Malcolm X - white inclusion?

[loveme4whoiam]

I've just watched a short video that Freedom.... for ALL put up in another thread, and I have a quick question, mainly just to satisfy my own curiosity. Was Malcolm X particularly exclusive or inclusive to white men and women who sympathised with their cause and who actively wanted to support it?

[Phalanx]

I think he wanted white people to work alongside his movement, not within, because he believed the organization would eventually become a white-dominated force with a black facade if he let white people join.

[Vargha Poralli]

From Wikipeida


Increasingly though he did come to regret his involvement within the Nation of Islam and its tendency to promote racism as a blacks versus whites issue. In an interview with Gordon Parks in 1965 he revealed:

"I realized racism isn't just a black and white problem. It's brought bloodbaths to about every nation on earth at one time or another."

He stopped and remained silent for a few moments, then stated,

"Brother, remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant -- the one who wanted to help the Muslims and the whites get together -- and I told her there wasn't a ghost of a chance and she went away crying?"

He also later reflected:

"Well, I've lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a [black] Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then -- like all [black] Muslims -- I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me twelve years."

"That was a bad scene, brother. The sickness and madness of those days -- I'm glad to be free of them."


Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X#Africa)

[Louis Pio]

In regards to Malcom X is important to remember how he changed his views as G Ram showed in his post. You live and learn as they say, and X certainly learned a thing or two through his involvement in the struggle.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Indeed, he was moving closer and closer to a communist outlook when he was murdered. He correctly understood that socialist revolution is the only force capable of liberating Blacks in the U.S. from oppression.

[-=Viva La Revolution!=-]

i've read he had white friends and such but he was regularly treated badly by other whites who did not understand him

i agree i have found he he wanted them to work alongside, not inside

[Fawkes]

Originally posted by [email protected] 05, 2007 10:42 am
I've just watched a short video that Freedom.... for ALL put up in another thread, and I have a quick question, mainly just to satisfy my own curiosity. Was Malcolm X particularly exclusive or inclusive to white men and women who sympathised with their cause and who actively wanted to support it?
Wait, what video was it?

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

i agree i have found he he wanted them to work alongside, not inside

Did you read the posts in this thread?? You "agree" with something that goes directly against what Malcolm himself said? :huh:

[Hampton]

But it should be note that the OAAU was still a black organization, led by blacks, for blacks, and support by black money.

Taken from The Last Year of Malcolm X:

"We will work with anyone, with any group, no matter what their color is, as long as they are genuinely intrested in taking the type of steps necessary to bring an end to the injustices that black people in this country are afflicted by. No matter what their color is, no matter what their political, economic or social philosophy is, as long as their aims and objectives are in the direction of destroying the vultrous system that has been sucking the blood of black people in this country, they're all right with us."

Collaboration between militant whites and militant blacks, though difficult to bring about, is necessary for the achivement of meaningful change, and Malcolm saw this.

[Fawkes]

Wait, I'm confused, is Freedom.... for ALL supposed to be me? If it is, I don' remember ever posting a video involving Malcolm X, I just remember posting a video that has that lady getting punched in the face.

[loveme4whoiam]

Wait, I'm confused, is Freedom.... for ALL supposed to be me? If it is, I don' remember ever posting a video involving Malcolm X, I just remember posting a video that has that lady getting punched in the face.
Oops :unsure: Guess I go tmy wires crossed - I thought it was you who put a linked to a video on Youtube that was of a speech that Malcolm X gave - you (or the imposter/person I replaced with you :wacko:) quoted his bit where he talked about everyone needed to know judo and karate. Apologies for my terrible memory :(


"We will work with anyone, with any group, no matter what their color is, as long as they are genuinely intrested in taking the type of steps necessary to bring an end to the injustices that black people in this country are afflicted by. No matter what their color is, no matter what their political, economic or social philosophy is, as long as their aims and objectives are in the direction of destroying the vultrous system that has been sucking the blood of black people in this country, they're all right with us."
Wow. Replace black people with working class people and that sums up my thoughts on inter-ideology co-operation :D I think I shall look into the Malcolm X and things related to him some more - if the Wiki quote is right then he is a leader who could genuinely admit that he was wrong - something very rare IMO.

[Fawkes]

You probably got confused because I did link a YouTube video, but it was of a lady getting punched in the face.

[KappaDelta]

Malcolm X was once a part of a rather militant, white-exclusive organization, and fully endorsed it's outlooks and goals, until he went to Mecca and saw thousands of Muslims of every creed and ethnicity worshiping together. Then he changed his viewpoint and decided that freedom and equality for everyone, rather than just a separation of white power from black issues, was the best thing.

[Severian]

Malcolm X's ideas on this were complex and changing, and who knows where he would ultimately have ended up if he hadn't been murdered.

Some more quotes:
From march 1964 (http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=1148) (shortly after leaving the Nation of Islam)

The Muslim Mosque, Inc., will remain wide open for ideas and financial aid from all quarters. Whites can help us, but they can’t join us. There can be no black—white unity until there is first some black unity. There can be no workers’ solidarity until there is first some racial solidarity. We cannot think of uniting with others, until after we have first united among ourselves. We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves. One can’t unite bananas with scattered leaves.

Also March 1964 (http://www.monthlyreview.org/564mx.htm)

SPELLMAN: What kind of coalition do you plan to make? Can whites join the Muslim Mosque Inc.?

MALCOLM X: Whites can't join us. Everything that whites join that Negroes have they end up out-joining the Negroes. The whites control all Negro organizations that they can join—they end up in control of those organizations. If whites want to help us financially we will accept their financial help, but we will never let them join us.

from January 1965 (http://www.greenleft.org.au/2005/616/35352) (not long before his death) (Interviewers' questions in bold)

How do you define black nationalism, with which you have been identified?

I used to define black nationalism as the idea that the black man should control the economy of his community, the politics of his community, and so forth. But, when I was in Africa in May, in Ghana, I was speaking with the Algerian ambassador who is extremely militant and is a revolutionary in the true sense of the word (and has his credentials as such for having carried on a successful revolution against oppression in his country). When I told him that my political, social and economic philosophy was black nationalism, he asked me very frankly, well, where did that leave him? Because he was white. He was an African, but he was Algerian, and to all appearances, he was a white man. And he said if I define my objective as the victory of black nationalism, where does that leave him? Where does that leave revolutionaries in Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, Mauritania? So he showed me where I was alienating people who were true revolutionaries dedicated to overturning the system of exploitation that exists on this earth by any means necessary.

So, I had to do a lot of thinking and reappraising of my definition of black nationalism. Can we sum up the solution to the problems confronting our people as black nationalism? And if you notice, I haven't been using the expression for several months. But I still would be hard pressed to give a specific definition of the overall philosophy which I think is necessary for the liberation of the black people in this country.
.....
What contribution can youth, especially students, who are disgusted with racism in this society, make to the black struggle for freedom?

Whites who are sincere don't accomplish anything by joining Negro organisations and making them integrated. Whites who are sincere should organise among themselves and figure out some strategy to break down the prejudice that exists in white communities. This is where they can function more intelligently and more effectively, in the white community itself, and this has never been done.