Transcription
And winding down for the question and answer period. And I hope there be a very jolly one. I'm not going anyway till tomorrow. I'm sorry about that, but I have to teach at Malcolm King College. I teach there now, uh, voluntarily for the last 20 years. I taught a course, I've been teaching a course on Egyptology as my contribution to my community, and I don't like to miss classes. But you could see why from 1942 when I was started to teach to the present time, I've had to struggle. I've paid the price. I've been shot out physically for what I teach, but no one wants to check the evidence. But the hundreds of people who have gone to me to Egypt when and study tours have seen. And the sad part is that so many go and see, but they dare not say a thing when they come back for the fear of losing even family.
In the final 10 minutes of his powerful "Wake Up Black Man" speech, Dr. Yousef Bakinin urges black people to overcome internalized fear and break free from the slave mindset that centuries of oppression have left behind. Dr. Bakinin urges that this inherited mindset, born from the trauma of slavery, continues to to hinder true freedom. To break these psychological chains, he stresses the importance of courage, particularly the courage to confront both external systems of oppression and internalized beliefs that keep black people from recognizing their power. He contends that liberation cannot be fully realized until this fear is faced head-on and overcome.
Dr. B. Yakan goes on to critique the educational system and its role in reinforcing this mindset. He speaks speaks to the deliberate miseducation that has historically erased or distorted African history, describing it as a tool designed to keep black Americans disconnected from their cultural heritage and unaware of their potential. By learning only a history rooted in subjugation or omission, black people, he urges, are kept docile and detached from the pride that comes from knowing their true past. He calls for black Americans to seek out and reclaim their authentic history, emphasizing that knowledge of one's roots is essential to establishing a powerful identity.
"How sad that is! How sad it is that people will here will be angry because I say to you, have pride, wake up! I shouldn't say to you, 'Wake up black men.' I should say to you, 'Wake up people.' I'm the only people in the world we are not allowed to talk to each other for our own common interest. Everyone else, the Italians come together as Italians, the Irish as Irish, the white Jews as white Jews, but we are told we can't have anything by ourselves because it's reverse racism. They can't even let us have forward racism. We reverse everybody else are benefited by us by it by us, but us. And all because, because I have made my mind that my people aren't to be taught that they come out of a drop out of a sky as slaves and were slaves. And every time you see a movie from Washington D.C. or anything, whatever the period, the only time you see us, we are slaves."
I remember going to the opera. I don't go to that place unless somebody give me a ticket, 'cause they ain't got nothing about me. The FL Mouse, what the hell I want to say, but a FL, a mouse, little mouse running around in Germany. So I went to one that's supposed to be about me, about Dido. Very is play this is happening in Egypt and Ethiopia, and I'm sitting down in a $22 seat, you know, I didn't buy that one. And it is about the princess of Egypt and the prince of Ethiopia. And I'm looking at the stage, and the prince is blond, and the princess, blond. Yet, and I'm saying, like simple for Langston Hughes, you know, I'm dummy. When will the Ethiopian and the Egyptian come? And the person who give me the T there, they are said, "There, they look Greek to me. Look friend, Dutch, German." And the brother say, "You prejudiced?" I said, "Yeah, behind that I am. You mean to tell me that that's a blond Ethiopian and that's a blond Egyptian? But you see, you would have been satisfied. You will call it art for art's sake." Not me. It was no damn good because Ethiopians don't look like that. And I was going to sit down there and lie to myself that that had any value. When you had Martina Arroyo, you had Leontyne Price, you had all kinds of people, they could have put in that plate. But the Metropolitan Opera House wasn't ready yet for Leontyne Price, no Martina Arroyo, or anybody else. And until they were ready, I was going to give them hell till they get ready and made them get ready, because I'm not going to sit down anytime behind. And now I don't need it to do anymore. I retired from teaching in colleges, and I wasn't doing it then. I wasn't sitting quiet then, and I'm not going to sit quiet now when I don't have to worry any, never worry then, to bring the truth to my people.
Time doesn't permit. I have to, I had to go here, there, and everything to just show you the culmination of history. History isn't a thing of the past because of history, you act and react today. History is now. What happened yesterday makes you act today. It will make you act tomorrow. What happened to Booker T. Washington made what you're doing possible, the interruption of the people with whom Booker T. dealt with. And so it will be unbecoming you not to go forward and further the attributes of Booker T., Dr. King, and others. You can't fail. You can't come to this institution and nonchalantly take courses and hope to pass. You have an obligation to pass and pass well. Not only to read the books in front of you, but to read others. Certainly, if you're taking engineering or science or something like that, you need a lot of time, but you can't ignore self, the understanding, the knowledge of self. You can't come through here and don't take courses in African history or African-American history. You can't do it. Some of you believe because you're black, you know yourself. Go check it out. You get your European history, you must take that to graduate, 101, 201, 101, but take yours at least on your own initiative. Learn who you were, learn who you are, learn what you must be. And I say, I walked with my head in the clouds because I have no fear. I have no embarrassment of my enslavement because you see the shackles have been off my body, my leg, my feet, and I've removed it from the last place, my mind.
[Applause]
And thus, I am a free man. When I look in the mirror, I feel proud of what I see. I don't need Reaper, I don't snot, I don't stick nothing in my arms because I'm already high, high with the beauty of the woman that gave birth to me. Somebody the other day asked me, "Do you know God?" I said, "Yes." She died 14 years ago. "What you mean?" I said, "Mama, dear Mama, the first time I open my eye, there was a black woman putting up nipple from a breast in my mouth to sustain me, having sustained me for 10 months in her womb, not nine. That's the sign. That was God. The God I knew. The other one is belief. Belief and belief isn't fact. Belief is a hope. Belief is faith. Belief may not happen, but Mama did get me. And so whoever Papa, that was the man she pointed out to me that stood there, is also part of that. Thus, Mama, God, Mama, Daddy, and I are the Trinity, the Holy Trinity. Dig it out. Check it out. Here, they haven't made people from dirt in a long time. They, they make them from sexual intercourse. Little fellow called sperm, have you ever heard of him? He runs up a little alley called fallopian tube, and he runs into a little thing called ovum. He jumps in, takes a seat, she gobbles him up, fertilizes him, and whoop, come the Weevil. He jumps out here, my boy, here my girl, here I'm something else.
[Applause]
[Applause]
But, nevertheless, you could see they're not going to invite me back to Tusi. But it took me 50 years to get it over. I want to thank the student government, the body of the school as a whole, those in administration who made the possibility of the air, etc., and for those who have been so nice making the day the most comfortable one since I've arrived. I hope that the monologue so far, hope it will be a dialogue as soon as I finish, would cause you to at least do some more thinking. Don't accept what I say. Check it out. Read books about yourself. There are millions of them. Let no one tell you to the contrary. Read all kinds of religious and theories. Don't let anyone tell you this is it and there's no more. Read it all. Read my, if you could read my Khem, you could read anybody's Holy Bible, the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, the Muslim Quran, the Christian Holy Bible, New Testament, the Mus, the, the, the, the, the, the Jewish Old Testament, the book of Olori, the teachings of the Mar, that's the European religion, the teachings of Damala Wio, the teachings of Budum, and by the way, it has nothing to do with witchcraft. The teachings of Rai, the major God in Kenya, Unkulunkulu of South Africa, Ra, P Osiris, the god of Resurrection 4,000 years before Jesus, he was taught to raise men from the dead, is known as the god of Resurrection. Read, read, read, read about your, your people in the past, the present, the future. Understand the voice as understood God. Understand Malcolm as you understood King. Understand these men. Understand Sojourner Truth as you understand Harriet Tubman. Go back into the past and read about your most beautiful and your most strong queens like Hatut, who fought and drove out the Huns out of Egypt, and Zingha, who fought for 13 years ahead of her troops, defeating the Germans and the British and others before she died on the battlefield. Queens who stopped the Arabs in North Africa and died at the head of our troops. These are great and glorious African women. Read about the African woman who took the guts of a pig, took out the feast, cleaned it out, washed it out, cooked it, saw her man could get a little protein, and her children call it Chitterlings, no crimple state either way you want. The African woman who had sense enough to send her daughter to school when her man-child had to go in the workforce from before sunup to after sundown. Show me how you treat your woman, and I'll show you the condition of your race. Thank you.
Dr. Bakinin suggests that history is not just a record of the past but a foundation for shaping the future. He believes that with a solid grasp of their history, black people can begin to dismantle the negative stereotypes and limitations imposed on them. In knowing where they come from, they can better understand the strengths they possess and the legacies they are capable of building. Through this lens, claiming history is not simply about honoring ancestors; it's about realizing one's potential in the present and future.
In the penultimate moments of his speech, Dr. Bakinin argues that the path to liberation is one of intentional action, not passive hope. He insists that prayer alone cannot dismantle the structures of oppression that black people face. Liberation, he explains, must be actively taken rather than passively awaited. This is a call to those listening to take responsibility for their freedom, to recognize that change comes from collective action and determination rather than wishful thinking.
Dr. Bakinin also underscores that whether people recognize it or not, black Americans are constantly creating their history. Every action taken contributes to a broader narrative, one that, according to him, can either reflect empowerment or continued oppression. He encourages black individuals to consciously choose how they will be remembered, challenging them to create a history of triumph rather than one defined by struggle alone. By being mindful of their actions, they can shape a legacy of strength, resilience, and empowerment for future generations.