Malcom X

In his years following Mr. Muhammed, he very seldom even mentioned the name Allah, or the Koran. His belief of what Islam was seemed to almost entirely come from Mr. Muhammed belief that white's were the devil.
He was told of the story of how whites were systematically breed from black people, by a scientist named Yakub, that lived 6600 years ago.

This story does not exist in mainstream Islam.

When Malcolm X went on his haj to Mecca, he was embarrassingly ignorant of the ways of Muslims in prayer, eating, hospitality, etc.

Hwaxed lyrical over how hospital Muslims were, regardless if they had blue eyes, blond hair, white skin, or dark. Comments were made of how these Muslims welcomed him into their homes, fed him, introduced him around, etc. However, during a trip, later on, to Africa, he said that a white man (a non muslim) "Had the nerve" to invite him to his home.

So, a non muslim white cannot display hospitality?

Malcom did believe the college students of the day would make a difference in the future. He said that by the year 2000 attitudes would be different.
I'll have to find that exact quote.

His views definitely moderated just before he was assassinated.

It's been a long time since I've read that book, so I don't remember a lot of the details of his life.

I think he would be appalled at the rotting of the Black family, and he would be telling Black men that they are pussies for not both making something of themselves and not standing up to Black Women....for not demanding to be intirical to their kids lives and forming a family to do so.

Well yeah. I can see how she might think this was a difficult childhood.

Edit So, should I read the book?

I read the book. I believe it was written with the help of the author of Roots. Can't recall the man's name. I don't consider people like Malcolm X to be the enemy.

Have you ever the book, The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs?
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/monst001.mp3\

I'm assuming you have never read it. To be fair, I haven't either nor have I have ever heard of it. But according to your logic:

You are now compelled to read it now. Ain't your reasoning weird that way?

Aren't you glad you already read Confessions Of An Heiress: A Tongue-in-chic Peek Behind The Pose by Paris Hilton? You didn't readd it?! Neither did I... but now you must read it because after all you seemingly read books because you have never read it before. Good luck with the Paris Hilton autobiography. Take hope knowing that it was most likely ghost written for this blonde near-illiterate scourge on western civilization.

Alex Haley.

They had their difficulties. At one point X told Haley "I trust you 25%"

Muc later, the phone rang at Haley's house at 4am.
It was Macolm who said "I trust you 70%" and hung up.

Yes, his views very much moderated after his visit to Mecca.

He then was able to say that while white were the problem, as individuals, some were good people.

This type of thing, among others, made me think about teens growing up. At first they think a certain group i.e. adults are "other" or even "enemy" As they mature, they learn that is not so.

Considering X's upbringing and prison life, I can see where, being accepted by Elijah Muhammed and those Muslims was literally a lifeline.

I think if he hadn't been assassinated by the same people, his views would have continued to change.

He would have been an old man today. I would have liked to see what he had to say.

*****

Another thought...

It seemed that mental illness of some sort ran in his family. Both his mother, and a brother were institutionalized.
Considering his early drug use, and his manic drive, I wonder what was going on with him.

I'm not saying at all he was mentally ill. I don't know enough about him, beside this book.
He just seemed (to me) abnormally hyper all the time.

yeah, it was a good read, I learneded sumthin'

yeah, that was dumb the way I said that.

shut up.

Alex Haley


I have not read the autobiograpy, but my husband had, and he knew about the changes re some of Malcolm X's views before his assassination.

Malcolm is one of my heroes. Very glad you read the book - and that you have the balls to straighten out people's misperceptions about who he was.

yeah

Thanks Lash

What prompted me to read the book was that just before it, I read the book "Push" aka "Precious" by Sapphire. It's a quick read, one of those lazy afternoon books.

Didn't see, and don't want to see the movie. As in a lot of cases, there were a lot of things in the book that would never have made it into the film.

Anyway, in the book, Precious says or thinks something about X, and I thought "If this 16 year old girl who can't read or write knows about him, why don't I"?

Regarding the book Precious, what really hit me, strongly, at one point was the fact that nothing that happened to this girl was the fault of the white man.

Honestly? I have been so socialized has a white person to at least say "well, I didn't have any part of that, but yeah, we were instrumental in this and such problem or suffering"

That little girl was raped and fondled by both her mother and father, the same way it happens to little white girls.

No one would ever say "it's the fault of the white system that this little white girl had this happen to her"

Yet, like Malcom, some blacks would somehow make it the white devils fault.

Sometimes when something happens, you can't point a finger at a color.

Yeah, that really struck me . . . assuming Chai would see Malcolm X as "the enemy." That assassination was truly tragic, as i believe he would have emerged as a leader of disaffected young black men of the kind who ended up in the Black Panthers. It's impossible to know where he would have wandered ideologically, but it is obvious that he never ceased exploring the themes in society with which he was obsessed.

I don't see him as "the enemy"

I see him as someone raised in unfortunate circumstances. His life got worse and worse, ending up in prison, and at that time he grabbed hold of a lifeline thrown to him.

Unfortunately, that lifeline contained a lot of misinformation.

I'm no authority on Islam, but it did strike me how little he spoke of Allah.
When he made his Haj to Mecca, I couldn't believe he didn't even know the basics of his proclaimed religion, such as how to kneel, abulutions, etc.

That journey did set him on a more correct path, and I believe he would have been an agent for positive change, if he had lived longer.

My words were aimed in a general direction - not at a specific person.

Just as an aside to something said here in general about the whole enduring white/black thing... I think people who haven't lived hearing stories that have been collected and passed down through the generations of their family - much like warnings of an occupied people in war - about what happened to Uncle Bob - or why we don't do this - or who you can talk to in an emergency - or where our family can buy beef... if you haven't lived like this, you just don't know why, in general, blacks don't trust whites. The truth is - my truth anyway - that life for black people has been adversely affected by the white institution in this country. I didn't understand that previously. I was a bit defensive because I knew my life hadn't contributed to inequality - hell, I'd stuck my neck out to be part of the solution - but that doesn't change the overriding fact. No matter what black person crapped on you during your life and caused you significant maladjustment - white America had already stamped REJECT on you, your lifestyle, your culture, and invaded your psyche - crushing all of the necessary, basic building blocks of personal self-esteem that lead us all to self-actualization. You lose the game as soon as they see your face.

It's like the tree ring thing. You can have paralyzing droughts that weaken and stunt the tree - and wonderful seasons of sun and rain improve successive rings...but you can always see the damage done - and you can never go back and erase it.

It's not an excuse for bad behavior. I wish I had a good excuse for these tortured metaphors, but alas...

I still believe that people - ALL - people are accountable for what they do....but we shouldn't forget what went before. It is a good explanation for a lot of things...

I would like to say I've seen incredible changes in my lifetime, not even counting the presidency, that make me smile.

As well we see childhood sexual abuse survivors in their 40's still blaiming their behaviour on the abuse, but all those years later who can tell what part of who they are now is directly caused by the abuse all those years ago? It becomes an act of evading responsibility for ones actions. We teach that the abuse was not their fault, but good guides (therapists) also say that the survivor is responsible for how they react to the abuse, for everything that they do after the abuse. Poor unhelpfully guides say "poor dear, I know your being such a worthless hurtfull bitch right now is not your fault, it is all your abusers fault"

The abuse should factor into deciding if the survivor is currently doing the best that they can, we should have empathy enough to understand the difficulty and that progress might take longer than for a non-scarred person, but when a person is obviously not even trying, is doing nothing and saying that they can't because they were abused, then it is time to tell them to go **** themselves until and unless they are ready to do their part.

I think this is where we are with Blacks, we are over the victim story. Blacks have been hurt very badly in the Great Recession but we dont hear much about it, and I think it is because Blacks have enough sense of the topography to know that almost no one wants to hear yet again how bad they have it, even if this time it is both true and is not their fault.

Oh, I totally agree with you Lash, re starting out with 2 or 3 strikes against you.

My comment re realizing I had nothing to do with a particular (in this case fictional even) situation, startled me.

My folks, my mother in particular, used to make the dumbest commets about not just blacks, but other ethnic/racial groups. Even as a kid, I wanted to give her this look at the dumb ass **** she would say.

It took many years for me to learn that she lived her life being unaccountable for anything. Maybe I felt I needed to take on being more accountable than average, to make up for it.

When I went to the library to pick up Malcolm X, of course it was in the black history section. Right nearby, I guess on the same shelf, was a book called "The Dwelling Place" and I just started reading that yesterday.

It's not fiction, but takes historical records of a certain family and seems to be connecting them in a logical fashion to the slaves they owned, when/why buying and selling occured, how business was run on a plantation, etc.

I'm enjoying it so far, in as much as it's not filled with a lot of drama, just lays out the facts, and the outcomes.