Spike Lee - Malcolm X Movie: Speech in Harlem lyrics

I must emphasize at the out-start that the honorable Elijah Muhammad is not a politician So i'm not here this afternoon as a republican nor as democrat Not as a mason, nor as an elk, not as a protestant or as a catholic, not as a christian, nor a Jew, not as a baptist or a Methodist,in fact not even as an American. Because if I was an American, the problem that confronts our people today wouldn't even exist So I have to stand here today what I was when I was born. A black man. Before there was any such thing as a republican or a democrat, we were black Before there was any such thing as a mason or an elk, we were black Before there was any such thing as a Jew or a christian, we were black people In fact, before there was any such place as America, we were black And after America has long pa**ed from the scene there will still be black people Every election year these politicians are sent up here to pacify us They are sent here and set up here by the white man This is what they do, they send d** down here in Harlem to pacify us, they send alcohol down here to pacify us, they send prostitution down here to pacify us Boy you can't even get d** in Harlem without the white man's permission You can't get prostitution in Harlem without the white man's permission You can't get gambling in Harlem without the white man's permission Every time you break the seal on that liquor bottle, that's a government seal you're breaking Oh I say it, and I say it again, you been had, you been took, you been hoodwinked,bamboozled, led astray, run amok