I wonder what the world would look like today if Brother Minister Malcolm X were still around. I ponder what diverse causes coalitions of folks would advocate and rally behind. I wonder what we could be if El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz hadn’t lost his life for speaking truth to power.
Today, on his birthday, I struggle to find the appropriate words to honor a man who transcends time. I join the chorus of those influenced, throughout the generations, Black and white, in honoring Brother Malcolm X on what would be his 95th birthday. My struggle to finds words, isn’t too far out the box though, as in my research I’ve found most have a hard time articulating what it feels like to read and re-read, watch and re-watch, study and re-study the profound nature of Malcolm X. Recently, I started his Autobiography as told to Alex Haley, and honestly, I can’t explain the feeling of being whisked away into his timeless narration of a Black persons quest for freedom of personhood and self-determination. If you haven’t already, I suggest you read it because, through his own words, he reveals a man demonized as ‘aggressive’ and ‘divisive’ is quite relentlessly compassionate. Anyway, I hope through the next few paragraphs will present the urgency of his message and the clarity of his conviction — throughout the ages — an arbiter of truth, justice, and compassion.
I want to pause here and provide some personal anecdotes. Before moving to Texas, I learned in the Niagara Falls Independent School District. Due to our proximity to federally recognized native land (essential to acknowledge that we are all on stolen land,) and my genetic make-up, I learned early on the history of an oppressed people in the Americas. I’m sure learning of American imperialism and genocide, so early in my development, explains so much of my current dispensation for social change. There was no way to disconnect what I was learning in those hour-long excursions outside of my ‘normal’ classroom and what I saw when I drove out to the reservation. Although it would take me a decade longer and heftier vocabulary to name how destructive U.S. colonialism is — I knew, the system was inherently wrong. I digress. This decolonized learning, coupled with my papa’s teachings and histories, undoubtedly propelled me into questions all aspects of U.S. history.
After moving from Niagara Falls, I completed the rest of my public-school education inside the great state of Texas, and I hope that in simply writing that silly phrase you, the reader, grab my sarcasm and know that it is anything but great (see Gov. Abbott’s management of COVID-19.) Pandemic aside, my learning of U.S. history, like most of ours in this nation, was, in many ways, the ‘American exceptionalism” propaganda machine. From Texas history — to U.S. and eventually world history — we learned the truth of the oppressor, learned from their worldview. Behind everything, no matter how horrible the act of violence committed by white supremacy, was a well-meaning excuse for why it “had to be done.” It’s true, “the winners get to write history.” I remember learning of the Trail of Tears and the Civil War; both were described as showcases of American ingenuity and determination to be the land of the free from sea to shining sea. I had a lot of questions. Most of the time, the teachers said I asked too many questions or that I talked too much. When this tactic of avoiding my questions no longer worked, they would say, “we can’t change history” or, my favorite, “we don’t truly know the intent of wrongdoers, so we shouldn’t judge them too harshly.”
This apologist’s history, coupled with the election of the nation’s first Black president, made it easy to walk in the same idea of a color-blind “well-meaning” America. Because honestly, America can’t be that bad if it made an African American president, right? Wrong. Through his administration, and now in the years following, we see the most racist and natural parts of this society. There cast a particular moment to steer younger Black children in the direction of accepting the apologist’s account when learning the histories of the Civil Rights Movement. When we learned of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, our teachers heralded the non-violent, ‘peaceful,’ and ‘appropriate’ tactics to achieve progress. Further, we learned that the tactics of Black folks like Marcus Garvey, the Black Panthers, and Malcolm X — were unacceptable, militant, radical, and above all else, racially divisive. Without doing one’s investigation, you would believe that Malcolm was evil and divisive. However, when you do your work, you learn Malcolm was a bold revolutionary. He wanted Black folks to know they deserve better from the United States government and each other — by any means necessary.
When I first listened to Minister Malcolm, I was astonished at his wisdom and the clarity of his conviction. In reading his own words, I deconstructed an image of a dangerous militant. Instead, I learned of a passionate mad-as-hell human waging “an unrelenting struggle against [the] evils in our community.” I honor his urgency and fire to rid the world of white supremacy. We all should set these fires of passion and urgency. If you know anything about Brother Malcolm and his story, you understand the depth and the complexity of it cannot be entirely ascertained in this forum, so I will not try to. Through his lens, told in his Autobiography and that of history analyzed in the countless books and documentaries, the totality illustrates the powerful transformative nature of ideological growth. Although there are many problematic facets of the early parts of his story, as can be said for all of us, I will focus on his year’s post-Hajj to Mecca.
I often think of what an overwhelming experience it must be to return to the shores of Africa. To visit the places our ancestors last walked before the Middle Passage — profound, I’m sure. Considering I’ve never made that journey, I have to rely on the accounts of those who have taken the trip home, like Malcolm. Mentioned in his Autobiography, he took a few trips to Africa, once in 1959 as an emissary to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, to whom he still owed allegiance. His second trip, after he began to unshackle from Muhammad’s dogma and the Nation of Islam, was an altogether different experience. Once abroad, Malcolm began to understand the deep connectedness of oppression and struggle. He noticed a global network of white supremacist violence — on the neck of most peoples in the world. During his time abroad, he began to develop his thinking on most of his controversial stances, namely, back-to-Africa separatism, white-Black solidarity, and opposing interracial marriage. After returning from Mecca, not only did his views on separation change, but his interracial marriage perspectives, Black-white solidarity, and brotherhood itself changed.
During his Hajj he wrote:
“There were tens of thousands of pilgrims… we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and the non-white.” He continued, “you may be shocked by these words… I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug)- while praying to the same God with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in words and in the actions and in the deeds of the ‘white’ Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims…”
“We are truly all the same-brothers. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds”
I hope you will take the time to read the full context of that letter because here, you find a man of immense transformation. To him, it was all about the journey, the pursuit of one’s highest self, of one’s truest personhood. “I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.” The undeniable power of Malcolm X was his ability to grow and develop thinking, and admit wrong-doing, or problematic frames of analysis — the journey is what matters.
Once back from Haji, Malcolm was relentless in his quest for Afro-American unity in the Western hemisphere. The Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), created with the aim and objective: “to fight whoever gets in our way, to bring about the complete independence of people of African descent here in the Western Hemisphere, and first here in the United States, and bring about the freedom of these people by any means necessary.” What Malcolm came to realize, was that although the intentions of the Civil Rights Movement were necessary and progressive steps forward, it wasn’t nearly enough. Malcolm called us to get the root of our issue — the issue of white supremacy and white violence — this was/is the enemy. As I re-read his speech, announcing this organization back in 1964, his sentiments sting true today because, in 2020, some things still haven’t changed for the Negro in America. As he noted in 1964,” it’s the system that is rotten. It’s a system of exploitation, a political and economic system of exploitation, of outright humiliation, degradation, discrimination — all of the negative things that you can run into, you have run into under this system that disguises itself as a democracy.”
The relentless pursuit of voter suppression by the GOP, communities not having clean water, over-militarized police or vigilantes without a Klan robe killing Black bodies for sport illustrate many things haven’t changed. As COVID-19 rage rampant in Black communities across the nation, leaders fail to take substantive action to halt more destruction. It is time, yet again, to take up Malcolm’s call to “accept our responsibility for regaining our people who have lost their place in society.” As dramatic or paternalistic as it may seem, it is up to us to reclaim our communities’ health. This manifests in many ways, like social-distancing, organizing PPE donation drives, and checking on the older folks who shouldn’t be leaving the house. In the long-term, support candidates for any political office with actionable plans to address systematic inequity in health and healthcare.
There is much talk around the Black community these days, some on a national platform, suggesting that we sit this election out. As I’ve mentioned before, I maintain my stance of not harking at another human, to do anything they feel is beneath their conscience. However, I will leave some words from Malcolm’s speech to OAAU. “We propose to support and organize political clubs to run independent candidates for office…we will start a voter registration drive to let our people have an understanding of the science of politics so they will be able to see what part the politician plays in the scheme of things.” Either you run for office or hold officeholders accountable. To create a real egalitarian democracy requires the active participation of all who can, to grab hold of our future on the other side of white supremacy. Of course, this isn’t the only way, and it isn’t attainable or accessible to all of us. Still, for those who can — we must relentlessly hold those in power accountable for their treatment, mistreatment, or refusal to treat, the impediments of Black liberation. In our communities, throughout this nation, folks are doing the thankless work of building a better life for generations of Black kids after us. We need to join them in this fight.
Moreover, many of us have been systematically and surgically removed from the political decision-making apparatus altogether. We can’t let white supremacist and race-indifferent folks make decisions on their behalf. We also shouldn’t have blind allegiance to one political party or another — because both of this nation’s largest parties take up polices disadvantageous to Black liberation.
When reports of another Black body destroyed by white vigilantes hit the news and the campaign to tear him down, I thought of that ‘militant’ image of Black panthers. Would we, as Malcolm called for, being owners of guns be enough to protect from white supremacy? I don’t have an answer for that. What I do know, however, is in our constant struggle for Black liberation, requires the active participation of all us — at every level of American life. From culture and society to politics and policy, organizing and community care, we have to be engaged in our charge to build a world beyond white supremacy.
In one of his last interviews before his assassination, he called young people to take charge of our future society beyond the current repressive norm. He said, “if the students in this country forgot the analysis that has been presented to them, and they went into a huddle and began to research this problem of racism themselves… some of their findings would be shocking, but they would see that they would be able to bring about a solution to racism in this country as long as they’re relying on the government to do it.” How profound this would be the same truth, so many of us need to hear today. Our answers to our problems, as dense and complex as they are, do not lie in the government buildings. Instead, in our own houses and community centers, zoom calls, and digital communities — there is the power.
When once asked, what would he like to leave an interviewer with he responded, “Just the importance of unity, brothers.” Building a world beyond white supremacy and white violence will require unity and a lot of pissed off people dedicated to dismantling oppression — by any means necessary. As he called Black folks to organize in their communities, he asked white folks to do the same — to break down white supremacy internally.
In this world, in this movement, I believe love is our central theme, informed by my faith in Jesus Christ, who teaches us to be our brothers’ keepers, to choose the light of love. Malcolm X, who was, at the time of death, a born again Muslim, shows through our connectedness to a higher power, we can push further our cause for justice. Right before his death, he said., “But when you just judge a man because of the color of his skin, then you’re committing a crime, because that’s the worst kind of judgment.”
Often, those set to tear down his memory would say he was a person who professed hatred towards one race or another. While some of those sentiments made sense early in his life, the same conclusions are not accurate at the time of death. In his final speech, Malcolm stated very clearly his position of anti-racism and the principle of brotherhood. “When they start indicting us because of our color,” he says, “that means we’re indicted before we’re born, which is the worst kind of crime that can be committed. The Muslim religion has eliminated all tendencies to judge a man according to the color of his skin, but rather the judgment is based upon his deeds.”
I renew one of his final calls to our country. It is a call for brotherhood, sisterhood, and siblinghood — because we have to get to the root of our problem. Our problem is international. Our struggle here in America connects to the plight of our friends on the continent, the struggle for Palestinian liberation, and the Uyghur Muslims’ freedom struggle inside China. The fight for clean water in Flint and the destruction of Black bodies in Ferguson. Anti-Black & Brown racism is destroying our communities across the world — and through our brotherhood and unity — we will dismantle it. I will leave the last words of this personal reflection to him, but I hope this invites you to explore the Minister for yourself. I left out so many gems of his wisdom. I will admit, I am still working on developing out my complete view on El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. I know that I am thankful to him and his view of self-determination and the acceptance of Black personhood. Through him, we hold ourselves up to that struggle for freedom in a world that is not yet. Just as he showed America herself, in all of its white supremacist glory, to make it stand to account and acknowledge its contradictions of value and practice.
We must commit ourselves to this struggle until the cause for Black liberation — until every struggle against oppression and repression — is seen as a human rights issue. I hope to engage in the fiercest of debates with the one and only Brother Minister Malcolm X at some point on the other side of heaven.
Assalamu Alaikum to all those who fight for a world Malcolm envisioned.
“I say again that I’m not racist, I don’t believe in any form of segregation or anything like that. I’m for the brotherhood of everybody, but I don’t believe in forcing brotherhood upon people who don’t want it. Long as we practice brotherhood among ourselves, and then others who want to practice brotherhood with us, we practice it them also.”
