Speaker 1: Oh yes, it is that time again, time to make
Speaker 1: a change. You are listening to you, timeous Cornel West
Speaker 1: and Nina Turner. We are so excited as always to
Speaker 1: be with you today, Doc. Besides, what's on your heart,
Speaker 1: your mind and your soul today? If Minister Malcolm X
Speaker 1: had been alive, he would be one hundred years Oh.
Speaker 1: I know we did a teacher in Thursday about the minister,
Speaker 1: But my god, what a great and fabulous day to
Speaker 1: talk about Minister Malcolm X and all that he did
Speaker 1: to shake this country. He shook the world in such
Speaker 1: a beautiful way. You want to talk about courage and conviction.
Speaker 1: He had it. Not a perfect man, because there are
Speaker 1: no perfect men, no perfect women, no perfect people. But
Speaker 1: he had a perfect courage and consciousness and love for
Speaker 1: his people and for justice, so much so his life
Speaker 1: was on the line before though we get to any
Speaker 1: that Doc is in the house. What is on your heart,
Speaker 1: your soul and your mind.
Speaker 2: Well, my dear sister, you can imagine. We can never
Speaker 2: say enough about Malcolm g now always add now that
Speaker 2: he shared a birthday with the Great Lorraine Hansbury, she
Speaker 2: was ninety five. He would be one hundred last major
Speaker 2: public event that he attended was her funeral. He was
Speaker 2: sitting on the front row in that blizzard right here
Speaker 2: in the Presbyterian Church of the Master in Harlem, and
Speaker 2: he said what he said. She resonated with me in
Speaker 2: the same way I resonated with her. And who gave
Speaker 2: the eulogy, Paul Robeson. He came out of house arrests
Speaker 2: forty six, forty five Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, living in
Speaker 2: his sisters out. So that the connection of Malcolm and
Speaker 2: Lorraine is very important because two revolutionary figures artists are
Speaker 2: part and part of a larger evolutionary tradition that deduced them.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about Reverend Earl Little, He's my fellow Black
Speaker 2: Baptist men's the head of the U. N. I. Garvey's
Speaker 2: organization in Omahall was killed by cowardly white supremacist terrorists
Speaker 2: there in Omaha. And his magnificent mother Louise. We also
Speaker 2: talked about Malcolm like Lorraine with Carl and Nanny. They
Speaker 2: got parents, they got family be when we talk about them,
Speaker 2: they got precious skill dren who are still raising their voices,
Speaker 2: let alone, of course, oh of sons and daughters politically, religiously, ideologically,
Speaker 2: and so on, and so you're absolutely right. I was
Speaker 2: blessed to remind my dear brothers in more House yesterday
Speaker 2: that given their magnificent commencement day, it would be one
Speaker 2: hundred years the next day, which is today, that Malcolm
Speaker 2: was born, in ninety five years that Lorraine Hansbury was born.
Speaker 2: I think most importantly, though, that Malcolm provides for us
Speaker 2: a genuine example of what it means to be sincere,
Speaker 2: what it means to be honest, what it means to
Speaker 2: be a person of integrity. Saved you me mean what
Speaker 2: you say, be willing to put your body on the line,
Speaker 2: change your mind. When you change your mind, it is
Speaker 2: a sincere change of In fact, Lauren Hansbury asked Malcolm
Speaker 2: at a party one time, she said, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: married to a Vanilla brother, and you come down so
Speaker 2: hard on interracial marriage. Why you come down so hard,
Speaker 2: Malcolm Maca. We say, with my sister, I believe that
Speaker 2: at the I've changed my mind. I thought it through
Speaker 2: of come back from Mecca, I say, mean, see that's
Speaker 2: the Malcolm that we love. Because he loved us. So
Speaker 2: Tabts was kind enough to play us Ozzie Davis's part
Speaker 2: of the part of the eulogy. Yes, one of the
Speaker 2: most profound eulogy is a black prince. He loved us
Speaker 2: so that says it all. And we love him. We
Speaker 2: shall never, ever, ever, ever forget him an a loud
Speaker 2: part of his after life to be at work in
Speaker 2: our life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we do. We love him so. And there was
Speaker 1: a where you couldn't hardly you know, the mainstream world
Speaker 1: wanted to separate us from Minister Malcolm X. I wanted
Speaker 1: to vilify him, say that he was violent, which nothing
Speaker 1: could be further for the truth. He was definitely for
Speaker 1: self defense. You hit me, I'm hitching your back, but
Speaker 1: he was not. He did not push for any violence.
Speaker 1: They can't find one violent thing that he led, but
Speaker 1: just these lives on top of lines and really had
Speaker 1: black people at a point believe in it and pitting
Speaker 1: Doctor King against Minister Malcolm X when they really complimented
Speaker 1: each other, and we had to come to a maturity
Speaker 1: about that. I remember being in some of my classes
Speaker 1: and you know, having to pick a side, so to speaking,
Speaker 1: and having people just say, Minister Malcolm X never did
Speaker 1: anything for the cause because he wasn't directly involved in
Speaker 1: the civil rights movement. Oh no, he did a whole
Speaker 1: host of things for the cause outside of the formalized
Speaker 1: civil rights movement.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right, exactly right. And in June nineteen sixty four,
Speaker 2: of course, when my uncle said that note that Martin said,
Speaker 2: would you be willing to go with me to the
Speaker 2: United Nations bring the United States to international trial for
Speaker 2: the box bights of black people? Martin said, yes, let
Speaker 2: us go together. We got that on the FBI file.
Speaker 2: They never could pull it off. That would have been something,
Speaker 2: would have been more than just that one picture with
Speaker 2: a smile and a handshake.
Speaker 1: Oh, doctor, and they know it. The powers that be
Speaker 1: knew it too, which is why they came after them
Speaker 1: so hard, and ultimately the system took his life. You know,
Speaker 1: they're definitely the federal government was involved. You certainly had
Speaker 1: individuals involved. It was just a whole mess. They're listening
Speaker 1: the truth time. But doctor Cornel West Andina Turner, we're
Speaker 1: talking about if Minister Malcolm X had been alive, he
Speaker 1: would have been one hundred years old. When we come forward,
Speaker 1: we will continue talking about the one and only the
Speaker 1: great Minnesota ex I know, brother Smiley did an interview
Speaker 1: with one of Minister Malcolm X's daughter, always mispronounced her
Speaker 1: first name, Dot kind of want to do that, but
Speaker 1: we ambassador, miss yes, yes, yes, yes, And you know what,
Speaker 1: as we analyze him, and we have before, he is
Speaker 1: always worth analyzing and lifting up, contrary to what mainstream
Speaker 1: society has said about him over the years, White society,
Speaker 1: let's just put it that way. We're not talking about
Speaker 1: individual white people, but white society and black people really
Speaker 1: kind of caving in to this kind of misinformation. Now
Speaker 1: we know what is really real. There have been several
Speaker 1: really great documentaries since Minister Malcolm X was assassinated. One
Speaker 1: is called Exonerated, and it's where the three men who
Speaker 1: were ultimately charged with murdering Minister Malcolm X, the fame
Speaker 1: in fact, at a point started not to believe that
Speaker 1: it was them, and the facts came out that you know,
Speaker 1: it was not them, and that this was a cover
Speaker 1: up by the you know, by the local level and
Speaker 1: also the federal levels of government. So many similarities between
Speaker 1: what happened to Minister Malcolm X and also what happened
Speaker 1: to doctor Martin Luther King Jr. And if we analyze
Speaker 1: our freedom fighters, a lot of them. Fred Hampton the
Speaker 1: same thing. You know, Hoover had a whole file. Hoover
Speaker 1: once said that he wanted to stop the rise of
Speaker 1: a black messiah, and he definitely saw that potential. And
Speaker 1: people like Fred Hampton, people like Minister Malcolm X, people
Speaker 1: like Reverend A Minister Malcolm X, people like Reverend dodtr
Speaker 1: Martin Luther King Jr. And so there's this whole kind
Speaker 1: of confluence of things that I think we have to
Speaker 1: grapple with as black people, but White America needs to
Speaker 1: grapple with its terrorism and crimes against humanity against Black
Speaker 1: people that are really beyond chidle slavery. And Minister Malcolm
Speaker 1: X expose the apocrisy of this nation time and time
Speaker 1: and time again.
Speaker 2: Absolutely both to hypocrisy but also the criminality of the nation. Yeah,
Speaker 2: one thing, lie, it's another thing to use your lives
Speaker 2: to hide and conceal your crimes, yes, sir, And the
Speaker 2: lives and the crimes do go hand in hand. And
Speaker 2: so you know, Malcolm always knew, of course, Martin always knew.
Speaker 2: Of course. This is also true for Fanny Louhimer, It's
Speaker 2: true for Lauren Hansbury, the FBI has massive files in
Speaker 2: the sixties and seventies on each and every one of them.
Speaker 2: Why because in a white supremacist civilization, those black folk
Speaker 2: who love themselves enough to love black people convinced not
Speaker 2: to hate themselves and accept white premises lives, we'll be
Speaker 2: haunted down, We'll be failings, and under circumstances, will be killed.
Speaker 2: We have to just be honest about that. We had
Speaker 2: to tell the truth about America's weak will to truth
Speaker 2: when it comes to the humanity of black people. And
Speaker 2: what thing right now is a reversion back precisely to
Speaker 2: those lies and to those crimes, not just here but
Speaker 2: around the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my god, and it is. It is shocking.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's like being punched or slapped when you didn't expect it,
Speaker 1: or being immersed in ice cold water. Just it's a
Speaker 1: shock to the system. So, looking at Minister Malcolm X
Speaker 1: through several lenses, one that I would like for us
Speaker 1: to use one lens I would like for us to
Speaker 1: use doc is what he had to say, so periodically
Speaker 1: throughout the show, I'm a lift up what he had
Speaker 1: to say. So one of my favorites, I'm for truth,
Speaker 1: no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter
Speaker 1: who it is for or against I am. I'm a
Speaker 1: human being first and foremost, and as such I'm for
Speaker 1: whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole. Minister Malcolm
Speaker 1: X said that it has a universal appeal and it
Speaker 1: is timeless, which leads me to how he felt about
Speaker 1: the Palestinian struggle. And he compared the Palestinian struggle and
Speaker 1: betrayal to what happened to African Americans in this country.
Speaker 1: He knew fuel well, it wasn't totally equal, but there
Speaker 1: are some similarities or some connective tissue as you will,
Speaker 1: to the struggle. And he said that, you know, he
Speaker 1: sit up for justice and security for Palestini people.
Speaker 2: He went to Gaza. We've got pictures of Malcolm in
Speaker 2: Goza in nineteen sixty or what is that. That is
Speaker 2: sixty one years ago. Gaza was then under occupation Gaza
Speaker 2: and under domination. Gaza was then trying to gain resources,
Speaker 2: trying to gain as to some possibility of living a
Speaker 2: decent life under a thoroughly occupied and dominated condition. And
Speaker 2: of course he knew that he was cutting so radically
Speaker 2: against the grain. He knew not just American leadership, but
Speaker 2: most of black leadership would be very hesitant to say
Speaker 2: what he was saying because the risk was so high
Speaker 2: and the cost was so deep in terms of someone
Speaker 2: like himself. And of course, you know, Stokely Carmarker was
Speaker 2: there and Cleveland Sellers was there. Brother Bacari's father was there,
Speaker 2: stokely raising that issue in sixty six and sixty seven
Speaker 2: coming out of Snicks. It's something that it took a
Speaker 2: long time for the world to see through the lies
Speaker 2: and stay in contact with the crimes. And we see
Speaker 2: the genocide right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we do. And SNICK for those who might be wondering,
Speaker 1: stoot non violent Coordinate Coordinating Committee. That's what SNICK stands for. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just really wild that people, you know,
Speaker 1: I was, I'm doing practice run for I was, I
Speaker 1: was talking about I got you know, I was in
Speaker 1: this conversation with some folks that were saying that, you know,
Speaker 1: Donald J. Trump, President Trump is over there and he's
Speaker 1: over in the Middle East, and he's saying, hey, if
Speaker 1: we can do a deal, we can do a deal.
Speaker 1: We don't always have to believe in each other's the
Speaker 1: way we run government. I'm paraphrasing them and how we
Speaker 1: want to see other people's people free. And he's like
Speaker 1: standing up in the Middle East. And I said in
Speaker 1: this conversation, well, that may be well true, but he's
Speaker 1: standing up in the Middle East for everybody but one
Speaker 1: particular group. So I don't give him any extra credit
Speaker 1: for doing that if he's still gonna leave out what
Speaker 1: is happening to the Palestinians. Yeah, I'm glad. You know,
Speaker 1: my grandmother would always say a broke clock is right
Speaker 1: twice a day. So I don't bemoan the fact that
Speaker 1: he's using rhetoric that may display a willingness to kind
Speaker 1: of work with people who ordinarily this country would not
Speaker 1: work within the Middle East. I'm not mad about that, Doc. However,
Speaker 1: you gotta say the same thing about the Palestinians as
Speaker 1: well and their right to self determination. That was only one, Doc,
Speaker 1: I was the only one that you know in this
Speaker 1: conversation that took that position. It was just absolutely mind
Speaker 1: blowing to me.
Speaker 2: M I mean, part of the problem is is that
Speaker 2: you end up with a gangster like Trump, the neo
Speaker 2: fashions from the United States. He goes and meets other
Speaker 2: authoritarian leaders who are suppressing their masters who are who
Speaker 2: are punishing it, uh and and and incarcerating most of
Speaker 2: their critical voices of dissenting voices. And they want to
Speaker 2: look like somehow they got this magnificent diplomatic process going
Speaker 2: that has moral substance, that may have political force because
Speaker 2: they're very rich, because they're very powerful. But we know
Speaker 2: Trump himself carries no moral force. But they don't either.
Speaker 2: They haven't been in solidarity with the Palestinians before Trump.
Speaker 2: They haven't been in solidated with Palestinians before Biden. Right,
Speaker 2: that the leaders of these nations have not been in
Speaker 2: solidarity with Palestinians. The masses of those Arab countries have,
Speaker 2: But those masses, their voices don't shape the policy of
Speaker 2: the nation. These are unaccountable monarchs and unaccountable elites and
Speaker 2: so forth. And so then Trump shows up. Okay, he's
Speaker 2: elected by the deeply corrupt political system that he said
Speaker 2: with rigg, but was only rigg when he lost, wasn't one,
Speaker 2: you know, we know how that is. That's just gangs activity, gangs,
Speaker 2: the perception, right, Oh no, when when he wins, the
Speaker 2: system is the most legitimate process imaginable. Okay, Uh, stay
Speaker 2: on that crack fight if you want to. It's corrupt
Speaker 2: across the board because board he doesn't. He doesn't want
Speaker 2: to fight it anyway for any of the working and
Speaker 2: poor people said be there in God's up, be there
Speaker 2: in any other places as well.
Speaker 1: It is crystal clear we did not know. We should
Speaker 1: now know. There you're listening to Truth Time got to
Speaker 1: Cordas and Nina Turner. Today we're talking about if Minister
Speaker 1: Malcolm X were alive, if you're just tuning in, he
Speaker 1: would have been one hundred years old. Tak, I want
Speaker 1: to pull a quote from doctor Betty Shabaz. She said,
Speaker 1: I wish you power that equals your intelligence and your strength.
Speaker 1: I wish you success that equals your talent and determination,
Speaker 1: and I wish you faith. So the ex children or
Speaker 1: the Sebas children are definitely lift up their mother at
Speaker 1: the same time that they lift up their father, in
Speaker 1: the same way that the King family does the same thing.
Speaker 1: We talk about Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. You
Speaker 1: cannot leave out Coreta Scott King and doctor Betty Shabaz
Speaker 1: quite a force. With Minister Malcolm X had to endure
Speaker 1: the hardships, the bombings, the attacks all of that. You know,
Speaker 1: both families have so much trauma in common, and at
Speaker 1: the same time they have the beauty of those two
Speaker 1: men being their relatives. I mean, they got that kind
Speaker 1: of courage coursing through their veins. But to think about
Speaker 1: Minister Malcolm X, his only crime was that he loved
Speaker 1: black people and that he was willing to stand up
Speaker 1: for black people in public.
Speaker 2: Oh that's true. And tell the truth, not just to
Speaker 2: the powers that be. Yeah, tell the truth to us,
Speaker 2: yell the truth to black people themselves. And always willing
Speaker 2: to grow. Yes, never static. But you're so right about
Speaker 2: the great Betty Shabbez, doctor Betty Shabbas that her family
Speaker 2: was already a major force for good. As a little girl,
Speaker 2: Girlyn Detroit head Black organizations, she goes down the Tuskegee
Speaker 2: Institute and studying with a Missrs Harvey, who is the
Speaker 2: mother of my dear brother Peter Harvey, who was the
Speaker 2: first black Attorney General of New Jersey. He went to
Speaker 2: Morgan undergrad in Columbia University Law School, but it was
Speaker 2: his mother who was a mentor to Betty when she
Speaker 2: was there. At Tuskegee is a building named after that
Speaker 2: sister Harvey actually on Tuskegee's campus, so that when Betty
Speaker 2: and Malcolm meet, you got two major forces meeting given
Speaker 2: their own backgrounds. Now it's true, it's mediated by the
Speaker 2: Honorbilijah Muhammad. There's no doubt about that, because the Honorbiliojah
Speaker 2: Muhammad was a kind of father to Malcolm during those years,
Speaker 2: because he loved Malcolm enough to convince him to transform
Speaker 2: his prison cell into a library, to get Malcolm to
Speaker 2: love himself and respect himself enough to become the Malcolm
Speaker 2: that we know as opposed to that little gangster Malcolm little.
Speaker 1: That he was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, but that transformation was real, the conversion
Speaker 2: was real. And now yet another conversion later on where
Speaker 2: he broke from the Honorable Lodge of Muhammad. But we
Speaker 2: cannot overlook the crucial role of the Honorable Lodge of
Speaker 2: Muhammad and life of Malcolm X. There's no there's no
Speaker 2: doubt about that.
Speaker 1: We cannot heuse. He was a force. And as most
Speaker 1: human beings are, there contradictions, and Honorbilage of Muhammad was
Speaker 1: a walking contradiction, as you are, as I am, as others.
Speaker 1: Sometimes those contradictions are more glaring, but we are all
Speaker 1: walking contradictions for Minister Malcolm X. You can't separate peace
Speaker 1: from freedom. You can't separate it because without without peace,
Speaker 1: you can't have any freedom. I mean this profound, just
Speaker 1: absolutely profound. When we come forward, Dr West and I
Speaker 1: will continue our conversation about Minister Malcolm X, who had
Speaker 1: he been alive today, would have been one hundred years old.
Speaker 1: This is what we do about this time. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Doctor West, have muted myself. We go into our live
Speaker 1: chat on the tube to see what you have to say.
Speaker 1: And we appreciate each and every one of you who
Speaker 1: navigate this space on a weekly, on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: not only talking to doctor West and myself, but also
Speaker 1: having conversations among yourselves. Such a great, great community. So Doc,
Speaker 1: we have Brother Morris Phillips. Hello, Brother Phillips, Happy Mark,
Speaker 1: Happy Malcolm X's day. The struggle continues, so true, it
Speaker 1: never stops. And also Brother Phillips, Happy Monday, Doctor West
Speaker 1: and Senator Turner, we got Ben Frank, Ben Frank, peace
Speaker 1: and infinite blessings. See that, Darryl Evans, Hi, Doctor Weston,
Speaker 1: Senator Nina, Happy Malcolm X Day. And our fight still
Speaker 1: continues with so much to be done, mercy. Mm hmm, mercy, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Lessen Peacemaker, I really loved that.
Speaker 2: That.
Speaker 1: What changed Malcolm X's mind was his travels to Mecca
Speaker 1: and encounter encountering real kinship with brothers and sisters of
Speaker 1: his faith. I wonder if he had lived, would he
Speaker 1: had found uh, ecumenicalism, Doc, I don't know if he
Speaker 1: would have found that or not.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sure, oh absolutely. Look at his love for
Speaker 2: Fanny lou Hamer. Fanny lou Hammer is a Jesus free
Speaker 2: black woman and the same it's an oullah lovely free
Speaker 2: black man. That is ecumenical.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Okay, there we have it. And oh go ahead, doctor,
Speaker 1: don't know just at the deepest level, you know, at
Speaker 1: the deepest levels. Okay, we also have from the question
Speaker 1: was asked if Malcolm never left Africa, like, where would
Speaker 1: the world be if Minister Malcolm never left Africa when
Speaker 1: he went there, if he never came back here?
Speaker 2: Does she mean that if he had gone to Africa
Speaker 2: to stay and live or if he never left?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I need some more, Yeah, we need some more
Speaker 1: on that.
Speaker 2: But where on that though? But no, you had to
Speaker 2: come back and see doctor Benishabath and the girls now.
Speaker 1: Brought them. I mean, as we know, a lot of
Speaker 1: our I mean, just like doctor Duvoce and others who
Speaker 1: got so fed up that they left. You know, maybe
Speaker 1: that's it, brother Miles, if you got some more clarity
Speaker 1: on that, let us know that's coming from our brother
Speaker 1: Miles side, a whole bunch of you know, Happy birthday
Speaker 1: to minister Malcolm. Happy one hundredth heavenly birthday to him,
Speaker 1: which he deserves each and every one of one of
Speaker 1: those things. So Doc, we know that minister Malcolm was
Speaker 1: brave enough to say that that charger that the that
Speaker 1: the United States of America should go before the UIN
Speaker 1: for crimes against African American community. What I mean if he,
Speaker 1: if he were alive today, I think he would greatly
Speaker 1: be disappointed and probably feel the same way that the
Speaker 1: United States should still have to answer before a world
Speaker 1: court so to speak, about its crimes not only in
Speaker 1: the past against African Americans, but also about its current
Speaker 1: current crimes.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, I think the motivation behind Malcolm's courageous effort
Speaker 2: to bring the United States to Nations was predicated on
Speaker 2: the notion that America did not have the capacity to
Speaker 2: treat the masses of black people with dignity and decency.
Speaker 2: It had the capacity to create a black middle class
Speaker 2: that could be assimilated if they were silenced enough to
Speaker 2: simply fit in. But in terms of the masses of
Speaker 2: black people, Malcolm believed that that was a structural limitation
Speaker 2: of American civilization, that the government, that the system could
Speaker 2: not change itself to affirm the humanity and the dignity
Speaker 2: of the masses of black people, black poor, black working class.
Speaker 2: So it says, America, you can't solve this issue by yourself.
Speaker 2: You need to go to it international agency to help
Speaker 2: them solve it for you. Now see, that's a serious move,
Speaker 2: because that's the reason why people go to the United Nations.
Speaker 2: When then at war, a war's going on, they go
Speaker 2: to the United Nations and try to get it negotiated.
Speaker 2: They can bring it to a close. You see. And
Speaker 2: Marco was saying, well, they've been at war black people
Speaker 2: all these years. Is clear that you haven't been successful
Speaker 2: in treating black people decently. You've made some crucial breakthroughs,
Speaker 2: no doubt about that, civil wars, civil Rights Acts, amendments.
Speaker 2: Then here come another hundred years in the old slavery.
Speaker 2: Then we got to go through the same thing in
Speaker 2: the sixties, crucial breakthroughs, no doubt about it. Then the
Speaker 2: backlash is set in. You could see Malcolm sixty some
Speaker 2: years later saying, America, I done told you that. It's
Speaker 2: clear from my point of view, you don't have what
Speaker 2: it takes to treat these black people the way in
Speaker 2: which they really really deserve. And those are the ones
Speaker 2: I love. So I'm taking you to the International Agency
Speaker 2: and Mark what's willing to go with him? That's what's crucial.
Speaker 1: Yeah, very very crucial, man, I just what could have been.
Speaker 1: For sure, as we're looking at the hundreds that Minister
Speaker 1: Malcom X will be one hundred years old. I want
Speaker 1: to draw people's attention to the fact that the Shabbaz
Speaker 1: Center in Harlem they are having, i think for the
Speaker 1: rest of the year, they're doing the whole year long
Speaker 1: celebration of the great Minister Malcolm X. And so people
Speaker 1: want more information about what is going on Shabaz Center,
Speaker 1: you can go to the Shabbazcenter dot org. Again, that's
Speaker 1: the Shabbazcenter dot org. And if you're on social media,
Speaker 1: particularly the Instagram, go and look at what they put
Speaker 1: out there that they have various people do given testimonials
Speaker 1: about Minister Malcolm X with a beautiful banner that says
Speaker 1: one hundred and they turned the the zeros into eyeglasses,
Speaker 1: so that that was so cute. So make sure definitely
Speaker 1: want you to go there. That Spike Lee made some
Speaker 1: comments too, And it's just nice to kind of reminisce
Speaker 1: with Spike Lee because it was in nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 1: I was at Cleveland State University and Spike Lee was
Speaker 1: raising money or he was talking about how he had
Speaker 1: to raise money to even get the movie Malcolm X.
Speaker 1: So if you have not seen that movie, this is
Speaker 1: a good time to see it. It was very well done.
Speaker 1: You got to keep in mind this edgemitatement even though
Speaker 1: Spike Lee did it. But it's a good primer for
Speaker 1: people to be able to watch. And when he told
Speaker 1: the story about how Minister Malcolm X used to talk
Speaker 1: a lot about self determination, and he thought to himself, well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to turn inward and ask a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of black people, wealthy black people to help fund the
Speaker 1: making of Malcolm X. He felt like Minister Malcolm X's
Speaker 1: life was so deep and rich, that it couldn't be
Speaker 1: done in an hour and thirty minutes. He got pushed
Speaker 1: back from that, but ultimately he was able to raise
Speaker 1: the money to put that movie out the way that
Speaker 1: he wanted it to be, and to this day it
Speaker 1: is one of the best movies I've seen done on
Speaker 1: Minister Malcolm X.
Speaker 2: Oh, no doubt about it. It's a masterpieces because that
Speaker 2: year Denzel Washington's genius was manifest in an undeniable way.
Speaker 2: But all of the actors and actresses under the leadership
Speaker 2: of our dear brother Spike Lee just magnificent and that
Speaker 2: film I think will endure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it absolutely will endure. Spike had shared with
Speaker 1: that audience and I think it was in ninety two,
Speaker 1: maybe it was ninety five, y'all hold on me. But
Speaker 1: in the nineties that there were times on the set
Speaker 1: that Denzel Washington was actually channeling Minister Malcolm X. He
Speaker 1: said they felt like Minister Malcolm X's spirit was on set.
Speaker 1: That it was uncanny, it was unsettling in ways because
Speaker 1: Denzel Washington did that, No is true, Yeah, he did that.
Speaker 1: And Angela Baskett played doctor Betty Shabaz did an extraordinary job.
Speaker 1: I mean as you said, everybody was feeling a spirit.
Speaker 1: This wasn't just some routine making up a movie. This
Speaker 1: was a mission and it came through on screen. So
Speaker 1: if you have not I seen it, make sure that
Speaker 1: you do. You're listening to Truth Time with doctor Cornell
Speaker 1: West and Nina Turner. We're talking about Minister Malcolm X.
Speaker 1: He would have been one hundred years old today and
Speaker 1: one hundred years ago this earth was blessed by the
Speaker 1: birth of the one and only michaelm X. Definitely shaped
Speaker 1: by his mother and his father. Doctor We have brought
Speaker 1: up several times Louise and Earl Little just wow. I
Speaker 1: don't know if they had in their wildest imagination, what
Speaker 1: an influence that their son earth, What an earth shaking
Speaker 1: influence that one of their children would be in the
Speaker 1: personal Minister Malcolm X. And when he talked about why
Speaker 1: he would continue to be X, he did this wonderful
Speaker 1: interview with this white guy who was trying to insist
Speaker 1: on getting him to tell him what his given name was.
Speaker 1: He said, we don't know, Well, why don't you name?
Speaker 1: He kept asking the question in different ways, and Minister
Speaker 1: Malcolm X was show sharp, so brilliant. He basically said, now,
Speaker 1: he never answered the question directly. He answered it indirectly,
Speaker 1: and I could see the white person interviewing it was
Speaker 1: a little fraz so he said, you mean to tell
Speaker 1: me that you're not gonna tell me. Hey, I done
Speaker 1: told you. I'm gonna tell you again. We don't know
Speaker 1: because it was taken from us, and we had to
Speaker 1: take on the names of slave holders, which is not
Speaker 1: really our name. So doc, I mean, he was so good.
Speaker 1: I just I definitely recommend people go and listen to.
Speaker 1: We have the benefit of the archives and we can
Speaker 1: hear Minister Malcolm X and his own words.
Speaker 2: No, his genius, his brilliant his sense of with his humor.
Speaker 2: I mean, it reminds you, of course of muhammadad Lay
Speaker 2: his good friend, who also had magnificent with wisdom, and
Speaker 2: Sam Cook, his other good friend, another genius, the whole
Speaker 2: lot of wisdom. But we do want to lift up
Speaker 2: aunt Ella. She was a four the leader in Boston.
Speaker 2: She fundamentally shaped her precious little nephew. And so again
Speaker 2: you know it's it's it's slashed. Don't say it's a
Speaker 2: family affair. Anytime you think of these towering figures, you
Speaker 2: gotta think family affairs, community affair, the Baptist church in
Speaker 2: Omaha that Reverend Earl Little his father was a part of,
Speaker 2: and then produces his brother who joins the Nation of
Speaker 2: Islam before Malcolm. He says, all of these connections who
Speaker 2: donabalize with Muhammad and so forth, I mean, all of
Speaker 2: these connections are fascinating ones, even as prodige se minister
Speaker 2: Lewis fairy Com, Yeah, who studied with Malcolm and had
Speaker 2: many many hours with Malcolm, and even though later on
Speaker 2: they would have their own deep difficulties, challenges, struggles and
Speaker 2: so forth that we could talk about for hours. But
Speaker 2: the Minister Lewis fay Con also is somebody who early
Speaker 2: on is there playing a role in creating an institution
Speaker 2: and a context in which Malcolm himself already leader shaping
Speaker 2: mensalutis fair com becomes very important. And so when we
Speaker 2: tell the full story, with all of the contradictions and
Speaker 2: all of the incongruities and all of the challenges, we
Speaker 2: also want to recognize both the humanity and for me,
Speaker 2: you know, when it comes to Malcolm, the sheer mystery
Speaker 2: of his genius.
Speaker 1: Yeah, mystery of his genius self taught and innately in him.
Speaker 1: And it was all of those encounters I believe that
Speaker 1: continue to mold him. Not formally. You know, he wasn't degreed,
Speaker 1: but he was very much educated. Okay, he had a
Speaker 1: degree in the streets of ait of living, very much educated,
Speaker 1: because we always just attribute they're uneducated just because he
Speaker 1: don't got a formal degree. Oh No, he can roll
Speaker 1: with the best of them. I mean he put the
Speaker 1: best of them down. He debated, He has debated many
Speaker 1: many folks and minutester Malcolm X comes out on top
Speaker 1: every time because, like I do believe that his quick
Speaker 1: wittedness is it's like a sword, you know, it really
Speaker 1: really is.
Speaker 2: He had on the full almost But one thing that
Speaker 2: Malcolm did have, like James Ball when he didn't go
Speaker 2: to college, but the college went through them, that he
Speaker 2: did read voraciously. So anybody who has a degree knows
Speaker 2: they've got to do some reading right, read more than
Speaker 2: a lot of people who have their degrees. He was
Speaker 2: a reader of history, a reader of philosophy, a reader
Speaker 2: of religion. So he had that discipline in reading. And
Speaker 2: he always foruld tell the young brothers and sisters, I
Speaker 2: want to make sure you're reading when he founded the
Speaker 2: newspaper Muhammed speaks. What did he say? I want you
Speaker 2: all to read this. What did he put up the
Speaker 2: newspaper Islam dignifies from the nature of Islam, and you're
Speaker 2: gonna get reading habits.
Speaker 1: He hobbled it up.
Speaker 2: DOC.
Speaker 1: When we come forward, we're gonna continue. Minister Malcolm X
Speaker 1: would have been one hundred years old today. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Tutah one hundred years ago today. Minister Malcolm X
Speaker 1: was born, came into this world on assignment, Doc, and
Speaker 1: lived on purpose. He lived that assignment and made so
Speaker 1: many sacrifices, not just death, but also the financial ramifications
Speaker 1: that came with the decision that he made to be
Speaker 1: on assignment in that way. In our final three minutes,
Speaker 1: Minister Malcolm X says something very profound about black women.
Speaker 1: He said, the most unprotected, the most disrespected, disrespected person
Speaker 1: in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person
Speaker 1: in America is black women. And he was saying to
Speaker 1: black men that we really can't be men, can't really
Speaker 1: stand up as we protect our black women, Doc is
Speaker 1: all yours.
Speaker 2: Well, the good news is we got a rich, rich
Speaker 2: history of black women protecting and respecting themselves. But at
Speaker 2: the same time, we got a white supremacist legacy of
Speaker 2: crushing Black people, including trying to crush black women. But
Speaker 2: there's no doubt that black women have been at the
Speaker 2: very center of the great Black freedom struggle of a
Speaker 2: great Black people. And Malcolm was trying to accent that point,
Speaker 2: even as he himself knew that as black brothers, all
Speaker 2: of us are in need of growth and further maturation
Speaker 2: to be at the highest level of what it means
Speaker 2: to be a loved warrior.
Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, many blessings to his family that still walking
Speaker 1: this earth. His daughters are certainly keeping his legacy alive
Speaker 1: in the lake and see of their mother to have
Speaker 1: to relive this all the time, because I'm sure they're
Speaker 1: really focused not just the Sebass center, but just the
Speaker 1: broader nature of being the children of a man that
Speaker 1: made a man and a woman their parents that made
Speaker 1: such a difference, that left such an indelible mark. They
Speaker 1: really can never rest either, is they got to grapple
Speaker 1: with and wrestle with what happened to their father. And
Speaker 1: you know, also what happened to doctor Betty Shabbaz was
Speaker 1: tragic too. And then reshape and shape his legacy. They're
Speaker 1: suing the federal government and the City of New York,
Speaker 1: which I'm so glad that they are doing, trying to
Speaker 1: get justice for their father. We appreciate you today. Happy
Speaker 1: one hundred birthday to the one and only Minister Malcolm X,
Speaker 1: Doctor West, and I want you to live your purpose,
Speaker 1: live on purpose, and remember this always. Titles are good,
Speaker 1: for purpose is better. Until next time.