Alex Haley

Well, that is obvious, but we don't know if it's obvious that God is white. The honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that Jesus did not have blond hair and blue eyes. The honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that the images of Jesus that are on prison walls and churches throughout the world are not historically correct; because, history teaches us that Jesus was born in a region where the people had color. There's proof in the very Bible that you've asked us to read in Revelations, first chapter, verses 14 and 15, that Jesus had hair like wool and feet the color of brass.

You may be shocked by these words, but I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass and prayed to the same God with fellow Muslims whose eyes were blue, whose hair was blond and whose skin was the whitest of whites. And we are brothers, truly; people of all colors and races believing in One God and one humanity. Once before, in prison, the truth came and blinded me. It has happened again... In the past, I have permitted myself to be used to make sweeping indictments of all white people, and these generalizations have caused injuries to some white folks who did not deserve them. Because of the spiritual rebirth which I was blessed to undergo as a result of my pilgrimage to the Holy City of Mecca, I no longer subscribe to sweeping indictments of one race. I intend to be careful not to sentence anyone who has not been proven guilty. I'm not a racist and do not subscribe to any of the tenets of racism. In all honesty and sincerity it can be stated that I wish nothing but freedom, justice and equality: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all people. My first concern, of course, is with the group to which I belong, the Afro-Americans, for we, more than any other, are deprived of these inalienable rights. I believe the true practice of Islam can remove the cancer of racism from the hearts and souls of white Americans.

Brothers and sisters, I am here to tell you that I charge the white man. I charge the white man with being the greatest murderer on earth. I charge the white man with being the greatest kidnapper on earth. There is no place in this world that this man can go and say he created peace and harmony. Everywhere he's gone, he's created havoc. Everywhere he's gone, he's created destruction. So I charge him. I charge him with being the greatest kidnapper on this earth! I charge him with being the greatest murderer on this earth! I charge him with being the greatest robber and enslaver on this earth! I charge the white man with being the greatest swine-eater on this earth. The greatest drunkard on this earth! He can't deny the charges! You can't deny the charges! We're the living proof of those charges! You and I are the proof. You're not an American, you are the victim of America. You didn't have a choice coming over here. He didn't say, "Black man, black woman, come on over and help me build America". He said, "Nigger, get down in the bottom of that boat and I'm taking you over there to help me build America". Being born here does not make you an American. I am not an American, you are not an American. You are one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of America. You and I, we've never see any democracy. We didn't see any… democracy on the-the cotton fields of Georgia, wasn't no democracy down there. We didn't see any democracy. We didn't see any democracy on the streets of Harlem or on the streets of Brooklyn or on the streets of Detroit or Chicago. Ain't no democracy down there. No, we've never seem democracy! All we've seen is hypocrisy! We don't see any American Dream. We've experienced only the American Nightmare!

I must emphasize at the outstart that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is not a politician. So I'm not here this afternoon as a Republican, nor as a Democrat; not as a Mason, nor as an Elk; not as a Protestant, nor a Catholic; not as a Christian, nor a Jew; not as a Baptist, nor a Methodist. In fact, not even as an American, because if I was an American, the problem that confronts our people today wouldn't even exist. So I have to stand here today as what I was when I was born: a black man. Before there was any such thing as a Republican or a Democrat, we were black. Before there was any such thing as a Mason or an Elk, we were black. Before there was any such thing as a Jew or a Christian, we were black people! In fact, before there was any such place as America, we were black! And after America has long passed from the scene, there will still be black people. I'm gonna tell you like it really is. Every election year these politicians are sent up here to pacify us! They're sent here and setup here by the White Man! This is what they do! They send drugs in Harlem down here to pacify us! They send alcohol down here to pacify us! They send prostitution down here to pacify us! Why you can't even get drugs in Harlem without the White Man's permission! You can't get prostitution in Harlem without the White Man's permission! You can't get gambling in Harlem without the White Man's permission! Every time you break the seal on that liquor bottle, that's a Government seal that you're breaking! Oh, I say and I say it again, ya been had! Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led astray! Run amok! This is what He does.

To understand this man, you must know that historically there are two kinds of slaves. The House Negro and the Field Negro. The house Negro lived in the big house; he dressed pretty good; he ate pretty good and he loved the master. Yeah, he loved him more than the master loved himself. If the master's house caught fire, he'd be the first to put the blaze out. If the master got sick, he'd say: "What's a matter, boss; we sick?" We sick! If someone said to him, "Let's run away and escape. Let's separate." He'd say, "Man, are you crazy? What's better than what I got here?" That was the House Negro. In those days, he was called the House Nigger. Well, that's what we call them today because we still got a lot of House Niggers running around.

If the so-called Negro in America, was truly an American citizen, we wouldn't have a racial problem. If the Emancipation Proclamation was authentic, we wouldn't have a race problem. If the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were authentic, we wouldn't have a race problem. If the Supreme Court desegregation decision were authentic, we would not have a race problem. But you have to see that all of this is hypocrisy! These Negro leaders have been telling the white man everything is all right, everything is under control. And they've been telling the white man that Mr. Muhammad is wrong, don't listen to him. But everything Mr. Muhammad has been saying is going to come to pass is now coming to pass and now the Negro leaders are standing up saying that we are about to have a racial explosion. We're going to have a racial explosion and that's more dangerous than an atomic explosion. It's going to explode because black people are dissatisfied. They're dissatisfied now not only with the white man, but with these Negroes who have been sitting around here posing as leaders and spokesmen for black people. Anytime you put too many sparks around a powder keg, the thing is going to explode and if the thing that explodes is still inside the house, then the house will be destroyed. So the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is telling the white man get this powder keg out of your house, let the black people in this country separate from him while there's still time. And if the black man is allowed to separate and go on onto some land of his own, where he can solve his problems, then there won't be any explosion. Complete separation is the only solution to the black and white problem in this country!

Like every hustler, I was trapped. Cats that hung out together trying to find a solution found nothing. Cats that might have probed space or cured cancer, West Indian Archie might have been a mathematical genius... but we were all victims of the American social order.

I was special. The only colored kid in the class. I became sort of a mascot. Like a pink poodle. I was called a nigger so many times, I didn't think there was anything wrong with it. I thought that was my name. They talked about me like I wasn't there. Like I was a pedigreed dog or a horse. Like I was invisible.

You know, some people call this hate-teaching. This isn't hate-teaching. This is love-teaching. l wouldn't tell you this if l didn't love you. l wouldn't stick my neck out for you if l didn't love you.

So what do I say about this national day of mourning, so-called national day of mourning. I say the White Man's acts of violence should be condemned, not only by our beliefs, but by his own. Now the Holy Koran teaches us that those who work evil, will be condemned or punished or judged, according to their works. The Holy Bible teaches us that you reap what you sow. This is divine justice. Well, in the soil of the Americas the White Man has planted the seeds of hatred. He's planted the seeds of violence. He's allowed those weeds to, grow up and, choke the lives out of millions of black men and women for the last 400 years, in fact, the lives of lndians in these Americas for the last 500 years. And now those same weeds, have choked one of his own gardeners. In fact, his chief gardener. You ask me what l say. l only say what the Bible says. l say what the Koran says… l say it's justice.

We are taught that Paul, on the road to Damascus, heard the voice of Christ. He was so smitten by the truth that he fell from his horse. Now, I don't liken myself to Paul; but, I do understand. You see, it happened to me.

Let me talk to you for one second, brother. Listen, l know you're a smart man. I can tell you're a wise man. You look good. Now, you're in church every day, kneeling, praying to this God. Now, I'm telling you, these so-called white Christians, they're hanging our black Christians from trees, brother. This is the man that hates you. He tells you he loves you; but, he doesn't do anything for you. He tells you to foam at the mouth. He tells you to faint and sing and shout and hope for something in the hereafter. We can have it right now, brother. We can have it right now.

Oh, l'm so surprised! l'm so surprised! You all been in church two hours and you're expecting to see heaven out here and there ain't no heaven. You're still right here on earth. Sister, why don't you come on down to the temple? Come down to the temple at two o'clock. You'll hear truth. Hear the black man's truth! No, you can't deny it. You been down on your knees for the last two hours, haven't you? Begging some God to help you in the hereafter. But the hereafter is right now, brother. The hereafter is here and now.

As-Salaam-Alaikum. You know what that means, brother? That means, "Peace be unto you."

You don't have to come here every day begging these folks for a job. Why, you can wash their clothes for 'em. You can scrub their floors. You can rock their little brats to sleep for the rest of your life. You'll still end up poor and without anything. And yet you're out here on the auction block. They're examining you like you're a - a chicken or a horse or a slave. You see this here? This is who you are. Beautiful. Your beautiful black selves - with pride and dignity.

These are the questions you and l have to ask: "How did we get this mind?" You're not an American. You're an African who happens to *be* in America. You have to understand the difference.

Shorty? ls that you, brother? Praise be to Allah. Now, this is exactly what l'm talking about, the slave mentality. The slave mind. This brother and l, we had the slave mind. We used to rob together. We used to sleep with white women. We even went to prison together. Now, don't be surprised when I say we went to prison; because, some of you are still in prison. Right now. Prisons of your mind.

The honorable Elijah Muhammad is trying to teach you and l,that just as the white man and any other man, for that matter, on this earth, has the God-given right, the human right, the civil right, the natural right, and any other kind of i-right you can think of, to protect himself, just as this white man has the right to defend himself, we have the right to defend ourselves too. This is only natural. This is what the honorable Elijah Muhammad is trying to teach you and I. He's not teaching us to hate the white man. He's teaching us to love ourselves.

"Father" only means that you're taking care of your children. That's what it is to be a father. "Father" doesn't mean that you're having some babies. Anybody can have a baby. Having a baby does not make you a father. Anybody can go out and get a woman. But not anybody can take care of that woman. There's another word for it. lt's called responsibility.

For the white man to ask the black man why he hates him, is like the wolf asking the sheep, or the rapist asking the raped, "Do you hate me?" The white man is in no moral position to accuse the black man of anything.

Whites can help us, but they can't join us. There can't be black-white unity until there's first some black unity. We cannot think of uniting with others until we have first learned to unite amongst ourselves. We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.

l don't think anybody here would deny that when you send chickens out in the morning from your barnyard, those chickens will return that evening to your barnyard, not your neighbor's barnyard. I think this is a prime example of the devil's chickens coming back home to roost. That the chickens that he sent out, the violence that he's perpetrated in other countries, here and abroad, four children in Birmingham, or Medgar Evers, or the mangrove in Africa. I think this same violence has come back to claim one of their own. Now, being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never made me sad. ln fact, it's only made me glad.

My father was not a frightened negro, as most were and as many still are today. He was six feet four and a very strong man. He believed, as did Marcus Garvey, that freedom, independence and self-respect would never be achieved by the negro in America... And, therefore, black men should leave America and return to their land of origin.

My mother was a proud woman, an educated woman, a strong woman. She was very fair-skinned because her mother was raped by a white man. One of the reasons she married my father was because he was so black. She hated her complexion, white blood in her body, and wanted her children to have some color. In fact, I think this had a profound effect on me back then and on most negroes today. Because so many of our sisters have been raped or violated by the white man, the black man can't wait to get their hands on the white man's prize: white women.

Oh, my brothers and sisters, his kind has committed God's greatest crime against your and my kind every day of his life! He ought to get on his knees and say he's committed a crime. But does he do that? Does he do that? No. No, he scorns you. He splits your head with his nightstick. He busts you up side the head with that billy club. And he calls you a nigger. I'm telling you he calls you a coon. That's what he says to you. "Boy!" "Nigger!" Four hundred years is long enough. You've been sitting down and laying down and bowing down for 400 years. And l think it's time to stand up. l think it's time to stand up.

And the white people who have practiced white supremacy, try to hide their guilt by accusing the honorable Elijah Muhammad of being a black supremacist, simply because he's trying to uplift the mentality, the social and economic condition of his people. And the Jews who have been guilty of exploiting black people, for I don't know how long, try to hide their guilt by accusing the honorable Elijah Muhammad of being anti-Semitic, simply because he's trying to teach you and l - simply because he's trying to teach you and I to - to be in charge of the businesses in our own community. To own the businesses in our own community. To have economic leadership in our own community. No! No, this isn't black supremacy, this is black intelligence.

The black people in this country have been the victims of violence at the hands of the American right wing for 400 years. Four hundred years. Four hundred years. And we thought by following those ignorant Negro preachers that it was God-like to turn the other cheek to the group that was brutalizing us. A hundred years ago, they used to put on white sheets and sic bloodhounds on us. Well, nowadays, they've traded in the sheets - well, some of them have traded in the sheets - they've traded in the sheets - please, please - they've traded in those white sheets for police uniforms. They traded in the bloodhounds for police dogs.

You've got these Uncle Tom negro leaders today that tell us we ought to pray for our enemies. We ought to love our enemy. We ought to integrate with an enemy who bombs us, who kills and shoots us, who lynches us, who rapes our women and children. No! No! No! That's not intelligent! That's not intelligent!

During slavery time, the slave master gave the negro - the so-called negro - named the so-called negro after themselves. The honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that once we come into the knowledge of lslam, the knowledge of ourselves, we replace our slave name with an "X". "X" in mathematics representing the unknown. Since we've been disconnected, or cut off from our own history, our own past, our own culture, our own land, we use the "X," the unknown, until we get back to our country.

l'm not out to fight other negro leaders. As of this minute, l've forgotten every bad thing that other leaders have said about me and l also pray they forget the many bad things that l have said about them. We must work together. We must find a common solution to a common problem.