Malcolm X Page #18

And he is gone. Malcolm stands looking after him, a long

thoughtful moment. He is pulling the comb through his hair.

INT. PRISON LICENSE SHOP - DAY

PRISONERS are working on a beltline that stamps out and

finishes license plates. Bembry is on the stamping machines,

working as he talks to the other prisoners. Malcolm is

painting the plates, a little removed from Bembry, but

listening with interest. Barnes, with rifle, idles by a

window.

A whistle sounds, ending the work shift. The inmates quickly

file out into the yard. Bembry stays. Malcolm is half decided.

GUARD BARNES:

You taking the yard?

BEMBRY:

I'm staying.

Barnes gestures to Malcolm.

MALCOLM:

Me too.

He goes.

BEMBRY:

What you sniffing around for? I told

you I gave you your last fix.

MALCOLM:

I ain't never seen a cat like you.

Ain't you scared talking like that

in front of an ofay?

BEMBRY:

What's he gonna do to me he ain't

already done?

MALCOLM:

You the only cat don't come on with

that "Whatcha know, daddy" jive; and

you don't cuss none.

BEMBRY:

I respect myself. A man cuss because

he hasn't got the words to say what's

on his mind.

MALCOLM:

Tell you this:
you ain't no fool.

BEMBRY:

Don't con me. Don't try...

MALCOLM:

Okay, okay.

BEMBRY:

Don't con me.

MALCOLM:

What do you do with your time?

BEMBRY:

I read. I study. Because the first

thing a black man has to do is respect

himself. Respect his body and his

mind. Quit taking the white man's

poison into your body: his cigarettes,

his dope, his liquor, his white woman,

his pork.

MALCOLM:

That's what Mama used to say.

BEMBRY:

Your mama had sense because the pig

is a filthy beast: part rat, part

cat, and the rest is dog.

Malcolm has been pondering all this and now grows animated

as he thinks he has come to the essence of a hustle.

MALCOLM:

Come on, daddy, pull my coat. What

happens if you give all that up? You

get sick or somethin'? I pulled a

hustle once and got out of the draft.

BEMBRY:

I'm telling you God's words, not no

hustle. I'm talking the words of

Elijah, the black man's God. I'm

telling you, boy, that God is black.

MALCOLM:

What? Everybody knows God is White.

BEMBRY:

But everything the white man taught

you, you learned. He told you you

were a black heathen and you believed

him. He told you how he took you out

of darkness and brought you to the

light. And you believed him. He taught

you to worship a blond, blue-eyed

God with white skin -- and you

believed him. He told you black was

a curse, you believed him. Did you

ever look up the word black in the

dictionary?

MALCOLM:

What for?

BEMBRY:

Did you ever study anything wasn't

part of some con?

MALCOLM:

What the hell for, man?

BEMBRY:

Go on, fool; the marble shooters are

waiting for you.

MALCOLM:

Okay, okay. Show me, man.

CLOSE SHOT - A DICTIONARY

WE CAN READ the fine print of the definition:

DICTIONARY:

Black, (blak), adj. Destitute of

light, devoid of color, enveloped in

darkness. Hence, utterly dismal or

gloomy, as "the future looked black."

MALCOLM'S VOICE

You understand them words?

BEMBRY'S VOICE

Read it.

PULLBACK TO SHOW Bembry and Malcolm in a small PRISON LIBRARY.

No one else is in the book-lined room.

MALCOLM:

I can't make out that sh*t.

BEMBRY:

Soiled with dirt, foul; sullen,

hostile, forbidding -- as a black

day. Foully or outrageously wicked,

as black cruelty. Indicating disgrace,

dishonor or culpability.

DICTIONARY:

See also blackmail, blackball,

blackguard.

MALCOLM:

Hey, they's some sh*t, all right.

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