Malcom X Speaks

A common theme in all 3 of Malcom’s speeches that we read for class today was that the black community needed to unite first before they tried to integrate themselves with the white community. He stressed that they needed to realize “that we have a common enemy, then we unite- on the basis of what we have in common. And what we foremost have in common is that enemy- the white man.” (page 5). Malcom added to this idea on pages 21 and 22 by saying, “There can be no black-white unity until there is first some black unity… We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.”. Malcom makes sure that the audience of these speeches understand that the problem is the white man. On page 24 he says, “We’re all in the same boat and we all are going to catch the same hell from the same man. He just happens to be a white man.” (page 24). This outlook on coming together as a black community first was a new idea in this time period. For some of the nonviolent protest previously, whites and blacks had teamed up to fight segregation. These speeches from Malcom X were very interesting when I compared him to other civil rights leaders during this time period. Malcom had a very strong opinion behind nonviolent protests and he was very against them. This shocked me since it seemed that most blacks involved in the civil rights movement thought that nonviolence was the way to go. Malcom talks about nonviolence in his “Message to the Grassroots” speech by saying, “ How can you justify being nonviolent in Mississippi and Alabama, when your churches are being bombed, and your little girls are being murdered, and at the same time you are going to get violent with Hitler, and Tojo, and somebody else you don’t know?” (page 7-8). I think Malcom is a strong contrast to Martin Luther King and his powerful approach was more appealing to me then King’s laid back approach.

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