w a s t e . t i m e . n o w

Well, yeah Malcolm X is a controversial figure in history. By advocating extremism, he clearly established the danger that existed if white America failed to change the status quo — and bolstered the cause of mainstream activists like Martin Luther King.

While I tend to be a pacifist, I’ve always thought Malcolm X was a very logical and reasoned man. Saul Alinsky wrote that Gandhi wasn’t necessarily a pacifist — he simply chose tactics most likely to succeed, and violence against the British Empire in one of their colonies had a snowball’s chance in hell of working. According to Alinsky, Gandhi would have chosen a more confrontational approach if logic and reason suggested it had a better chance of succeeding.

I’m a simple man, and I don’t know about all that — but I do know Malcolm X is one of the most astute and stirring speakers I’ve heard. Check out these recordings of his Message to the Grassroots (in MP3 format). Also, the Ballot or the Bullet Part 1 and Part 2.

“The young generation don’t want to hear anything about the odds are against us. What do we care about odds?”