Stokely Carmichael: Black Power Speech
STOKELY CARMICHAEL, American Revolutionary
Stokely Carmichael's speech at the Oakland Auditorium February 17, 1968. The occasion was a benefit birthday party for Huey P. Newton, Minister of Defense of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.
Now then, tonight we have to talk about several things. We're here to celebrate brother Huey P. Newton's birthday. We're not here to celebrate it as Huey Newton the individual, but as Huey Newton parcel of black people wherever we are on the world today...today. And so, in talking about brother Huey Newton tonight, we have to talk about the struggle of black people, not only in the United States, but in the world today, and how he becomes part...how we move on so that our people will survive America.
Therefore, we are not talking about politics tonight, we're not talking about economics tonight; we are talking about the survival of a race of people--that is all that is at stake. We are talking about the survival of black people--nothing else...nothing else...nothing else. And you must understand that. Now why is it necessary for us to talk about the survival of our people? Many of us feel...many of our generation feel that they're getting ready to commit genocide against us. Now, many people say that's a horrible thing to say about anybody. But if it is a horrible thing to say, then we should do as brother Malcolm [Malcolm X] says: we should examine history. The birth of this nation was conceived in the genocide of the red man......genocide of the red man...of the red man. In order for this country to come about, the honky had to completely exterminate the red man, and HE DID IT! And he did it! He did it! And he did it where he does not even feel sorry, but he romanticizes it by putting it on television with cowboy and indians...cowboy and indians.
Then the question we must ask ourselves is, if he's capable of doing it to the red man, can he also do it to us? Let us examine history some more. People says it is a horrible thing to say that white people would really think about committing genocide against black people. Let us check our history out. [tape skip] ...that we built this country--nobody else. I'll explain that to you. When this country started, economically it was an agricultural country. The cash crop on the world market was cotton. WE PICKED THE COTTON! WE PICKED THE COTTON! We did! So it is we who built this country. It is we who have fought in the wars of this country. This country is becoming more and more technological, so that the need for black people is fastly disappearing. When the need for black people disappears, so will we, and he will consciously wipe up out. He will consciously wipe up out. Let us check World War II. He will not do it unto his own. Notice who he dropped an atomic bomb on: some helpless yellow people in Hiroshima. Some helpless yellow people in Hiroshima......in Hiroshima. If you do not think he's capable of committing genocide against us, check out what he's doing to our brothers in Vietnam! Check out what he's doing in Vietnam! We have to understand that we're talking about our survival and nothing else. Whether or not this beautiful race of people is going to survive on the earth, that's what we're talking about--nothing else ...nothing else. If you do not think he's capable of wiping us out, check out the white race: wherever they have gone, they have rule, conquered, murdered, and plagued. Whether they are the majority or the minority, they always rule!......they always rule! Always rule! And check out the pattern in which they move. And check out the pattern in which they move. They came to this country. They didn't know a damn [thing][tape skip]...The Red Man showed them how to adapt to this country: he showed them how to grow corn; he showed them how to hunt, and when the Indians finished showing it, he wiped them out! He wiped them out. He wiped them out. He was not satisfied. He went to South America. The Aztec Indians said, "This is our silver. This is our copper. These are our metals. These are statues. We built them for the beauty of our people." After the Indians showed it to him, he took it and he wiped them out! He wiped them out. He went to Africa. Our ancestors said, "Dig, this is our way of life. We beat drums. We enjoy ourselves. We have gold. We make diamonds and stuff for our women." He took the gold, he made us slaves, and today he RUNS Africa! Africa! He went to Asia. The Chinese showed him everything they had. They showed him gunpowder. They said, "We use this for fireworks on our anniversaries, on our days of festivities." He took it, he made it a gun, and he conquered China.
We are talking about a certain type of superiority complex that exists in the White Man wherever he is. And that's what we have to understand today. So that everything goes out the window, we talk about survival. That's all. They can cut all that junk about poverty program, education, housing, welfare...we talking about survival, and, brothers and sisters, WE gonna survive America! WE gonna survive America! WE gonna survive America!
Now then, we have to understand what is going on, not only in this country, but the world, especially in Africa. Because we are an African people, nothing else. We have ALWAYS been an African people. We have ALWAYS maintained our own value system, and I will prove that to you. As much as he has tried, our people have resisted for 413 years in this wilderness, and they resisted for this generation to carry out what must be done. We cannot fail our ancestors ...cannot fail our ancestors...cannot fail our ancestors. We resisted in every way you can point to. Take the English language. There are cats who come here from Italy, from Germany, from Poland, from France. In two generations they speak English perfectly. We have NEVER spoken English correctly! Never have we spoken English correctly. Never! Never! Never! And that is because our people consciously resisted a language that did not belong to us--never did, never will. Anyhow they try to run it down our throats, we ain't going to have it! We ain't going to have it! You must understand that as a level of resistance. Anybody can speak that simple honky's language correctly. Anybody can do it. We have not done it because we have resisted...resisted.
Check out our way of life. No matter how hard he's tried, we still maintain a communal way of life in our communities. We do not send old people to old peoples' homes; that's junk! That's junk! That's junk! That's junk! We do not call children illegitimate in our community. We take care of any child in our community... any child in our community. It is a level of resistance that we must begin to look for among our people. Pick up that thread and do what has to be done so that our people will survive. Three things. First and foremost: he has been able to make us hate each other. He has transplanted that hate and the love for each other for a love of his country...his country. We must begin to develop number one--and this is the most important thing we can do as a people--we must first develop and undying love for our people...our people. ...our people...our people. We must develop and undying love as is personified in brother Huey P. Newton. Undying love for our people......undying love. If we do not do that, we will be wiped out. We must develop and undying love for our people. Our slogan will become, "First our people, then, and only then me and you as individuals." Our people first...our people first. Following from that came secondly the slogan, "Every Negro is a potential black man; we will not alienate them!" ......we will not alienate them! ...we will not alienate them!
Understand the concept of "Negro" and the concept of "Black Man." We came to this country as black men and as Africans. It took us 400 years to become Negros. Understand that. That means that the concept of a black man is one who recognizes his cultural, his historical, and the roots of his great ancestors who were the greatest warriors on the face of this earth. Africans! Africans! Africans! Many of our people's mind have been white washed. If a Negro comes up to you and you turn your back on him, he's got to run to the honky. We're going to take time and patience with our people because they're OURS!...they're OURS! All of the Uncle Toms, we're going to sit down and we're going to talk. And when they slap, we're going to bow. And when they slap we're going to bow. And we're going to try to bring them home. And if they don't come home we're going to [tape skip] that's all...that's all...that's all.
We have to recognize who our major enemy is. The major enemy is not your brother, flesh of your flesh and blood of your blood. The major enemy is the honky and his institutions of racism. THAT's the major enemy! THAT is the major enemy! And whenever anybody prepares for revolutionary warfare, you concentrate on the major enemy. We're not strong enough to fight each other and also fight him. We WILL not fight each other today! We WILL not fight each other. There will BE no fights in the black community among black people. There will just be people who will be offed. There will be no fights, there will be no disruptions. We are going to be united!
Thirdly, and most importantly, we must understand that for black people, the question of community is not a question of geography, it is a question of color. It is a question of color. If you live in Watts, if you live in Harlem, Southside Chicago, Detroit, West Philadelphia, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama. Wherever you go, the first place you go is to your people--not the land, to your people. For us the question of community is a question of color and our people, not geography! Not land! Not land! Not land! Not geography! That is to say that we break down the concept that black people living inside the United States are black Americans. That's nonesense! We got brothers in Africa. We got brothers in Cuba. We got brothers in Brazil. We got brothers in Latin America. We got brothers all over the world! All over the world! All over the world! And once we begin to understand that the concept of community is simply one of our people, it don't make a difference where we are. We are with our people and, therefore, we are home... ...therefore, we are home.
Now then, in speaking of survival it is necessary to understand the moves of one['s] enemies. The United States works on what call the "three M's": The missionaries, the money, and the Marines. That is precisely the way it has moved all over the world. It is the way it moves against us. They have sent the missionaries in; we sent them out. They have sent the money in with the poverty program. The Vietnamese and the Koreans are pulling the money out. The next thing comes the Marines...comes the marines. And if we're talking seriously, we get prepared [tape skip][to fight?] ...the marines. Now if some black people do not think that the white man is going to wipe us out completely, then it won't be no harm being prepared just in case he decides to do it..just in case he decides to do it. So there'll be no harm in us preparing ourselves for the marines. Now there's a lot of tactics we can learn. The VC [Viet Cong] are showing us the best way to get it done...best way to get it done. And don't be afraid to say it, tell em', "Yeah, you want the Vietnamese to defeat them, cause they wrong from the jump." Don't get up there and play games with them. You ever see them on TV?: "Well, actually, we were wrong going into Vietnam, but we can't get out unless we save face." To save [tape skip] honky's face, millions of Vietnamese got to die. That's a lot of junk. If you're wrong, say you're wrong and GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!
We have to then go down the programs that they run through our throats and see how they relate to us. The first one is the vote. They got a new thing now: "Black Power is the vote." The vote in this country is, has been, and always will be irrelevant to the lives of black people! That is a fact. We survived in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, South Carolinia, North Carolinia, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. without the vote...without the vote. Last two years ago when Julian Bond was elected by black people in Georgia, they took him out to sea. There was no representation; the black people in Georgia are suviving today. They took Adam Clayton Powell out of office for a year and a half. Black people in Harlem are still surviving. That should teach you, the vote ain't nothin' but a honky's trick......nothin' but a honky's trick. If we talk about the vote today, we talk about it as one thing: an organizing tool to bring our people together...nothing else! ......nothing else...nothing else. It becomes a vehicle for organization; it cannot be anything else. To believe the vote is going to save you is to believe the way brother Adam Clayton Powell did. He's in Bimini now. That's what we have to understand.
The second thing they ram down our throat is this poverty program. And you have to understand the poverty program. It is designed to, number one, split the black community, and, number two, split the black family. There's no doubt about it splitting the black community. We know all of the people who started fighting over crumbs, 'cause that's all the poverty program is, the crumbs. If you leave the crumbs alone and organize, we could take the whole loaf, 'cause it belongs to us...belongs to us . But what happens is that the poverty program sends a couple of hundred thousand dollars into the community, and groups start setting up to fight over that money; so, automatically you've got splits in the community. Watts is the best example that we have today. It was the first one to get the poverty program after the rebellion, and today it is the most divided black community in the country... in the country. Second thing we have to recognize is what the poverty program does. In any race of people, the most instinctively revolutionary people is the youth. Because the youth is always willing to fight, in anybody's race...in anybody's race. And the poverty program is geared right at our youth. Right at our youth, to stop them from fighting. That's all the poverty program is: stop the rebellions--not take care of black people--stop the rebellions. How is it that you felt if you were a father and your son who you're supposed to be providing for comes home with ninety dollars a week, and you still unemployed. What is the poverty program doing to our fathers? What is it doing to our fathers? If they were concerned about the black community, if they believed the garbage they run down about the black family, they would give the jobs to our fathers, the breadwinners of the family, so we could have some respect for them......we could have some respect for them. But it is precisely because the poverty program is aimed at quelling our youth, that they do that. And all of the people who administer the poverty program won't even put their childrens in those programs that are supposed to be so good for us.
Let us move on to education. And we must talk very clearly about this concept of education. Franz Fanon says very clearly, "Education is nothing but the re-establishment and re-enforcement of values and institutions of a given society." All the brother's saying is that whatever this society says is right, when you go to school they going to tell you it's right, and you've got to run it on down. If you run it on down, you get an "A". If I say to you Columbus discovered American in 1492, if I was your teacher [and] you said, "No, Columbus didn't discover America in 1492, there were Indians here," I tell you you flunked the course. So education doesn't mean what they say it means. So now we must use education for our people and we must understand our communities. In our communities there are dope addicts; there are pimps; there are prostitutes; there [are] hustlers; there are teachers; there are maids; there are porters; there are preachers; there are gangsters. If I go to high school, I want to learn how to be a good maid, a good porter, a good hustler, a good pimp, a good prostitute, a good preacher, a good teacher, or a good porter. And education is supposed to prepare you to live in your community. That's what our community is like. If the educational system cannot do that, it must teach us HOW to change our community...how to change our community. It must do one or the other. The schools that we send our children to do not do one or the other. They do neither; they do something absolutely opposite. And when our youth, who are more intelligent than all those honkeys on those boards, drop out of that school cause they recognize it's not going to help them, then we turn around and yell at them, dividing our community again...dividing our community again. We have to understand that unless WE control the education system, where it begins to teach us how to change our community, where we live like human beings, no need to send anybody to school--that's just a natural fact. We have no alternative but to fight, whether we like it or not. On every level in this country, black people GOT to fight! Got to fight! Got to fight!
Now then let us move down and talk...[tape skip] concept. We have in our community black people, the masses and the bourgeoisie. That's about the level of breakdown. The bourgeoisie is very very minute inside our community. We have to bring them home. We have to bring them home for many reasons. We have to bring them home because they have technical skills which must be put for the benefit of their people, not for the benefit of this country, which is against their people. We've GOT to bring them home! We've got to bring them home. One of the ways of bringing our people home is by using patience, love, brotherhood, and unity, not force...not force. Love, patience, brotherhood, and unity. We try and we try and we try. If they become a treat, we off them. But we must begin to understand that in a concept of forming inside our community, a united front...a black united front, which engulfs every sector, every facet and every person inside our community working for the benefit of black people......working for the benefit of black people. And that is for each other's survival.
A lot of people in the bourgeoisie tell me they don't like Rap Brown when he says, "I'm going to burn the country down." But every time Rap Brown says, "I'm going to burn the country down," They get a poverty program......they get a poverty program. A lot of people say to me, "We don't like the Black Panthers for Self Defense walking around with guns." I tell you now, if the honkys in San Francisco take off the fighters who happen to represent the Black Panthers for Self Defense--ain't no body in this community prepared to fight right now--everybody gets offed, everybody gets offed
We need each other, we have to have each other for our survival. We got to have each other, from the revolutionaries to the conservatives - a black united front is what we're about, a black united front is what we're about. Now there's some people may not understand Brother Rap when he talks about whom we ally with. He says we have to ally with Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, and the dispossessed people of the earth. He did not mention poor whites. We must understand that. I will not deny that poor whites in this country are oppressed. But there are two types of oppression. One is exploitation, the other is colonization. And we have to understand the difference between both of them. Exploitation is when you exploit somebody of your own race. Colonization is when you exploit somebody of a different race. We are colonized, they are exploited. They are exploited.
Now let us explain how the process of exploitation and colonization works. If I am black and I am exploiting you who are also black, we have the same values, the same culture, the same language, the same society, the same institutions, so I do not have to destroy those institutions for you. But if you are of another race, if you have a different culture, different language, different values, I have to destroy all of those who make you bow to me. And that is the difference between poor black and poor white. Poor whites have their culture, have their values, have their institutions, ours have been completely destroyed, completely destroyed, completely destroyed.
So when you talk about alliances you recognize you form alliances with people who are trying to rebuild their culture, trying to rebuild their history, trying to rebuild their dignity, people who are fighting for their humanity. Poor white people are not fighting for their humanity, they're fighting for more money. There are a lot of poor white people in this country, you ain't seen none of them rebel yet, have you? Why is it that black people are rebelling? Do you think it's because it's just poor jobs? Don't believe that junk the honky is running down. It's not poor jobs - it's a question of a people finding their culture, their nature and fighting for their humanity, for their humanity, for their humanity, for their humanity.
We have been so colonized that we are ashamed to say we hate, and that is the best example of a person who's colonized. You sit in your house, a honky walks in your house, beats you up, rapes your wife, beats up your child, and you don't have the humanity to say, "I hate you." You don't have it. That is how dehumanized we are. We are so dehumanized we cannot say "Yes, we hate you for what you have done to us." Can't say it, can't say it. And we are afraid to think beyond that point. Who do you think has more hatred pent up in them, white people for black people or black people for white people? White people for black people, obviously the hatred has been more. What have we done to them for them to build up this hatred? Absolutely nothing. Yet we don't even want to have the chance to hate them for what they've done to us. And if hate should be justified, we have the best justification of all for hating the honkies. We have it for hating the honkies, we have it, we have it. But we have been so dehumanized, we're like a dog which the master can throw out the house, which the master can spit on, and whenever he calls, the dog comes running back. We are human beings and we have emotions. We're fighting for our humanity, we're fighting for our humanity, and in regaining our humanity we recognize all the emotions that are in us. If you have love, you've got to have hate. You don't have one-sided emotions, that's a lot of junk. You always have two sides - hot, cold, white, black - everything goes - love, hate. 'Cause if you don't have hate, you cannot differentiate love, you cannot do it, you cannot do it.
Now then that brings us to the point of this thing about communism and socialism. Let's get to that, once and for all. Communism is not an ideology suited for black people, period. Period. Socialism is not an ideology fitted for black people, period. Period. And I will tell you why. And it must become crystal clear in our minds. Now we don't say that because the honkies call us communist, we don't care what they call us, it don't make a difference, don't make a difference. The ideologies of communism and socialism speak to class structure. They speak to people who oppress people from the top down to the bottom. We are not just facing exploitation. We are facing something much more important, because we are the victims of racism. Communism nor socialism does not speak to the problem of racism. And racism, for black people in this country, is far more important than exploitation. 'Cause no matter how much money you make in the black community, when you go into the white world you are still a nigger, you are still a nigger, you are still a nigger.
So that for us, the question of racism becomes uppermost in our minds. It becomes uppermost in our minds. How do we destroy those institutions that seek to keep us dehumanized? That is all we're talking about. On the question of exploitation, it comes second.
Now for white people who are communists, the question of communism comes first, because they're exploited by their other people. If you were exploited by other black people, then it would be a question of how we divide the profits. It is not that for us, it is not that for us. It is a question of how we regain our humanity and begin to live as a people - and we do not do that, because of the effects of racism in this country. We must therefore consciously strive for an ideology which deals with racism first, and if we do that we recognize the necessity of hooking up with the nine hundred million black people in the world today. That's what we recognize.
And if we recognize that, then it means that our political situation must become international. It cannot be national, it cannot be national, it must be international, must be international. It must be international because if we knew anything, we would recognize that the honkies don't just exploit us, they exploit the whole Third World - Asia, Africa, Latin America. They take advantage of Europe, but they don't colonize Europe, they colonize Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Understand that.
If we begin to understand that, then the problems America is heading for become uppermost in our minds. The first one they're heading for is the conflict in the Middle East. We must declare on whose side we stand. We can be for no one but the Arabs. There can be no doubt in our minds, no doubt in our minds, no doubt in our minds. We can be for no one but the Arabs because Israel belonged to the Arabs in 1917. The British gave it to a group of Zionists who went to Israel, ran the Palestinian Arabs out with terrorist groups, organized the state and did not get anywhere until Hitler came along and they swelled the state in 1948. That country belonged to the Palestinians. Not only that, they're moving to take over Egypt. Egypt is our motherland - it's in Africa.
We do not understand the concept of love. Here are a group of Zionists who come anywhere they want to and organize love and feeling for a place called Israel, which was created in 1948, where their youth are willing to go and fight for Israel. Egypt belongs to us four thousand years ago and we sit here supporting the Zionists. We got to be for the Arabs, period. Period.
That means that we also move with the rest of the Third World and understand exactly what is going on. It is no coincidence that the honky who stole a heart out of our brother and put it into another devil, was brought here on nationwide TV. Now for those of the older generation who say I may be harsh because I said the devil, let me give you a biblical quotation. It says, "Beware that the devil will come telling you that he can give you back life after death." If that's not what they doin', I don't know what is.
We have to understand that just today the United States voted for South Africa to come into the Olympics, and black people here are debating whether black athletes should be part of the Olympics. That is not a debate. The question is final. There can be no black athletes with any dignity participating in that white nonsense, that white nonsense, can't be no dignity, can't be no soul.
Now then we have to understand more and more as our people talk about survival. It means that when we talk about survival we organize politically, we organize consciously - that's what they call education, we call it black consciousness, 'cause that speaks to us, education speaks to them - we organize economically, and we organize militarily. Because if we don't do that, if you don't have a gun in your hand they can snatch the ballot from you. But if you got a gun, it's either them or us.
And the preparation of that fight on all struggles must become conscious among our people. We are ahead of the Jews, we know what they getting ready to do. They tell us every day in their Esquire magazines, they tell us on their televisions, they tell us with their 15,000 soldiers they're putting in the cities, they tell us with their tanks, they tell us with their Stoner guns, they tell us. We got to wake up and tell them we are going to get you back. Wipe out of your mind the questions of minority, wipe out of your mind the questions of technology, technology never decides a war. It is the will of a people that decides a war. It is the will of a people, the will of a people.
Wipe out of your mind the fact that we do not have guns. The Vietnamese didn't have it when they started, now they got American guns, American tanks, American everything, everything, everything, everything. If they come to get us they got to bring some to get some. We gonna take it - and the gun, and the gun, and the gun. And unless we raise our minds to the level of consciousness where we have an undying love for our people, where we're willing to shed our blood like Huey Newton did for our people, we will not survive, we will not survive.
Now there are many people who know that. All of the brothers sitting on the stage, all of the brothers around here, we all know that when something goes down, we are the first ones offed. There's no question in any of our minds. Only thing gonna stop us today is a bullet, and we spittin' 'em back, and we spittin' 'em back. But the question is not whether or not we can move, but how this entire black community moves for survival in a world that's clearly heading for a color clash. That is what we must ask ourselves, that is the only question. We can only do that by organizing our people and orienting them towards an African ideology which speaks to our blackness - nothing else.
It's not a question of right or left, it's a question of black. You dig where we coming from? We coming from a black thing, from a black thing, that's where we coming from. Because we can begin to pick up the threads of resistance that our ancestors laid down for us. And unless we begin to understand our people as a people, we will not do that, because they will split us and divide us. That means consciously we have to begin to organize our people! Organize our people! Organize our people! Organize our people! Organize our people! Nothing else! Organize our people, our people! We have no time for them; all our sweat, all our blood, even our life must go to our people, nothing else.
We have to understand this consciously. Our youth must be organized with a revolutionary perspectus. A revolutionary perspectus says that we're fighting a war of liberation. In order to fight a war of liberation, you need an ideology of nationalism. We do not have this country. The nationalism can be nothing but black nationalism. It is insane to think of anything else. Black nationalism has to begin to be our ideology. While blackness is necessary it is not sufficient, so we must move on, we move on then to consciously organize in our communities. And we recognize today while we're organizing: we do not have the money to feed our people, so there's no use to say "organize, we can get you a job." We can't get 'em, they control em, that is a fact. That isn't a reason for you to. sit down, it is only more the reason for you to fight, to think that you can't give your people a job. That's more of an inspiration to fight so you can give them a job rather than to sit down and say the honkies got us on every end. They are not God, they are not God. We are a beautiful race of people, we can do anything we want to do, all we got to do is get lip, get up, get up and do it, get up and do it, get up and do it, get up and do it.
Now then we have to discuss very cold the question of rebellions, It is a fact that they're prepared to meet rebellions anywhere in the cities. Now what's gonna happen if one of our brothers get offed? What happens if they go ahead and off Huey Newton? We must develop tactics where we do the maximum damage to them with minor damage to us. And when we move into that arena, that means that this black community must be organized. So if Huey Newton goes, and ten honky cops goes, won't a black man in this community get up and open his mouth, 'cause if he does, he goes too, he goes too, he goes too, he goes too. That means that in organizing for the maximum damage against them and minor damage against us, we must be consciously aware of the fact that there will be people in our community who are going around doing just that. In our community we seen nothing, we hear nothing, we know nothing. We see nothing, we hear nothing, we, knew nothing.
Now the question of agents is becoming a question where it's making us paranoid. we cannot become paranoid because what they can do is make you so afraid you won't move. So we're not gonna do that. We're gonna plan what we're gonna do. Little groups are gonna plan theirs, big groups are gonna plan theirs. If an agent is found, there is no question, he is gonna be offed in such a manner that any other black man who dares talk to the honky will have three thoughts before he even talks to a white man about reporting in our community.
Our people have demonstrated a willingness to fight. Our people have demonstrated the courage of our ancestors - to face tanks, guns, police dogs with bricks and bottles, that is a courageous act! We must understand that. And since our people have demonstrated a willingness to fight, the question is how can we organize that fight so we become the winners. So we become the winners. If a major rebellion were to break out, our people mayor may not become the losers, but if a small group was doing maximum damage, we remain on top. We remain on top. That is what we must understand, consciously understand it. It is not a question of what they might do, it is a question of how and when they're going to do it, that is all that's in their minds, That is all. For us the question is not going to Vietnam anymore, the question is how we can protect our brothers who do not go to Vietnam from going to jail. That's the only question we have to face in our community today. So that when one brother says "Hell, no," there's enough people in that community around him that if they dare come in, they gonna face maximum damage in their community.
We are talking about survival. We are talking about a people whose entire culture .. whose entire history, whose entire way of life have been destroyed. We're talking about a people who have produced in this year a generation of warriors who are going to restore to our people the humanity and the love that we have for each other. That's what we're talking about today, that's what we're talking about today. We are talking about becoming the executioners of our executioners. For example, you should give a lot of money to that defense fund, because while some of that money gonna go for that court thing, the rest of the money's gonna go for the executioners. So that if they execute Huey, the final execution rests in our hands, our hands, in our hands.
It is simply a question of a people. They control everything. They make us fight, they make us steal; they judge us, they put us in prison, they parole us, they send us out, they pick us up again - where in God's name do we exercise any sense of dignity in this country? Where? Where? Where? Where? What in God's name do we control, except the church, whose ideology is based to be compatible with the system which is against us? Where in God's name do we exercise any control as a people whose ancestors were the proudest people that walked the face of this earth? Where? Where?
Where, do I ask you, where? Everywhere he's gone he controls our people; in South Africa he steals the gold from our people, in the West Indies he steals the materials from our people, in South America where he's scattered our people, he's raping us blind, in America he rapes us, in Nova Scotia [sic] he rapes us. Where in God's name are we gonna find a piece of earth that belongs to us so we can restore our humanity? Where are we gonna find it unless this generation begins to organize to fight for it? To fight for it, to fight for it. Where?
And if this generation begins to fight, there can be no disruptive elements in our community. There can be none - we will tolerate none. There will be no disruptions . Anyone who fights for their people, we put our life on the line for them. Huey Newton fought for our people. Whether or not Huey Newton becomes free depends upon black people, nobody else, nobody else. Other people may help, but the final decision of brother Huey depends upon us. He didn't lay down his life for other people, he laid it down for us. For us. And if he did that, we must be willing to do the same, not only for him but for the generation that's going to follow us.
Consciously we must understand we're about organizing every element in our community. That work must begin. People must be willing to give money to an organizer who is willing to spend 24 hours a day organizing. He cannot organize from the poverty program because they tell him what to do. But if black people are giving him the money, he can do anything for the benefit of black their people. We have to run all the exploiters people, of black people. That means that people have to consciously give money for out of our community, by any means necessary, by any means necessary.
You ask yourself, if you were white, why would you want to be a cop in a black ghetto today when you know they looking for you? Why, if you weren't sick in the mind and felt you were so superior that you had the right to rule, why would you want a lousy five thousand dollar a year job when you white and you can make it in this society, why would you want the job as a cop if you weren't sick, tell me? Would you want to be in their community if they were ready to off you, for four thousand, five thousand, six thousand dollars a year? We have to understand the politics of those honkies in our community. They are there to patrol and to control. That is all. We are going to do the patrolling, we are going to do the controlling. We are building a concept of peoplehood. We do not care about honkies; but if hi. building that concept of peoplehood, the honkies get in our wav, they got to go. There is no question about it, there is no question about it. We are not concerned with their way of life, we are concerned with our people. We want to give our people the dignity and the humanity that we know as our people, and if they get in our way, they gonna be offed. They gonna be offed. We're not concerned with their system. Let them have it. We want our wav of life, and we're gonna get it. We're gonna get it or nobody's gonna have any peace on this earth. No peace on this earth.
Now then finally before I sit down, let me say two things. I want to read a statement that brother Huey P. Newton wrote yesterday when I saw him in jail. You have to understand the statement. He says: "As the racist police escalate the war in our communities against black people, we reserve the right to self-defense and maximum retaliation."
All of the things we spoke about tonight centered around brother Huey P. Newton because all of the things we spoke about tonight exemplify what he was trying to do. Now we have to understand something. There is no need for us to go to jail today for what we say. They did that to brother Malcolm X, they just offed him for what he was saying. We have to progress as a race. Brother Huey mayor may not have wiped out that honky, but at least it shows a progression, at least we're not getting offed for what we say, we're trying to get offed for what we do. Understand this concept: when they offed brother Malcolm, we did nothing; if they off brother Huey, we got to retaliate, we got to retaliate, we got to retaliate, we got to retaliate l Do you think that any other race of people will let them off somebody, and the rest of them sit there? Where in God's name would you find a race of people like that?
We have lost in the last five years some of our best leaders - Lumumba, Malcolm X, they offed brother Kwame Nkrumah, and we do nothing, we do nothing, we do nothing. While they offing our leaders, they take our youth and send them to Vietnam, send them to Korea. We are slowly getting wiped out. We must retaliate, we must fight for our humanity. It is our humanity that is at stake. It is not a question of dollars and cents. We gonna survive, because we have survived what they couldn't survive - that's natural-born fact. We have survived. We survived through slavery, we survived through their jive reconstruction, we survived through World War I, we survived through the Depression, we survived through World War II, we survived after World War II when they threw us out of the jobs in the North, we survived their Korean War, we gonna survive, we gonna survive, ain't no doubt about that in my mind, no doubt at all.
Our problem is to develop an undying love for our people, an undying love for our people. We must be willing to give our talents, our sweat, our blood, even our life for our people. Nothing else! Not this country - our people!
We must develop the concept that every Negro is a potential black man. You do not alienate your potential allies. Let's bring our people home. Let's bring our people home.
We must understand the concept that for us the question of community is not geography, it is , question of us - black people - wherever we are, SO we have to consciously become a part of the nine hundred million black people that are separated over this world. We were separated by them. We are blood of the same blood and flesh of the same flesh. We do not know who is our sister, who is our brother, or where we came from. They took us from Africa and they put thousands of miles of water between us, but they forgot - blood is thicker than water. We coming together, we coming together. Blood is thicker than water, blood is thicker than water.
We are an African people with an African ideology, we are wandering in the United States, we are going to build a concept of peoplehood in this country or there will be no country. Or there will be no country.
As I end, brothers and sister, brother Huey Newton belongs to us. He is flesh of our flesh, he is blood of our blood. He may be Mrs. Newton's baby, he's our brother. He's our brother. We do not have to talk about what we're going to do if we're consciously preparing and consciously willing to back those who prepare. All we say: brother Huey will be set free - or else.
Labels: 1960s, Civil Rights Movement, Political speech project
posted by Esther Gómez Bouret @ 09:02
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