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Malcolm X on Front Page Challenge, 1965 CBC Archives · Gil I Am

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So my front page challenge welcomes the outspoken Negro leader.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Welcome X sir.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: What was what's the real reason why you two men split?
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Is it merely ideological or is it personality?
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: What else? Probably personality?
• 0:19
  Speaker 4: It was not uh the statement that w UH originally
• 0:22
  Speaker 4: was gave given UH by the movement when UH when
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: we split more personality than anything else.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: You've called people like Martin, Luther kingrid you spent a
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Nobel Peace prize, uh An, Uncle Tom?
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Is this correct? First? Well, I'd rather say that, UH.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: In the States, there's a law that has recently been
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: passed or decision handing down by the court where an
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: if you call someone and Uncle Tom, they can sue
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: you for libel.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Well, I never referred to them.
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  Speaker 4: As Uncle Tom's. I wouldn't say that Uncle Martin is
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: my friend.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Uncle Martin is your friend?
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  Speaker 3: Yet you would disagree with his UH approach to what
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: he wants to accomplished.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Definitely.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: If his approach would bring about UH what the black
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: man in America needs to completely eliminate the problem that
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: we have, I would say well and good, But I
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: very much doubt that UH. Anyone who UH adopts the
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: approach that Martin Luther King has been teaching to our
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: people in that country, can point to any meaningful gains
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: that has actually served to solve the problem Black Muslims.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: Uh have sometimes, whether you have or not, and I
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: think probably you have have sometimes it seemed to me
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: been preaching hate to meet hate.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Uh. I don't advocate any kind of hate now.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: A lot of talk that sounds very much like it.
• 1:32
  Speaker 5: Now.
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  Speaker 4: I think that the guilt complex of the American white
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: man is so profound until when you begin to analyze
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: the real condition of the black man in America. Instead
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: of the American white man eliminating the causes that create
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: that condition, he tries to cover it up by accusing
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: his accusers of teaching hate, but actually they're just exposing
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: him for being responsible for what exists.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: Well, that's that's uh, something of an our. But I've
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: heard speeches made by some of the people of your group.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: I think I've heard you make speeches.
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  Speaker 3: It seemed to me that you were advocating what I
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: would have to describe I think is violence to meet
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: the serious injuries that have been done your people, with
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: which I totally I don't recall that violence.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: I don't in any way encourage black people to go
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: out and initiate acts of aggression indiscriminately against whites.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: But I do believe that the black.
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: Man in the United States, and any human being anywhere
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: as well, within his right to do whatever is necessary,
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: by any means necessary to protect his life and property,
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: especially in a country where the federal government itself has
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: proven that it is either unable or unwilling to protect
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: the lives and property of those human beings.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Just before Pierre takes it, you've got a pretty good
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: fighter in the world's heavyweight champion lined up with you
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: to help out.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, Pip, mister X, I guess I call you that?
• 2:52
  Speaker 6: Is that to proper affirmations, Mister X, I'm wondering if
• 2:57
  Speaker 6: you still believe as I think you certainly did time
• 3:00
  Speaker 6: you're allied to the Black Muslim movement in a segregated black.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Nation, no North America.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: I don't believe in any form of segregation or any
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: form of racism. I'm against any form of segregation and
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: against racism.
• 3:14
  Speaker 6: Is it am my writers saying that the Black Muslim
• 3:16
  Speaker 6: movement which you have left did believe in them.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Well.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: Elijah Muhammad taught his followers that the only solution was
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: a separate state, yeah for black people. And as long
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: as I thought he genuinely believed that himself, I believed
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: in him and believed in his solution. But when I
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: began to doubt that he himself believed that that was feasible,
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: and I saw no kind of action designed to bring
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: it into existence or bring it about, then I turned
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: in a different direction.
• 3:43
  Speaker 6: Are you still a Muslim?
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: I'm a Muslim.
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  Speaker 4: I believe in the religion of Islam, which believes in brotherhood,
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  Speaker 4: complete brotherhood of all people. But at the same time
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  Speaker 4: that I believe in this brotherhood, I don't believe in
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: forcing my desire for brotherhood upon those who aren't willing
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: to accept it.
• 4:00
  Speaker 6: Course, I think the Christians would say that they also
• 4:02
  Speaker 6: believed it.
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  Speaker 2: But what did you say to that?
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  Speaker 4: I'd say, they believe in it, but don't practice it.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Well, that would be pretty good answer, sir.
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  Speaker 5: When the uh Mouism goes up in the men are reft,
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: twice a day he cries to the world there is
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: but one God, and he is Allah. Do you deny
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: that there is a Christian God?
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  Speaker 2: Uh?
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  Speaker 4: The Moism does this five times a day five times.
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  Speaker 5: Then I only heard him twice.
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  Speaker 4: Well, you were fortunate to him twice. But he does
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  Speaker 4: this five times a day. And the same God that
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: he says uh, that he expresses the existence of is
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: the God that the Christians profess to believe in themselves
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: and the God that the Jews believe in. One God,
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: the creator of the universe. The Muslims believe in the
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: God that created the universe, and I think the Christians
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: do and the Jews do.
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  Speaker 2: Now as long as all of them are talking about
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: the Creator.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 4: The Jews may call him Jehovah, and Christians may have
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: another name for him, those who are Arabics being referred
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: to him as Allah.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Well, we believe in the same God.
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: Now, as the Muslim religion advances in the United States,
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  Speaker 5: are you uh modernizing it or or sticking with the
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: old faiths? For example, the complete segregation of the sexiest.
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: I think that everything today on this earth is being
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  Speaker 4: modernized uh, religious uh principles and practices, as well as
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: political and other and other things.
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  Speaker 5: Now, when you went to Mecca, this is a very
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: sacred and forbidden city. I tried to get to Mecca
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: myself and certainly didn't make it uh not being a Muslim,
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  Speaker 5: but how would they accept you as one?
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  Speaker 2: You're an American.
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  Speaker 5: There are a few American Muslims.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: This is true.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: And by being an American and not having uh any ki,
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  Speaker 4: not being able to speak the Arabic language, I did
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  Speaker 4: strike a snag, a very serious snag. But I was
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: fortunate uh to have been pretty well known by the
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: officials in Arabia, and they knew too that I had
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: uh accepted Orthodox Islam. It had been highly publicized in
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  Speaker 4: the paper. And I became a guest.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Of the state. I was a guest of who.
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: A prince by the president, King fisaal Fisal And they
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: made it possible for me to go before the committee
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: Hodge Committee or Hodge Court, who examines you and and
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: asks you questions about your belief and if you pass it,
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: then you are okay.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: To go to Mecca.
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: But if you would have to have a translator.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Then uh oh I had one.
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: Then we're realizing that our problem in America, that we
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: are black Americans and we have a problem that goes
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: beyond religion.
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  Speaker 2: We formed the group known.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: As the Organization of Afro American Unity, and the objective
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: of this organization. It's non religious number one, any Negro
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  Speaker 4: can belong to it, and the objective of the of
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  Speaker 4: that organization is to uh bring about a condition that
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: will guarantee respect and recognition of the twenty two million
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: Black Americans as human being. We feel that the problem
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: number one of the black man in America is beyond
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  Speaker 4: America's ability to solve. It's a human problem, not an
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  Speaker 4: American problem or a Negro problem. And as a human
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  Speaker 4: problem or a world problem, we feel that it should
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  Speaker 4: be taken out of the jurisdiction of the United States
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  Speaker 4: govern in the United States courts and taken into the
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: United Nations in the same manner that the problems of
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: the black man in South Africa, Angola and other parts
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  Speaker 4: of the world, and even the way they're trying to
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: bring the problems of the Jews in Russia into the
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  Speaker 4: United Nations. Because the violation of human rights, we believe
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  Speaker 4: that our problem is one not a violation of civil rights,
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  Speaker 4: but a violation of human rights. Not only we are
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  Speaker 4: we denied the right to be a citizen in the
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  Speaker 4: United States, we're denied the right to be a human being.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Mister rex may I, thank you very much for coming
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  Speaker 1: on our program and perhaps carrying away some of the
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: cobwebs of misconception that some of us might have had
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  Speaker 1: about your belief. And I think you're a very sincere man,
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  Speaker 1: and it takes a lot of courage to admit a
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  Speaker 1: former belief is wrong, and we congratulate you for that
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: in the service you performed tonight in giving us your views.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Thank you