Thesis: Understanding Malcolm X is necessary in order to understand race relations in America.

Disclaimer: There will be some harsh language used in this speech, so I will understand if anyone does not feel comfortable and wishes to leave.

I. Malcolm X has been despised and hated by many groups, from racist whites to black opposition leaders in the Civil Rights Movement.

A. The FBI kept a lengthy file on Malcolm X, supposedly because of his communist sympathies.

B. Martin Luther King Jr. opposed X because his militant attitude clashed with King’s own gospel of nonviolence.

C. And he was assassinated, in a possible conspiracy by the Nation of Islam.

II. Malcolm X has also been an inspiration and guide for many who struggle with our racial problem.

A. Ossie Davis, the actor, eulogized Malcolm, noting Malcolm’s critics and defining the reason why Malcolm was such a powerful figure for black people, saying that if people had really come to know what X was about, they “would know why we must honor him.”

B. After X’s death, King, while acknowledging their differences, spoke of the loss to the black movement suffered without Malcolm’s leadership.

C. Spike Lee, the film maker whose movies have touched on the racism still lying underneath America, made X’s autobiography into a film.

III. I believe that we, and by we I mean white America in general, and more specifically upper and middle class America, have been handed a warped view of Malcolm X, and what he said and meant to black people.

A. This view has been molded by America’s reaction to what Malcolm represents.

1. Malcolm represents blackness and he speaks to the experience of black Americans from the time of the first slave ships up to the 50's and 60's when he spoke, and even today. This is why his message still resonates so strongly with poor black Americans.

2. White America for the most part embraces Dr. King and vilifies X, but this just reveals how racist we still are. As Gil Scott Heron says in his song “Evolution and Flashback,” “In 1600 I was a darkie/And until 1865 a slave/In 1900 I was a nigger/Or at least that was my name/In 1960 I was a negro/And then Malcolm came along/Yes, but some nigger shot Malcolm down/Though the bitter truth lives on/Well now I am a black man/And though I still go second class/Where as once I wanted the white man's love/Now he can kiss my ass.”

3. This quote sums up much of the feelings of lower class black America towards Malcolm and his message. To ignore the call for agency and self identification would be to miss out on a great part of what happened to shape the understanding of black experience in America.

B. Much as I would like try, and I have tried very hard at this, I, as a white man, cannot know what that is like.

C. Even though I will never truly understand the black experience in America, I have tried to formulate an understanding of what race means in our society.

1. I used to think of the Civil Rights movement in the normal dichotomous terms of nonviolent King and violent X.

2. Then I read the autobiography of Malcolm X, and the man in this book was not the same man I had envisioned.

3. I did more research into it, and I started to ask why, and how, is it that a man can be so divisive in terms of his support from different races.

IV. I came to believe that we cannot understand the race problem unless white America confronts its own racist legacy of our attitudes towards Civil Rights leaders.

A. I will talk about this more in my next speech, but for now I will say that there is a problem in our acceptance of Martin Luther King and our rejection of Malcolm X.

B. That’s why I’m talking here about Malcolm, and his 1963 Message to the Grassroots.

C. I believe the best way to learn about people is to look at what those people actually did and said, instead of simply absorbing what other people have said about them. As Walter Lippman points out, even in his own time X was misrepresented in the media, and demonized for his stances.

D. So I am going to look at the words of Malcolm X, and I hope I will inspire you all to do the same.

V. You are all aware of the basic facts of American history, slavery and racism.

A. America was of course founded as a slave nation, and built on the labor of slaves and the ethnic poor.

B. The Trans African slave trade killed 100 million people, and that’s just the effect on Africa.

C. Even after slavery, the law kept black Americans segregated and oppressed.

D. And we have the history of extra legal racial violence perpetuated in this country, embodied in the terrible form of the lynch mob, which was more like a family picnic to some whites.

E. Into this context, comes Malcolm X. His father, preacher and supporter of the black nationalist Marcus Garvey, was killed by white terrorists, so some of this first experiences with race were rooted in violence.

F. Malcolm and his positions was not an aberration. The “Civil Rights” movement, as we have come to term the 50's to 60's era political struggles, was highly divided between movements. Malcolm, at the time of this speech, was a minister in the Nation of Islam.

G. He converted in prison, and left behind a life of hustling, dope dealing, and stealing, and dedicated himself to the Nation and its leader, Elijah Muhammad.

H. He has not yet split with the Nation at this time, but this speech will show some of his emerging thoughts that will lead to his famous separation.

VI. The topic of constraints is an interesting one for this particular speech.

A. Remember, X was still a part of the Nation of Islam, who wanted to advance their own idea of a nationalism based upon a shared religion. X seems to take a stance in conflict with this, as he in this speech, proposes an inclusive black nationalism.

B. This speech came shortly before the assassination of JFK, and X’s famous silencing by the nation for referring to the assassination as “chickens coming home to roost.” So X was not afraid to step beyond the limits imposed on him by the nation, and because his thoughts gradually diverged from theirs, there was increasing conflict between the two.

C. Since he had positioned himself, and the nation, in opposition with the work of Dr. King and others, his speech had to reflect what he saw as the failure of their movement. Not necessarily the failure of their movement to gain popular white support, but the failure to effect any real change in black agency.

1. This is why he is such a critic of the march on Washington. What most of us today know as one of the central moments in the Civil Rights era, and the location of King’s famous “I have a dream” speech, but at the time it was widely criticized by X and others who felt a betrayal by the way the march was essentially stolen from its black organizers and handed over to whites.

2. Remember one of the central tenets of any rights movement is the need for agency of the peoples oppressed, and the march on Washington, to X, sidelined and belittled the black man.

VII. The audience of Malcolm X is also different than that of King.

A. At this time in his life, X believed that there was little to nothing whites could do to help the black man.

B. He would change this view later, with his split from the nation and pilgrimage to Mecca, but most of this speeches are directed at a black audience, to foster change and social action. Hence the title, “Message to the Grassroots.”

1. The pilgrimage was especially significant, for here he came to reject segregation as a means to freedom, as the NY Times has documented, and is discussed in his autobiography.

C. He also did speak to whites, but at this time it was more likely to be in a confrontational sort of way, to warn of the coming tide of black movements.

D. His black audience includes not just black Muslims, but also blacks of other, or no, faith. Here he addresses the idea of Negro Revolution, and rejects it, offering instead the black Revolution as the correct path. In pushing for black revolution and attacking the Negro Revolution, he hopes to sway blacks with ties to the more pacifistic wings of the black rights movement.

VIII. Here I have set the stage for an analysis of what Malcolm X actually said in his 1963 Message to the Grassroots. I wish I could have more time to address the historical context of the speech, but that information is available for anyone willing to look for it.

A. What is important to take away is that Malcolm speaks here primarily to black people, and that his movement was never understood or supported by whites to extent that those of King were. We see some of X’s emerging self identification as part of a larger black movement, and his resistance to the constraints placed on him by the Nation.

B. I do not claim to have any unique understanding of X and his place in the black nationalist movement, or Civil Rights in general. My own racial background prohibits me from developing a full understanding of the problem. But I do believe that by challenging the ways in which society has caricatured and misrepresented both of these leaders, King and X, we can collectively come to fuller understanding of our American race problem, and be better informed to act upon it.

Works Referenced

Lippmann, Walter. “How The New York Times Distorted Malcolm X's Views on Self-Defense.” Bulletin in Defense of Marxism. 1993. <http://www.walterlippmann.com/mx-nyt.html>

Davis, Ossie. “Malcolm X’s Eulogy.” 1965. http://www.cmgworldwide.com/historic/malcolm/about/eulogy.htm

Heron, Gil Scott. “Evolution and Flashback.” Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. 1970.

“Malcolm X Letters Show His Evolution.” New York Times. March 8, 2002.

Comments:

From Liza McKenna: You started your speech off today seeming really confident and nicely dressed which suited your topic. Your stance was pretty stiff at first but you did begin to use some gestures as you got in to it. Your content was really good but you did seem to kind of be reading.

From Nicole Ritschel: You have a great speaking voice and you are fun to listen to. You looked confident at the beginning but your intro was a little too long. I know that your speech was long, and that you had a lot to say but you need to slow down. Content was good. Overall, good job. =)

From Tim Neubert: You started off very well but seemed to read more as the speech went on. Overall I thought you did very well. Also, I understand the whole political correctness thing, but I feel that constantly reminding us that you couldn't understand because your'e not black was like discrediting yourself.

From Christina G: I like how you were comparing Malcolm X to MLK and how they represented different stances. I enjoyed that you used some first person in your speech as well. You talked a bit too fast so it was hard to comprehend all the information you were piling onto us though so maybe you can improve on that in the future.

From Joe D:

-work on eye contact

-need a better attention getter

-good transitions

-very nice conclusion

From Chris Shin

Overall, it was a nice speech. And your topic the different view between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King is also nice. Your delivery is quite good but, it would be better if you have better attention getter for next time. Again,in general, Good job.

Ryan Wendt:

I enjoyed your speech, as you seemed to have researched it well, and provided several sources of information. Your eye contact was decent, but you seemed to rely on your notes too much after a certain point.

Liz Peters: You chose an interesting topic and had many good points to back up your knowledge. I could tell that you had done a lot of research. Try not to read from the note cards as much because you loose the audience and tend to speak much faster when you read from the cards.