I was flying on a plan from Algiers to Geneva about four weeks ago, with two other Americans. both of them were white-one was a male, the other was a female. And after we had flown together for about forty minutes, the lady turned to me and asked me-she had looked at my briefcase and saw the initials M and X-and she said, "I would like to ask you a question. What kind of last name could you have that begins with X?"
So I told her, "That's it: X."
She was quiet for a little while. For about ten minutes she was quiet. She hadn't been quiet at all up to then, you know. And then finally she turned and she said, "Well, what's your first name?"
I said, "Malcolm."
She was quiet for about ten more minutes. Then she turned and she said, "Well, you're not Malcolm X?" [Laughter]
But the reason she asked that question was, she had gotten from the press, and from things that she had heard and read, she was looking for something different, or for someone different.
The reason I take time to tell you this is, one of the first things I think young people, especially nowadays, should learn how to do is see for yourself and listen for yourself and think for yourself. Then you can come to an intelligent decision for yourself. But if you form the habit of going by what you hear others say about someone, or going by what others think about someone, instead of going and searching that thing out for yourself and seeing for yourself, you'll be walking west when you think you're going east, and you'll be walking east when you think you're going west. So this generation, especially of our people, have a burden upon themselves, more so than at any other time in history. The most important thing we can learn how to do today is think for ourselves.
~Malcolm X
