◆ SpookStack

awhite man, sometimes \_ ithy as the white man - ca When I‘ traveling around the country, I ty real Muslim name, Malik Sbab&:; I make my hotel reserva- tions under that name, and I always see the same thing I've just been telling you. 1 come to the desk and always see that “here comes~a-Negro” look. It's kind of a re- served, coldly tolerant cordiality, But when I say "Malik Shabazz," their whole atti- tude changes: they snap to respect. They think Im an African. People say what’s in a name. The American black man ie seeing the African respected as a human being. The African gets reepect because he has an identity and cultural roots. But most of all because the African owns some land. For these reasons he has his human rights recoge- nized, and that makes his civil rights automatic. PLAY3O¥: Do you feel this is true of Negro civil and human rights in South Africa, where the doctrine of apartheid is enforced by the government of Prime Minister Verwoerd? MALCOLM X: They don't stand for anything different in South Africa than America stands for. The only difference is over there they preach as well as practice spartheid. Anerica preaches freedom and practices slavery. America preaches integration and prac- tices segregation. Verwoerd is an honest white man. So are the Barnetts, Faubuses, Eastlands and Rockwells. They want to keep all white people white. And we want to keep all black people black. As between the racists and the integrationists, I highly prefer the racists, I'd rather walk among rattlesnakes, whose constant rattle warns me where they are, than among those Northern snakes who grin and make you forget you're still in @ snake pit. Any white man is against blacks. The entire American econozy is based on white supremacy. Even the religious philosophy is, in essence, white suprea- acy. A white Jesus. A white Virgin. White angels. White everything. But a black Devil, of course. The “Uncle Sam” political foundation is based on white supremacy, relegating nonwhites to second-class citizenship. It goes without saying that the so- cial philosophy is strictly white supremacist. And the educational system perpetuates white supremacy. PLAYBOY: Arn you contradicting yourself by denouncing white supremacy while praising its practitioners, since you admit that you share their goal of separation? MALCCLM X: The fact that I prefer the candor of the Southern segregationist to the kypocrisy of the Northern integrationiat doesn't alter the basic immorality of white supremacy. A devil is still s devil whether he wears a bed sheet or a Brooks Brothers suit. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches separation simply because any forcible attempt to integrate America completely would reault in another Civil War, a cata- strophic explosion among whites which would destroy America ~- and still not solve the prcblem. But Mr. Muhammad's solution of separate black and white would solve the prob- lem neatly for both the white and black man, and America would be saved. Then the whole world would give Uncle Sam credit for being something other than a hypocrite. PLAYBOY: Do you feel that the Administration's successful stand on the integration of James Meredith into the University of Mississippi has demonstrated that the Government- far from being hypocritical - is sympathetic with the Negro's aspirations for equality? MALCOLM X; What was accomplished? It took 15,000 troops to put Meredith in the Univer- sity of Mississippi, Those troops and $3,000,000 - that's what was spent - to get one Negro in, That $3,000,000 could have been used much more wisely by the Federal Govern- ment to elevate the living standards of all the Negroes in Mississippi. PLAYBOY: Then in your view, the principle involved was not worth the expense. Yet it -- is a matter of record that President Kennedy, in the face of Southern opposition, championed the appointment of Dr. Roberc Weaver as the first Negro Cabinet member. Doesn't this indicate to you, as it does to many Negro leaders, that the Administration ig determined to combat white supremacy? MALCOLM X: Kennedy doesn't have to fight: he's the President. He didn't have any fight replacing Ribicoff with Celebrezze. He didn’t have any trouble putting Goldberg on the Supreme Court. He hasn't had any trouble getting anybody in but Weaver and Thurgood Marshall. He wasn't worried about Congressional objection when he challenged U.8. Steel. He wasn't worried ebout either Congressional reaction or Russian reaction or even world reaction when he blockaded Cuba. But when it comes to the rights of the Negro, who helped to put him in office, then he's afraid of little pockets of white resistance. PLAYBOY: Has any American President, in your opinion - Lincoln, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy ~ accomplished anything for the Negro? 9 "with @ sheet on and go ce where the Negro - dressed like a white man, talkipg, like us