Black Looks

“If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.”

A Poem for Black Hearts

For Malcolm’s eyes, when they broke
the face of some dumb white man, For
Malcolm’s hands raised to bless us
all black and strong in his image
fire darts, the victor’s tireless
thrusts, words hung above the world
change as it may, he said it, and
for this he was killed, for saying,
and feeling, and being/ change, all
collected hot in his heart, For Malcolm’s
heart, raising us above our filthy cities,
for his stride, and his beat, and his address
to the grey monsters of the world, For Malcolm’s
pleas for your dignity, black men, for your life,
black man, for the filling of your minds
with righteousness, For all of him dead and
gone and vanished from us, and all of him which
clings to our speech black god of our time.
For all of him, and all of yourself, look up,
black man, quit stuttering and shuffling, look up,
black man, quit whining and stooping, for all of him,
For Great Malcolm a prince of the earth, let nothing in us rest
until we avenge ourselves for his death, stupid animals
that killed him, let us never breathe a pure breath if
we fail, and white men call us faggots till the end of
the earth.

Le Roi Jones (Imamu Amiri Baraka), April 1965

Democracy Now: Malcolm X

Tags: Malcolm X