No, I haven't read that one yet. As a matter of fact, though, it so
happens that right now I am in the process of scanning The Assassination
of Malcolm X by George Breitman for Bookshare.
On 10/8/2015 12:18 AM, Paul Wick wrote:
Roger,
Have you read Manning Marable's biography of Malcolm (2011) it's on BARD there
was definitely some interesting stuff in there.
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 7, 2015, at 6:22 PM, Roger Loran Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for
DMARC) <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2015/7936/793649.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 36 October 12, 2015
(Books of the Month column)
Malcolm X: ‘Our scope is broad,
our scope is worldwide’
Malcolm X on Afro-American History is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month
for October. A revolutionary internationalist leader of the working class,
Malcolm was an intransigent opponent of the U.S. government and its imperialist
policies; of the rulers’ twin parties, the Democrats and Republicans; and an
uncompromising fighter against the racist oppression of Blacks. He gave this
talk Jan. 24, 1965, at a public meeting sponsored by the Organization of
Afro-American Unity. Malcolm was assassinated at an OAAU-organized meeting in
New York four weeks later. Copyright ©1967 by Betty Shabazz and Pathfinder
Press. Reprinted by permission.
BY MALCOLM X
One of the main things that you will find when you compare people who come out
here on Sunday nights with other people is that those who come here have
interests that go beyond local interests or even national interests. I think
you will find most who come out here are interested in things local, and
interested in things national, but are also interested in things international.
Most Afro-Americans who go to other meetings are usually interested in things
local — Harlem, that’s it; or Mississippi, that’s it — national. But seldom do
you find them taking a keen interest in things going on worldwide, because they
don’t know what part they play in things going on worldwide.
But those of us who come here, come here because we not only see the importance
of having an understanding of things local and things national, but we see
today the importance of having an understanding of things international, and
where our people, the Afro-Americans in this country, fit into that scheme of
things, where things international are concerned. We come out because our scope
is broad, our scope is international rather than national, and our interests
are international rather than national. Our interests are worldwide rather than
limited just to things American, or things New York, or things Mississippi. And
this is very important.
You can get into a conversation with a person, and in five minutes tell whether
or not that person’s scope is broad or whether that person’s scope is narrow,
whether that person is interested in things going on in his block where he
lives or interested in things going on all over the world. Now persons who are
narrow-minded, because their knowledge is limited, think that they’re affected
only by things happening in their block. But when you find a person who has a
knowledge of things of the world today, he realizes that what happens in South
Vietnam can affect him if he’s living on St. Nicholas Avenue, or what’s
happening in the Congo affects his situation on Eighth Avenue or Seventh Avenue
or Lenox Avenue. The person who realizes the effect that things all over the
world have right on his block, on his salary, on his reception or lack of
reception into society, immediately becomes interested in things international.
But if a person’s scope is so limited that he thinks things that affect him are
only those things that take place across the street or downtown, then he’s only
interested in things across the street and downtown.
So, one of our greatest desires here at Organization of Afro-American Unity
meetings is to try and broaden the scope and even the reading habits of most of
our people, who need their scope broadened and their reading habits also
broadened today.
Another thing that you will find is that those who go to other places usually
think of themselves as a minority. If you’ll notice, in all of their
struggling, programming, or even crying or demanding, they even refer to
themselves as a minority, and they use a minority approach. By a minority they
mean that they are lesser than something else, or they are outnumbered, or the
odds are against them — and this is the approach that they use in their
argument, in their demand, in their negotiation.
But when you find those of us who have been following the nationalistic
thinking that prevails in Harlem, we don’t think of ourselves as a minority,
because we don’t think of ourselves just within the context of the American
stage or the American scene, in which we would be a minority. We think of
things worldly, or as the world is; we think of our part in the world, and we
look upon ourselves not as a dark minority on the white American stage, but
rather we look upon ourselves as a part of the dark majority who now prevail on
the world stage. And when you think like this, automatically, when you realize
you are part of the majority, you approach your problem as if odds are on your
side rather than odds are against you. You approach demanding rather than using
the begging approach.
And this is one of the things that is frightening the white man. As long as the
Black man in America thinks of himself as a minority, as an underdog, he can’t
shout but so loud; or if he does shout, he shouts loudly only to the degree
that the power structure encourages him to. He never gets irresponsible. He
never goes beyond what the power structure thinks is the right voice to shout
in. But when you begin to connect yourself on the world stage with the whole of
dark mankind, and you see that you’re the majority and this majority is waking
up and rising up and becoming strong, then when you deal with this man, you
don’t deal with him like he’s your boss or he’s better than you or stronger
than you. You put him right where he belongs. When you realize that he’s a
minority, that his time is running out, you approach him like that, you
approach him like one who used to be strong but is now getting weak, who used
to be in a position to retaliate against you but now is not in that position
anymore.
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