving a “Unity Rally” in Harlem that was close to the time of the preparation for the historic March on Washington. Every leader was either too busy, getting ready for the March, or had prior commitments. But all said that they had no problem of appearing with Brother Malcolm, but the time was not right.
He went on to state that he did not trust the white liberals that pose as your friend, that pose as your benefactor, that pose as your white “buddy”, who is bilking you and robbing you for every thing you have.
The black “leaders” from that era did not want to appear with Malcolm X at that time because they did not want to get in trouble from their white establishment friends. The whites that could not stop the March decided to fund the March so they could control it. I submit this question: What in all these years has changed??
July 13th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Malcolm X. An “intellectual”. Must white people go to war with black people in order that both sides want peace? War is so terrible, but sometimes it is only through war will people put down their drum beating.
I say skip the lesson and both sides adhere to the teachings of Christ. Reject Malcolm X. Reject white liberal ideology. You must love your white brothers, though to you it may seem impossible. It is the way of Christ. Any other way is the way of the world. And of course, white men must love their black brothers and sisters.
We shall see.
Barack may start the war.