Not only that, but God has started slapping their planes down from the sky. Last year [1962] God brought down one of their planes loaded with crackers whose fathers had lynched your and my brothers and sisters. They were from your state, Lomax, down there in Georgia where both you and Mr. Muhammad come from. Now, long before that plane crash I predicted [in Los Angeles] that God was going to strike back at the devil for the way white cops brutalized our brothers in Los Angeles. When the plane fell, I said this was God’s way of letting his wrath be known. Now for that I was called names—some of these Uncle Tom Negroes rushed into print to condemn me for what I said. But what was wrong with what I said? Everybody has a God and believes that his God will deliver him and protect him from his enemies! Why can’t the black man have a God? What’s so wrong when a black man says his God will protect him from his white foe? If Jehovah can slay Philistines for the Jews, why can’t Allah slay crackers for the so-called Negro.
I said much the same thing when that submarine—the Thresher—went down to the bottom of the sea. I realize that there were some originals [Negroes] on board, but that simply underlines my point that the so-called Negro should not integrate with white people. He should stay as far as possible from them at all times.
LOMAX: Just a moment, if I may, Minister Malcolm. Now, you talk about separation from the white man.
MALCOLM X: Yes, sir.
LOMAX: You even take it so far as to suggest that we shouldn’t even get on airplanes and ships with white people. Am I correct in that?
MALCOLM X: Yes, sir, on the whole. Yes.
LOMAX: But Minister Malcolm, few people, Negro or white, travel as much as you and I do. You spend much of your life getting on and off aircraft. Don’t you fear that you just might be aboard when God sees fit to slap down a jet and kill a few score white people?
MALCOLM X: Sir, my faith in God is such that I am not afraid. I know that I will not die until my time comes. But if I am aboard one of these vessels, I will be happy to give my life to see some of these white devils die. Like Samson, I am ready to pull down the white man’s temple, knowing full well that I will be destroyed by the falling rubble.
LOMAX: But Minister Malcolm, you make no accommodation for the changes that have come about as a result of the Negro Revolt. What do you think will be the results of the current demonstrations against segregation?
MALCOLM X: Lomax, as you know, these Negro leaders have been telling the white man everything is all right, everything is under control, and they have been telling the white man that Mr. Muhammad is wrong, don’t listen to him. But everything that Mr. Muhammad has been saying is going to come to pass, is now coming to pass. Now the Negro leaders are standing up saying that we are about to have a racial explosion. You’re going to have a racial explosion, and a racial explosion is more dangerous than an atomic explosion. It’s going to explode because black people are dissatisfied; they’re dissatisfied not only with the white man, but they’re dissatisfied with these Negroes who have been sitting around here posing as leaders and spokesmen for black people and actually making the problem worse instead of making the problem better.