Well,
in case you missed it, today is May 19, 2025 - it is the 100th
Birthday Anniversary of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz - better known as
MALCOLM X!
And
the world is poised to celebrate the memory of Our Shining Black
Prince, who was assassinated brutally in front of his followers, wife
and children, while addressing a small group of Black People in the
Audubon Ballroom in the Washington Heights section of Harlem.
Brother
Malcolm's image and influence on the Black community is as strong as
when he first emerged from prison as a follower of Elijah Muhammad. His
words of wisdom still resonate with us though he was assassinated 60
years ago while trying to wake Black people up and take the chain off
their brains.
It
was a pivotal time in Black History. We were in the middle of the
Civil Rights Movement, the Militant Movement, and the Student Nonviolent
Movement. The caucasoids were trying to pit the Muslims (considered
militant) against the Civil Rights (NAACP, SCLC, etc) and the Student
NonViolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) which was on the brink of
moving to the more aggressive side of Black Power. Caucasoids were
escalating their aggressions against Black people regardless of which
bin they fell into. They were looking to drive a wedge or intimidate us
into silence; or buy of those who were on the periphery of becoming
Black or staying "negro."
Malcolm
X was not intimidated by their threats. He was also no longer easy to
propagandize with buzz words. He had been to Mecca, achieved his Hajj,
and was beginning to move into another direction which would have had
powerful consequences for Black people in the US.
Though I never had the pleasure of meeting
Minister Malcolm, I have had the pleasure of getting to know his widow,
Soror Betty Shabazz (who was a member of the New York Alumni Chapter of
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority). We had many a wonderful conversation
during those wonderful years - about her daughters (there were six of
them - including the twins); Sorority Business, getting better programs
for students at Medgar Evers College, and so many other wonderful
interactions. I even had the pleasure of doing a one-on-one interview
with Soror Shabazz when the meanstream media tried to draw a wedge
between her and Minister Louis Farrakhan.
I
have had the pleasure of knowing two of his six daughters - Ilyasah
Shabazz and Malaak Shabazz - each of them carrying many of the positive
spirits and traits of both their parents. Ive met Attilah several times -
very briefly - but probably not so much that she would ever remember
me.
In
commemoration of this wonderful brother - their dad - I must salute his
heroism and his humanity. I know that he is our ICON, but he was the
dad they needed who was snatched away from them via a form of violence
that is the true underbelly of what this nation is truly about.
Many
of my contemporaries have never read the Autobiography of Malcolm X (as
told to Alex Haley - author of ROOTS). I strongly suggest you get a
copy and read it through and through. Also Spike Lee's movie is quite
revealing - MALCOLM X - released in 1992. We should not just
commemorate this wonderful brother, we should update our knowledge of
who he was/is and what he did/does for us as Black people.
I am sending up a Happy Heavenly/MECCA 100 BIRTHDAY to our SHINING BLACK PRINCE
BROTHER
MALCOLM X - May his star and influence always shine true - and may we
learn the lessons he tried to impart to us during his short time among
us.
ICYMI: Today, Thursday, May 19, 2022 marks the
97th Birthday Anniversary of our own BLACK Shining Prince, Brother El
Hajj Malik El Shabazz - also known as MALCOLM X.
Though he is with the ancestors, his legend and
legacy still remain - and his words of wisdom are as true today as when
he first enunciated them to brothers and sisters looking to shake the
yoke of oppression and self hate.
Brother Malcolm stood up to white racist
police, news media, legislations and the sycophants who curried their
favors by being the uncle toms who would sell their own people down the
river for a shew pennies, a pat on the head and a token job, or - worse
yet - a token title.
Brother Malcolm is the epitome of what a Black
man can do when he decides to throw off the lies, deceit, hatred, and
division that most of us had suffered under for years, and follow the
concept of "Do For Self" - as enunciated by the Nation of Islam. He
went from thug and drugs to leader, activist, philosopher, husband,
father, family man - his transformative example has been the beacon of
hope for many Black men who had been told they weren't worthy, no good,
etc.
His lovely wife (and my SOROR)
Sister Betty Shabazz, was a nurse, educator, Icon, activist, mom and
widow who maintained the legacy and example of Brother Malcolm -
despite efforts to perevent her from doing so. She became the Dean of
students at Medgar Evers College, in Brooklyn, NY - carrying on the
work of her late husband, while raising their six beautiful daughters,
and continuing to teach his wisdom and knowledge. - as well as that of
oher own.
For those of you who have not yet done so, what better way to honor his legacy than to read his book, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X,
co-written by Alex Haley (of Roots), where you will indeed gain even
more insight as to the intrinsic value of this Brother, Activist, Hero,
Martyr, Icon!! Once you've done so, you will realize why each and
every year it is even more important to never let the accomplishments
and wisdom of this Fine Black Man die.
My Blessings, condolences and respect to his daughters: Soror Attallah, Ilyasah, Gamilah, Malaak, Qubilah, and Malikah. And fold remembrances to my Sister/Soror/Friend, his widow, Dr. Betty Shabazz.
As with other Black wise men, who have been cut
down in their prime for standing up for Black people - Medgar Evers,
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; or have been persecuted, lied upon,
and harassed, their message is as relevant and today as the day they
uttered then,
So teach your children, and always remember the
sacrifice they made for us, the wisdom they shared with us, the vision
they had for us - as we celebrate the 97th Birthday of
By now you've heard the sad news of the transition of an Icon, Popa Wu, sage of the Wu Tang Clan, into the realm of the Ancestor/Angels.
POPA WU REST IN POWER AND PEACE
When my sister/friend, Diva Cathy Lee Jones, producer and promoter of Wu Tang dropped the news on me six hours after she had learned of his transition. She was beside herself with sorrow. She had just spoken with him a few hours before his passing, and since the reality had not totally set in, she was in a minor state of shock. She was trying valiantly to process how a person so full of life and energy, having fun with his friends and associates, could be so vibrant and energetic one minute, and then suddenly gone the next:
Cathy: " Raison Allah called me last night. He
was with Popa Wu when they called me at the Parliament,
which is the 5 Percent Nation's Church, in Harlem. I just spoke with him!! He was with Raison Allah, the producer of "Dirty one word can change the world – ODB Documentary. " It won 4
awards, including the New York International Film Festival. Popa
Wu is narrating that documentary. In it they talked about the Shinnecock and
the entire family history. Raison also is the writer of the feature
film about Dirty, that is set up with SONY right now. It's been in
BillBoard and Rolling Stone. He's
from Brooklyn. Popa Wu is his blood uncle. He's in ODB's rap group
called Brooklyn Zoo, which is comprised of Dirty's cousins, and
Raison is the leader of the group, and he's called the Zu Keeper. So they were all
up there speaking, and Raison called me to talk to Popa Wu. We
talked. Then they called me again, they were looking for Bobbi
Humphrey to see if she was performing anywhere – I had done a
record with Raison and Bobbi. Raison directed the video. So they
were asking me if there was anybody who could find Bobbi. And he
seemed to be doing some sort of last minute tour. He was reminiscing
with me on the phone – it was a very odd situation. You're at this
public gathering and you get me on the phone – he started going
into the past, reminiscing. It was unbelievable. Around 3:00AM, I
woke up. I had had a dream with him in it. At 7:00 AM I get a call
– Popa Wu has died.
"His was a spirit that was larger than life - you knew when he was in the room. And now he's gone!"
Cathy Lee Jones
I totally understood Cathy's pain, having lost the love of my life tragically and totally unexpectedly six years ago, when she came to my rescue in the middle of my devastation. I was happy I could be there for her. There is a pain and sorrow that one can't get to or through, that requires the kind of soul searching process to try to make sense of something, but truly only the infinite has the final answers to.
But, in addition to being a friend, and a mentor, Popa Wu was also an Icon. A man who has made a major impact on history that has reached far beyond his humble beginnings in Brooklyn, NY.
Now, I'm not going to pretend to be an aficianado on all things Wu Tang, or the 5 Percent Nation - because I'm not. I'm from a different musical era and genre. But what I am is respectful of the awesome influence they've had on the Black world for two and a half decades, and counting. Their power and philosophy that was largely shaped and influenced by Popa Wu, who stepped in to work with them, before they became founders of the Clan - when they were still mere youths in the "hood" - without fathers in the home. Their lives could have taken a sadder, more tragic direction, had it not been for this brother, who was a major part of the Five Percent Nation, and saw it as his mission and responsibility to provide them with guidance and wisdom to guide them into a positive, productive manhood. A big, and probably unexpected, side effect was the formation of Wu Tang after the youth decided the current music didn't relate to who they were. They wanted to create something more expressive, culturally related, and in line with who they were as Black youth in the 90s. And what they created was way beyond anything they could dream, think or imagine.
In addition to speaking with Cathy Jones, I also had the privilege of speaking with Killah Priest in reference to the life, time and relevance of Popa Wu. And the love, respect, awe coming through the call was overwhelming. In fact, so much so, I transcribed as much of the conversation as possible, so that they speak for themselves instead of editorializing it.
This is such a great tribute to Popa Wu, it must be shared.
NOTE: Many may not know that Cathy Jones, SUNZ of Man and Threat Records owner, producer, and promoter, is also a direct descendant of the great orator, activist, and hero, Fredrick Douglass. But, if you're ever in a conversation with her, you'll quickly see that she has definitely inherited his oratorical DNA, because she pretty much speaks in pictures.
Cathy: "Brooklyn Born and Raised, Popa Wu is also a descendant of the famed Shinnecock Nation, with family ties to the Indian brother who sold the Island of Manhattan to the Dutch for a handful of beads. He is also related to Wu Tang founders RZA, GZA and ODB - dating their heritage back to pre-slavery. So he was a walking continuation of Black history."
As a speaker for the 5 Percent Nation, Popa Wu took his responsibilities seriously. He took charge of the upbringing of RZA, GZA and ODB, as well as the other youth in the community, under his wings, and taught them the basic principles of the 5 Percent Nation - i.e., they were Gods, they were Black men and had much to be proud of, they had a responsibility on this earth to live up to.
WU TANG CLAN CELEBRATING 25 YEARS
Clearly this lesson was not lost on RZA, GZA, ODB and others, and when they started Wu Tang in 1993, they inculcated the tenets of this discipline into their music, lyrics, actions and attitudes and business plans. The influence of this philosophy has so permeated Hip Hop that it's gone beyond that into mainstream Black Culture. Taking it beyond the level of just Black and white, they were taught the supremacy of Black Asian male and female over the caucasian corrupt version of society.
Killah Priest
Killah Priest, still processing the loss of his friend, was quietly reflecting on Cathy's statement, and added: "Popa Wu was like one
of the teachers to the Clan. He taught RZA and helped him when he was
young. He was like one of the older uncles to everybody; and not
only that, when we were all young, he was just that older guy –
when we made the song “Older Guys,” it was really about Popa Wu
because he was the one who would come around and teach us all the 5
Percent lessons. And 5 Percent lessons was just like Gods and Earth
– and Gods and Earths was derived from Islam. And he was like –
I call him the speaker - he was like the front speaker for the Nation
of Gods and Earths. We didn't even know we had an original speaker
until Popa Wu came through and just became our teacher. And he would
always just drop truths on me. He would say when you're walking
through the crowd, don't let people touch you! And I would ask him
why; and he would say you're royalty; don't let anybody touch you
like that. And that kind of like stuck to me when he said that. And
one of his jewels that he always would say is that “you can lead
the horse to the water, but you can't make him drink.” He always
said that. I mean he said that every time. And we used to joke and
laugh about it; and he would say, “Ok, here come the horses; here
come the horses!!And that's what he meant to us. He was everything
to everybody; so it you were Sunz of Man, he would become focused on
Sunz of Man; and if it was Raekwon, he would be all about Raekwon.
He was the leader. He was everything to everybody. And he was
always WuWu and shakaboo – and he would always drop a jewel. My closest moments with him are
every time. He ran with Dirty (Ol Dirty Bastard), and now he's going to get back with
Dirty and the rest of the Ancestors that are up there. It is just so
deep."
Popa Wu's influence in the Black urban community, as well as among brothers who had been incarcerated, is legendary! His principles of Black manhood resonated with so many of our brothers and sisters - Nation of Gods and Earths (NGE or NOGE) - that it has become a part of our nomenclature without our actually realizing it. Such phrases as "keeping it 100," or "keeping it real," among others are now part of our everyday sayings.
"Don't look towards the sky - because there's no heaven above; Don't look down beneath your feet, there's no hell below; Heaven and hell exist within! Heaven is what you make it, and hell is what you go through" -POPA WU
Cathy Jones, of Threat Records, has been a friend of Popa Wu from the inception of Wu Tang, as well as a business associate. Her high praise and many accolades for him continued:
Cathy: "He's highly respected, like a Farrahkan, in
the Five Percent Nation – Nation of the Gods and the Earths. The
biggest thing nationally and internationally! Popa Wu was my conception of Malcolm X,
Farakhan, Marcus Garvey all rolled into one. He was not afraid to bring violence.
He scared everybody into playing our records. We were not loved.
They hated to love us because of Popa Wu. Popa Wu would come in and
– I took Popa Wu on the road with me when I went on the road by
myself promoting the record. Popa Wu announced at the door “I've
got Cathy Jones here from Sunz of Man – let us in!!" Take your album
with us. His direction was straight to the Djs – his records in
his hand. Even Funkmas. They would say that Cathy Jones and Popa Wu
were breaking down doors and getting those records played on those
turntables. Straight out! Popa Wu was no joke. If you had a problem
at the record label and you needed money, Popa Wu was no joke! He
would just take it upon himself; if they wouldn't play the album he
pull out the gun and insist they play it. He was the enforcer!"
Cathy Jones
"Popa Wu was a
very, very out spoken, eccentric, primitive thinking Black American
Indian. He was definitely for his family – family first! That
was instilled in them as children. That's why they honored the Wu
Tang Clan. He is the backbone of this super successful,
multi-platinum, HipHop group that changed the world. He's the one
who uplifted the Black men and said “you are gods. Stand up.
You're not some nigga or bum or trash! You are a god!” And you
know it sounds outrageous and sacreligious to most people, but Black
men have been downtrodden so much; their image has been desecrated so
much that they need something extreme, such as calling yourself a god
to stand up and become a god. So it's a positive thing that most
people don't understand. And I want to say that he instilled Black
male security in themselves – period; end of discussion. And all
of these boys have excelled. They've taken care of their families.
You don't see them in children's court for not paying. You don't hear
about them being deadbeat dads. The preservation of the culture -
he was the messenger of that. The preservation of the responsibility
of the Black man standing up – not only for himself and his self
image, but for his family and his children – this man drilled that
in those young men's heads, and that's why Wu Tang Clan ain't nothing
to mess with!”
Killah Priest:
“Yes, she said it all, and that's the truth. Popa Wu was all that, and
he was like the dominant gene. He showed us all how to just be men.
Black men!! He meant a lot. And we wouldn't take any shit from any white people,
either.”
"I would
say Popa Wu was more like Malcolm – although Malcolm maintained his
cool, while Popa Wu would be ready to fight at a moment's notice. He
would throw down. He was a warrior. It was the family. They would
always be ready to fight. He was a fire cracker at some point. He
thought that every DJ was supposed to play Wu Tang at every point;
and if they didn't he would go into the booth. He would force the DJ
to play the record."
Some of his philosophy resonated with me, and was reminiscent of the Late Rev. Ike, who likewise taught Black people to love themselves and see themselves as having God in them, as opposed to being the wretched of the earth. The charisma of Popa Wu was pretty much the impetus behind the phenomenal success of the Wu Tang Clan. His teachings of the 5 Percent buoyed them up and solidified their vision and their discipline to take their group from the streets to legendary national and international success.
An artist in his own right, Popa Wu made appearances in movies, television, videos and as a speaker on several occasions. His clarity and intensity drove home the point that Black men and women had so much more to them than the meanstream media tried to depict. It was often the shot in the arm many needed to move from mediocrity and self doubt, to excelling and exceeding their own expectations.
Popa Wu
The wonderful thing about Popa Wu is that his teaching does not stop with his passing, but is resonated and replicated via his exponents, who continue to teach and be exemplars via their music, their interactions and their examples.
Cathy Jones: He was
the main one upon the soap box drilling in our heads that the white
man is the devil. Do not believe, or listen
to anything he says. Do not deal with him. You have knowledge of
self and you are valuable. The white man is not valuable, he needs
you to succeed, and in the record business, he needs you to get rich,
so he's out to rob us, manipulate us and divide us. He was the one
who kept saying do not let this white man divide you for his white
“effing” money; and for the dead presidents, who are white. Do
not let the almighty dollar divide you; let the almighty dollar
continue to unite you so that you can become financially strong and
destroy the white man! And now Black people are really destroying the
white man financially. We're now financially 'white' – and I can say
that after watching him for 25 years, this man has not only instilled
it into Wu Tang, but into the entire HipHop Nation.
So this is
representative of the teachings of the Nations of the Gods and the
Earths. The rhymes is one. But this thing has taken over, since
WuTang has come into fruition, and Popa Wu is the head, preaching the
message, this particular science of upliftment of the Black man's
mind, this 5 Percent Nation, 'You Are God,' has now prevailed.
GDW: I'm going
to ask you a very clear question, and this is something that I'm
always concerned with, when it comes to us in leadership and
inspiration: Who is now going to move forward in his place? Or are
you all going to do like the Japanese do, and be able to share that
role across the board?
CATHY: It's
gonna be probably the RZA, but because he's so busy as an artist, he
will have a designated stand in – which will be all of them.
GDW:
Is that what you say also, Priest?
Killah: Yes.
GDW: That's what
I want to see. Because we have so many inspirational Icons, they
galvanize us because we've been so beaten down and victimized by
others via meanstream media. But, by the same token, if we put
everything on that one person, sometime people feel that once they're
gone, that's it. So while they stand for all of us, and try to teach
us, when something happens, there's a gap.
Cathy Jones:
That's the beauty of the Gods and the Earths – everyone shares the
knowledge; everyone shares the experience; and everyone within their
own adaptation of the vision and the message, they have their choice
to take the position and lead. There isn't some like hierarchy of
definition where you will always be relegated to being a follower.
Both of them have free message, free opportunity to speak and lead,
if they choose to. Like to make a reference to Min. Farrakhan, he
wrote a book called, “First We Must Become Brothers,” before we
take these positions of leaders. Because when you take a position as
a leader, you get arrogant. And you get separated. And that's how
the white man can come back in your mind and divide you again. But
the Nation has a problem, and he identified it with the book, “First
We Must Become Brothers.” But that was not the issue in the nation
of the Gods and the Earths. Wu Tang is such a beautiful example of
the synergy of unity, without jealousy – allowing each one to be
independent, yet together. This is why we have the Wu Tang together,
then the Wu Tang solo. Then I came and they gave me a label deal.
Anybody who wanted to step up and be responsible, and be in
acknowledgement of the teachings of the 5 Percent, understanding
their position as an Earth, your position as a God, we can lead
together. We are the example of that unification. And Popa Wu
instilled that in us. He changed the world, he changed young Black
people, and he turned it into leaders who are unified, and also
independent. All of us went solo, but came back together – solo,
came back together – for 25 years. We have a well oiled machine
for Black power, Black understanding, and Black unity.
GDW: So you
avoided the rivalry, which has destroyed many HipHop artists, which
is good.
Cathy Jones: We
avoided the rivalry – just to touch that. Yeah, we're family.
Everybody has grievances and “I don't really kind of like you, this
that and the other – but it does not stop us from our over all
superordinate goal of unity.
He was leading
the youth into unity and success. Leave these streets alone. You're
better than the trash they told you to be. You are a God."
The voice and wisdom of Popa Wu can be heard in practically everything Wu Tang has ever done. It is resonated through his teachings of the 5 Percent Nation. His presence and spirit imbues everything he has touched, and everyone he has influenced, and is not silenced now that he's made his transition to the realm of Ancestor/Angels. While it is a time for sorrow, it is also a time for high praise and honor and gratitude for all he did while he was on this plane of action. The lesson and the blessing and the gift is that he did not take it with him, but left it to be shared, multiplied and replicated.
While I offer my condolences to his family, friends, fans, and associates, I also offer my congratulations to them for having had the privilege of this wonderful brother in their lives, hearts and souls. May you continue to follow his path and blaze the trails.
By Gloria Dulan-Wilson Hello All: This is the week of Malcolm X's Birthday Anniversary, and many activities are centered around commemorating the wisdom and courage of this wonderful leader which will culminate in a spectacular event at Malcolm X Park in West Philadelphia. Couple that with a special event honoring the late Winnie Mandela, and you have more than enough to keep you inspired, uplifted and loving the fact that you are BLACK. So select one or all of these events and take yourself and a friend(s).
This is such an interesting read about Brother Malcolm X, whose birthday celebration is 16 days from now, on May 19, that I though I would share it with you all. And if there is any part of this to always remember it's this:
Malcolm X is the best medicine against genocide. He showed us by example and prophetic preaching that one does not have to stay in the mud. We can wake up; we can stand up; and we can take that long walk toward freedom. Freedom is first and foremost an inner recognition of self-respect, a knowledge that one was not put on this earth to be a nobody. Using drugs and killing each other are the worst forms of nobodyness. Our forefathers fought against great odds (slavery, lynching, and segregation), but they did not self-destruct. Some died fighting, and others, inspired by their example, kept moving toward the promised land of freedom, singing ‘we ain’t gonna let nobody turn us around.’ African-Americans can do the same today. We can fight for our dignity and self-respect. To be proud to be black does not mean being against white people, unless whites are against respecting the humanity of blacks. Malcolm was not against whites; he was for blacks and against their exploitation.
Once you understand the foregoing statement, you get a true perspective of the genius of Brother Malcolm X.
NEW YORK—Malcolm X, unlike Martin Luther King Jr., did not believe America had a conscience. For him there was no great tension between the lofty ideals of the nation—which he said were a sham—and the failure to deliver justice to blacks. He, perhaps better than King, understood the inner workings of empire. He had no hope that those who managed empire would ever get in touch with their better selves to build a country free of exploitation and injustice. He argued that from the arrival of the first slave ship to the appearance of our vast archipelago of prisons and our squalid, urban internal colonies where the poor are trapped and abused, the American empire was unrelentingly hostile to those Frantz Fanon called “the wretched of the earth.” This, Malcolm knew, would not change until the empire was destroyed.
I read this book for the first time when I was in college at Lincoln University, it changed my life - have to read it again Also make sure you read Fanon's "BLACK SKINS/WHITE MASKS"
“It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck,” Malcolm said. “Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it’s more like a vulture. It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody’s blood whether they were strong or not. But now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the helpless. As the nations of the world free themselves, then capitalism has less victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and weaker. It’s only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely.”
King was able to achieve a legal victory through the civil rights movement, portrayed in the new film “Selma.” But he failed to bring about economic justice and thwart the rapacious appetite of the war machine that he was acutely aware was responsible for empire’s abuse of the oppressed at home and abroad. And 50 years after Malcolm X was assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem by *hit men from the Nation of Islam (????!!!!**** see below), it is clear that he, not King, was right. We are the nation Malcolm knew us to be. Human beings can be redeemed. Empires cannot. Our refusal to face the truth about empire, our refusal to defy the multitudinous crimes and atrocities of empire, has brought about the nightmare Malcolm predicted. And as the Digital Age and our post-literate society implant a terrifying historical amnesia, these crimes are erased as swiftly as they are committed.
NOTE: *Well Chris Hedges, I was with you until you said "assassinated by hit men from the Nation of Islam." Not so! The hit men were plants by the CIA/FBI into the NOI to hit Malcolm to prevent him from bringing charges of genocide against the US in the UN. It was hoped that it would be pinned on the NOI and thereby produce a schism that would destroy it. That and the other lie that Farrakhan had something to do with it are the biggest lies perpetrated by JEH and his crew. If they could have proven any to that, and don't think they didn't try, the repercussions would have been monumental. What they were able to do was to incarcerate a coupe of scape goats instead.
"We are the nation Malcolm knew us to be. Human beings can be redeemed. Empires cannot." “Sometimes, I have dared to dream … that one day, history may even say that my voice—which disturbed the white man’s smugness, and his arrogance, and his complacency—that my voice helped to save America from a grave, possibly even fatal catastrophe,” Malcolm wrote.
The integration of elites of color, including Barack Obama, into the upper echelons of institutional and political structures has done nothing to blunt the predatory nature of empire. Identity and gender politics—we are about to be sold a woman president in the form of Hillary Clinton—have fostered, as Malcolm understood, fraud and theft by Wall Street, the evisceration of our civil liberties, the misery of an underclass in which half of all public school children live in poverty, the expansion of our imperial wars and the deep and perhaps fatal exploitation of the ecosystem. And until we heed Malcolm X, until we grapple with the truth about the self-destruction that lies at the heart of empire, the victims, at home and abroad, will mount. Malcolm, like James Baldwin, understood that only by facing the truth about who we are as members of an imperial power can people of color, along with whites, be liberated. This truth is bitter and painful. It requires an acknowledgment of our capacity for evil, injustice and exploitation, and it demands repentance. But we cling like giddy children to the lies we tell ourselves about ourselves. We refuse to grow up. And because of these lies, perpetrated across the cultural and political spectrum, liberation has not taken place. Empire devours us all.
“We’re anti-evil, anti-oppression, anti-lynching,” Malcolm said. “You can’t be anti- those things unless you’re also anti- the oppressor and the lyncher. You can’t be anti-slavery and pro-slavemaster; you can’t be anti-crime and pro-criminal. In fact, Mr. Muhammad teaches that if the present generation of whites would study their own race in the light of true history, they would be anti-white themselves.”
Malcolm once said that, had he been a middle-class black who was encouraged to go to law school, rather than a poor child in a detention home who dropped out of school at 15, “I would today probably be among some city’s professional black bourgeoisie, sipping cocktails and palming myself off as a community spokesman for and leader of the suffering black masses, while my primary concern would be to grab a few more crumbs from the groaning board of the two-faced whites with whom they’re begging to ‘integrate.’ ”
Malcolm’s family, struggling and poor, was callously ripped apart by state agencies in a pattern that remains unchanged. The courts, substandard schooling, roach-filled apartments, fear, humiliation, despair, poverty, greedy bankers, abusive employers, police, jails and probation officers did their work then as they do it now. Malcolm saw racial integration as a politically sterile game, one played by a black middle class anxious to sell its soul as an enabler of empire and capitalism. “The man who tosses worms in the river,” Malcolm said, “isn’t necessarily a friend of the fish. All the fish who take him for a friend, who think the worm’s got no hook on it, usually end up in the frying pan.” He related to the apocalyptic battles in the Book of Revelation where the persecuted rise up in revolt against the wicked.
“Martin [Luther King Jr.] doesn’t have the revolutionary fire that Malcolm had until the very end of his life,” Cornel West says in his book with Christa Buschendorf, “Black Prophetic Fire.” “And by revolutionary fire I mean understanding the system under which we live, the capitalist system, the imperial tentacles, the American empire, the disregard for life, the willingness to violate law, be it international law or domestic law. Malcolm understood that from very early on, and it hit Martin so hard that he does become a revolutionary in his own moral way later in his short life, whereas Malcolm had the revolutionary fire so early in his life.”
There are three great books on Malcolm X: “The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley,” “The Death and Life of Malcolm X” by Peter Goldman and “Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare” by James H. Cone.
On Friday I met Goldman—who as a reporter for a St. Louis newspaper and later for Newsweek knew and covered Malcolm—in a New York City cafe. Goldman was part of a tiny circle of white reporters Malcolm respected, including Charles Silberman of Fortune and M.S. “Mike” Handler of The New York Times, who Malcolm once said had “none of the usual prejudices or sentimentalities about black people.”
Goldman and his wife, Helen Dudar, who also was a reporter, first met Malcolm in 1962 at the Shabazz Frosti Kreem, a Black Muslim luncheonette in St. Louis’ north-side ghetto. At that meeting Malcolm poured some cream into his coffee. “Coffee is the only thing I liked integrated,” he commented. He went on: “The average Negro doesn’t even let another Negro know what he thinks, he’s so mistrusting. He’s an acrobat. He had to be to survive in this civilization. But by me being a Muslim, I’m black first—my sympathies are black, my allegiance is black, my whole objectives are black. By me being a Muslim, I’m not interested in being American, because America has never been interested in me.”
He told Goldman and Dudar: “We don’t hate. The white man has a guilt complex—he knows he’s done wrong. He knows that if he had undergone at our hands what we have undergone at his, he would hate us.” When Goldman told Malcolm he believed in a single society in which race did not matter Malcolm said sharply: “You’re dealing in fantasy. You’ve got to deal in facts.”
Goldman remembered, “He was the messenger who brought us the bad news, and nobody wanted to hear it.” Despite the “bad news” at that first meeting, Goldman would go on to have several more interviews with him, interviews that often lasted two or three hours. The writer now credits Malcolm for his “re-education.”
Goldman was struck from the beginning by Malcolm’s unfailing courtesy, his dazzling smile, his moral probity, his courage and, surprisingly, his gentleness. Goldman mentions the day that psychologist and writer Kenneth B. Clark and his wife escorted a group of high school students, most of them white, to meet Malcolm. They arrived to find him surrounded by reporters. Mrs. Clark, feeling that meeting with reporters was probably more important, told Malcolm the teenagers would wait. “The important thing is these kids,” Malcolm said to the Clarks as he called the students forward. “He didn’t see a difference between white kids and kids,” Kenneth Clark is quoted as saying in Goldman’s book.
James Baldwin too wrote of Malcolm’s deep sensitivity. He and Malcolm were on a radio program in 1961 with a young civil rights activist who had just returned from the South. “If you are an American citizen,” Baldwin remembered Malcolm asking the young man, “why have you got to fight for your rights as a citizen? To be a citizen means that you have the rights of a citizen. If you haven’t got the rights of a citizen, then you’re not a citizen.” “It’s not as simple as that,” the young man answered. “Why not?” Malcolm asked.
During the exchange, Baldwin wrote, “Malcolm understood that child and talked to him as though he was talking to a younger brother, and with that same watchful attention. What most struck me was that he was not at all trying to proselytize the child: he was trying to make him think. ... I will never forget Malcolm and that child facing each other, and Malcolm’s extraordinary gentleness. And that’s the truth about Malcolm: he was one of the gentlest people I have ever met.”
“One of Malcolm’s many lines that I liked was ‘I am the man you think you are,’ ” Goldman said. “What he meant by that was if you hit me I would hit you back. But over the period of my acquaintance with him I came to believe it also meant if you respect me I will respect you back.”
Cone amplifies this point in “Martin & Malcolm & America”:
Malcolm X is the best medicine against genocide. He showed us by example and prophetic preaching that one does not have to stay in the mud. We can wake up; we can stand up; and we can take that long walk toward freedom. Freedom is first and foremost an inner recognition of self-respect, a knowledge that one was not put on this earth to be a nobody. Using drugs and killing each other are the worst forms of nobodyness. Our forefathers fought against great odds (slavery, lynching, and segregation), but they did not self-destruct. Some died fighting, and others, inspired by their example, kept moving toward the promised land of freedom, singing ‘we ain’t gonna let nobody turn us around.’ African-Americans can do the same today. We can fight for our dignity and self-respect. To be proud to be black does not mean being against white people, unless whites are against respecting the humanity of blacks. Malcolm was not against whites; he was for blacks and against their exploitation.
Goldman lamented the loss of voices such as Malcolm’s, voices steeped in an understanding of our historical and cultural truths and endowed with the courage to speak these truths in public.
“We don’t read anymore,” Goldman said. “We don’t learn anymore. History is disappearing. People talk about living in the moment as if it is a virtue. It is a horrible vice. Between the twitterverse and the 24-hour cable news cycle our history keeps disappearing. History is something boring that you had to endure in high school and then you are rid of it. Then you go to college and study finance, accounting, business management or computer science. There are damn few liberal arts majors left. And this has erased our history. The larger figure in the ’60s was, of course, King. But what the huge majority of Americans know about King is [only] that he made a speech where he said ‘I have a dream’ and that his name is attached to a day off.”
Malcolm, like King, understood the cost of being a prophet. The two men daily faced down this cost.
Malcolm, as Goldman writes, met with the reporter Claude Lewis not long before his Feb. 21, 1965, murder. He had already experienced several attempts on his life.
“This is an era of hypocrisy,” he told Lewis. “When white folks pretend that they want Negroes to be free, and Negroes pretend to white folks that they really believe that white folks want ’em to be free, it’s an era of hypocrisy, brother. You fool me and I fool you. You pretend that you’re my brother, and I pretend that I really believe you believe you’re my brother.”
He told Lewis he would never reach old age. “If you read, you’ll find that very few people who think like I think live long enough to get old. When I say by any means necessary, I mean it with all my heart, my mind and my soul. A black man should give his life to be free, and he should also be able, be willing to take the life of those who want to take his. When you really think like that, you don’t live long.”
Lewis asked him how he wanted to be remembered. “Sincere,” Malcolm said. “In whatever I did or do. Even if I made mistakes, they were made in sincerity. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong in sincerity. I think that the best thing that a person can be is sincere.”
“The price of freedom,” Malcolm said shortly before he was killed, “is death.”
I truly hope that is not the case in our circumstances - we definitely have to be about self-liberation. I'm a good one for severing ties. I believe, like Marcus Garvey (who Malcolm's parents followed) that we should not only separate from these crazy mofos - but we should develop our own autonomous everything. Of course, they don't want us to be here, but they don't want us to leave either; as evidenced by the fact that when Garvey actually began to affect his plan to go back to Africa, and had made the effort to raise funds by Black people pooling their own resources, the whites bent over backwards to prevent it from happening. I think, in this day and age of social media, modern technology, mass communication, the phrase WE TRY HARDER along with THE PEOPLE UNITED CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED, can make what was once thwarted, an immeasurable success. Of course, it would take someone with the charisma, wisdom, and vision of Marcus Garvey to get 12 million Blacks to come together now the way they did 90 years ago. Not impossible, just difficult. I'll settle for 1 million.
