Malcolm X: ‘The House Negro and the Field Negro’

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6 SOCIALIST ACTION MARCH 2016 Below is an excerpt from Malcolm X’s presentation on “The Race Problem.” The talk was given on Jan. 23, 1963, to the African Students Association and NAACP campus chapter, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich. S old type and the new type. Most of o, you have two types of Negro. The you know the old type. When you read about him in history during slavery he was called “Uncle Tom.” He was the house Negro. And during slavery you had two Negroes. You had the house Negro and the field Negro.

The house Negro usually lived close to his master. He dressed like his mas­ ter. He wore his master’s second-hand clothes. He ate food that his master left on the table. And he lived in his mas­ ter’s house—probably in the basement or the attic—but he still lived in the master’s house.

So whenever that house Negro identi­ fied himself, he always identified him­ self in the same sense that his master identified himself. When his master said, “We have good food,” the house Negro would say, “Yes, we have plen­ ty of good food.” “We” have plenty of good food. When the master said that “we have a fine home here,” the house Negro said, “Yes, we have a fine home here.”

When the master would be sick, the house Negro identified himself so much with his master he’d say, “What’s the matter boss, we sick?” His master’s pain was his pain.

And it hurt him more for his master to be sick than for him to be sick himself. When the house started burning down, that type of Ne­ gro would fight harder to put the master’s house out than the mas­ ter himself would.

But then you had another Ne­ gro out in the field. The house Negro was in the minority. The masses—the field Negroes were the masses. They were in the ma­ jority. When the master got sick, they prayed that he’d die. [Laugh­ ter.] If his house caught on fire, they’d pray for a wind to come along and fan the breeze.

If someone came to the house Negro and said, “Let’s go, let’s separate,” naturally that Uncle Tom would say, “Go where? What could I do without boss? Where would I live? How would I dress? Who would look out for me?” That’s the house Negro. But if you went to the field Negro and said, “Let’s go, let’s sep­ arate,” he wouldn’t even ask you where or how. He’d say, “Yes, let’s go.” And that one ended right there.

So now you have a twentieth-centurytype of house Negro. A twentieth-cen­ tury Uncle Tom. He’s just as much an Uncle Tom today as Uncle Tom was 100 and 200 years ago. Only he’s a mod­ ern Uncle Tom. That Uncle Tom wore a handkerchief around his head. This Un­ cle Tom wears a top hat. He’s sharp. He dresses just like you do. He speaks the same phraseology, the same language. He tries to speak it better than you do. He speaks with the same accents, same diction.

And when you say, “your army,” he says, “our army.” He hasn’t got anybody to defend him, but anytime you say “we” he says “we.” “Our president,” “our government,” “our Senate,” “our con­ gressmen,” “our this and our that.” And he hasn’t even got a seat in that “our” even at the end of the line. So this is the twentieth-century Negro. Whenever you say “you,” the personal pronoun in the singular or in the plural, he uses it right along with you. When you say you’re in trouble, he says, “Yes, we’re in trouble.”

But there’s another kind of Black man on the scene. If you say you’re in trou­ ble, he says, “Yes, you’re in trouble.” [Laughter.] He doesn’t identify himself with your plight whatsoever. n