Greg Berryman
Mr. D’Aquilla
15 August 2008
APUSH
Malcolm X Paper
“Sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner, unless you eat some of what’s on that
plate. Being here in America doesn’t make you an American. Being born here in America
doesn’t make you an American” (Malcolm X, 1964). Malcolm X was one of the most intelligent
people of the 1950’s and 1960’s. To say he discussed the racial issues between whites and blacks
would be an understatement. He discussed the moral disheartenment and brainwashing of Black
Americans, and also the “devil white man”. He realized that just being in America, did not make
him an American, and he decided to do something about it. Other great Americans made the
same recognition before Malcolm X, and made a stand for their rights as Americans. During the
civil rights period, many other blacks made a stand along side Malcolm, and also made their own
stand for their rights. Throughout our history, this quote has proven to be truthful, and has been
tested by exceptional Americans.
Ever since the Mayflower landed in 1620 on Plymouth Rock, Americans have been
fighting for their rights to be Americans, to have their god-given rights. The British colonial
empire in America was taxing these Americans, controlling their rights and controlling their
country. They had essentially no real rights or freedom, because they did not own their country
or control it. They were sitting down at the table, but not eating what was put in front of them.
When they started to rebel and fight against the power-hungry British, with acts like the Boston
Tea Party, they were reaching for the fork to eat what was on that plate. The Revolutionary War
was the biggest step they had taken towards getting their own country and rights. Once we won
the war, we had gained our independence from Britain in the Declaration of Independence,
signed in 1776. Thus, we had started to nibble at what was put on the table; however, we had not
yet fully dug into gaining our real rights and fully becoming Americans. In 1787, when our
Constitution was drafted, along with our Bill of Rights, another large step towards becoming
Americans was taken. We had our rights, we had them in a constitution; but, had we experience,
harnessed and used these rights to our potential? One cannot know, until one has had an
experience using their rights to proclaim themselves as an American, to feel what our forefathers
felt like when they were not only living in America, but were Americans. Historical figures like
George Washington, Paul Revere, Thomas Jefferson, Free Masons etc, these are all real
Americans, they fought for what they thought was right, they fought for their god-given rights.
Up until The Civil War, where Abraham Lincoln made his Gettysburg Address, where Abraham
Lincoln abolished slavery and stood up for what he believed, giving these rights to the black
community. Abraham Lincoln was an American. However, did Abraham Lincoln giving the
unalienable rights of the Constitution to blacks, make them Americans? Malcolm X, other black
supremacists and civil rights leaders, would argue differently.
Until blacks can experience the same rights as whites, they will never become
Americans, the white man sits at the table with a full plate, and the black man has been given an
empty plate. “What you are telling me is that it isn’t the American white man who is racist, but
it’s the American political, economic and social atmosphere that automatically nourishes a racist
psychology in the white man”(Malcolm X 427). When blacks were introduced to America, it was
essentially not as people, it was as 2/3 of a person, as a slave. Even though slavery was
abolished, the black man still feels as if he is a slave to the white society, whether he realizes it
or not. Malcolm X has said the Black Americans are so brain-washed by white society, that they
don’t even realize that their plate is empty. It’s not necessarily the white man who has handed
this empty plate to black society; yet, it is every aspect of the white society. The political
atmosphere in America nourishes this racist psychology. Up until this year 2008, there hasn’t
been a black man in the race for the presidency of our country. “The black man is sickest of all
politically...when a ten-million vote bloc could be the deciding balance of power in American
politics”(Malcolm X 361). He goes on to say that racist white politicians try to keep blacks off
the polls because they know that they have this power and that the blacks are so brain-washed
that they will stay off the polls. The economic atmosphere in America also nourishes this racist
psychology in the white man. “The black man in North America was economically sick and that
was evident in one simple fact: as a consumer, he got less than his share and as a producer gave
least…In New York City, a city with over a million Negroes, there aren’t twenty black owned
businesses employing over ten people. It’s because black men don’t own and control their own
community’s retail establishments that they can’t stabilize their own community” (Malcolm X
361). The economy is mostly run and operated by whites, and during the 1950’s and 60’s and
throughout Malcolm’s lifetime, it was almost entirely ran by whites. This is a way it makes
whites feel superior, because they control the money and the economy, with power over the
black community. This is a way that the black community feels inferior, because again the white
man’s plate is full and his is still empty. The social atmosphere is what most of all affects this
racist psychology. The separation of living conditions and working conditions, for example, is a
huge factor in not only physical, but mental segregation. The ghettoes and suburbs are separated
by color. The ghettoes are filled with blacks who are forced by their surroundings to have to do
whatever they think they have to do, to stay alive, and to get that high so that they don’t know
what they are doing. The white communities that largely populate the suburbs look down upon
these ghettoes, creating this mental segregation between the races. The blacks share the same
birth country, live in the same country as the whites; yet, are not given the same rights. No
matter what amendments were made to the Constitution, as long as this mental segregation and
racism is influenced by the American atmosphere, the blacks cannot dine at this table. They
cannot be Americans, until Americans themselves, can realize it is necessary to remove this
racism from the atmosphere of their country. “If racism could be removed, America could over a
society where rich and poor could truly live like human beings” (Malcolm X 427). Malcolm X
did a lot for the Black American, along with some other civil rights activists of his time.
The black civil rights movement is said to have started in 1954 with landmark case of
Brown v. Board of Education which reached the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that
racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. The vote was unanimous and NAACP
attorney Thurgood Marshall was victorious in the case, later becoming the first black justice in
our Supreme Court (infoplease.com). In 1955, a white man boarded a Montgomery bus and told
Rosa Parks to give up her seat in the front row of the “black section” of the bus. When she
refused, the white man had her arrested, causing uproar in the black community that led to a bus
boycott in Montgomery that lasted over a year. The buses were finally desegregated in late 1956.
Elemental in this boycott was Dr. Martin Luther King, president of the Montgomery
Improvement Association (infoplease.com). Dr. Martin Luther King was arrested and jailed in
1962 for his role and participation in anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Alabama. The
next year, about 200,000 people participate in the March on Washington, congregating at the
Lincoln Memorial to hear Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, one of the most important
speeches for the black community (infoplease.com). These were all very important movements
during the civil rights era; however, it comes back to the diner and eating what is in front of you.
I believe that these people who stood up to try to gain their civil rights, are trying to eat what is
in front of them, and trying to be Americans. These are elementary and important steps in the
black community completely experiencing the unalienable rights that our Constitution promises.
However, the only way that we will all be able to live as human beings and live together , to have
all races having the ability to eat from the plate of America, is if racism is completely removed
from our society. Until this day comes, civil rights movements will just keep moving, but never
reach the destination, because the destination is not in reach until that roadblock of racism is
removed.
In our history, we fought to have this land that we called America, the land of promises,
where the American dream lives and was born. However, as Malcolm X said, “I don’t see an
American dream, I see an American nightmare” (‘The Ballot or the Bullet’). The black
community has not been able to be a diner at the American table. The plate we have given them
which was promised to be full of freedom and civil rights, was really empty. Many steps have
been taken by both the black and white community to remove the physical segregation, but the
mental segregation and the feeling of supremacy in the white community still exist due to the
racist atmosphere. We have to remove this deadly racism from our world, because until that day,
we can never live in a world of peace, and we can never share the fruits of America.