Did malcom x say It was the liberals who killed the black man's spirit by convincing him he was still oppressed

1. Malcolm X’s documented critique of “white liberals”

Across public speeches and interviews in 1963, Malcolm X characterized the white liberal as a specific political actor who pretended to help Black people while actually exploiting them politically and economically; he even declared “the white liberal is the worst enemy to America and the worst enemy to the Black man” in lines frequently reproduced from his remarks and writings ^{[4] [2]}. At UC Berkeley and elsewhere he warned that northern “white liberals” posed as benefactors and used integration as “infiltration,” joining Black organizations to “strangle your militant efforts toward true freedom,” language that matches the accusatory tenor of the paraphrase but not its precise words ^[1].

2. Where the supplied sources support the paraphrase — and where they don’t

The supplied reporting supports the substance of the paraphrase: Malcolm X argued that liberals’ rhetoric often masked self-interested power politics and that their promises left Black people “pawns” or “football[s]” in political struggles ^{[5] [2]}. However, none of the cited snippets present the exact sentence claiming liberals “killed the black man's spirit by convincing him he was still oppressed.” That specific phrasing—framing liberals as killers of spirit rather than political deceivers or hypocrites—is not documented in the provided speech excerpts or quote collections ^{[1] [3]}.

3. Context: metaphor and contrast in Malcolm X’s language

Malcolm X used vivid metaphors—wolves and foxes, pawns and footballs—to contrast overt racist conservatives with covertly harmful liberals, arguing the liberal’s hypocrisy made them more dangerous because they “pose” as friends while retaining structures that exploit Black people ^{[2] [1]}. He suggested liberals promised gentler treatment but ultimately perpetuated the same systemic subordination; that rhetorical move can be summarized as accusing liberals of sapping Black agency, which may be why paraphrases like the claim under scrutiny circulate ^[2].

4. How paraphrase becomes misattribution

Public figures’ energetic rhetorical frames are often condensed into punchy lines that gain life as “quotes” on social media or in secondary sources; the Goodreads and popular-quote aggregations reproduce Malcolm X’s well-known line about white liberals being the “worst enemy,” and commentary sites repeat his warnings about political manipulation, making it easy for interpretive restatements to be mistaken for verbatim remarks ^{[4] [6]}. The materials provided show clear thematic agreement with the paraphrase but do not supply an exact match, so treating the sentence in question as a direct Malcolm X quote would overstate what these sources document ^{[1] [3]}.

5. Bottom line and limits of the record

The available sources document Malcolm X’s sustained denunciation of white liberals as duplicitous political actors who undermined Black struggles and self-determination ^{[1] [2]}, which substantiates the core meaning behind the contested sentence; however, the precise wording—“It was the liberals who killed the black man's spirit by convincing him he was still oppressed”—is not found in the supplied excerpts, and therefore cannot be verified as a verbatim Malcolm X quote from these materials ^{[1] [3]}. If verification of the exact phrasing is required, primary transcripts or recordings beyond these citations would need to be consulted; the present reporting supports the idea but not that exact formulation ^{[1] [5]}.