Who said.....'If we/you are not part of the solution then we/you are part of the problem'......I thought it was Malcolm X but can find no reference to him actually saying this.......
Not Malcom X but Eldridge Cleaver
"What we're saying today is that you're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem."
Eldridge Cleaver, Speech in San Francisco, 1968
Though I think "if you're not part of the solution you're part of the precipitate" would have at least been more technically correct
if you are not part of the solution you are a sol/suspension/colloid/residue/precipitate/ternary phase system (delete as appropriate) would be more like it
I've always found the use of this phrase (particularly as used by MTV) to be supremely smug and self-righteous. I've decided, therefore, that the next person to say it to me is getting a smack in the mouth. Incidentally, Malcolm X DID once say that he would do this to Martin Luther King if he ever met him to see how non-violent he'd remain. As it turns out, when he did meet him he posed for a photo opportunity.