Malcolm X (1992)
Albert Hall: Baines
Quotes
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Baines : The body of the sacred temple; it must be purified.
Malcolm X : [whispering] I will not touch the white man's poison; his drugs, his liquor, his swine, his women.
Baines : A Muslim must be strikingly upright; an outstanding example so that those in the darkness can see the power of the light.
Malcolm X : [whispering] I will not commit adultery or fornication. I will not lie, cheat or steal.
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Baines : [visiting Malcolm in the shower after getting out of Ad-Seg] I know how you feel. Like you wanna lay down and die. I brought you something.
[hands him a cup of water along with a matchbox]
Malcolm X : Yeah, well, I don't need no more favors from you.
Baines : It's nutmeg. Put it in the water. You need something to get the monkey off your back. It's not cocaine but it'll help some.
[Malcolm looks skeptically at him for a moment and then grabs the cup, opens the matchbox and dumps the contents into the water, stirring it]
Baines : Drink it slow. The stuff is strong.
Malcolm X : [takes a drink and finds out that it is] So what's your hype, huh?
Baines : I can show you how to get out of prison. And it's no hype.
Malcolm X : Yeah, well, talk, daddy-o. I'm listening.
[taking another drink]
Malcolm X : Hey, this ain't bad. You got some more?
Baines : That's the last fix I'm giving you.
Malcolm X : So what'd you give it to me for, then, huh?
Baines : Because you needed it. Because you couldn't hear me without it.
Malcolm X : [snorts] Nigger, get on outta my face.
[walks away, back underneath the shower head]
Baines : I think you got more sense than any cat in this prison. Why the hell don't you use it? You can't bust out of here like they do in the movies. Because even if you get out, you're still in prison.
Malcolm X : Yeah, you ain't lying there.
Baines : You'll go busting your fist against a stone wall. You're not using your brain! That's what the white man wants you to do. Look at you, putting all that poison in your hair.
Malcolm X : I think you been in prison too long, my man, because everybody on the outside conks.
Baines : Why? Why does everybody on the outside conk?
Malcolm X : Because they don't want to walk around with a nappy head, looking like...
Baines : Looking like what? Like me? Like a nigger? Why don't you wanna look like what you are? What makes you ashamed of being black?
Malcolm X : Let me tell you something. I'm not ashamed of being anything.
[goes to turn the shower head back on to rinse his hair but Baines grabs him by the wrist]
Malcolm X : You better get your hands off me. I got to wash this out.
Baines : Let it burn!
Malcolm X : Nigger, get your hands off of me!
Baines : [releases him] Go on. Burn yourself. Pain yourself. Put all that poison in your hair, in your body, trying to be white!
Malcolm X : [chuckles] I don't wanna hear all this shit.
[resumes his shower]
Baines : I thought you were smart. But you're just another one of those cats strutting down the avenue in your clown suit with all that mess on you! Looking like a monkey! The white man sees you and laughs. He laughs because he knows you ain't white!
Malcolm X : Man, who are you?
Baines : No, the question is, who are *you?* Well, I'll tell you. You are lost in the darkness. But Elijah Muhammad has come to bring you into the light.
[Malcolm looks questioningly at Baines, asking "Who?"]
Baines : Elijah Muhammad can get you out of prison. Out of the prison of your mind.
[drops his tone in disappointment]
Baines : But maybe all you want is another fix.
[gives Malcolm one final look before walking out]
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Baines : l'm telling you God's words, not no hustle. And l'm gonna tell you: God is black.
Malcolm X : God is black? Everybody knows God is white.
Baines : Everything the white man taught you, you accepted. He taught you you were a black heathen and you believed him. He taught you to worship a blond, blue-eyed Jesus, with white skin, and you believed him. He taught you that black was a curse and you believed that.
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Baines : If you take one step toward Allah, he will take two steps toward you.
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Betty Shabazz : Brother Minister, the sister wonders if you know what sister Harriet Tubman did between taking souls to the Promised Land?
Malcolm X : No. sister?
Betty Shabazz : She ate. Excuse me.
[exits]
Baines : She's interesting.
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Baines : [reading from the dictionary] "Black: Destitute of light, devoid of color. Enveloped in darkness, hence, utterly dismal or gloomy as, 'The future looked black.'"
Malcolm X : Pretty good with them words, ain't ya.
Baines : "Soiled with dirt. Foul. Sullen. Hostile. Forbidding, as, 'a black day.' Foully or outrageously wicked as, 'black cruelty.' lndicating disgrace, dishonor or culpability." And there's others. "Blackmail." "Blackball." "Blackguard."
Malcolm X : Yeah, man. That's something, all right.
Baines : Let's look up "white." Here. Read.
Malcolm X : "White: The color of pure snow. Reflecting all the rays of the spectrum. The opposite of black. Free from spot or blemish." "lnnocent?" "Pure." Huh? Ain't this something? "Without evil intent. Harmless. Honest, square-dealing, and honorable." Wait a minute. This - this - this is written by white folks, though, right? This is a white folks book?
Baines : This sure ain't no black man's book.
Malcolm X : So what we reading this one for?
Baines : Because the truth lying near. If you read behind the words. You got to take everything the white man says and use it against him.
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Baines : l read, study. Because the first thing a black man must have is respect for himself. Respect his body and his mind. Quit takin' the white man's poisons into his body. His cigarettes, his dope, his liquor, his white woman, his pork.
Malcolm X : Pork? Yeah, my Mama used to say that. Don't eat no pork.
Baines : Your mama was right. The pig is a filthy beast. Part rat, part cat, and the rest is dog.
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Baines : When that grafted, blue-eyed devil locked us in chains, one hundred million of us, broke up our families, tortured us, cut us off from our language, our religion, our history. Let me tell you about black history. We are the original man. The first men on earth were black. They ruled. And there wasn't a white face anywhere. But they teach us that we lived in caves and swung from trees. That's a lie! Black men never did that. We were a race of *kings* when the white man crawled on all fours over the hills in Europe. Do they know who they are? Do you know where you came from?
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Baines : What's your name?
Malcolm X : Malcolm Little.
Baines : No. That's the name of the slave masters that owned your family. You don't even know who you are. You're nothing. Less than nothing. Who are you?
Malcolm X : Look, l ain't - shit. All right, l ain't Malcolm Little. I ain't Red. I damn sure ain't Satan.
Baines : That's right. So who are you?
Malcolm X : l don't know.
Baines : We are a nation - of the tribe of Shabazz, lost in this wilderness called North America.
Malcolm X : Tribe of Shabazz.
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Baines : The merciful Allah has sent us a messenger, a black man named Elijah Muhammad. He reveals to us the true knowledge about ourselves. He teaches us that the true nature of the original man, the black man, is righteousness. So, lf the black man's nature is righteousness?
Malcolm X : Then the true nature of the white man is wickedness.
Baines : l knew you'd get it.
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Baines : The key to lslam is submission. That is why five times daily, we turn to Mecca to pray, to bend our knees in submission.
Malcolm X : I can't do that, Brother Baines.
Baines : The lost, found, must bend their knees, to admit their guilt. To implore Allah's forgiveness - is the hardest thing on earth. The hardest and the greatest.
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Baines : Brother Malcolm, this is Sister Betty. She lectures our Muslim women on hygiene and diet. She stresses care for the body and regular eating habits.
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Baines : Sure. The white man throw us a bone and we're supposed to forget 400 years of oppression.
Baines : Yeah, but a nigger - a negro playing in the big leagues, that's something, ain't it?
Baines : l told you to go behind the words and dig out the truth. They let us sing and dance and smile, and then they let one so-called negro into the majors. That doesn't cancel out greatest crime in history.
