Uncle Tom Vs. Malcolm X: Difference Between The House Negro

Malcolm describes the difference between the "house Negro" and the "field Negro." Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan. 23 January 1963.

Transcribed text from audio excerpt. [read entire speech]

So you have two types of Negro. The old type and the new type. Most of 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 master. He wore his master 's second-hand clothes. He ate food that his master left on the table. And he lived in his master 's house--probably in the basement or the attic--but he still lived in the master 's house.

So whenever that house Negro identified himself, he always identified himself 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 plenty of good food." "We" have

So now you have a twentieth-century-type of house Negro. A twentieth-century Uncle Tom. He 's just as much an Uncle Tom today as Uncle Tom was 100 and 200 years ago. Only he 's a modern Uncle Tom. That Uncle Tom wore a handkerchief around his head. This Uncle 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 congressmen," "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,