Malcolm X

MALCOLM: You saved my life, Archie. Running me out of Harlem. When I think how close we came to gunning each other down, I have to thank Allah.

ARCHIE: I wasn't gonna shoot you, baby. It was just my rep, that's all. And don't shit me now, but did you have that number? Tell me.

MALCOLM: I don't know. It doesn't matter. The thing is we got to get you back on your feet.

ARCHIE: Yeah. I got a couple a new angles ain't been figured yet. All I need's a stake and a chance --

MALCOLM: Can you use a few bucks? I ain't got much, but --

ARCHIE: No, man, I'm doing okay. Thanks.

MALCOLM: Take it easy. Lay down and don't think about it.

ARCHIE: Yeah.

MALCOLM: You could of been something, Archie, but the devil got to you.

MALCOLM: Take it easy, baby.

ARCHIE: That really you, Red?

MALCOLM: And every cat's watching, ain't they? It's a toe-down.

ARCHIE: That's what it is. Walk on out.

MALCOLM: Let Billie finish.

ARCHIE: Now.

ARCHIE: You're a damn liar.

ARCHIE: You _took_ me, you bastard, and now I'm taking you.

MALCOLM: It's me or you, ain't it, Pops?

ARCHIE: You know it.

MALCOLM: I'll give you back the 600.

ARCHIE: I don't want your money.

MALCOLM: I'm wearing, Archie.

ARCHIE: There's two guns on you.

MALCOLM: Oh, sit down, man. What you tasting? I'm buying.

ARCHIE: I ain't drinking hot piss with you. Come on, Sam.

ARCHIE: Shit, what else she gonna say?

MALCOLM: Then skip it, man. But you slipping, baby. You done slipped.

MALCOLM: 1, 2, 8 hit, didn't it?

ARCHIE: You din't have no 1, 2, 8.

MALCOLM: Was you that high? Old man, I threw the slats at you. I said to combinate me.

ARCHIE: You never had it.

MALCOLM: The bitch was there.

MALCOLM: Daddy, where's my money?

ARCHIE: What you talking?

MALCOLM: You owe me six big ones.

MALCOLM: 1, 2, 8; 2, 8, 1. I git 'em all?

ARCHIE: I'll take your goddam bet.

ARCHIE: Sometimes you got a big ugly mouth.

MALCOLM: Yeah, and I'm putting my money where my ugly mouth is. I'm putting you back in the numbers right now. Baby, what's today?

ARCHIE: Ain't nuthin' in the world to give you that real deep cool. Like girl. You there?

MALCOLM: I'm there, daddy. Wheww. I'm cool enough to kill.

ARCHIE: Bet you are.

ARCHIE: It hit?

MALCOLM: Nnnnnnn!

ARCHIE: I told you less paper, less trouble.

MALCOLM: I'm working on it.

ARCHIE: I keep all my numbers in my head. I've never written any down.

ARCHIE: How's it feel?

MALCOLM: Solid, daddy.

ARCHIE: Okay, baby. Now you outfitted. You ready to tackle the street?

MALCOLM: Let 'em come. I'm ready.

ARCHIE: You looking good, Little. Real clean. Clean as the Board of Health. But you missing something.

MALCOLM: What?

ARCHIE: Frisk me, baby. Give me a real pat down.

ARCHIE: I like your heart and I like your style. You might just do, Little. Lessen you got to git back to that train job.

MALCOLM: I done told the man what he could do with his train.

ARCHIE: When?

MALCOLM: Just now.

ARCHIE: Did you just now con me?

MALCOLM: Yes, sir.

ARCHIE: Why?

MALCOLM: 'Cause I want in. And it don't take a lot to know you there, daddy.

ARCHIE: Don't never write nothing down. File it up here, like I do. 'Cause if they can't find no paper they ain't got no proof. Ya dig?

MALCOLM: Yes, sir.

MALCOLM: Where can I get a hold of you?

ARCHIE: YOU can't. I'll get a hold of you.

MALCOLM: Lemme write it down for you.

ARCHIE: Is your papa West Indian?

MALCOLM: No, my mama. She's from Grenada.

ARCHIE: I like you, country.

ARCHIE: You ain't bullshitting me, is you, boy?

MALCOLM: My papa taught me one thing: don't never bullshit a West Indian bullshit artist.

ARCHIE: Sombitch and I ain't never been to Beantown.

MALCOLM: Man's rep travels.

ARCHIE: How 'bout that?

MALCOLM: I'm working trains. Selling.

ARCHIE: Bet you like that shit.

MALCOLM: Keeps me out of the army.

ARCHIE: When they want your ass, won't nothing keep you out.

MALCOLM: Not this boy... I ain't fighting their war. I got my own. Right chere. Heard tell you're a good man to know.

ARCHIE: Heard where?

MALCOLM: Where I come from. Boston.

ARCHIE: What they call you?

MALCOLM: Red, and I ain't no punk.

ARCHIE: You better not be. Cause if a cat toe you down in this town, you better stand up or make tracks.

ARCHIE: Sit down. We ain't fixing to eat you. You look brand new in town. Pretty handy with a bottle.

MALCOLM: He had it coming.

ARCHIE: The dirty yellow rat bastard.

SAMMY: Don't push it. You way ahead. You back on top. That boy loves you, man.

ARCHIE: What you say?

SAMMY: He gave it to you, Archie. He did.

ARCHIE: Yeah, got to do something about you.

SAMMY: You putting a hurtin' on my vision.

SAMMY: Man live by his rep.

ARCHIE: That's a fact. What you do, boy?

BEMBRY: Now about our coming up in the world a little. You're not naive. You're a man of the world. The Movement's grown; we've grown with it. You know folks. They want their leaders to be prosperous. One hand washes the other.

MALCOLM: "I'm telling you God's words, not to hustle."

BEMBRY: You want a new car? You want a new house? Is that it? It's the money, right?

MALCOLM: Brother Bembry, can we fix it so our loudspeaker is heard on the street?

BEMBRY: I'm sure we can. This is a new sister, Sister Betty.

MALCOLM: Yeah. When I was picking a lock to rob somebody's house.

BEMBRY: Tell Him that.

MALCOLM: I don't know how.

BEMBRY: You can grovel and crawl for sin, but not to save your soul. Pick the lock, Malcolm; pick it.

MALCOLM: I want to. God knows I want to.

MALCOLM: I can't.

BEMBRY: For evil to bend its knee, admit its guilt, implore His forgiveness, is the hardest thing on earth --

MALCOLM: I want to, Bembry, but I can't.

BEMBRY: -- the hardest and the greatest.

MALCOLM: I can't.

BEMBRY: For evil to bend its knee, admit its guilt, implore His forgiveness, is the hardest thing on earth --

MALCOLM: I want to, Bembry, but I can't.

BEMBRY: -- the hardest and the greatest.

MALCOLM: I don't know what to say to Allah.

BEMBRY: Have you ever bent your knees, Malcolm?

MALCOLM: I will do it.

BEMBRY: But the key to Islam is submission. That is why twice daily we turn to Mecca, to the Holy of Holies, to pray. We bend our knees in submission.

BEMBRY: The body is a holy repository.

MALCOLM: I will not touch the white man's poison: his drugs, his liquor, his carrion, his women.

BEMBRY: A Muslim must be strikingly upright. Outstanding. So those in the darkness can see the power of the light.

BEMBRY: Allah has sent us a prophet, a black man named Elijah Muhammad. For if God is black, Malcolm --

MALCOLM: Then the devil is white.

BEMBRY: I knew you'd hear me. The white man is the devil. All white men are devils.

MALCOLM: I sure met some.

BEMBRY: No. Elijah Muhammad does not say "that white man is a devil." He teaches us that the white man is the devil. All white men.

MALCOLM: I'm not Malcolm Little and I'm not Satan.

BEMBRY: Who are you?

MALCOLM: Little.

BEMBRY: No. That's the name of the slave- master who owned your family. You don't even know who you are. You're nothing. Less than nothing. A zero. Who are you?

BEMBRY: Sure, white man throw us a bone and that's supposed to make us forget 400 years.

MALCOLM: A black man playing big league ball is something.

BEMBRY: I told you to go behind the words and dig out the truth. They let us sing and dance and smile -- and now they let one black man in the majors. That don't cancel out the greatest crime in history. When that blue- eyed devil locked us in chains -- 100,000,000 of us -- broke up our families, tortured us, cut us off from our language, our religion, our history.

MALCOLM: You pitch, baby; I'll ketch.

BEMBRY: The first men on earth were black. They ruled and there was not one white face anywhere. But they teach us that we lived in caves and swung from trees. Black men were never like that.

MALCOLM: Ole Pete ain't much in the head, but he can lay in there with the wood.

BEMBRY: Lemme tell you about history: black history. You listening?

MALCOLM: Aardvark, noun. An earth pig; an ant- eating African mammal. Man, that sounds like the dozens.

BEMBRY: Read it and keep on reading.

MALCOLM: Man, I'm studying in the man's book. I don't dig half the words.

BEMBRY: Look 'em up and and out what they mean.

MALCOLM: Where am I gonna start?

BEMBRY: Start at the beginning. Page one, the first one. Here --

MALCOLM: That's bullshit. That's a white man's book. Ain't all these white man's books?

BEMBRY: They sure ain't no black man's books in here.

MALCOLM: Then what you telling me to study in them for?

BEMBRY: You got to learn everything the white man says and use it against him. The truth is laying there if you smart and read behind their words. It's buried there. You got to dig it out.

MALCOLM: Man, how'm I gonna know the ones worth looking at?

MALCOLM: I can't make out that shit.

BEMBRY: Soiled with dirt, foul; sullen, hostile, forbidding -- as a black day. Foully or outrageously wicked, as black cruelty. Indicating disgrace, dishonor or culpability.

MALCOLM: Come on, daddy, pull my coat. What happens if you give all that up? You get sick or somethin'? I pulled a hustle once and got out of the draft.

BEMBRY: I'm telling you God's words, not no hustle. I'm talking the words of Elijah, the black man's God. I'm telling you, boy, that God is black.

MALCOLM: What? Everybody knows God is White.

BEMBRY: But everything the white man taught you, you learned. He told you you were a black heathen and you believed him. He told you how he took you out of darkness and brought you to the light. And you believed him. He taught you to worship a blond, blue-eyed God with white skin -- and you believed him. He told you black was a curse, you believed him. Did you ever look up the word black in the dictionary?

MALCOLM: What for?

BEMBRY: Did you ever study anything wasn't part of some con?

MALCOLM: What the hell for, man?

BEMBRY: Go on, fool; the marble shooters are waiting for you.

MALCOLM: Okay, okay. Show me, man.

BEMBRY: What you sniffing around for? I told you I gave you your last fix.

MALCOLM: I ain't never seen a cat like you. Ain't you scared talking like that in front of an ofay?

BEMBRY: What's he gonna do to me he ain't already done?

MALCOLM: You the only cat don't come on with that "Whatcha know, daddy" jive; and you don't cuss none.

BEMBRY: I respect myself. A man cuss because he hasn't got the words to say what's on his mind.

MALCOLM: Tell you this: you ain't no fool.

BEMBRY: Don't con me. Don't try...

MALCOLM: Okay, okay.

BEMBRY: Don't con me.

MALCOLM: What do you do with your time?

BEMBRY: I read. I study. Because the first thing a black man has to do is respect himself. Respect his body and his mind. Quit taking the white man's poison into your body: his cigarettes, his dope, his liquor, his white woman, his pork.

MALCOLM: That's what Mama used to say.

BEMBRY: Your mama had sense because the pig is a filthy beast: part rat, part cat, and the rest is dog.

BEMBRY: The question is, who are you? You are in the darkness, but it's not your fault. Elijah Muhammad can bring you into the light.

MALCOLM: Elijah who?

BEMBRY: Elijah Muhammad can get you out of prison. Out of the prison of your mind. Maybe all you want is another fix. I thought you were smart.

BEMBRY: Sure, burn yourself, pain yourself, put all that poison into your hair, into your body -- trying to be white.

MALCOLM: Man, I don't want to hear all that.

BEMBRY: I thought you was smart. But you just another one of them cats strutting down the avenue in your clown suit with all that mess on you. Like a monkey. And the white man sees you and he laughs. He laughs because he knows you ain't white.

MALCOLM: Leggo. I got to wash it out.

BEMBRY: Let it burn. Maybe you'll hear me then.

BEMBRY: Putting all that poison in your hair.

MALCOLM: Man, you been locked up too long, everybody conks. All the cats.

BEMBRY: Why? Why does everybody conk?

MALCOLM: Cause I don't want to walk around with my head all nappy, looking like --

BEMBRY: Like what? Looking like me? Like a nigger?! Why don't you want to look like what you are? What makes you ashamed of being black?

MALCOLM: I ain't said I'm ashamed.

MALCOLM: You ain't lying.

BEMBRY: When you go busting your fists against a stone wall, you're not using your brains. Cause that's what the white man wants you to do. Look at you.

MALCOLM: If you ain't trying to punk me, what's your hype?

BEMBRY: I can show you how to get out of prison. And it's no hype.

MALCOLM: Talk, daddy, I'm listening. Hey that ain't bad. You got some more?

BEMBRY: That's the last stuff you'll ever get from me.

MALCOLM: What did you give it to me for then?

BEMBRY: 'Cause you needed it. 'Cause you couldn't hear me without it.

MALCOLM: Who the hell are you?

BEMBRY: Put it in a cup of water. It's nutmeg.

MALCOLM: Man, what do you want?

BEMBRY: You need something. It's not a reefer, but it'll help some.

MALCOLM: Man, get outa my face. I ain't nobody's punk.

BENJAMIN: I'll have it tomorrow.

MALCOLM: Brother Benjamin, do not rush, it has to be exact.

MALCOLM: We need more young warriors like yourself, stick around and we shall see if your heart is true.

BENJAMIN: Mr. X, I won't make you out a liar.

MALCOLM: Do you?

BENJAMIN: Not exactly, but I want to be one, like you.

MALCOLM: I admire your enthusiasm but you should never join any organization without first checking it out thoroughly.

MALCOLM: What can I do for you?

BENJAMIN: Mr. X, I was out there tonight. I saw what you did. I want to be a Muslim. I ain't never seen a Negro stand up to the police like that.

MALCOLM: Make it plain.

BENJAMIN 2X: And now, without further remarks, I present to you one who is willing to put himself on the line for you --

MALCOLM: Folks are sitting out there today, not next week, expecting to hear our program.

BENJAMIN 2X: Next week, Brother Minister.

MALCOLM: Has the Reverend called? Is he going to show?

MALCOLM: Is the program ready?

BENJAMIN 2X: No, Brother Minister.

MALCOLM: Why not? You've had ample time, you and the sister.

MALCOLM: You are now Benjamin 2X.

BENJAMIN 2X: All praises are due to Allah. Thank you, Brother Minister.

MALCOLM: Come, sit with us.

BETTY: Malcolm, they keep calling, threatening us. I'm going crazy, when is this going to stop?

MALCOLM: Don't answer the phone. It's all right. It's all right. Nothing is gonna happen to anybody.

BETTY: Dear heart, where are you?

MALCOLM: At the Hilton. The girls asleep?

BETTY: I just put them to bed. Can we come to the meeting tomorrow?

MALCOLM: I don't think that's such a good idea.

BETTY: Stop calling us. Leave us alone. Leave us alone. I'll kill you. I'll kill you.

MALCOLM: Betty it's me. It's me.

MALCOLM: I'm sorry. I haven't been the best husband or father.

BETTY: Shhh!

MALCOLM: Families shouldn't be separated. I'll never make another long trip without you and the kids. We'll all be together.

BETTY: Dear heart, I love you.

MALCOLM: We had the best organization that black people ever had and niggers ruined it.

BETTY: Get some sleep.

MALCOLM: You have to sleep for three.

BETTY: Dear heart, you have to help me. I'm raising our kids practically by myself, while you're running all over the world. You don't know how many times the girls ask me when is daddy coming home?

MALCOLM: What do you want me to do? Our people need me.

BETTY: We need you too!

MALCOLM: What do you want me to do?

BETTY: Open your eyes, you can face death 24 hours a day; but the possibility of betrayal never enters your mind. If you won't do that for yourself do it for us.

BETTY: No, what's the matter with you? Wake up! Are you so dedicated that you have blinded yourself? Are you so committed you cannot face the truth? Bembry is the editor of the newspaper you established. Ask him why your name hasn't been in "Muhammad Speaks" in over a year? Ask him why you rate front page in every paper in the country, but not a single sentence in your own.

MALCOLM: I'm not interested in personal publicity. Our people know what I'm doing.

BETTY: Do you know what Bembry is doing? You're so blind, everyone can see this but you!!!

MALCOLM: Bembry saved my Life. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad saved my life.

BETTY: A long time ago. You've repaid them many times over. Ask them why they have new cars and houses full of new furniture.

MALCOLM: Is that what this is about? Material wealth?

BETTY: What do we have, Malcolm. A broken- down jalopy and the clothes on our backs. We don't even own our own home. What about our children? What about me? You don't even own life insurance.

MALCOLM: The Nation will provide for you and the children if anything happens to me.

BETTY: Will they? Are you sure? Are you sure or are you blind?

BETTY: "Los Angeles, UPI: Elijah Muhammad, 67-year-old leader of the Black Muslim Movement, today faced paternity suits from two former secretaries who charged he fathered their four children..."

MALCOLM: There are always slanders, always lies. You're reading the devil's lies. Can't you see they're trying to bring us down, bring down the Messenger.

BETTY: "Both women, in their 20's, charged they had had intimacies with Elijah Muhammad since 1957..."

MALCOLM: I was going to talk to Bembry about it tonight.

BETTY: To Bembry? Is Bembry your friend?

MALCOLM: Woman, have you lost your mind? What's the matter with you?

MALCOLM: I don't want to bring my troubles home. You know that.

BETTY: I'm not made of glass.

MALCOLM: I just want to sit here and be still.

BETTY: We've never had a fight. Not a real one. But we're going to have one right now if you don't talk about it.

MALCOLM: Talk about what?

BETTY: The talk is everywhere!

MALCOLM: There's always talk, always been talk, and always will be talk. Don't they say how I'm trying to take over the Nation, how I'm getting rich off the Nation?

BETTY: We'll get to that, too, but this isn't just talk any more.

MALCOLM: Why are you looking at me like that?

BETTY: Because you're in trouble.

MALCOLM: How do you know?

BETTY: I never told you, but when I first saw you on the podium, cleaning your glasses, I felt sorry for you. Nobody as young as you should be that serious. But I don't think that anymore.

MALCOLM: What do you think?

BETTY: The simplest thing in the world: I want to have a lot of babies with you. Dear Heart, I love you.

MALCOLM: It won't be easy.

BETTY: Just hold me.

MALCOLM: It will be rough.

BETTY: Hush your mouth.

MALCOLM: I'll be away a lot.

BETTY: You're with me even when you're away.

MALCOLM: I'm in Detroit.

BETTY: I know.

MALCOLM: At a gas station. Will you marry me?

BETTY: Yes.

MALCOLM: Did you hear what I said?

BETTY: Yes I did. Did you hear my answer?

MALCOLM: I think so. Can you catch a plane?

BETTY: Yes. Did you eat?

MALCOLM: I love you.

BETTY: But Brother Bembry says I'm tall enough for a tall man.

MALCOLM: How old are you, Betty?

BETTY: There's a few things you don't know about women, Brother Malcolm. They're possessive and vain.

MALCOLM: Are you?

BETTY: And dogged when I set my mind to something.

MALCOLM: What have you set your mind to?

BETTY: Being a good Muslim, a good nurse and a good wife.

MALCOLM: Let's talk about you for a change.

BETTY: There's nothing to talk about.

MALCOLM: Oh, yes, there is. I know a lot about you. Brother Bembry briefed me.

BETTY: Oh? Purely scientific interest I'm sure.

MALCOLM: You're from Detroit, near where I come from. You majored in education at Tuskegee. You're studying nursing and having trouble with your family.

BETTY: I can handle it.

MALCOLM: They want you to quit the Muslims or they won't pay your tuition, isn't that it?

BETTY: You have enough worries of your own.

MALCOLM: No, good Sisters are rare. We need every one. Tell me something: how tall are you?

BETTY: Why do you ask?

MALCOLM: Just an idle question.

BETTY: If it's just idle, I won't answer it.

MALCOLM: That's something I haven't done in fifteen years.

BETTY: What?

MALCOLM: Sat down with a pretty girl and had an ice cream soda.

BETTY: How do you like it?

MALCOLM: Delicious.

BETTY: Could we sit down someplace?

MALCOLM: I'm sorry. I've had you on your feet for hours.

BETTY: You've been on your feet for days. And didn't even finish your salad.

BETTY: I see your point.

MALCOLM: So it is not a matter of the breeding conditions or preparation of the meat. The meat itself is foul.

BETTY: Considering today's standards of animal raising and curing meats, I don't fully understand the restriction on pork.

MALCOLM: Let me explain. No. I'll do better than that. I'll show it to you. Scientifically. But it's demonstration purely in the interest of science, you understand?

MALCOLM: What points?

BETTY: That you haven't time for either marriage or eating --

MALCOLM: Women talk too much. To tell a woman not to talk is like telling Jesse James not to carry a gun or a hen not to cackle. And Samson, the strongest man that ever lived, was destroyed by the woman who slept in his arms.

BETTY: Shall I tell my sisters that we oppose marriage?

MALCOLM: Sure I'll speak to your class. But I'm a hard man on women. You want to know why?

BETTY: If you want to tell me.

MALCOLM: What?

BETTY: She ate.

BROTHER EARL: Brother Minister, what is wrong?

MALCOLM: The way I feel, I ought not to go out there today. In fact, I'm going to ease some of this tension by telling the black man not to fight himself -- that's all a part of the white man's big maneuver, to keep us fighting amongst ourselves, against each other. I'm not fighting anyone, that's not what we're here for.

BROTHER EARL: Let's cancel.

MALCOLM: Is my family here yet?

BROTHER EARL: Down front as always.

BROTHER EARL: Reverend Chickenwing called last night and said he wouldn't be able to attend.

MALCOLM: So now we have no opening speaker? Why wasn't I informed last night?

BROTHER EARL: I called Sister Betty, she didn't tell you?

MALCOLM: Since when do you start telling Sister Betty my business? Since when? She has nothing to do with this. You tell me, not her, not anybody else.

BROTHER EARL: I assumed...

MALCOLM: What did I tell you about assuming?

MALCOLM: I'm gonna try and get some work done tonight.

BROTHER EARL: Let some of us come down there.

MALCOLM: No, that won't be necessary. I'll be all right.

BROTHER EARL: I wish you'd listen to us. What about the meeting tomorrow? We need to frisk people.

MALCOLM: I don't want folks to be searched, it makes people uncomfortable. If I can't be safe among my own kind, where can I be? Allah will protect me.

MALCOLM: Brother Earl.

BROTHER EARL: Malcolm, where are you? We've been calling all over the city.

MALCOLM: I don't care about myself, my wife and four children were sleeping in their beds, they have nothing to do with this.

BROTHER EARL: Let's get out of this cold.

MALCOLM: I want to also, but until we are instructed by the Messenger to do so, we will just wait and pray.

BROTHER EARL: I'm tired of praying.

MALCOLM: That's enough, Brother Earl.

CHAPLAIN GILL: Now just a moment, just a moment --

MALCOLM: But we do know that the people of that region of Asia Minor, from the Tigris-Euphrates valley to the Mediterranean, are dark-skinned people. I've studied drawings and photographs and seen newsreels. I have never seen a native of that area who was not black.

CHAPLAIN GILL: Just what are you saying?

MALCOLM: I'm not saying anything, preacher. I'm proving to you that God is black.

MALCOLM: They were Hebrew, weren't they?

CHAPLAIN GILL: That's right.

MALCOLM: As Jesus was. Jesus was also a Hebrew.

CHAPLAIN GILL: Just what is your question?

MALCOLM: What color were the original Hebrews?

CHAPLAIN GILL: I told you we don't know for certain.

MALCOLM: Then we don't know that God was white.

CHAPLAIN GILL: Why don't you just ask your question?

MALCOLM: You've been talking about the disciples. What color were they?

CHAPLAIN GILL: I don't think we know for certain.

CHAPLAIN GILL: Do you know what a friend you have in Jesus, son?

MALCOLM: Preacher, take your tin Jesus and the Virgin Mary, both, and shove 'em.

DR. PAYSON: Let him finish.

MALCOLM: Thank you. Now the Negro in the field caught hell all day long. He was beaten by the master; he lived in a shack, wore castoff clothes and hated his master. If the house caught fire, he'd pray for a wind. If the master got sick, he'd pray that he'd die. And if you said to him, "Let's go, let's separate", he'd yell, "Yeah, man, any place is better than this." You've got a lot of Field Negroes in America today. I'm one.

MALCOLM: Stop me if I'm wrong. I "polarize the community." I "erroneously appraise the racial picture."

DR. PAYSON: You put it very well.

MALCOLM: You left one phrase out. Another educated Kneegrew said to me and I quote: "Brother Malcolm oversimplifies the dynamic interstices of the Negro subculture." Would you agree?

DR. PAYSON: Entirely.

MALCOLM: Well, I have this to say. Do you know what a Negro with a B.A., an M.A. and a Ph.D. is called -- by the white man? I'll tell you. He's called a nigger.

DR. PAYSON: Mr. X is a demagogue. He has no place to go, so he exaggerates. He's a disservice to every good law-abiding Negro in the country. Can I ask you a question?

MALCOLM: Please, go ahead.

DR. PAYSON: Mr. Malcolm X, why do you teach black supremacy? Why do you teach hate?

MALCOLM: For the white man to ask the black man if he hates him is just like the rapist asking the raped, or the wolf asking the sheep, "Do you hate me!" The white man is in no moral position to accuse anyone of hate.

ELIJAH: Did you see the papers today?

MALCOLM: Yes, sir, I did.

ELIJAH: That was a very bad statement. The country loved this man, and you have made it hard in general for Muslims.

ELIJAH: If I surprise you, let me explain. Menial work teaches us humility.

MALCOLM: Let me do it then.

ELIJAH: No, each of us must relearn that work is the only worthwhile thing. Allah has given you a great gift. Use it wisely, never forgetting that we are nothing, while He is all.

MALCOLM: Allah Akbar.

MALCOLM: If you want to tell me.

ELIJAH: Women are deceitful. They are untrustworthy flesh. I've seen too many men ruined or tied down or messed up by women.

GREGORY: Can I ask you something?

MALCOLM: Sure, man.

GREGORY: Are you Elijah's pimp?

MALCOLM: What?

GREGORY: "His greatest greatness."

MALCOLM: Say what you're saying.

GREGORY: If you don't know, man, then I feel sorriest for you.

MALCOLM: Is she hooking?

HONEY: Not yet. But the way things going, that boy gonna turn her out any day.

MALCOLM: She know?

HONEY: If she got eyes, she do.

HONEY: You know that gal?

MALCOLM: Mind your own goddamn business... She comes in a lot?

HONEY: 'Bout every other night, Red.

MALCOLM: With him?

HONEY: I thought you said we were going to the movies last night.

MALCOLM: I say a lot of things.

HONEY: And like a fool I believe it.

MALCOLM: Do your job, Get me a bourbon on the rocks and a pack of Lucky's.

VOICE OF MALCOLM X: Fourteen counts of 8 to 10 years.

JUDGE: The sentences to run concurrently.

VOICE OF MALCOLM X: Shorty thought he hit us with 114 years till I explained what concurrently meant. It meant a minimum sentence of 10 years hard labor at the Charlestown State Prison. The date was February 1946. I wasn't quite 21. I had not yet begun to shave.

VOICE OF MALCOLM X: The average first offender gets two years for burglary. We were all first offenders. That's what Sophia and Peg drew --

JUDGE: Two years in the Women's Reformatory at Framingham.

VOICE OF MALCOLM X: But our crime wasn't burglary. It was balling white girls. They gave us the book.

JUDGE: Burglary, count one -- 8 to 10 years; count two, 8 to 10 years; count three, 8 to 10 years...

MALCOLM: Let's go.

LAURA: Why? Is it because of your white gal? Folks say you're running around town with her.

MALCOLM: Save it, baby. Save it for Mr. Right, 'cause your grandma's smarter than ya think.

LAURA: Malcolm, you can be anything you want. You got class and you're smart.

MALCOLM: All them books you read and you still don't know nuthin.

LAURA: I do know I love you.

MALCOLM: Baby, I'll call you tomorrow.

LAURA: What for? I ain't white and I don't put out.

MALCOLM: I better not come in.

LAURA: I ain't stupid.

MALCOLM: I mean it's late, baby.

LAURA: I know where you're going.

MALCOLM: I'm going to bed. I gotta work tomorrow, need my rest.

LAURA: 'Lo. I've got to freshen up.

MALCOLM: Now you come back.

MISS DUNNE: It's the same questions, Mrs. Little. Since the death of your husband --

LOUISE: Murder.

MISS DUNNE: -- there is a serious question as to whether --

LOUISE: These are my children. Mine. And they ain't no question. None.

MISS DUNNE: I think sometimes, Mrs. Little, candor is the only kindness.

MISS DUNNE: All of your children are delinquent, Mrs. Little, and one, at least, Malcolm is a thief.

LOUISE: Get out.

MISS DUNNE: Your control over your children, therefore --

LOUISE: Did you hear me?!

MISS DUNNE: You'll regret this, Mrs. Little.

LOUISE: If you don't move out through that door, you're going to be past all regretting.

SIDNEY: Another one?

MALCOLM: How long has this been going on?

SIDNEY: All day since you and Betty left. Brother Minister, I have to level with you. They gave me a mission. But I couldn't do it. I love y'all.

MALCOLM: What mission?

SIDNEY: To wire your car so it would explode when you turned the ignition. The Ministers say you are spreading untruths about the Messenger. The Ministers say you are a great hypocrite, Judas, Benedict Arnold. The Ministers say your tongue should be cut out and delivered to the Messenger's doorstep.

MALCOLM: What does Sidney say?

SIDNEY: I'm with you, Brother Minister.

MALCOLM: No. You'll be marked for death.

SIDNEY: Let me die then.

MALCOLM: I won't let myself come between you and your father. Go home.

SIDNEY: You're my father.

MALCOLM: And don't come back.

MALCOLM: Thank you, Brother; Sister, how are you?

SIDNEY: Please make way, please --

MALCOLM: How many you turning out?

SIDNEY: 500.

MALCOLM: Make it 1000. We got a lot of fishing to do.

SIDNEY: Brother Malcolm, I want you to meet Brother Earl. He just joined the Nation.

SOPHIA: You had the number.

MALCOLM: Baby, I got to let this old man win. Keep the faith, and tell Billie I'll see her later.

SOPHIA: Baby, I was gonna give it to you.

MALCOLM: Well, bitch you move too slow.

MALCOLM: Yeah, girl; that's your story. When you gonna holler "rape," sister?

SOPHIA: Me?

MALCOLM: You will, baby -- if the time come.

SOPHIA: Lemme feed you, sweetie, while they hot.

SOPHIA: You evil this morning.

MALCOLM: What's your story, baby?

SOPHIA: You the man.

MALCOLM: You better believe it.

SOPHIA: Sweetie, they're almost ready.

MALCOLM: You hear me, girl?

SOPHIA: You like 'em scrambled soft or hard, sweetie?

MALCOLM: C'mere.

SOPHIA: That's alright. Baby, take your time. Sophia's not going anywhere. I told you to walk, don't run.

MALCOLM: Shhhh! I don't like women that talk.

MALCOLM: Sheeet, you ain't. I had aplenty.

SOPHIA: ...That isn't a whore?

SHORTY: I got to hand it to you, Homey. That's the best preacher hype I ever did hear.

MALCOLM: It isn't a hype, Shorty. And I meant what I said: join us.

SHORTY: Come on, baby. I don't pay that shit no mind.

MALCOLM: The Honorable Elijah Muhammad says you should pay it all your mind. If you got a mind.

SHORTY: Baby, I love you. Take it easy, greasy. How about a snort?

MALCOLM: I've been clean for twelve years, Shorty.

SHORTY: You is something, Homeboy. My trouble is -- I ain't had enough stuff yet, I ain't et all the ribs I want and I sure ain't had enough white tail yet.

MALCOLM: How's the rest of the gang? You seen anyone?

SHORTY: Well, Sammy's dead. Yeah, fell over in the bed with a chick twenty years younger than him. Had twenty-five grand in his pocket.

MALCOLM: Palmed it right in the goddam chamber.

SHORTY: Jesus Christ, Homey, you are nuts.

SHORTY: What did you do, Homey, palm it?

MALCOLM: Yeah.

MALCOLM: Don't never try to cross someone who ain't afraid to die.

SHORTY: You the man!

MALCOLM: That ain't bad.

SHORTY: Tell him about Baldy.

SHORTY: Jesus, Red, she's just a kid.

MALCOLM: Jesus ain't got nothin' to do with this.

MALCOLM: Yeah and get a slave, too, huh, baby?

SHORTY: I ain't doing bad.

MALCOLM: Man, the name musicians ain't got shit. How you gonna have something? I need a stake, a bundle, a grand. My woman can't afford it; my homey ain't got it. How about you baby? What you got?

SHORTY: I forgot to tell you I'm wearing a bulletproof vest.

MALCOLM: The hell you are.

SHORTY: I'm tired of always playing the cops. I wanna be Bogart sometimes.

MALCOLM: You're too small to be Bogart.

SHORTY: I'm not too short to be Cagney.

SHORTY: Bang, bang. You're dead.

MALCOLM: Naw, you missed me, copper. Try this on for size.

MALCOLM: Don't you know, you can't hump the Bogart.

SHORTY: Eat lead, coppers.

SHORTY: That's a fine chick.

MALCOLM: Fine as May wine.

SHORTY: Except she live on the hill and got a grandma.

MALCOLM: Make it too easy and it ain't no fun.

SHORTY: Hey, man, gimme some skin.

MALCOLM: Shorty, this is Laura.

SHORTY: Well, all right, then.

MALCOLM: Well, all reet, then.

MALCOLM: Your turn, Rudy. You want me to flip for you?

RUDY: Jesus Christ, no. Okay, okay. You got it, you got it! You're the boss.

MALCOLM: You want to be the head man?

RUDY: That's right.

MALCOLM: Head nigger in charge?

RUDY: I'm the man.

MALCOLM: Okay, baby. Let's flip for it. Flip this.

RUDY: Then I put him to bed and pour talcum powder on him like a baby. He gets his jollies off.

MALCOLM: So what about him?

RUDY: So? The man got silver, china, rugs --

MALCOLM: Might be all right.

RUDY: Might be, shit. Man, I know this town. I got my own fences. Who the hell are you? Who put you in charge?

RUDY: I'm half wop, half nigger and ain't afraid of no one.

MALCOLM: What can you do?

MALCOLM: Only a pig could do a thing like that.

PLAINCLOTHES: Watch your tongue, boy.

MALCOLM: Don't you call me boy, you pig. Letting a man bleed like that.

PLAINCLOTHES: Who the hell are they?

MALCOLM: Brothers of Brother Johnson.

PLAINCLOTHES: Eddie, let's see that blotter.

MALCOLM: I'm Minister Malcolm X. Two witnesses saw him brought in. He was not brought out.

PLAINCLOTHES: You heard the Sergeant. Outside.

SISTER LUCILLE: Brother Minister he often talked about you. He loves you, loves you like his own son. Says you are the best, his greatest Minister but that someday you would leave him and turn against him.

MALCOLM: He told you that?

SISTER LUCILLE: Yes sir.

MALCOLM: Are you sure?

SISTER LUCILLE: Yes, I am, Brother Minister. All I want is support for my children. He should provide for his children. That's all I want.

MALCOLM: Allah will provide.

MALCOLM'S VOICE: We were parceled out, all five of us. I went to this reform school and lived at this woman's house. She was in charge.

MRS. SWERLIN: This is your room, Malcolm. I know you'll keep it clean.

MRS. SWERLIN: This is Malcolm, our new guest. We'll treat him like a brother.

MALCOLM'S VOICE: I was special. The only colored kid in class. I became a sort of mascot. Like a pink poodle.

MALCOLM'S VOICE: I didn't know then that I was a nigger.

MRS. SWERLIN: He's bright.

MALCOLM'S VOICE: They talked about me like

MRS. SWERLIN: Good grades. Fine athlete. President of his class.

MALCOLM'S VOICE: I wasn't there. Like I was some kind of pedigreed dog or a horse. Like I was invisible.