CHOMSKY Subscribers:

James Baldwin, from a 1972 essay (reproduced in "Malcolm X: As They Knew
Him," ed. David Gallen, 1992):

"The others were discussing the past or the future, or a country which may
once have existed, or one which may yet be brought into existence--Malcolm
was speaking of the bitter and unanswerable present. And it was too
important that this be heard for anyone to attempt to soften it.It was
important, of course, for white people to hear it, if they were still able
to hear; but it was of the utmost importance for black people to hear it,
for the sake of their morale. It was important for them to know that there
was someone like them in public life, telling the truth about their
condition.

Malcolm considered himself to be the spiritual property of the people who
produced him. He did not consider himself to be their savior, he was far
too modest for that, and gave that role to another; but he considered
himself to be their servant and, in order not to betray that trust, he was
willing to die, and died.

Malcolm was not a racist, not even when he thought he was. His
intelligence was far too complex than that; furthermore, if he had been a
racist, not many in this racist country would have considered him
dangerous. He would have sounded familiar and even comforting, his
familiar rage confirming the reality of white power, and sensuously
inflaming a bizarre species of guilty eroticism without which, I am
beginning to believe, most white Americans of the more or less liberal
persuasion cannot draw a single breath.

What made him unfamiliar and dangerous was not his hatred for white people
but his love for blacks, his apprehension of the horror of the black
condition and the reasons for it, and his determination so to work on
their hearts and minds that they would be enabled to see their condition
and change it themselves."