Malcolm X was speaking directly about African Americans who harbored hatred or disdain toward Africa and African people.

In the speech, he explicitly uses the collective "we" to address his Black American audience, explaining how centuries of systemic racism and colonial propaganda had caused them to internalize a hatred of their own origins.

Malcolm X was diagnosing a specific trauma within the Black American community. He explained that because colonial powers had projected Africa in a negative light for centuries (as "jungle savages, cannibals, nothing civilized"), Black Americans began to hate it.