“So we were here from the beginning”--and Malcolm X smiles. The people come roaring to their feet with shouts of thanks and deliverance. “And that which was here from the beginning must be the daddy of everything else. Am I right or wrong?” “You right. That’s right.” “This blue-eyed devil talking about he is superior. It’s about time he found out that we are his pappy!” “Make it plain, Brother. Make it plain.” “Now listen to this,” Malcolm told a rally of three thousand on a Harlem street corner, “and you will know why black is superior.” “Come on. Come, let’s hear it!” “Black is _the_ prime color. It is the strong color.” “Yes!” “You can get any other color you want by mixing colors, but you cannot find colors that you can mix and produce black. Only black can produce black.” “Make it plain.” “And if black is prime, that means it is God, that means it is good.” “That’s right!” “Therefore the less black you are the less good you are.” “All praise due to Allah.” And now the people sense the great truth that is about to come, and they begin to break with laughter. “Therefore when you are white, you are as nonblack as you can be.” “Make it plain, Malcolm. Make it plain.” “Therefore when you are white you are absolutely nongood; am I right or wrong?” “You right!” “In other words,” Malcolm shouts, “the white man is therefore absolutely evil, a snake and a devil, and his time of destruction draws nigh!” With this the crowd breaks with joy. The applause lasts for several minutes; white policemen standing guard at the meeting nudge white onlookers, telling them to “move on.” This argument, that God is black and the white man a devil, presents the Black Muslims with the identical philosophical dilemma that has plagued most religions: How could a good (black) God create a bad (white) thing? The doctrine concerning Yakub is the Black Muslims’ attempt to answer that riddle. In biological terms of reference, accepting the Muslim notion that the black man is the original man, they must explain how the black race produced white people. Elijah Muhammad states the argument in these terms: The Caucasian race was created out of the weak of the black race; they are the handiwork of Yakub, a black scientist who rebelled against Allah. Dr. Eric Lincoln is correct when he says that the doctrine of Yakub is the central myth of the Black Muslim movement. But it is also the tenet the Black Muslims seem to know least about. Writing in the _Pittsburgh Courier_, Elijah Muhammad detailed in these words the mechanics by which the black scientist Yakub made the white man: