The Hate That Hate Produced

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The Hate That Hate Produced is a television documentary about the Nation of Islam . It was produced in 1959 by journalists Mike Wallace and Louis Lomax.

background

In 1959 Wallace and Lomax were television journalists for News Beat , a program on WNTA-TV in New York .

Lomax briefed Wallace about the Nation of Islam, and Wallace became interested in the group. Lomax, who was African American, got access to the group and was able to conduct interviews with two white cameramen. The Hate That Hate Produced aired in five shows in July 1959.

content

The Hate That Hate Produced began with an introduction by Wallace:

While city officials, state agencies, white liberals, and sober-minded Negroes stand idly by, a group of Negro dissenters is taking to street-corner step ladders, church pulpits, sports arenas, and ballroom platforms across the United States, to preach a gospel of hate that would set off a federal investigation if it were preached by Southern whites. As officials, state agencies, white liberals and clear-minded Negroes stand idly by, a group of Negro dissidents have taken over street corners, pulpits, sports venues and dance halls across the United States to preach a gospel of hatred that is subject to federal investigation if it were preached by white southerners.

The camera shows a scene with Louis X (who later called himself Louis Farrakhan ) accusing the white man of the following crimes:

I charge the white man with being the greatest liar on earth! I charge the white man with being the greatest drunkard on earth .... I charge the white man with being the greatest gambler on earth. I charge the white man, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, with being the greatest murderer on earth. I charge the white man with being the greatest peace-breaker on earth .... I charge the white man with being the greatest robber on earth. I charge the white man with being the greatest deceiver on earth. I charge the white man with being the greatest trouble-maker on earth. So therefore, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I ask you, bring back a verdict of guilty as charged! I accuse the white man of being the greatest liar on earth! I accuse the white man of being the greatest drunkard on earth ... I accuse the white man of being the greatest gamer on earth. I accuse the white man, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, of being the greatest murderer on earth. I accuse the white man of being the greatest peacebreaker on earth ... I accuse the white man of being the greatest robber on earth. I accuse the white man of being the greatest deceiver on earth. I accuse the white man of being the greatest troublemaker on earth. And so, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I urge you to plead guilty according to the indictment!

Wallace addressed the audience:

The indictment you just heard has been circulated over and over again in the main cities of the country. This charge is the culmination of a moral piece called "The Trial".

The essence of the plot is a trial where the white man was charged with crimes against the black man. He was found guilty. The judgment is death. The play is sponsored and produced by a group of religious negroes called "The Muslims".

During the broadcast, Wallace told viewers that the nation was the most powerful Black supremacist group. The documentary included an excerpt from the University of Islam, a nation-run school where Wallace said "black children were raised to hate white men." Wallace told viewers the nation had 250,000 members, a number that had been untruthfully inflated.

The Hate That Hate Produced included interviews with Lomax with Elijah Muhammad , leader of the Nation of Islam. When Lomax accused him of preaching hatred, Malcolm X said he was just telling the truth. Muhammad said he believed blacks are divine and whites are devils. He also said that Allah was a black man. The show included a Lomax interview with Malcolm X , the charismatic spokesman for the Nation of Islam. Lomax asked him if all whites were evil and Malcolm X replied that whites were evil overall. "We researched history and found nothing where they would have done something good as a group" . When asked about the nation's schools, Malcolm denied that children were raised in hatred there. They would be taught that in the same way as white children, except for the "little black sambo" story. Malcolm was referring to a famous children's story about a little black boy. "Sambo" was a derogatory term for black people in the Anglo-Saxon language area. At the end of the program, Wallace called for the support of black leaders who would preach patience. He said it was important to make the United States a nation that was indivisible, with freedom and justice for all.

Public response

The Hate That Hate Produced shocked millions of viewers. Most whites had never heard of a Nation of Islam and were amazed that there were blacks who thought negatively of whites. For many white viewers it was the first time they learned that there was a radical black alternative to the Afro-American Civil Rights Movement .

Some African Americans couldn't believe black people would say something like this out loud, but quite a few agreed with what they said. The number of people attending Nation of Islam events grew dramatically. And a few weeks after the show was broadcast, the number of members had doubled to 60,000.

The Hate That Hate Produced brought Malcolm X national attention. Before that, he had rarely been mentioned in the press. After the broadcast, Malcolm X was invited to a number of debates on television and at universities.

Modern analysis and criticism

Recent critics accused The Hate That Hate Produced of being biased against the Nation of Islam . One critic said that the title itself reflected the report's lopsided view. Others accused Wallace of producing a distorted image. The report is "obviously one-sided" and nothing more than tabloid journalism. The first thing Wallace told viewers about Muhammad and Malcolm X was that they had both been in prison. Obviously, this should already discredit the entire organization. Wallace spoke of a "troubling story" and used phrases like "black supremacy" and "black racism", and "gospel of hate" to frighten the white audience. Critics accused him of not having an interest in balance.

In his book White Violence, Black Response , Herbert Shapiro criticizes Wallace's opening comments for the Nation of Islam preaching a gospel of hatred that would lead to federal investigation if it were preached by white Southerners. He noted that white southerners - including elected officials - did indeed deliver hate sermons and that the federal government would have done next to nothing to stop them. Shapiro also claims that Wallace untruthfully coupled the nation's rhetoric condemning whites with a plan to attack whites.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peniel E. Joseph: Waiting 'til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America . Henry Holt and Company, New York 2006, ISBN 0-8050-7539-9 , p. 21.
  2. ↑ a b c d Claude Andrew Clegg III: An Original Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad . St. Martin's Press, New York 1997, ISBN 0-312-18153-1 , p. 125.
  3. ^ A b Mark Lawrence McPhail: The Rhetoric of Racism Revisited: Reparations or Separation? , 2nd edition, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Md. 2002, ISBN 0-7425-1719-5 , p. 175.
  4. ↑ C. Eric Lincoln: The Black Muslims in America , 3rd Edition, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids, Mich. 1994, ISBN 0-8028-0703-8 , p. 1.
  5. ^ A b Adam Joel Banks: Race, Rhetoric, and Technology: Searching for Higher Ground . Routledge, London 2005, ISBN 0-8058-5313-8 , p. 52.
  6. ^ Joseph: Waiting 'til the Midnight Hour , p. 22.
  7. ↑ a b c Clegg: An Original Man , p. 126.
  8. ↑ a b Lincoln: The Black Muslims in America , p. 69.
  9. ↑ a b Kevern Verney: The Debate on Black Civil Rights in America . Manchester University Press, Manchester 2006, ISBN 0-7190-6761-8 , p. 118.
  10. ↑ a b Banks: Race, Rhetoric, and Technology , p. 54.
  11. ^ A b c Herbert Shapiro: White Violence and Black Response: From Reconstruction to Montgomery . University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, Mass. 1988, ISBN 0-87023-578-8 , p. 469.
  12. ↑ a b c Shapiro: White Violence and Black Response , p. 468.
  13. ↑ Rod Bush: We Are Not What We Seem: Black Nationalism and Class Struggle in the American Century . New York University Press, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8147-1318-1 , p. 172.
  14. ↑ Russell J. Rickford : Betty Shabazz: A Remarkable Story of Survival and Faith Before and After Malcolm X . Sourcebooks, Naperville, Ill. 2003, ISBN 1-4022-0171-0 , p. 119.
  15. ^ Sean McCloud: Making the American Religious Fringe: Exotics, Subversives, and Journalists, 1955-1993 . University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC 2004, ISBN 0-8078-5496-4 , p. 61.
  16. ^ A b Douglas T. Miller, Marion Nowak: The Fifties: The Way We Really Were . Doubleday, New York 1977, ISBN 0-385-11248-3 , p. 209.
  17. ^ Richard Brent Turner: Islam in the African-American Experience , 2nd edition, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Ind. 2003, ISBN 0-253-21630-3 , p. 197.
  18. ^ Lewis V. Baldwin, Amiri YaSin Al-Hadid: Between Cross and Crescent: Christian and Muslim Perspectives on Malcolm and Martin . University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Fla. 2002, ISBN 0-8130-2457-9 , p. 281.
  19. ^ Richard W. Leeman: African-American Orators: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook . Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn. 1996, ISBN 0-313-29014-8 , p. 413.
  20. ^ Joseph: Waiting 'til the Midnight Hour , p. 24.
  21. ^ Hugh Pearson: The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America . Perseus, New York 1995, ISBN 0-201-48341-6 , p. 23.
  22. ^ Banks: Race, Rhetoric, and Technology , p. 51.

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