Malcolm X Quotes
There has to be something wrong when a man or a woman leaves his own people and marries somebody of another kind.
X, Malcolm, and Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Grove Press, 1965.
At the time he was not Church president. The Mormon Church has had a very complex history regarding race; Blacks for example were prohibited from leadership positions in the Church. While not the only racist church, Mormon racism was more nuanced. Mormons aggressively sought Blacks and other ethnics for conversion into the church and on a personal and social level did not exhibit the antipathy towards non-whites that so many in other religions did. Yet their theology prohibited Blacks from certain leadership positions. Other religious racism was personal and social but not theological; Mormon racism was theological and not personal. Reforms have changed things slightly but critics of the church leadership at the start of the 21st century pointed to the attitudes of the President of the Church.
Although intermarriage is discouraged by many cultures in America, Black intermarriage is the only kind that for years had the force of the criminal law supporting the prejudice.
He was silent regarding the Indian men who were living with and married to white women. The double standard operated even to issues of blood purity. His view at the time is remarkably consonant with those of right wing fundamentalists at the time and today, the Nazi’s of Germany, and other non Indians.
Racial intermarriage was quite common in Colonial America. Virginia passed this law—the first of many in Virginia to try and eliminate miscegenation—which they never did.
Bilbo was one of the worst racists who ever served in the Congress.
He served a jail sentence in Britain for inciting race hatred. This statement was made in response to the accusation that he was an extremist.
Utah passed a strong law against interracial sex, but the punishment was not death. See {629151}. Young however saw interracial sex as an extremely serious problem. There was nothing in the Bible or the Book of Mormon that would account for this strong animus, so presumably it was personal. For many years Mormons converted and accepted Blacks, but they could not be priests or leaders of churches. That prohibition was ended and the Modern Mormon Church is free from racism in its doctrine.
The danger of racial and ethnic interbreeding was a fabricated myth. We now know that the danger can come from pure breeding and not obtaining enough genetic diversity. One reason that man has been so successful is that the species is the product of very extensive genetic diversity. For example EVERY human being on the planet had some genetic relationship to a Black African woman.
Russell like the rest of the Southern Congressional delegation, though members of the President’s own party were vehemently opposed to any civil rights legislation that would erode the legal racism and segregation that was prevalent in the South. The irony of Russell’s statement is that by Russell’s definition of a “mongrel race” the South was just that. And in a very real genetic sense all the great civilizations were characterized by interbreeding which is what Russell and other Southerners were paranoid about. The Southern institution of slavery was rife with the sexual abuse of the female slaves by the white masters and/or members of their family, overseers and other whites with power over the slaves. While many of the offspring were identifiable as mixed race (defined as Black by the laws at the time) many appeared to be white and light skinned enough to “pass” and did. A very large percentage of Southern white and black families had mixed blood in the family when Russell was complaining. More to the point, although it was not known at the time, we now know that every human being on earth can be genetically traced back through myocardial DNA to Blacks emanating from Africa. However, even using his narrow vision of race, his history was wanting. A number of great civilizations were of mixed race. One dramatic example was the great dynasties of Egypt. Cleopatra, herself, was from the union of Alexander the Great’s Greek General Ptolemy and the traditional line of Egyptian Pharos. Alexander’s Greek Soldiers interbred, as part of Alexander’s policy of occupation as suggested by Aristotle. All those societies thereafter were “mongrel” races at least in the ruling and upper classes. Actually the United States and the Soviet Union, the two super powers of the day both were ethnically and racially, highly diversified and both had a great deal of miscegenation. Scientists had made a very good argument that miscegenation strengthens a people—not weakens it.
Malcolm X was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement. He is best known for his time spent as a vocal spokesman for the Nation of Islam.
