QuoteProject
When you want a nation, that's called nationalism... Black nationalism. A revolutionary is a Black nationalist. He wants a nation.
Malcolm X
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Nationalism emphasizes the desire for self-determination and unity among a specific ethnic or cultural group, highlighting the revolutionary aspirations within that context.

Malcolm X highlights the concept of nationalism in relation to the African American struggle for identity and self-determination. He asserts that black nationalism is a revolutionary movement aiming for a separate nation where black individuals can hold power and pride in their heritage, distinguishing it from general notions of nationalism that may not encompass the struggles faced by marginalized communities.

Themes

NationalismBlack NationalismRevolutionIdentitySelf-Determination

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about cultural pride and unity at a civil rights rally.

More from Malcolm X

A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.
Malcolm XRead
I have more respect for a man who lets me know where he stands, even if he's wrong, than the one who comes up like an angel and is nothing but a devil.
Malcolm XRead
So over you is the greatest enemy a man can have β€” and that is fear. I know some of you are afraid to listen to the truth β€” you have been raised on fear and lies. But I am going to preach to you the truth until you are free of that fear...
Malcolm XRead
Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.
Malcolm XRead
Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else.
Malcolm XRead
Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was "What's your alma mater?" I told him, "Books." You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I'm not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man.
Malcolm XRead

Similar quotes

The U.S.'s major strength factor and weapon is its economy. If you cripple it, you cripple the military.
Chester W. NimitzRead
The socialism of centralised state control of industry and production, is dead. It misunderstood the nature and development of a modern market economy. It failed to recognise that the state and public sector can become a vested interest capable of oppression as much as the vested interests of wealth and capital. it was based on a false view of class that became too rigid to explain or illuminate the nature of class division today.
Tony BlairRead
Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.
Peter UstinovRead
Everything would be alright if everything was put back in the hands of the people, and we're going to have to put it back in the hands of the people.
Fred HamptonRead
If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.
H. L. MenckenRead
We cannot expect that everyone, to use the phrase of a decade ago, will talk sense to the American people. But we can hope that fewer people will listen to nonsense. And the notion that this Nation is headed for defeat through deficit, or that strength is but a matter of slogans, is nothing but just plain nonsense.
John F. KennedyRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.