Remember Malcolm

By Gary Iribarren

Sunday, Feb. 21, marked the 45th anniversary of Malcolm X's assassination. Born John Little, but also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Malcolm X was the most dynamic leader of the Black Revolution. In light of Black History month coming to a close this Sunday, I thought it pertinent to reflect on Malcolm's story. All Americans can and should learn from the emotional and philosophical lessons it teaches.

"When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, a party of hooded Ku Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home in Omaha, Nebraska, one night. Surrounding the house, brandishing their shotguns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come out."

The first sentences of Malcolm X's autobiography set the tone for the rest of Malcolm's story -- a journey that probably best articulates the beliefs and the struggles of African Americans in the 1960s.

Often juxtaposed with his non-violent counterpart Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., an unfair amount of attention is frequently paid to Malcolm's radicalized views, most famously his remark about John F. Kennedy's assassination. He described it as a case of "the chickens coming home to roost." A major theme in many of his speeches was, in his words, "the hypocritical American white man reaping what he had sowed."

Malcolm's conversion to Sunni Islam and pilgrimage to Mecca was transformative, testing his world view of what was possible between black and white cultures. In his autobiography, he says orthodox Islam provided "the insight and perspective to see that the black men and white men truly could be brothers."

Malcolm's life would go on to be a testament to what a black man could do in his time when he faced adversity head-on and without fear. His fearless passion was exemplified by his direct personal following of non-Muslim African Americans, who at first starkly rejected his bizarre teachings of Islam and black solidarity.

"My life was inseparably committed to the American black man's struggle," not just Muslim followers, Malcolm said of his cause.

After Malcolm led Muslims in a dramatic protest of police over the beating of a fellow Muslim brother, "All of Harlem [saw] how from then on, the police gave Muslims respect," Malcolm describes in his autobiography. "This was during the time that the Deputy Chief Inspector at the 28th Precinct has said of me, 'No man should have that much power.'"

Too much power indeed, for his leadership skills, confidence and charisma were to be Malcolm's downfall. Malcolm's growing fame as a black Muslim leader threatened Elijah Muhammad, prophet of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm later learned that fellow Muslim brothers put out death threats for him, leading him to cut ties from his once loyal church.

Even in his criminal years in Boston and Harlem where he was involved in drug dealing, gambling, racketeering, robbery and steering prostitutes, he was a fearless leader that commanded respect and attention.

To show that he was not afraid to die, he pointed a revolver with a single bullet to his head in front of his criminal cohort and repeatedly pulled the trigger Russian roulette style. Alex Haley, Malcolm's collaborator on the autobiography, admits in the epilogue that when Malcolm was proofreading the manuscript he admitted that he palmed the bullet and staged the act to scare them into obedience.

Malcolm was a man of his element, a product of his environment. When he decided to do something, he did it unsparingly, and though the image of Malcolm in this criminal context appears vicious, he carried the same passion and daringness with his education and spiritual practices while in prison.

Malcolm should not be remembered for his radical views against white America. If he was radical, it was because he saw the other alternatives failing. Malcolm rose to prominence, ultimately, because he understood the people he needed to reach and was a man of many faces. He lived on the streets as a hustler and understood the people; he lived in the rural Midwest and understood the people; he went to prison and understood the system.

He rose to fame as a spiritual leader and revolutionary for black's rights and grew to understand politics and the elite class. Malcolm should be remembered for his great sacrifice in exposing meaningful truth to help destroy the malignant racism that has plagued American history.

Gary Iribarren is a senior English major.