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