REMEMBERING MALCOLM X

From Color Lines courtesy of AlterNet:

Today marks the 46th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. The charismatic leader is among the most important, and often misunderstood, leaders of the 20th century. His speeches and writings on race were often brutally honest, in a way that America wasn’t ready for when he gave them, and probably still isn’t ready to hear nearly half a century later. So to honor his legacy, and the complex ways in which he addressed race and poverty across the globe, here’s an interview with Malcolm shortly before his death. While it touches on the gritty politics that ultimately led to his demise, what rings loudest is his fearlessness. “I am a man who believed that I died 20 years ago, and I live like a man who is dead already,” Malcolm tells reporters.

“I have no fear whatsoever of anybody or anything.”

Click here to watch the interview.

Over a decade ago I found a cool Malcolm X t-shirt at a thrift store and bought it immediately. I still have it today. Sadly, I only wear it around the house. I know that most Americans with my skin color just wouldn't get it: every now and then I ask a few white people I know what they think of the slain civil rights leader, and almost always it's a negative reply.

"Well, he hated white people, so I don't like him."

I usually respond with something like, "Sure, he said for years that 'the white man is the devil,' but by the time they killed him, he had totally changed his criticism to condemn the 'racist white power structure.' After seeing racial unity when he made his Hajj to Mecca, after he had broken with the Nation of Islam, he became racially neutral with his politics, and went on to vent his rage at an unjust economic and political system."

Usually, this gets not much more than a blank stare, so I recommend The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and leave it at that. I figure that my shirt would just piss white people off. And because it's so extraordinarily clear to me that white Americans tend to hate and misunderstand him, I assume that black people confronted by a white guy in a Malcolm X shirt would either be confused, or worse, offended, thinking that I was somehow mocking a man who is as much a hero to me as John Lennon, Thomas Jefferson, or Paul Robeson.

That's why I only wear that shirt at home. Kind of a drag because it's a cool shirt.

All of this makes it extraordinarily clear that Malcolm X continues to be just about as misunderstood today as he was back in the 60s. And that's an even bigger drag because, make no mistake about it, Malcolm X was a great man, an essential American. He struggled first against himself, and won, before he went on to struggle against oppression. He was no angel, at first, but he ended up getting close to it by the time he was assassinated.

I don't care if he's supposed to be a black hero. I claim him as my hero, too. Go read his autobiography to see what I'm talking about, or, at least, watch the fabulous Spike Lee movie, if only to see how Denzel Washington nails it, turning in what I believe to be the best performance of his career, in spite of the Oscar he got for Training Day--it is as though Washington knew what was on the line, and gave it his all.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$