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Malcolm X

Malcolm X Quotes

Human rights activist

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Famous Malcolm X Quotes

“If I did see a white man who was willing to go to jail or throw himself in front of a car in behalf of the so-called "negro cause," the test that I'd put to him, I'd ask him, "Do you think negro, when Negroes are being attacked they should defend themselves even at the risk of having to kill the one who's attacking them?" If that white man told me, "Yes," I'd shake his hand.”

IfsThinkingMenShouldHandsAsksCausesWhiteRiskCarFrontsWillingTestsShakesJailWhite ManBehalfAttacking
Author:Malcolm X
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“I think it's possible for me to approach the whole problem with a broader scope.When you look at something through an, an organizational eye, whether it's a, a religious organization, political organization, or a civic organization, if you look at it only through the eye of that organization, you see what the organization wants you to see. But you lose your ability to be objective.”

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Author:Malcolm X
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“Well, my contention is that the political system of this country is so designed criminally to prevent this, that if the black man even started in that direction, which is a mature step and it's the only way to really solve this problem and to prove that he is the intellectual equal of others, why, the racists and the segregationists would fight that harder than they're fighting the present efforts to integrate.”

IfsMenWayWellsCountryProblemPoliticalFightingBlackEffortStepsProveEqualIntellectualHarderSolveRacistMatureIntegratingPolitical SystemsContention
Author:Malcolm X
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“That value system has been handed right down in European society. And today when you find Negroes, if they even look like they're adopting these so-called middle-class values, standards, it's not that they are taking something from the white man, but they are probably identifying again with the level or standard that these same whites have gotten from them back during that period.”

IfsMenLooksHas BeensTodayValuesWhiteLevelsClassMiddlePeriodsStandardsMiddle ClassWhite ManIdentifyingAdoptingValue Systems
Author:Malcolm X
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“I could turn around as Wyatt Walker said to me about, not you personally, but about the whole Black Muslim movement. That if you go outside of New York City, Dr. [Martin Luther] King is known to 90 percent of the Negroes in the United States and is respected and, and is identified more or less with him, at least as a hero of one kind or another. That the Black Muslim, outside of one or two communities like New York, are unknown.”

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Author:Malcolm X
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“It’s just like when you’ve got some coffee that’s too black, which means it’s too strong. What you do? You integrate it with cream; you make it weak. If you pour too much cream in, you won’t even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it’ll put you to sleep.”

IfsKnowsMeanPoliticalUsedStrongBlackSleepToo MuchRacismWeakHotCoffeeUsed To BeCreamMulticulturalismBlack HistoryIntegratingGrassrootsWakes You
Author:Malcolm X
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“It"s good to keep wide-open ears and listen to what everybody else has to say, but when you come to make a decision, you have to weigh all of what you"ve heard on its own, and place it where it belongs, and come to a decision for yourself; you"ll never regret it. But if you form the habit of taking what someone else says about a thing without checking it out for yourself, you"ll find that other people will have you hating your friends and loving your enemies.”

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Author:Malcolm X
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“When I am dead--I say it that way because from the things I know, I do not expect to live long enough to read this book in its finished form--I want you to just watch and see if I'm not right in what I say: that the white man, in his press, is going to identify me with "hate". He will make use of me dead, as he has made use of me alive, as a convenient symbol, of "hatred"--and that will help him escape facing the truth that all I have been doing is holding up a mirror to reflect, to show, the history of unspeakable crimes that his race has committed against my race.”

IfsKnowsMenWayWantLongHas BeensMadeBookEnoughHelpingUseShowsFormHateWhiteRaceWatchesAliveCrimeHatredMirrorsPressesCommittedFinishedSymbolsI Want YouWhite ManConvenientUnspeakableFacing The Truth
Book:The Autobiography of Malcolm X
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“I learned early that crying out in protest could accomplish things. My older brothers and sister had started to school when, sometimes, they would come in and ask for a buttered biscuit or something and my mother, impatiently, would tell them no. But I would cry out and make a fuss until I got what I wanted. I remember well how my mother asked me why I couldn't be a nice boy like Wilfred; but I would think to myself that Wilfred, for being so nice and quiet, often stayed hungry. So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.”

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Book:The Autobiography of Malcolm X
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“If you are in a country that is progressive, the woman is progressive. If you're in a country that reflects the consciousness toward the importance of education, it's because the woman is aware of the importance of education. But in every backward country you'll find the women are backward, and in every country where education is not stressed its because the women don't have education.”

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Book:By any means necessary
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“I can't turn around without hearing about some 'civil rights advance's White people seem to think the black man ought to be shouting 'hallelujah's Four hundred years the white man has had his foot-long knife in the black man's back — and now the white man starts to wiggle the knife out, maybe six inches! The black man's supposed to be grateful? Why, if the white man jerked the knife out, it's still going to leave a scar!”

PeopleIfsThinkingMenYearsLongStillsI CanSeemsTurnsBlackWhiteFourRightsFeetOughtSixHundredGratefulHearingCivil RightsSupposed To BeKnivesScarInchesBe GratefulWhite ManShoutingHallelujah
Author:Malcolm X
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