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The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Alternate cover for ISBN 9780345350688
Through a life of passion and struggle, Malcolm X became one of the most influential figures of the 20th Century. In this riveting account, he tells of his journey from a prison cell to Mecca, describing his transition from hoodlum to Muslim minister. Here, the man who called himself "the angriest Black man in America" relates how his conversion to true Islam helped him confront his rage and recognize the brotherhood of all mankind.
An established classic of modern America, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" was hailed by the New York Times as "Extraordinary. A brilliant, painful, important book." Still extraordinary, still important, this electrifying story has transformed Malcolm X's life into his legacy. The strength of his words, and the power of his ideas continue to resonate more than a generation after they first appeared.
Through a life of passion and struggle, Malcolm X became one of the most influential figures of the 20th Century. In this riveting account, he tells of his journey from a prison cell to Mecca, describing his transition from hoodlum to Muslim minister. Here, the man who called himself "the angriest Black man in America" relates how his conversion to true Islam helped him confront his rage and recognize the brotherhood of all mankind.
An established classic of modern America, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" was hailed by the New York Times as "Extraordinary. A brilliant, painful, important book." Still extraordinary, still important, this electrifying story has transformed Malcolm X's life into his legacy. The strength of his words, and the power of his ideas continue to resonate more than a generation after they first appeared.
466 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 29, 1965
About the author
Malcolm X
114 books2,735 followersMalcolm X (born Malcolm Little), also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was an American Black Muslim minister and a spokesman for the Nation of Islam.
After leaving the Nation of Islam in 1964, he made the pilgrimage, the Hajj, to Mecca and became a Sunni Muslim. He also founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year later, he was assassinated in Washington Heights on the first day of National Brotherhood Week.
Historian Robin D.G. Kelley wrote, "Malcolm X has been called many things: Pan-Africanist, father of Black Power, religious fanatic, closet conservative, incipient socialist, and a menace to society. The meaning of his public life — his politics and ideology — is contested in part because his entire body of work consists of a few dozen speeches and a collaborative autobiography whose veracity is challenged. Malcolm has become a sort of tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which people of different positions can write their own interpretations of his politics and legacy.
After leaving the Nation of Islam in 1964, he made the pilgrimage, the Hajj, to Mecca and became a Sunni Muslim. He also founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year later, he was assassinated in Washington Heights on the first day of National Brotherhood Week.
Historian Robin D.G. Kelley wrote, "Malcolm X has been called many things: Pan-Africanist, father of Black Power, religious fanatic, closet conservative, incipient socialist, and a menace to society. The meaning of his public life — his politics and ideology — is contested in part because his entire body of work consists of a few dozen speeches and a collaborative autobiography whose veracity is challenged. Malcolm has become a sort of tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which people of different positions can write their own interpretations of his politics and legacy.
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October 28, 2013
“I’ve had enough of someone else’s propaganda. I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” - Malcolm X
In High School my history syllabus covered just a few pages on African-American civil rights heroes. The majority of those pages were on Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X was barely mentioned. After reading this book I was perplexed! I wonder why Malcolm X hasn't been given the same respect as Dr. King; he contributed so much to the civil rights movement as well, yet my knowledge on this man was very minimal.
How did Malcolm Little become Malcolm X aka El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz? This is what this book is all about. His transformation was remarkable especially as he spent time in foster homes and was a hustler in Detroit. He lived in an America where smart black kids were discouraged from being lawyers etc, and thus dropped out of school at young ages. It made me think for the umpteenth time just how can society malign and vilify black people, especially black men, when society itself is responsible for restricting them in the first place?
Among the many things I admired about Malcolm X was his thirst for knowledge. He is a great advertisement for autodidactism and how effective and transformative self-education can be:
“I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there, in prison, that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.”
It was hard for me to read this book and not compare Malcolm X’s philosophy to Dr. King’s. I always thought I would adhere more closely to Dr. King’s peaceful, nonviolence philosophy, but after reading this book I do agree with Malcolm X’s ideology as well. Not that I am advocating violence, but radicalness and action is sometimes needed, as are anger and indignation. As Malcolm X said, ““So early in life, I learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.” I feel there is so much to learn from both men so I won’t say I prefer one doctrine over another. At the same time I wonder, how can people not become militant and revolutionary after having experienced so much cruelty and discrimination?
Another thing I found interesting in this autobiography was Malcolm X’s religious transformation; from having been raised Christian, to entering the Nation of Islam (NOI), he finally found his spiritual home in “mainstream” Islam. His depiction of his trip to Mecca in particular was very enlightening and a turning point in his life. His adoration of Elijah Muhammad, the founder of the NOI, was quite sad, especially as Muhammad seems to have been a bit of a weirdo. Muhammad said something along the lines of too-short women marrying tall men and vice versa is ridiculous. Also, he said that a man should ideally marry a woman half his age plus 7 years.
Malcolm is unapologetic about his views in this book and that's what I love best about this autobiography. His writing is very candid and so informative. This is an important book for all to read. The prevalence of eurocentrism in the world is astounding and I don’t think we really realize just how established it is. Malcolm X dissected the race problem so well, I felt inspired.
In High School my history syllabus covered just a few pages on African-American civil rights heroes. The majority of those pages were on Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X was barely mentioned. After reading this book I was perplexed! I wonder why Malcolm X hasn't been given the same respect as Dr. King; he contributed so much to the civil rights movement as well, yet my knowledge on this man was very minimal.
How did Malcolm Little become Malcolm X aka El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz? This is what this book is all about. His transformation was remarkable especially as he spent time in foster homes and was a hustler in Detroit. He lived in an America where smart black kids were discouraged from being lawyers etc, and thus dropped out of school at young ages. It made me think for the umpteenth time just how can society malign and vilify black people, especially black men, when society itself is responsible for restricting them in the first place?
Among the many things I admired about Malcolm X was his thirst for knowledge. He is a great advertisement for autodidactism and how effective and transformative self-education can be:
“I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there, in prison, that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.”
It was hard for me to read this book and not compare Malcolm X’s philosophy to Dr. King’s. I always thought I would adhere more closely to Dr. King’s peaceful, nonviolence philosophy, but after reading this book I do agree with Malcolm X’s ideology as well. Not that I am advocating violence, but radicalness and action is sometimes needed, as are anger and indignation. As Malcolm X said, ““So early in life, I learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.” I feel there is so much to learn from both men so I won’t say I prefer one doctrine over another. At the same time I wonder, how can people not become militant and revolutionary after having experienced so much cruelty and discrimination?
Another thing I found interesting in this autobiography was Malcolm X’s religious transformation; from having been raised Christian, to entering the Nation of Islam (NOI), he finally found his spiritual home in “mainstream” Islam. His depiction of his trip to Mecca in particular was very enlightening and a turning point in his life. His adoration of Elijah Muhammad, the founder of the NOI, was quite sad, especially as Muhammad seems to have been a bit of a weirdo. Muhammad said something along the lines of too-short women marrying tall men and vice versa is ridiculous. Also, he said that a man should ideally marry a woman half his age plus 7 years.
Malcolm is unapologetic about his views in this book and that's what I love best about this autobiography. His writing is very candid and so informative. This is an important book for all to read. The prevalence of eurocentrism in the world is astounding and I don’t think we really realize just how established it is. Malcolm X dissected the race problem so well, I felt inspired.
March 27, 2008
This book counts for a lot. Cornel West says that one of the deepest fears for black America is that Malcolm X was fundamentally right, that the political system here is incapable of being changed through traditional means in order to serve the black community what they are due. "What are they due?" asks the conservative... A share in the incredible wealth of the country that they have labored to build for hundreds of years, often against their own will, answers the REALIST... self-actualization, in whatever form that may take, answers Malcolm. Malcolm X scares the hell out of people even today because of his refusal to accept the current democratic system as a way for African-Americans to address their genuine bitterness towards a country that has screwed them over time and again. He also refutes racist claims of white intellectual superiority, absorbing the whole canon of European philosophy while in prison, and responding to it with fierce criticism. And he was a busboy in some of the greatest New York clubs that ever existed. I dunno. I'm another middle class white boy in the U.S. who has absorbed from a young age dramatic pictures of black culture - mostly negative - that don't so much reflect the culture so much as reflect the fears imposed on it by the elite. Malcolm X, along with Molefi Asante, Cornel West, Ishmael Reed, Zora Neal Hurston, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison... all help to correct that skewed viewpoint.
July 31, 2017
The voice of Malcolm X was powerful, unbridled and simply heroic. He is one of the most quotable men of the twentieth century:
“In fact, once he is motivated no one can change more completely than the man who has been at the bottom. I call myself the best example of that.”
“It is only after slavery and prison that the sweetest appreciation of freedom can come. ”
“I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being--neither white, black, brown, or red; and when you are dealing with humanity as a family there's no question of integration or intermarriage. It's just one human being marrying another human being or one human being living around and with another human being.”
One of the strongest realisations Malcolm X had was learning exactly who he was. As a political figure, his rhetoric was extraordinary. But I will get to this much later in this lengthy review, for now though looking at his childhood experience helps to understand what shaped him.
As a young black man in America, he was a man without a sense of true identity. His African roots, though still in his blood, were far from evident in his people. The culture he existed in is comparable to a murky mirror. Very much in the vein of Franz Fannon’s Black Skins White Masks, Malcolm realised that the black folk acted like puppets; the way they thought, and the way they behaved, was nothing short of extreme social conditioning. They were indoctrinated with this idea, this idea that the white man was better; thus, they tried to become white, by adopting white culture, rather than finding their own true sense of self. And this is exactly what he addressed in his later arguments after his lessons under Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam.
However, some of his earlier experiences show the powers at play directly. The young Malcolm experienced it all. When at school studying history, the history of the “negro” was condensed down into a single paragraph in a Western textbook. Let me say that again, one paragraph. That’s it, an entire history of a people summarised by a few sentences. Simply put, the history of the black man, at least according to the white man here, didn’t exist until he arrived in Africa with his slave boats. He had no history before enslavement, and this is what these children were taught at school. Chinua Achebe come eat your heart out. Ignorance like this is why he wrote Things Fall Apart. Malcolm was later told by another teacher that he could not become a lawyer because of his skin colour. It’s these kinds of rejections that planted the seeds of anger in his heart.
First though, before he would begin to walk his path, he would make a series of mistakes. I could hear the sorrow in his voice as I read some of the words here. When he was a very young man he broke a girl’s heart, an experience that set her on a downward spiral. You could say it ruined her life. He bought into this idea that white is better and left her for all the prestige a white partner could bring him. All in all, the young Malcolm, as he puts it, was “deaf, blind and dumb” as he walked away from a woman who clearly loved him. He would make even more mistakes as he got older. He became a hustler and a drug pusher, then later a house breaker. He was surrounded by a world of violence. Few make it to old age in such a life, so he had only two possible exists: death or prison.
But who is to blame? I call these mistakes, but the reality of the situation is that they were merely pitfalls. When Malcolm entered prison, it was only because the situation created by the white man lead him to the cell.
And at this moment in his life, arguable the lowest, when he sat in a prison cell bored to tears and full of rage; he realised what true power was and where he could get it: books.
“The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.”
He learnt to read, and did it so often he gained his trademark glasses. After hearing the words of Elijah Muhammad, filtered through his brother’s mouth, Malcolm came to understand the evils of western society. He had become what the white man wanted him to be, so he changed rapidly. He transformed himself drastically. He learnt his full history- that of the African American and then what he could of the African. He embraced Muslim faith, slowly at first, but when he did he became incensed with the clarity it gave his mind. Christianity, for him, became nothing more than a mode of control the white man used on the blacks. It forced them to their knees and made them worship a white god. He wanted no part of it.
When he got out of prison he quickly became one of the most important men in The Nation of Islam. He converted hundreds, and gave many speeches to the press. He was second only to their leader. He worked diligently for twelve years, and then was ungracefully thrown out.
Where did he go wrong?
He didn’t. He never did. He would have died for the nation. He was forced to leave because the leader was jealous and afraid of him- even after he continued to serve him after he found out about his hypocrisy. Simply put, Malcolm put all his faith into a false bastion, twelve years of faith, and he still had the strength to carry on afterwards. He did not let it destroy him. He truly was a great man.
But what of all his hate? Malcolm hated the white man. And from this power he drew his early success. His hate was justified, but it was very generalised. The white man committed terrible crimes in history, but it was also the general man on the street that would stick his nose up in the air and act superior on a day to day basis that would get Malcolm angry. It was out there. It kept happening, but this doesn’t mean that was all that was out there. There were genuine white people who felt as Malcolm did, and perhaps they could have helped each other. But, that being said, I’m not sure he would have been as successful had his hate been tempered at the start. As he once said:
“So early in my life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.”
He needed the white man to know why he hated him.
The wasted potential of X
Malcolm X did wonders for black pride in America; he did wonders for the civil rights movement despite his hatred, but the true tragedy is we will never know how much more he could have done. When he was assassinated, he was at the peak of his intellect; he was at a moment where he realised that hatred wasn’t necessarily the answer. After he became a full Muslim, in the traditional sense, after his pilgrimage to Mecca, he realised that Allah should have been his true guide not the false Elijah Mohamed. He was ready to face the world, this time himself. He was ready to throw his true heart out there. He’d learnt from his experience as The Nation’s number two Muslim, and he was going to put his ideas into practice. But he was cut short, and the world weeps. He is often criticised for his hatred, but rarely recognised for what he became in the end. We will never know how far he could have gone with his Muslim Mosque Inc group. Could he have rivalled The Nation of Islam? Could he have sped up black rights even further? We shall never know, and that is why his potential was wasted. He always knew he would die by violence, and perhaps as he grew older he would have developed even further.
Malcolm X is a contentious figure even today, but he is a man who must be studied to be understood. Hearing his words, his anger, is not enough. We need to know where it came from and why it was born. This autobiography is honest, brutal and, above all, simply an outstanding piece of writing. There’s so much to be gained from reading this.
“In fact, once he is motivated no one can change more completely than the man who has been at the bottom. I call myself the best example of that.”
“It is only after slavery and prison that the sweetest appreciation of freedom can come. ”
“I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being--neither white, black, brown, or red; and when you are dealing with humanity as a family there's no question of integration or intermarriage. It's just one human being marrying another human being or one human being living around and with another human being.”
One of the strongest realisations Malcolm X had was learning exactly who he was. As a political figure, his rhetoric was extraordinary. But I will get to this much later in this lengthy review, for now though looking at his childhood experience helps to understand what shaped him.
As a young black man in America, he was a man without a sense of true identity. His African roots, though still in his blood, were far from evident in his people. The culture he existed in is comparable to a murky mirror. Very much in the vein of Franz Fannon’s Black Skins White Masks, Malcolm realised that the black folk acted like puppets; the way they thought, and the way they behaved, was nothing short of extreme social conditioning. They were indoctrinated with this idea, this idea that the white man was better; thus, they tried to become white, by adopting white culture, rather than finding their own true sense of self. And this is exactly what he addressed in his later arguments after his lessons under Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam.
However, some of his earlier experiences show the powers at play directly. The young Malcolm experienced it all. When at school studying history, the history of the “negro” was condensed down into a single paragraph in a Western textbook. Let me say that again, one paragraph. That’s it, an entire history of a people summarised by a few sentences. Simply put, the history of the black man, at least according to the white man here, didn’t exist until he arrived in Africa with his slave boats. He had no history before enslavement, and this is what these children were taught at school. Chinua Achebe come eat your heart out. Ignorance like this is why he wrote Things Fall Apart. Malcolm was later told by another teacher that he could not become a lawyer because of his skin colour. It’s these kinds of rejections that planted the seeds of anger in his heart.
First though, before he would begin to walk his path, he would make a series of mistakes. I could hear the sorrow in his voice as I read some of the words here. When he was a very young man he broke a girl’s heart, an experience that set her on a downward spiral. You could say it ruined her life. He bought into this idea that white is better and left her for all the prestige a white partner could bring him. All in all, the young Malcolm, as he puts it, was “deaf, blind and dumb” as he walked away from a woman who clearly loved him. He would make even more mistakes as he got older. He became a hustler and a drug pusher, then later a house breaker. He was surrounded by a world of violence. Few make it to old age in such a life, so he had only two possible exists: death or prison.
But who is to blame? I call these mistakes, but the reality of the situation is that they were merely pitfalls. When Malcolm entered prison, it was only because the situation created by the white man lead him to the cell.
And at this moment in his life, arguable the lowest, when he sat in a prison cell bored to tears and full of rage; he realised what true power was and where he could get it: books.
“The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.”
He learnt to read, and did it so often he gained his trademark glasses. After hearing the words of Elijah Muhammad, filtered through his brother’s mouth, Malcolm came to understand the evils of western society. He had become what the white man wanted him to be, so he changed rapidly. He transformed himself drastically. He learnt his full history- that of the African American and then what he could of the African. He embraced Muslim faith, slowly at first, but when he did he became incensed with the clarity it gave his mind. Christianity, for him, became nothing more than a mode of control the white man used on the blacks. It forced them to their knees and made them worship a white god. He wanted no part of it.
When he got out of prison he quickly became one of the most important men in The Nation of Islam. He converted hundreds, and gave many speeches to the press. He was second only to their leader. He worked diligently for twelve years, and then was ungracefully thrown out.
Where did he go wrong?
He didn’t. He never did. He would have died for the nation. He was forced to leave because the leader was jealous and afraid of him- even after he continued to serve him after he found out about his hypocrisy. Simply put, Malcolm put all his faith into a false bastion, twelve years of faith, and he still had the strength to carry on afterwards. He did not let it destroy him. He truly was a great man.
But what of all his hate? Malcolm hated the white man. And from this power he drew his early success. His hate was justified, but it was very generalised. The white man committed terrible crimes in history, but it was also the general man on the street that would stick his nose up in the air and act superior on a day to day basis that would get Malcolm angry. It was out there. It kept happening, but this doesn’t mean that was all that was out there. There were genuine white people who felt as Malcolm did, and perhaps they could have helped each other. But, that being said, I’m not sure he would have been as successful had his hate been tempered at the start. As he once said:
“So early in my life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.”
He needed the white man to know why he hated him.
The wasted potential of X
Malcolm X did wonders for black pride in America; he did wonders for the civil rights movement despite his hatred, but the true tragedy is we will never know how much more he could have done. When he was assassinated, he was at the peak of his intellect; he was at a moment where he realised that hatred wasn’t necessarily the answer. After he became a full Muslim, in the traditional sense, after his pilgrimage to Mecca, he realised that Allah should have been his true guide not the false Elijah Mohamed. He was ready to face the world, this time himself. He was ready to throw his true heart out there. He’d learnt from his experience as The Nation’s number two Muslim, and he was going to put his ideas into practice. But he was cut short, and the world weeps. He is often criticised for his hatred, but rarely recognised for what he became in the end. We will never know how far he could have gone with his Muslim Mosque Inc group. Could he have rivalled The Nation of Islam? Could he have sped up black rights even further? We shall never know, and that is why his potential was wasted. He always knew he would die by violence, and perhaps as he grew older he would have developed even further.
Malcolm X is a contentious figure even today, but he is a man who must be studied to be understood. Hearing his words, his anger, is not enough. We need to know where it came from and why it was born. This autobiography is honest, brutal and, above all, simply an outstanding piece of writing. There’s so much to be gained from reading this.
December 17, 2007
This is the life story of Malcolm Little, later Malcolm X, later El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. As are most white people in this country, I was led to believe that Malcolm X was just an angry, militant racist who wanted to kill white people in the same way that angry, militant racists in the South want to kill black people. Nothing could be further from the truth.
This book, more than any other I've read, opened my eyes to see how the innate racism in our country works and affects the people it is most sharply targeted at: African Americans. It's one thing to understand that it exists (amazing that this is still debated) and empathize with its victims, but quite another to see it through their eyes. Malcolm X, as he points out, grew up in the "tolerant" North. His battle was not with lynch mobs and Jim Crow laws, but with the death-by-a-thousand-cuts brand of racism that, I would argue, now constitutes the mainstream dynamic between blacks and whites in this country.
By the time he becomes a Muslim in prison, it's easy to see why he was angry (which he was) and why he fought back. The amazing thing, though, is that while the very book was being written, Malcolm X is undergoing a personal transformation that is leading him away from anger and hatred towards white people and towards a realization that it is the culture in America, and not inherent evil in white people, that creates the racism he's fighting against. This transformation costs him 12 years of his life's work, his house, his family's safety, and eventually his life.
There are aspects of Malcolm X's philosophy that I cannot empathize with, however. His view of women, in particular, represents an ironic denial of their humanity. You almost want to scream at the pages, "How can you not see that you're viewing women the same way white people view you!?" There are also some pretty strange religious ideas held by the Black Muslims in general (such as literally believing that white people are the devil, and we know it), but Malcolm ends up moving away from these by the end of his life in favor of more orthodox Islam as practiced by the majority of the world's Muslims.
I now believe, after having read this autobiography, that had he lived longer, Malcolm X would today be as revered as Martin Luther King, Jr. is. Ozzie Davis, Malcolm X's eulogist, said that he sometimes needed reminding that he was a man (something he suspected white people didn't need), and that Malcolm X did that for him, and for many other black people as well.
This book, more than any other I've read, opened my eyes to see how the innate racism in our country works and affects the people it is most sharply targeted at: African Americans. It's one thing to understand that it exists (amazing that this is still debated) and empathize with its victims, but quite another to see it through their eyes. Malcolm X, as he points out, grew up in the "tolerant" North. His battle was not with lynch mobs and Jim Crow laws, but with the death-by-a-thousand-cuts brand of racism that, I would argue, now constitutes the mainstream dynamic between blacks and whites in this country.
By the time he becomes a Muslim in prison, it's easy to see why he was angry (which he was) and why he fought back. The amazing thing, though, is that while the very book was being written, Malcolm X is undergoing a personal transformation that is leading him away from anger and hatred towards white people and towards a realization that it is the culture in America, and not inherent evil in white people, that creates the racism he's fighting against. This transformation costs him 12 years of his life's work, his house, his family's safety, and eventually his life.
There are aspects of Malcolm X's philosophy that I cannot empathize with, however. His view of women, in particular, represents an ironic denial of their humanity. You almost want to scream at the pages, "How can you not see that you're viewing women the same way white people view you!?" There are also some pretty strange religious ideas held by the Black Muslims in general (such as literally believing that white people are the devil, and we know it), but Malcolm ends up moving away from these by the end of his life in favor of more orthodox Islam as practiced by the majority of the world's Muslims.
I now believe, after having read this autobiography, that had he lived longer, Malcolm X would today be as revered as Martin Luther King, Jr. is. Ozzie Davis, Malcolm X's eulogist, said that he sometimes needed reminding that he was a man (something he suspected white people didn't need), and that Malcolm X did that for him, and for many other black people as well.
August 16, 2020
“I’ve had enough of someone else’s propaganda,” I had written to these friends. “I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, the matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”
Undoubtedly one of the most filling books I’ve read all year.
It starts simply, with solid, familiar flavors, something like a brandy old-fashioned complete with fruit decorations, and a little bowl of candied pecans. Malcolm X begins by setting the scene of his parents, and his birth on May 19, 1925. It is one of the shortest sections, noting his father’s work as a traveling Baptist minister and his mother’s work making a home. His memories are informed by skin color, recalling his West Indian mother’s pale skin from her absent father and her favoritism towards her children who were darker. Preaching the words of Marcus Garvey, it wasn’t long before his father ran afoul of conservative, reactionary whites, chasing them from Nebraska to Wisconsin to Michigan. He was killed under very suspicious circumstances that allowed insurance agents to deny payment to a woman with eight hungry children. Taking welfare checks meant social worker after social worker dropping by the house as the kids would act up out of hunger, desperation, and being kids until the day Malcolm agreed to live with another family. He found his place for a while, but recalls the institutionalized racism that had him being elected eighth-grade class president at the same time he was told being a lawyer was beyond his reach, but perhaps carpentry was a possible career. A chance to visit his half-sister Ella in Boston set his life on the next path.
Zoot suits
If we were to continue with the food metaphor, this would be the stuffed egg appetizer, the crunch of radishes in dill, the chipped beef and sardine roll straight out of the 1950s: hints of flavor, spice; food that snaps in the mouth, not melts into ephemera. This was the section that surprised me the most: young Malcolm was a hustler. He found a cohort, Shorty, who became his homeboy and schooled him on the ways of the street. He got his first conk and first zoot suit. Much to Ella’s dismay, he left the ‘high-class’ sections of town for the pool-halls and dance-rooms where he learned to lindy-hop. After leaving a shoe-shine job, he had a short term working as a soda-jerk in a drugstore, where he met Laura, one of his favorite dancing partners. One night at a dance with her, he met Sophia, a white girl who was a bit older than he, and from the rich area of Beacon Hill. Only sixteen, Ella took steps to get him out of the influence of his circle by getting him a job on a railroad dining car. Eventually, he pulled his own strings and made his way to New York, and to Harlem. Cocky, a sharp dresser and with an eye to opportunity, he soon became ‘Detroit Red,’ to distinguish him from the other red-haired black men in his circle.
“Right now, in every big city ghetto, tens of thousands of yesterday’s and today’s school dropouts are keeping body and soul together some form of hustling in the same way I did.”
A conk
If the earlier chapters are courses, this is the section where we sneak out back to have a cigarette and a belt of moonshine. The Malcolm I expected was barely to be seen in these pages. He waited tables, picked up tips from the local power-brokers, became an avid movie-goer, and gambler. Because of his love of dance, he was in contact and friends with many of the musicians of his time. As a waiter, he had a side ‘referral’ business suggesting black prostitutes to white men and vice-versa. Eventually he was caught and moved into selling reefer. His scene attempting to get a 4-F draft classification was astounding. Graduating to burglaries with a friend, he soon went armed with a couple of guns. Eventually, he brought his brother Reginald into the life when Reginald left the Merchant Marines. It was nothing I had expected and lasted only four short years until he was caught pawning loot from a job done with old pals Shorty, Sophia and her cousin.
“Any person who claims to have deep feelings for other human beings should think a long, long time before he votes to have other men kept behind bars–caged. I am not saying there shouldn’t be prisons, but there shouldn’t be bars. Behind bars, a man never reforms. He will never forget. He never will get completely over the memory of the bars.”
Finally, to the main course! Solid, meaty, and not altogether unexpected. Like a roast that’s a bit scanty on the au jus, details from his time in prison were both flavorful and scarce. There’s his moniker, ‘Satan,’ his minor prison hustles, and being encouraged to go the library by one of the dominant inmates. His brothers Reginald and Philbert introduced him gradually to the Prophet Elijah Muhammad. As with everything, Malcolm committed wholeheartedly and was soon preaching to the Christians in the prison, as well as joining the debate team to hone his skills.
Malcolm X
This is a section that is so fascinating, and yet still somewhat disappointing. Malcolm did so much reading in the prison library, tutoring himself on a vast array of topics, learning about American history and oppression. At the same time, he was spreading the word of Fard through the Messenger Elijah Muhammad, who included a history of Islam that included one man breaking off to form the white race out of the seeds of the black and brown race as a form of revenge against Allah. There’s also some details about numerology and the Masons that was completely incomprehensible. I found it hard to reconcile his willingness to embrace what seemed to be a rather wild offshoot of Islam called Nation of Islam with the man who studied Kant.
”The devil white man cut these black people off from all knowledge of their own kind, and cut them off from any knowledge of their own language, religion, and pass culture, until the black man in America was the earth’s only race of people who had absolutely no knowledge of his true identity”
After seven years in prison, he moved back to his brother Wilfred’s home in Detroit and immersed himself in a ‘normal’ life of family, church and work at Ford Motor Plant. Before long he felt called to preach for Brother Elijah’s Temple One in Detroit. With his passion and energy, he was soon drawing followers to the temple, and before long, was traveling to other cities to spread the word. Clearly, this is the part that was most dear to Malcolm’s heart, as he detailed his progress spreading the word in Boston, Harlem and many other cities in between seeking personal tutoring from the Messenger in Chicago. His life became that of a dedicated evangelist, until he encountered Sister Betty in one of the temples and married her. Even then he continued to travel, building the Nation of Islam. He spoke at colleges, on the radio, television programs and even overseas, spreading the word about the black man in America. Eventually, however, he felt there was a lot of jealousy of his success, particularly as Elijah’s health grew more precarious. He also learned of Elijah’s affairs with a succession of secretaries and verified the rumors for himself, an astounding crime given that Elijah has sentenced Nation members to years of ‘silence’ if they were found guilty of adultery. It’s clear that he felt his split with the Nation occurred because he had “more faith in Elijah than he had in himself” and because of jealousy at his success.
And, much like a small bittersweet cayenne chocolate truffle for dessert, there is a final, bittersweet end. As Malcolm makes his break and continues to dialogue more and more with world leaders, he ends up embracing a more traditional form of Islam that embraced the brotherhood of man. Unfortunately, word comes that the Nation would really prefer him dead, and his interviews make it clear it is weighing on his mind at the same time he is trying to provide for his family.
I found the entire book a meal worth hours and hours of digestion. There's so much here.
As all auto/biographies, I struggle with ratings. This is easily a dense, fulfilling read that I’d recommend to anyone in America. Political moments happening today have their genesis in that period, and Malcolm X provides a number of fascinating angles to the discussion. Still, autobiographies are the stories we tell about ourselves, so I can’t help wishing for even more context. I do think he showed unusual ability to connect early events in his life to perceptions and viewpoints later, yet he seemed to remain hamstrung by his views on women and on other races. Even more, I can’t help wishing he had lived longer so that we could have seen how his philosophies continued to evolve. It’s the kind of book that sends me down the rabbit holes of history, trying to understand more about this fascinating man and his thinking.
Review with links and great pictures at https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2016/...
Undoubtedly one of the most filling books I’ve read all year.
It starts simply, with solid, familiar flavors, something like a brandy old-fashioned complete with fruit decorations, and a little bowl of candied pecans. Malcolm X begins by setting the scene of his parents, and his birth on May 19, 1925. It is one of the shortest sections, noting his father’s work as a traveling Baptist minister and his mother’s work making a home. His memories are informed by skin color, recalling his West Indian mother’s pale skin from her absent father and her favoritism towards her children who were darker. Preaching the words of Marcus Garvey, it wasn’t long before his father ran afoul of conservative, reactionary whites, chasing them from Nebraska to Wisconsin to Michigan. He was killed under very suspicious circumstances that allowed insurance agents to deny payment to a woman with eight hungry children. Taking welfare checks meant social worker after social worker dropping by the house as the kids would act up out of hunger, desperation, and being kids until the day Malcolm agreed to live with another family. He found his place for a while, but recalls the institutionalized racism that had him being elected eighth-grade class president at the same time he was told being a lawyer was beyond his reach, but perhaps carpentry was a possible career. A chance to visit his half-sister Ella in Boston set his life on the next path.
Zoot suits
If we were to continue with the food metaphor, this would be the stuffed egg appetizer, the crunch of radishes in dill, the chipped beef and sardine roll straight out of the 1950s: hints of flavor, spice; food that snaps in the mouth, not melts into ephemera. This was the section that surprised me the most: young Malcolm was a hustler. He found a cohort, Shorty, who became his homeboy and schooled him on the ways of the street. He got his first conk and first zoot suit. Much to Ella’s dismay, he left the ‘high-class’ sections of town for the pool-halls and dance-rooms where he learned to lindy-hop. After leaving a shoe-shine job, he had a short term working as a soda-jerk in a drugstore, where he met Laura, one of his favorite dancing partners. One night at a dance with her, he met Sophia, a white girl who was a bit older than he, and from the rich area of Beacon Hill. Only sixteen, Ella took steps to get him out of the influence of his circle by getting him a job on a railroad dining car. Eventually, he pulled his own strings and made his way to New York, and to Harlem. Cocky, a sharp dresser and with an eye to opportunity, he soon became ‘Detroit Red,’ to distinguish him from the other red-haired black men in his circle.
“Right now, in every big city ghetto, tens of thousands of yesterday’s and today’s school dropouts are keeping body and soul together some form of hustling in the same way I did.”
A conk
If the earlier chapters are courses, this is the section where we sneak out back to have a cigarette and a belt of moonshine. The Malcolm I expected was barely to be seen in these pages. He waited tables, picked up tips from the local power-brokers, became an avid movie-goer, and gambler. Because of his love of dance, he was in contact and friends with many of the musicians of his time. As a waiter, he had a side ‘referral’ business suggesting black prostitutes to white men and vice-versa. Eventually he was caught and moved into selling reefer. His scene attempting to get a 4-F draft classification was astounding. Graduating to burglaries with a friend, he soon went armed with a couple of guns. Eventually, he brought his brother Reginald into the life when Reginald left the Merchant Marines. It was nothing I had expected and lasted only four short years until he was caught pawning loot from a job done with old pals Shorty, Sophia and her cousin.
“Any person who claims to have deep feelings for other human beings should think a long, long time before he votes to have other men kept behind bars–caged. I am not saying there shouldn’t be prisons, but there shouldn’t be bars. Behind bars, a man never reforms. He will never forget. He never will get completely over the memory of the bars.”
Finally, to the main course! Solid, meaty, and not altogether unexpected. Like a roast that’s a bit scanty on the au jus, details from his time in prison were both flavorful and scarce. There’s his moniker, ‘Satan,’ his minor prison hustles, and being encouraged to go the library by one of the dominant inmates. His brothers Reginald and Philbert introduced him gradually to the Prophet Elijah Muhammad. As with everything, Malcolm committed wholeheartedly and was soon preaching to the Christians in the prison, as well as joining the debate team to hone his skills.
Malcolm X
This is a section that is so fascinating, and yet still somewhat disappointing. Malcolm did so much reading in the prison library, tutoring himself on a vast array of topics, learning about American history and oppression. At the same time, he was spreading the word of Fard through the Messenger Elijah Muhammad, who included a history of Islam that included one man breaking off to form the white race out of the seeds of the black and brown race as a form of revenge against Allah. There’s also some details about numerology and the Masons that was completely incomprehensible. I found it hard to reconcile his willingness to embrace what seemed to be a rather wild offshoot of Islam called Nation of Islam with the man who studied Kant.
”The devil white man cut these black people off from all knowledge of their own kind, and cut them off from any knowledge of their own language, religion, and pass culture, until the black man in America was the earth’s only race of people who had absolutely no knowledge of his true identity”
After seven years in prison, he moved back to his brother Wilfred’s home in Detroit and immersed himself in a ‘normal’ life of family, church and work at Ford Motor Plant. Before long he felt called to preach for Brother Elijah’s Temple One in Detroit. With his passion and energy, he was soon drawing followers to the temple, and before long, was traveling to other cities to spread the word. Clearly, this is the part that was most dear to Malcolm’s heart, as he detailed his progress spreading the word in Boston, Harlem and many other cities in between seeking personal tutoring from the Messenger in Chicago. His life became that of a dedicated evangelist, until he encountered Sister Betty in one of the temples and married her. Even then he continued to travel, building the Nation of Islam. He spoke at colleges, on the radio, television programs and even overseas, spreading the word about the black man in America. Eventually, however, he felt there was a lot of jealousy of his success, particularly as Elijah’s health grew more precarious. He also learned of Elijah’s affairs with a succession of secretaries and verified the rumors for himself, an astounding crime given that Elijah has sentenced Nation members to years of ‘silence’ if they were found guilty of adultery. It’s clear that he felt his split with the Nation occurred because he had “more faith in Elijah than he had in himself” and because of jealousy at his success.
And, much like a small bittersweet cayenne chocolate truffle for dessert, there is a final, bittersweet end. As Malcolm makes his break and continues to dialogue more and more with world leaders, he ends up embracing a more traditional form of Islam that embraced the brotherhood of man. Unfortunately, word comes that the Nation would really prefer him dead, and his interviews make it clear it is weighing on his mind at the same time he is trying to provide for his family.
I found the entire book a meal worth hours and hours of digestion. There's so much here.
As all auto/biographies, I struggle with ratings. This is easily a dense, fulfilling read that I’d recommend to anyone in America. Political moments happening today have their genesis in that period, and Malcolm X provides a number of fascinating angles to the discussion. Still, autobiographies are the stories we tell about ourselves, so I can’t help wishing for even more context. I do think he showed unusual ability to connect early events in his life to perceptions and viewpoints later, yet he seemed to remain hamstrung by his views on women and on other races. Even more, I can’t help wishing he had lived longer so that we could have seen how his philosophies continued to evolve. It’s the kind of book that sends me down the rabbit holes of history, trying to understand more about this fascinating man and his thinking.
Review with links and great pictures at https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2016/...
August 17, 2020
I worked for 8 hours on this video and I am very proud of it. I would love for you to see how this review of Malcom's autobiography translated into video form: https://youtu.be/DfFtCEtarCY :)
Five Lessons We Can Learn from Malcolm X
Similarly to my review of Audre Lorde's Your Silence Will Not Protect You, I will talk about the lessons I took from Malcolm's autobiography, instead of talking about what I liked and disliked about it. I hold Malcolm in high esteem and getting this personal insight into his life, thoughts and struggles, is something that I will never forget. I absolutely love his autobiography and can recommend it wholeheartedly... but let's start with the lessons.
#1 Read
Yep. Read, kids, read. It's as simple as that. After dropping out of school, Malcolm X moved to Boston to live with his sister Ella, where he got acquainted with the city’s criminal underground, ultimately falling into a life of crime. He was arrested on larceny charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Prison would play a huge role in the creation of “Malcolm X,” as it was there that Malcolm found faith. Malcolm’s enlightenment was in large part spurred on by his immersion in reading.
#2 Admit Your Mistakes
Malcolm went through a few seismic shifts within the short 39 years of his life. Going from a promising student in his early years, to a dropout and full time hustler, prison forced Malcolm to reexamine his life. His path lead him initially to the Nation of Islam, ultimately rejecting it and opting to convert to orthodox Islam, partly inspired by his experience in Mecca while performing the Hajj. On realizing that rabble-rousing and hate speeches had no part to play in the teachings of real Islam, nor had it any benefit in promoting healthy societies, Malcolm publicly and vocally rescinded the radical views that he had for years been promoting.
#3 Don't Write Anyone Off
In his lowest of days, Malcolm was using drugs just to keep functioning; he helped transport prostitutes to clients, and was eventually caught and put in prison for theft. He describes himself at this time as being animalistic and cutthroat, ready to die for no reason at all. Professor Michael Eric Dyson makes the point that had he been murdered at 25, he would have been just another forgotten about criminal.
#4 Refuse To Be Defined By Others. Define Yourself!
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little. However, he opted to drop “Little” from his name at the age of 25, reasoning that it was the surname his ancestors acquired during slavery days. He replaced it with “X,” to represent the unknown.
#5 Use Your Anger For Good
Malcom wasn't one for inaction: “Everything I’ve ever felt strongly about, I’ve done something about.” And he wasn't afraid of letting out his anger: “Yes, I'm an extremist. The black race here in North America is in extremely bad condition.” Yet, Malcolm also understands that he is seen by millions as a symbol. He must demonstrate that anger can be productive, empowering, and serve as a way to connect to others. When he talks about horrific events in his life such as the death of his father, the institutionalization of his mother, and the betrayal he experienced by the Nation of Islam, he knows that he is A) justified in his anger, but also B) that he must use his anger to fuel his hunger for action and creating change.
Reading Malcolm's autobiography shook me. I felt so connected to him and his fight. I laughed. I cried. I smiled. I screamed. Malcolm was many things—controversial, angry, loud, hungry, ambitious, confident—but above all, he was real, and he was humble.
Five Lessons We Can Learn from Malcolm X
Similarly to my review of Audre Lorde's Your Silence Will Not Protect You, I will talk about the lessons I took from Malcolm's autobiography, instead of talking about what I liked and disliked about it. I hold Malcolm in high esteem and getting this personal insight into his life, thoughts and struggles, is something that I will never forget. I absolutely love his autobiography and can recommend it wholeheartedly... but let's start with the lessons.
#1 Read
Yep. Read, kids, read. It's as simple as that. After dropping out of school, Malcolm X moved to Boston to live with his sister Ella, where he got acquainted with the city’s criminal underground, ultimately falling into a life of crime. He was arrested on larceny charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Prison would play a huge role in the creation of “Malcolm X,” as it was there that Malcolm found faith. Malcolm’s enlightenment was in large part spurred on by his immersion in reading.
“I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity–because you can hardly mention anything I’m not curious about. I don’t think anybody ever got more out of going to prison than I did. In fact, prison enabled me to study far more intensively than I would have if my life had gone differently and I had attended some college. I imagine that one of the biggest troubles with colleges is there are too many distractions, too much panty-raiding, fraternities, and boola-boola and all of that. Where else but a prison could I have attacked my ignorance by being able to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day?”While in prison, he spent long hours devouring books, using a slither of light that entered his cell during the night to carry on reading into the small hours of the morning. He read a range of authors including Englishman H.G. Wells, sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois, geneticist Mendel, and historian Will Durant. Having forgotten much of his elementary education by the time he found himself in prison, Malcolm first focused on self-education, initially by way of reading, writing and memorizing the dictionary. The long hours Malcolm spent in this process paid hugely, as he went on to become a masterful communicator, so gifted in speech.
“The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.”
#2 Admit Your Mistakes
Malcolm went through a few seismic shifts within the short 39 years of his life. Going from a promising student in his early years, to a dropout and full time hustler, prison forced Malcolm to reexamine his life. His path lead him initially to the Nation of Islam, ultimately rejecting it and opting to convert to orthodox Islam, partly inspired by his experience in Mecca while performing the Hajj. On realizing that rabble-rousing and hate speeches had no part to play in the teachings of real Islam, nor had it any benefit in promoting healthy societies, Malcolm publicly and vocally rescinded the radical views that he had for years been promoting.
“Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tried to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it.”He never failed to challenge himself in search for the truth, and I applaud that.
#3 Don't Write Anyone Off
In his lowest of days, Malcolm was using drugs just to keep functioning; he helped transport prostitutes to clients, and was eventually caught and put in prison for theft. He describes himself at this time as being animalistic and cutthroat, ready to die for no reason at all. Professor Michael Eric Dyson makes the point that had he been murdered at 25, he would have been just another forgotten about criminal.
“Don't strike the puppet. Strike the puppeteer.”He eventually built his way out of his foul situation, and deserves a lot of respect for it. If we cannot help change the environments of the oppressed, we should at the very least avoid being dismissive and judgmental of them. Malcolm himself in his autobiography lamented how the hustlers that he used to engage in criminality with might have been mathematicians or brain surgeons had the environment not been as rigged against them from their early childhood.
#4 Refuse To Be Defined By Others. Define Yourself!
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little. However, he opted to drop “Little” from his name at the age of 25, reasoning that it was the surname his ancestors acquired during slavery days. He replaced it with “X,” to represent the unknown.
#5 Use Your Anger For Good
Malcom wasn't one for inaction: “Everything I’ve ever felt strongly about, I’ve done something about.” And he wasn't afraid of letting out his anger: “Yes, I'm an extremist. The black race here in North America is in extremely bad condition.” Yet, Malcolm also understands that he is seen by millions as a symbol. He must demonstrate that anger can be productive, empowering, and serve as a way to connect to others. When he talks about horrific events in his life such as the death of his father, the institutionalization of his mother, and the betrayal he experienced by the Nation of Islam, he knows that he is A) justified in his anger, but also B) that he must use his anger to fuel his hunger for action and creating change.
“I learned early that crying out in protest could accomplish things. My older brothers and sister had started to school when, sometimes, they would come in and ask for a buttered biscuit or something and my mother, impatiently, would tell them no. But I would cry out and make a fuss until I got what I wanted. I remember well how my mother asked me why I couldn't be a nice boy like Wilfred; but I would think to myself that Wilfred, for being so nice and quiet, often stayed hungry. So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.”Vilified by his critics as an anti-white demagogue, Malcolm X gave a voice to unheard African-Americans, bringing them pride, hope and fearlessness, and remains an inspirational and important figure in the fight for equal rights.
Reading Malcolm's autobiography shook me. I felt so connected to him and his fight. I laughed. I cried. I smiled. I screamed. Malcolm was many things—controversial, angry, loud, hungry, ambitious, confident—but above all, he was real, and he was humble.
“And if I can die having brought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that will help to destroy the racist cancer that is malignant in the body of America—then, all of the credit is due to Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine.”Thank you for everything, Malcolm. Rest in Power.
January 15, 2019
I’m going to be fairly critical of this Malcolm X in this review – although that makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, because I really think you should read this book and reflect on his life. And I think you should read this because this book is a great read. I mean, it’s a fast-paced story told extremely well by someone I think is being often painfully honest about his own life. Now, obviously, the fact this is well-told would have been helped along by it being co-written by Alex Haley. But while that could hardly have hurt, it is also clear that Malcolm X was no Donald Trump in the writing of this book – this is a book, I am certain, that is much more an autobiography than many books that go by that name on the lives of other significant figures. This book is told with candour, sometimes painfully so, and with the kind of dispassion that I guess only someone who has experienced a number of epiphanies and significant reversals in how they understood their life can muster.
Oh, I’ve just learned (in double-checking I had the spelling right) that ‘candour’ is from the Latin for ‘whiteness’ – and since Malcolm spends quite a bit of time in this book discussing etymology, it really is impossible for me to not mention that now that I know. The reason candour has its current sense, meaning being open and honest, is much the same reason why candid (also from the same Latin root) means truthful and straightforward – because ‘white’ is associated in our society with purity and with being ‘unmarked’. This digression on the origins of a word helps to confirm many of the things that Malcolm X had to say. That every aspect of the white man’s society is constructed to valorise whiteness and to degrade blackness. That every aspect of white society is designed to make black people feel uncomfortable in their own skins and to loath themselves. The discussion of this self-loathing, and particularly how this eats away at the very soul of those constructed as not fitting the social ideal whiteness, is powerfully told in this book. So much so that it seems hard to imagine someone could read this book and not be moved by the horror our society imposes upon people due to the arbitrary quantity of melanin in the skin of some. The utter absurdity of such a distinction seems only matched by the absolute horror piled upon horrors that have been perpetrated against black people by white people throughout history. That Malcolm X should call us ‘white devils’ could hardly surprise anyone – that over fifty years since his death some of us are still surprised that he might have thought of the ‘white race’ in such terms, goes a long way to confirm that history is written for and by the victors.
I think what I found hardest to read in this book wasn’t so much the horrors of white treatment of blacks documented here – I don’t think he actually told me anything I didn’t already know – but rather his own surprise at learning for the first time what had been done to his people over centuries. Of how hard it had been to convince fellow black people of the savage barbarism that was slavery. I’ve read this before, in Du Bois and in bell hooks, but I doubt there will ever come a time when reading a black person talking about this will not affect me. The terror for me lies in how it becomes clear that black people have been conditioned to love their oppressor, to cheer-on the white couple in a film, even while the black character is sacrificed as a pawn towards the greater drama. The whole thing is sickening.
I never know how to respond to books by religious figures who tell me how bad they were in their ‘pre-conversion’ lives. There is a natural tendency for such figures to want to make their early life sound as depraved as possible so as to support the true miracle that God, or Elijah Muhammad, wrought on their lives. So, a grain of salt is often recommended when reading the exploits of the early lives of most converts. Again, I suspect this concern could be overstated in this case. There is a ring of truth about Malcolm’s early life that is hard to ignore. I’ve a horrible feeling that Malcolm X is pretty much exactly what he says he was – a man in search of the truth, and I think he may have proved that rarest of all things, a man prepared to change his mind when he found the truth did not match his system of beliefs. He does this at least three times in the book – and each time the consequences to him in these conversion experiences were not only life altering, but life threatening. It is hard to not feel awe reading this man’s life.
Now, I started this review by saying I was going to be critical of Malcolm X – and I’m going to be, it’s just taken me some time to get here. One of the things Haley says that helped to break down the barriers that stood between him and Malcolm, and that were killing the book as he was interviewing Malcolm, was getting him to speak about his attitude to women. And this attitude was anything but progressive. He says, ‘Suddenly, between sips of coffee and further scribbling and doodling, he vented his criticisms and skepticisms of women. “You never can fully trust any woman,” he said. “I've got the only one I ever met whom I would trust seventy-five per cent. I've told her that”.’
I found Malcolm X’s attitude to women quite confronting. Firstly, I would dearly love to believe that someone so keenly aware of the harm done by defining away entire populations upon an arbitrary feature of their physical construction, would get that this is always a problem. That he would see that defining women as less than fully human would be something he would be damn careful not to do himself purely because he could see the harm precisely this had cause the people he’s seeking to free. So, while reading his rants on how women need to be kept under a firm hand or need to be ruled over by men as the head and so on – I found it impossible not to wonder how a clearly intelligent man who had been surrounded and supported by any number of insanely capable and strong women could possibly hold such clearly foolish ideas. Particularly when those ideas simply condemn half of the world’s population to servitude.
I also found much of the history he quoted that supposedly proved the superiority of pre-European African societies to be all a bit daft. I also found his calls for segregation a dead alley – and I think he come to this conclusion too at the end of his life. At one point in this Haley says “Nazi Party Commander George Lincoln Rockwell, who frankly stated that he admired the courage of Malcolm X, and he felt that the two of them should speak together across the United States”. Malcolm rejects this suggestion out of hand, but it is clear Haley is making a valid comparison here. I want to start by stressing that I feel it is a significantly different thing for a black man to speak of segregation compared to a white man speaking of the same thing – even if the outcome of them getting their way would be the same. In a society that sees black men purely in terms of the threat they pose, a black man saying black people need to be segregated from white people for their own protection tells us a truth about our society that is usually shrouded when a white man says he needs to be protected from black people.
All the same, I do not feel segregation is the answer, for much the same reason as James Connolly said that Ireland wouldn’t be free if all that happened with the establishment of a republic was that people were turned out of their homes by police wearing uniforms with a harp, rather than a crown emblazoned upon it. Being exploited by a black man, rather than a white man, is ultimately of little comfort.
As someone who is not religious at all, I found this book incredibly interesting for the passion his religious convictions brought to his ability to focus his energies. But I also think his devotion, especially to Elijah Muhammad, was problematic on too many levels to be ignored. I know he comes to this same conclusion shortly before he is murdered, and it is possible this might otherwise have resulted in another major shift in his thinking – I was left feeling that whatever good had come out of his religious convictions was ultimately overcome by the negatives.
I’m giving this book five stars – it is a classic and will continue to be read as such long after I’m dead and I was only just born when Malcolm died. But I also want my reservations noted. I think it would be very hard to read this book and come away not liking Malcolm X – you might not come away agreeing with him on everything, but there is a naked honesty about him that it would be inhuman to not respect and to like. But his sexism troubled me more than I was expecting – and I get it, he was a religious person, I really have no excuse for being surprised at his sexism, but it did surprise, as much as it also sadden me.
Oh, I’ve just learned (in double-checking I had the spelling right) that ‘candour’ is from the Latin for ‘whiteness’ – and since Malcolm spends quite a bit of time in this book discussing etymology, it really is impossible for me to not mention that now that I know. The reason candour has its current sense, meaning being open and honest, is much the same reason why candid (also from the same Latin root) means truthful and straightforward – because ‘white’ is associated in our society with purity and with being ‘unmarked’. This digression on the origins of a word helps to confirm many of the things that Malcolm X had to say. That every aspect of the white man’s society is constructed to valorise whiteness and to degrade blackness. That every aspect of white society is designed to make black people feel uncomfortable in their own skins and to loath themselves. The discussion of this self-loathing, and particularly how this eats away at the very soul of those constructed as not fitting the social ideal whiteness, is powerfully told in this book. So much so that it seems hard to imagine someone could read this book and not be moved by the horror our society imposes upon people due to the arbitrary quantity of melanin in the skin of some. The utter absurdity of such a distinction seems only matched by the absolute horror piled upon horrors that have been perpetrated against black people by white people throughout history. That Malcolm X should call us ‘white devils’ could hardly surprise anyone – that over fifty years since his death some of us are still surprised that he might have thought of the ‘white race’ in such terms, goes a long way to confirm that history is written for and by the victors.
I think what I found hardest to read in this book wasn’t so much the horrors of white treatment of blacks documented here – I don’t think he actually told me anything I didn’t already know – but rather his own surprise at learning for the first time what had been done to his people over centuries. Of how hard it had been to convince fellow black people of the savage barbarism that was slavery. I’ve read this before, in Du Bois and in bell hooks, but I doubt there will ever come a time when reading a black person talking about this will not affect me. The terror for me lies in how it becomes clear that black people have been conditioned to love their oppressor, to cheer-on the white couple in a film, even while the black character is sacrificed as a pawn towards the greater drama. The whole thing is sickening.
I never know how to respond to books by religious figures who tell me how bad they were in their ‘pre-conversion’ lives. There is a natural tendency for such figures to want to make their early life sound as depraved as possible so as to support the true miracle that God, or Elijah Muhammad, wrought on their lives. So, a grain of salt is often recommended when reading the exploits of the early lives of most converts. Again, I suspect this concern could be overstated in this case. There is a ring of truth about Malcolm’s early life that is hard to ignore. I’ve a horrible feeling that Malcolm X is pretty much exactly what he says he was – a man in search of the truth, and I think he may have proved that rarest of all things, a man prepared to change his mind when he found the truth did not match his system of beliefs. He does this at least three times in the book – and each time the consequences to him in these conversion experiences were not only life altering, but life threatening. It is hard to not feel awe reading this man’s life.
Now, I started this review by saying I was going to be critical of Malcolm X – and I’m going to be, it’s just taken me some time to get here. One of the things Haley says that helped to break down the barriers that stood between him and Malcolm, and that were killing the book as he was interviewing Malcolm, was getting him to speak about his attitude to women. And this attitude was anything but progressive. He says, ‘Suddenly, between sips of coffee and further scribbling and doodling, he vented his criticisms and skepticisms of women. “You never can fully trust any woman,” he said. “I've got the only one I ever met whom I would trust seventy-five per cent. I've told her that”.’
I found Malcolm X’s attitude to women quite confronting. Firstly, I would dearly love to believe that someone so keenly aware of the harm done by defining away entire populations upon an arbitrary feature of their physical construction, would get that this is always a problem. That he would see that defining women as less than fully human would be something he would be damn careful not to do himself purely because he could see the harm precisely this had cause the people he’s seeking to free. So, while reading his rants on how women need to be kept under a firm hand or need to be ruled over by men as the head and so on – I found it impossible not to wonder how a clearly intelligent man who had been surrounded and supported by any number of insanely capable and strong women could possibly hold such clearly foolish ideas. Particularly when those ideas simply condemn half of the world’s population to servitude.
I also found much of the history he quoted that supposedly proved the superiority of pre-European African societies to be all a bit daft. I also found his calls for segregation a dead alley – and I think he come to this conclusion too at the end of his life. At one point in this Haley says “Nazi Party Commander George Lincoln Rockwell, who frankly stated that he admired the courage of Malcolm X, and he felt that the two of them should speak together across the United States”. Malcolm rejects this suggestion out of hand, but it is clear Haley is making a valid comparison here. I want to start by stressing that I feel it is a significantly different thing for a black man to speak of segregation compared to a white man speaking of the same thing – even if the outcome of them getting their way would be the same. In a society that sees black men purely in terms of the threat they pose, a black man saying black people need to be segregated from white people for their own protection tells us a truth about our society that is usually shrouded when a white man says he needs to be protected from black people.
All the same, I do not feel segregation is the answer, for much the same reason as James Connolly said that Ireland wouldn’t be free if all that happened with the establishment of a republic was that people were turned out of their homes by police wearing uniforms with a harp, rather than a crown emblazoned upon it. Being exploited by a black man, rather than a white man, is ultimately of little comfort.
As someone who is not religious at all, I found this book incredibly interesting for the passion his religious convictions brought to his ability to focus his energies. But I also think his devotion, especially to Elijah Muhammad, was problematic on too many levels to be ignored. I know he comes to this same conclusion shortly before he is murdered, and it is possible this might otherwise have resulted in another major shift in his thinking – I was left feeling that whatever good had come out of his religious convictions was ultimately overcome by the negatives.
I’m giving this book five stars – it is a classic and will continue to be read as such long after I’m dead and I was only just born when Malcolm died. But I also want my reservations noted. I think it would be very hard to read this book and come away not liking Malcolm X – you might not come away agreeing with him on everything, but there is a naked honesty about him that it would be inhuman to not respect and to like. But his sexism troubled me more than I was expecting – and I get it, he was a religious person, I really have no excuse for being surprised at his sexism, but it did surprise, as much as it also sadden me.
March 30, 2022
The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley, Malcolm X, Alex Haley
The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965, the result of a collaboration between human rights activist Malcolm X and journalist Alex Haley.
Haley coauthored the autobiography based on a series of in-depth interviews he conducted between 1963 and Malcolm X's 1965 assassination. The Autobiography is a spiritual conversion narrative that outlines Malcolm X's philosophy of black pride, black nationalism, and pan-Africanism. He described their collaborative process and the events at the end of Malcolm X's life (1925-1965).
عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «مالکوم ایکس»؛ «خشمگین ترین سیاه آمریکا: زندگینامه مالکوم ایکس»؛ نویسنده: الکس هیلی؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال1985میلادی
عنوان: مالکوم ایکس؛ به روایت: الکس هیلی؛ مترجم: غلامحسین کشاورز؛ تهران: امیرکبیر، سال1362؛ در475ص، عکس، چاپ دوم سال1379، در696ص؛ شابک9640006718؛ موضوع: یادمانها و زیستنامه ی سیاهان ایالات متحده امریکا - مالکوم ایکس از سال1925میلادی تا سال1965میلادی - سده20م
عنوان: خشمگینترین سیاه آمریکا: زندگینامه ی مالکوم ایکس؛ نویسنده: الکس هیلی؛ برگردان: حسن مجابی؛ تهران، بعثت، سال1392؛ در320ص؛ شابک9786007084014؛
کتاب «اتوبیوگرافی مالکوم ایکس»، به بررسی زندگی «مالکوم ایکس (با نام: «حاج مالک شباز»)»، میپردازد؛ داستان، از زمانی که مادرش «مالکوم» را باردار بوده آغاز، و به زندگی ایشان در «میشیگان»، و درگذشت مشکوک پدرش، و بستری شدن مادرش در بیمارستان روانی میپردازد؛ زندگی ایشان در «بوستون نیویورک سیتی»، و هشت سال محکومیتش، به جرم مشارکت در جرائم سازمان یافته، نیز اشاره شده است؛ کتاب، به آشنایی «مالکوم»، با «علیجا محمد»، و سازمان «ملت اسلام»، و برگزیده شدنش، به عنوان سخنگوی ملی آن سازمان، اشاره کرده، و در ادامه، داستان تغییر مذهب «مالکوم»، از «مسیحی ارتودوکس» به «اسلام»، و سفر به «مکه» و «آفریقا» را نیز، بیان میکند؛ «الکس هیلی»، «اتوبیوگرافی مالکوم ایکس» را، بر اساس مصاحبه هایی که در سالهای1963میلادی، تا سال1965میلادی، با «مالکوم» انجام داده بود، به رشته تحریر درمیآورند؛ ژانر اتوبیوگرافی، تغییر مذهب بوده، و به بیان فلسفه ی «مالکوم» از: «اتحاد»، و «ملی گرایی سیاه پوستان»، میپردازد؛ «هیلی»، بخش پایانی کتاب را، که به توصیف همکاری «مالکوم»، و «هیلی»، و پایان زندگی «مالکوم» تخصیص یافته، پس از ترور و درگذشت «مالکوم» بنگاشته است
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 22/04/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ 09/01/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965, the result of a collaboration between human rights activist Malcolm X and journalist Alex Haley.
Haley coauthored the autobiography based on a series of in-depth interviews he conducted between 1963 and Malcolm X's 1965 assassination. The Autobiography is a spiritual conversion narrative that outlines Malcolm X's philosophy of black pride, black nationalism, and pan-Africanism. He described their collaborative process and the events at the end of Malcolm X's life (1925-1965).
عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «مالکوم ایکس»؛ «خشمگین ترین سیاه آمریکا: زندگینامه مالکوم ایکس»؛ نویسنده: الکس هیلی؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال1985میلادی
عنوان: مالکوم ایکس؛ به روایت: الکس هیلی؛ مترجم: غلامحسین کشاورز؛ تهران: امیرکبیر، سال1362؛ در475ص، عکس، چاپ دوم سال1379، در696ص؛ شابک9640006718؛ موضوع: یادمانها و زیستنامه ی سیاهان ایالات متحده امریکا - مالکوم ایکس از سال1925میلادی تا سال1965میلادی - سده20م
عنوان: خشمگینترین سیاه آمریکا: زندگینامه ی مالکوم ایکس؛ نویسنده: الکس هیلی؛ برگردان: حسن مجابی؛ تهران، بعثت، سال1392؛ در320ص؛ شابک9786007084014؛
کتاب «اتوبیوگرافی مالکوم ایکس»، به بررسی زندگی «مالکوم ایکس (با نام: «حاج مالک شباز»)»، میپردازد؛ داستان، از زمانی که مادرش «مالکوم» را باردار بوده آغاز، و به زندگی ایشان در «میشیگان»، و درگذشت مشکوک پدرش، و بستری شدن مادرش در بیمارستان روانی میپردازد؛ زندگی ایشان در «بوستون نیویورک سیتی»، و هشت سال محکومیتش، به جرم مشارکت در جرائم سازمان یافته، نیز اشاره شده است؛ کتاب، به آشنایی «مالکوم»، با «علیجا محمد»، و سازمان «ملت اسلام»، و برگزیده شدنش، به عنوان سخنگوی ملی آن سازمان، اشاره کرده، و در ادامه، داستان تغییر مذهب «مالکوم»، از «مسیحی ارتودوکس» به «اسلام»، و سفر به «مکه» و «آفریقا» را نیز، بیان میکند؛ «الکس هیلی»، «اتوبیوگرافی مالکوم ایکس» را، بر اساس مصاحبه هایی که در سالهای1963میلادی، تا سال1965میلادی، با «مالکوم» انجام داده بود، به رشته تحریر درمیآورند؛ ژانر اتوبیوگرافی، تغییر مذهب بوده، و به بیان فلسفه ی «مالکوم» از: «اتحاد»، و «ملی گرایی سیاه پوستان»، میپردازد؛ «هیلی»، بخش پایانی کتاب را، که به توصیف همکاری «مالکوم»، و «هیلی»، و پایان زندگی «مالکوم» تخصیص یافته، پس از ترور و درگذشت «مالکوم» بنگاشته است
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 22/04/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ 09/01/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
October 28, 2018
A masterpiece!
The Autobiography of Malcolm X may be the most important autobiography ever written. I don't have the proper vocabulary to do this book its proper justice.
A must read!
African American Historical Fiction Bookclub
The Book Bum Bookclub
Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book involving a heist
Ultimate Summer Reading Challenge: Read a book that features a father.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X may be the most important autobiography ever written. I don't have the proper vocabulary to do this book its proper justice.
A must read!
African American Historical Fiction Bookclub
The Book Bum Bookclub
Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book involving a heist
Ultimate Summer Reading Challenge: Read a book that features a father.
December 17, 2015
“If Malcolm X were not a Negro, his autobiography would be little more than a journal of abnormal psychology, the story of a burglar, dope pusher, addict and jailbird—with a family history of insanity—who acquires messianic delusions and sets forth to preach an upside-down religion of ‘brotherly’ hatred.”Sensationalist, yes? Reminiscent of certain responses to Twelve Years a Slave winning multiple Academy Awards at this year's Oscars, and this is nearly fifty years on. Within these pages, Malcolm X spoke of a hope that by the year 2000, the white-washing of Jesus and other Biblical figures would be ended, and the true unresolved question of their physical aspects would be reflected by portrayals ranging all across the spectrum. In the year 2014, certain groups had conniptions over suggestions that Santa Clause could be black. The world goes on, and popular thought appropriates.
-Saturday Evening Post, Sept. 12, 1965
What is especially telling about that editorial first sentence up there is the overt interplay between prose and reader perception. This is important to consider when imbibing any text, but here, in context with racism, in context with classism, in context with the institutional ideologies' demand that all resistance be nonviolent while weighing it down with "sign of the times" murder, rampant lynching then and shotgunning teenagers now for reasons of "too loud music", in context with the autobiography of Malcolm X, ask yourself if a criminal record puts you off reading about a person, and then ask yourself why.
Ask yourself what constitutes the "abnormal psychology", the "messianic delusions", the "upside-down religion of 'brotherly hatred'", the CEO, the politician, any belief that preaches intolerance for the non-believer. Ask yourself what half-hearted bullshit constitutes "If Malcolm X were not a Negro", passing off the enormous debt the US has to its history of slavery as an embarrassing pathos, a ploy, an "Oh, they kicked the puppy and now it's telling its story, of course it'll get attention." Ask yourself what your memories of this monumental figure in history are, the first time you heard his name, whether you wondered at his story, his X, or condemned him from the start.
My beginning was a mention of a footnote of violence in a summary of the 20th century. It took me more than ten years too long to extend my thinking beyond this roadblock.
“So as a black man and especially as a black American, any stand that I formerly took, I don’t think that I would have to defend it because it’s still a reaction to the society, and it’s a reaction that was produced by the society; and I think that it is the society that produces this that should be attacked, not the reaction that develops among the people who are the victims of that negative society.”It is interesting to note how soon after Malcolm's change of heart he was assassinated. It is interesting to note how his message as a living embodiment of hope for those who have slipped through the cracks of well-to-do society has been seen as a mark against him. It is key to observe the contentions over the non-fictional aspect of this work, when the existence of Columbus Day renders the controversy not only absurd, but obscene. Either do not discriminate in your pointing of fingers at act and advocation of physical violence, or don't do it at all.
-From the Pierre Berton Show, taped at Station CFTO-TV in Toronto, January 19, 1965
Whatever your personal alignments with the beliefs conveyed in this book, it is and shall always be a gift to the world. While it may be true that I would have to be restrained from punching Malcolm X in the face for his deriding of women, especially his "any country's moral strength, or moral weakness, is quickly measurable by the street attire and attitude of its women", my disagreement does not impact my appreciation of his importance. What he believed in, he said, and the writing of this biography during the last few years of his life displays this dramatic evolution, all the more so because of Haley's keeping Malcolm X to his word of not changing the overarching message of any previous writing. It is his willingness to speak and question that led him on his pilgrimage to Mecca, it is this overhaul of both belief and character that led him from disenfranchised boy to city slick teenager to convict to minister to a crisis of conscience in full throes up to the point he was shot down. In his words, “I’m man enough to tell you that I can’t put my finger on exactly what my philosophy is now, but I’m flexible.” Patriarchal in delivery, admirable in gist.
There is no point to freedom of speech if you don't want to hear disagreeable things. Communication is worth as much as the controversy it provokes, and it is worth even more if the person communicating is willing to change in accordance to what is received by an open mind. In that, Malcolm X was a rare, rare breed, decrying the patronizing "equality" of the North as harshly as the blatant discrimination of the South, sometimes regretting his words but never recanting them. Just look at his main counterpart, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Even his proclaimed message of nonviolence doesn't save him from being condensed to a speech, a slogan, a "If Martin Luther King were alive today..." that ignores wholesale his indictment of capitalism, the Vietnam War, and so many other beliefs that don't fit in that image of a saint made comfortable for societal propagation. And this is how much the legacy of the "peaceful" civil rights activist has been twisted.
Before starting this book, I had a vague outline of race riots and Muslims. Today, I know Malcolm X to have been a reader, a thinker, a leader cut down in the midst of shifts from wholesale condemnation to broader platforms of acceptance, a man learning to hate the game of societal oppression, not the multitude of players. Thirty-six years and a wide variety of beliefs both religious and otherwise separates his lifetime from mine, but we share a desire for true and ubiquitous equality, as well as a love for James Baldwin. For that, I am glad to have finally made his literary acquaintance.
April 25, 2008
I'm in such awe of this book and the man behind it that I don't think I can really give it a fair review. I came late to Malcolm X - I didn't pick up his autobiography until I was twenty-five, during my third year teaching in the Bronx. He manages to so clearly articulate the injustice and anger that results from racism in America, and at the same time is unflinchingly honest regard his own life and his own failings. Following the progression of his thought and philosophy changed the way I thought about race, class, and America. He was murdered just as he was truly becoming a massive force in America and the World, and the potential that was lost with him is staggering. For everyone who thinks of Malcolm X only as violent and hating white people, you need to read this book; he was much more aggressive and uncompromising than Martin Luther King, but he was equally beautiful and inspiring.
December 14, 2016
Several years ago I decided to make the reading of The Autobiography of Malcolm X mandatory for my high school Honor's English students (I had read the book when it was first released). I taught in an "urban" Maryland public school, and most of the students, although considered honor's, were void of deeper literary exposure. My decision to "teach Malcolm X" was not looked upon well by the administration, but after thorough student led discussions and tying the story to their personal journey, the book was relished, applauded and appreciated by the students and their parents. I still hold this book in highest regard and rank it as one of the greatest stories ever told.
April 19, 2013
أكتب مراجعتي فور انتهائي من قراءة الكتاب وإتباعه بمشاهدة الفيلم الوثائقي الذي أعدته الجزيرة عن هذه الشخصية الاستثنائية
أكتبها وتأثير تلك الصفحات ما زال غضا طريا...والمشاعر المتخبطة والمتضاربة تضج بداخلي...فرحا باهتدائه للحق...وألما على نهايته وخروج نعشه من باب الكنيسة...حزنا على خاتمة رجل عظيم تم اختزالها...وحبا لشخصية تركت أثرا وعاشت تحولا لا مثيل له
ذاك هو مالكوم إكس أو مالكوم ليتل، أو الحاج مالك الشباز، أعظم مدافع عن حقوق السود في مجتمع يتسيده الأمريكي الأبيض، الذي كان يمارس غطرسته وعنجهيته وظلمه ضد الأفارقة السود، ويحرمهم من أبسط حقوقهم
كانت معلوماتي عن مالكوم إكس ضئيلة ومشتتة...وأتاح لي الكتاب الولوج لعالمه من باب واسع...يرشدني بنفسه إلى طريقه...بكلماته ورؤيته وتفسيره للأمور ومنطقه وصدقه
ولأنها كلماته –وإن كتبها هايلي-فقد أحسست به أمامي يتحدث...تخيلته طفلا يبحث عن مكان آمن يلجأ إليه...وشابا حائرا متخبطا ينتقل من عمل لآخر...ويمارس كل الموبقات...وسجينا تدور بذهنه كل الأفكار التي يحاول من خلالها التوصل لتصالح مع النفس...وقائدا في أمة الإسلام ومدافعا عن "الإليجا محمد" بكل ما أوتي من قوة...ومن ثم معتزلا له ومهتديا للدين الحق...وإن كنت أظنه لم يصل تماما للسلام الداخلي وللطريق الذي يمكن من خلاله التعبير عن أفكاره
كان الكتاب بمثابة شق يطل بي على شخصية مالكوم إكس الاستثنائية...ودليل على ما يفعله نور الهداية بالإنسان لما يلامس شغاف القلب...فقد كان كما يقول حبيس لونه ثم انطلق بفضل الله إلى نور الإسلام وسعته...ودليل على أثر القراءة المكثفة في التحولات التي يشهدها الإنسان، وفي تكوين تفكيره...وعلى ما فعلته رحلته للحج بكل ما يملك من مبادئ وأفكار، ليعود بعدها داعيا إلى الإسلام الصحيح الذي يؤكد على أن الناس إخوة، بغض النظر عن ألوانهم وأشكالهم، وإلى التعايش بين بيض المجتمع وسوده
وتعرفت من خلاله على العديد من الظروف السياسية العالمية التي سادت في تلك الفترة، وعلى أمة الإسلام التي سمعت عنها الكثير وجهلت حقيقتها...وعلى العديد من المؤثرة في تلك الفترة سواء في عالمنا الإسلامي أو في العالم الغربي
حياة مالكوم إكس وأفكاره وشخصيته وانتماءاته شهدت تحولات كثيرة...حتى توصل إلى أن "إدانة كل البيض يساوي إدانة كل السود"...فنبذ الدعوة للعنف، واستبدلها بدعوة الإسلام "السلام"
ومع مفارقته لـ "أمة الإسلام" تكررت محاولات قتله، حتى تم اغتياله في الحادي والعشرين من شباط عام 1965، على أيدي أتباعها
بعد شهر واحد من اغتيال مالكوم إكس أقر الرئيس الأمريكي جونسون مرسوماً قانونياً ينص عل حقوق التصويت للسود وأنهى الاستخدام الرسمي لكلمة "نجرو" التي كانت تطلق على السود في أمريكا
حياة لا تختزل في سطور...فمن أحب التعرف على مالكوم إكس أكثر...فليقرأ الكتاب
وهنا حلقات وثائقية عنه للاستزادة
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=...
أخيرا...كل الشكر لمن اختار الكتاب...فقد أضاف لي الكثير
February 12, 2021
I will not attempt to add my two cents to the five decades of commentary that currently exist. But I will say this, when Malcolm says of Elijah Muhammad, "My black brothers and sisters, you have come from your homes to hear-now you are going to hear-America's wisest black man! America's boldest black man! America's most fearless black man." I uttered an audible no. It was you, Malcolm. It was you.
March 2, 2022
عنصرية .. صراع .. معاناة .. طفولة مشردة .. فقر .. سجن .. لهو .. سرقة .. ثم نقطة تحول
كلمات بسيطة تلخص حياة حافلة لشخصية استثنائية
مالكوم اكس أو الحاج مالك شباز .. من طفل مشرد فقير إلي أشهر خطيب أمريكي مسلم
مالكوم الذي عاش طفولته وشبابه بين اللهو والعبث ثم مرحلة السجن وبعد ذلك كانت العناية الإلهية ودخوله الإسلام سبب عودة النور إلي حياته ليكرسها في المحاربة ضد العنصرية التي لطالما عاني منها .رحمه الله وأسكنه فسيح جناته
كتاب قيم جدا .. من أروع كتب السيرة الذاتيه التي قرأتها في حياتي وفخورة جدا بقراءته
كلمات بسيطة تلخص حياة حافلة لشخصية استثنائية
مالكوم اكس أو الحاج مالك شباز .. من طفل مشرد فقير إلي أشهر خطيب أمريكي مسلم
مالكوم الذي عاش طفولته وشبابه بين اللهو والعبث ثم مرحلة السجن وبعد ذلك كانت العناية الإلهية ودخوله الإسلام سبب عودة النور إلي حياته ليكرسها في المحاربة ضد العنصرية التي لطالما عاني منها .رحمه الله وأسكنه فسيح جناته
كتاب قيم جدا .. من أروع كتب السيرة الذاتيه التي قرأتها في حياتي وفخورة جدا بقراءته
January 13, 2020
I remember watching the 1992 movie, Malcolm X, and even enjoyed it so freaking much that I promised myself I would read the Autobiography as soon as I could. He was very much someone I could admire. Respect. Empathize with. Strongly disagree with. And finally, wholeheartedly agree with him.
Of course, to my everlasting shame, it's now 2020. I'm JUST NOW getting around to reading it.
Alex Haley helped Malcolm X turn his life into a brilliant narration, spent years talking, being friends, and after Malcolm X's assassination in 1965, also recounts the tragedy of this wonderful man's death.
But above all, Malcolm X was a real man. Courageous, smart, opinionated. He was honest about his entire life: his shortcomings, his youth as a hellion, a con, a drug dealer, and a thief. About the way he treated women and his kin, his brothers. How he went to prison, fervently hating all white men.
But then he changed. His life was all about change, honesty, and discovery. He discovered books, taught himself to read, and read voraciously. He found help and heart in the teachings of an American Muslim leader that showed him what he believed took on the heart of the matter. That the endemic racism of all whites, the prejudice, the deviltry of their actions had taken everything from the black man. Their history, their bodies, the heart. Malcolm X devoted himself to this man and through his eloquence and charm brought 40,000 new believers to this Black Muslim community, building it up with anger and definite firebrand techniques.
But it wasn't until he went on the Hajj to Mecca that he understood something new, strange, and beautiful. That out of the 22 million angry black people in America, there were almost 200 million black people living in relative peace and harmony around the world. Strangers and leaders and worldwide press were amazed and thrilled to see an American Muslim take on the Hajj and to take on the leadership of bringing the humanitarian plight of the Black people back in America to the world.
Was he in the right place at the right time? Absolutely. And it was precisely that sense of welcoming and harmony and community that Malcolm X got thrown into that changed his worldview forever. People were fundamentally decent. Blacks could work together, live and love each other in harmony. Whites, too. And it was this eye-opener that sent him back to America with a different message.
He still fought with Martin Luther King Jr. He still called everyone out and spoke the truth, that there IS something really wrong, but now tempered it with wisdom, hope, and a new kind of truth.
He was lionized in the wide world. He was vilified in America. The media blasted him for being THE angry, militant black man. Blamed him for all of society's ills. He eloquently told them they were full of shit. He stood up. He didn't back down.
His American Muslim church was torn with strife and jealousy and controversy, unfortunately, and Malcolm X, far from pointing fingers or complaining that all his funds had been stolen, continued speaking in universities, parliaments and media engagements while suffering multiple death threats from whom he thought were angry black Muslims under the instruction of his old teacher. His house was firebombed. When he was finally shot down, his wife and four children were penniless and scared.
Anyone who knew him in real life, and not through the general media, realized the kind of man he was. Fundamentally decent, smart, and unfailingly honest. Eloquent, forceful, and a real warrior of the spirit. He made lots of mistakes, but he always forged forth and admitted every one of his failings, striving always to make things right. Decent. Better.
And let's face it, the times before the sixties DID need someone to stand up against the lynchings, the institutional cons, the ignorance, the prejudice, and the brutality. To say that a black man is a militant hate monger when he's standing up to protect himself from a tidal-wave of injustice is pure bullshit.
I read this like a story because Alex Haley is a great storyteller, falling in and out of sympathy for the main character, rolling around in his joys, anxieties, and failings, getting lifted up in his great successes, and higher when he learns mercy, temperance, and a real justice beyond the simple, if all-consuming, hate of his youth.
I wonder what he would have become if he hadn't been cut down at this, the most excellent prime of his life. Most of all of our modern ideas on racism and how to solve it comes from Malcolm X. We can't ignore his beginnings. It makes the later discoveries all the more potent.
I love you, man. Simple. Pure. I love you.
Of course, to my everlasting shame, it's now 2020. I'm JUST NOW getting around to reading it.
Alex Haley helped Malcolm X turn his life into a brilliant narration, spent years talking, being friends, and after Malcolm X's assassination in 1965, also recounts the tragedy of this wonderful man's death.
But above all, Malcolm X was a real man. Courageous, smart, opinionated. He was honest about his entire life: his shortcomings, his youth as a hellion, a con, a drug dealer, and a thief. About the way he treated women and his kin, his brothers. How he went to prison, fervently hating all white men.
But then he changed. His life was all about change, honesty, and discovery. He discovered books, taught himself to read, and read voraciously. He found help and heart in the teachings of an American Muslim leader that showed him what he believed took on the heart of the matter. That the endemic racism of all whites, the prejudice, the deviltry of their actions had taken everything from the black man. Their history, their bodies, the heart. Malcolm X devoted himself to this man and through his eloquence and charm brought 40,000 new believers to this Black Muslim community, building it up with anger and definite firebrand techniques.
But it wasn't until he went on the Hajj to Mecca that he understood something new, strange, and beautiful. That out of the 22 million angry black people in America, there were almost 200 million black people living in relative peace and harmony around the world. Strangers and leaders and worldwide press were amazed and thrilled to see an American Muslim take on the Hajj and to take on the leadership of bringing the humanitarian plight of the Black people back in America to the world.
Was he in the right place at the right time? Absolutely. And it was precisely that sense of welcoming and harmony and community that Malcolm X got thrown into that changed his worldview forever. People were fundamentally decent. Blacks could work together, live and love each other in harmony. Whites, too. And it was this eye-opener that sent him back to America with a different message.
He still fought with Martin Luther King Jr. He still called everyone out and spoke the truth, that there IS something really wrong, but now tempered it with wisdom, hope, and a new kind of truth.
He was lionized in the wide world. He was vilified in America. The media blasted him for being THE angry, militant black man. Blamed him for all of society's ills. He eloquently told them they were full of shit. He stood up. He didn't back down.
His American Muslim church was torn with strife and jealousy and controversy, unfortunately, and Malcolm X, far from pointing fingers or complaining that all his funds had been stolen, continued speaking in universities, parliaments and media engagements while suffering multiple death threats from whom he thought were angry black Muslims under the instruction of his old teacher. His house was firebombed. When he was finally shot down, his wife and four children were penniless and scared.
Anyone who knew him in real life, and not through the general media, realized the kind of man he was. Fundamentally decent, smart, and unfailingly honest. Eloquent, forceful, and a real warrior of the spirit. He made lots of mistakes, but he always forged forth and admitted every one of his failings, striving always to make things right. Decent. Better.
And let's face it, the times before the sixties DID need someone to stand up against the lynchings, the institutional cons, the ignorance, the prejudice, and the brutality. To say that a black man is a militant hate monger when he's standing up to protect himself from a tidal-wave of injustice is pure bullshit.
I read this like a story because Alex Haley is a great storyteller, falling in and out of sympathy for the main character, rolling around in his joys, anxieties, and failings, getting lifted up in his great successes, and higher when he learns mercy, temperance, and a real justice beyond the simple, if all-consuming, hate of his youth.
I wonder what he would have become if he hadn't been cut down at this, the most excellent prime of his life. Most of all of our modern ideas on racism and how to solve it comes from Malcolm X. We can't ignore his beginnings. It makes the later discoveries all the more potent.
I love you, man. Simple. Pure. I love you.
February 10, 2018
"This book I dedicate to my beloved wife Betty and to our children whose understanding and whose sacrifices made it possible for me to do my work."
Malcolm's dedication of the book.
Note: I will often refer to Malcolm X in the following as simply “X”.
the edition I read
Besides the first person narration, this edition contains a Foreword by Malcolm’s eldest daughter, Attallah Shabazz; an Introduction by M.S. Handler, a NYT reporter whom Malcolm X reportedly believed had "none of the usual prejudices or sentimentalities about black people"; an indispensable Epilogue by the writer of this book, Alex Haley (written for the first edition I believe); and a short essay, “On Malcom X”, by Ossie Davis.
Attallah Shabazz
Alex Haley, the writer. Also the author of Roots
Ossie Davis - Civil Rights Activist, Director, Actor, Playwright
can a review of such a book worry about spoilers?
Normally one would think that a review of an autobiography could just jump around when talking about the book and the protagonist. This book is a bit different, in that the interviews that Alex Haley (the writer) had with Malcom X (the first person “narrator”) were mostly done before a major turning point in Malcolm X’s life. They both agreed, as the proofs neared their final version, that the sudden change in X’s views that occurred very late in his life should be left as the interviews originally made them – basically, a surprise ending.
That said, I’m still not going to do spoilers. I’ll tell what I feel like telling, when I feel like telling it.
who was Malcolm X?
Let Z = the number of people who have ever heard of him. Then I would suggest there are Z+2 views of who he was. One for each of those Z people, one that he believed about himself, and one that he really was.
If you read this book, you’ll gain an idea of who you think he was, and who he thought he was. If you can read the Forward that’s in this edition, by Attallah Shabazz, you’ll discover who she thought he was; and if you can read the long epilogue written by Alex Haley (which you must, but only after the part told by X), you’ll find out who Haley thought he was. And the review will give you an idea of who I think he was.
the narrator: the arc of his life
Here are some of the things I (mostly) remember about Malcolm’s life, as he related it.
His father, who traveled between various Black churches within driving distance of their home, espousing the ideas of Marcus Garvey; who was reviled by local whites, and was probably murdered, when Malcolm was six.
His mother and siblings, who made do with almost no income for years, until the children were taken away and the mother put in an asylum when Malcolm was thirteen.
The scattering of the children, to different foster homes. Malcolm lived with white families, whom he seems to remember fondly in the second chapter of the biography. Malcolm’s school years, in integrated schools in Lansing and Mason Michigan. His intelligence and popularity, his election as class president in seventh grade, one of the top students in school. Then that fateful day when a white eighth-grade teacher asked him what he wanted to be in life. Malcolm, who hadn’t thought about it, blurted out “a lawyer”. The teacher thought to help Malcolm by saying, “Malcolm, one of life’s first needs is for us to be realistic… you’re good with your hands, why don’t you plan on carpentry?” X calls this “this first major turning point in my life.”
His leaving Mason at fourteen to stay with his half-sister near Boston. (“All praise is due to Allah that I went to Boston; if I hadn’t, I’d probably still be a brainwashed black Christian.”) The friends he made there, good and bad. The stylish, tall, younger-than-he-looked manchild who, among many jobs, worked on a train so he could travel for free.
1943, age 18, settling into the world of Harlem, taking to the life of the streets and crime – drug dealing, gambling, racketeering, robbery, pimping.
In 1945 Malcolm Little, now called “Detroit Red” for his hair color, returned to Boston, where he led a gang of housebreakers. The next year he was arrested, convicted, sentenced to 8-to-10 years in Charlestown State Prison, where he began reading and studying. The introduction, through fellow-inmates and letters from some of his siblings, to the Nation of Islam and the teachings of Elijah Muhammed. The interesting aspects of those teachings: how people of the white race had been created as devils, how their abiding goal was to subjugate all non-whites; how the white man attempted to further these aims by foisting a religion (Christianity) on non-whites – a religion which would help satisfy natural desires in this world by promising rewards in another. How Malcolm came to accept these views as an explanation of the behavior of whites toward Black people.
Paroled from prison in 1952, Malcolm journeyed to Chicago to meet Elijah Muhammed, impressed him with his intelligence and allegiance to Elijah’s teachings; and both wanted and was granted the role of principle agent for organizing Nation of Islam Mosques (“Temples”) in cities far and wide.
The notoriety X gained, once the white world in the U.S. began taking notice of the Nation of Islam in the late ‘50s. He, rather than Elijah Mohammad, became the flashpoint for the white public’s fear of the Black Muslims.
1961-2, the break with Elijah Mohammad, over sexual indiscretions of the leader on X’s part, and (presumably) fear and jealousy on Elijah’s part. The silencing of X by Elijah, accepted with humility by X.
Then the pilgrimage to Mecca, on which everything changed. (See below, So.)
posthumous public views of Malcolm X, positive and negative
Malcolm X was assassinated on Feb. 21, 1965.
From Haley’s Epilogue, we learn that Attallah, at that time six years old, carefully wrote a letter: “Dear Daddy, I love you so. O dear, O dear, I wish you wasn’t dead.” Also that Carl T. Rowan, at that time Director of the U.S. Information Agency, and in later years a highly respected Afro-American commentator, at the time said, “Mind you, here was a Negro who preached segregation and race hatred … All this about an ex-convict, ex-dope peddler who became a racial fanatic.”
Well, I wonder if Mr. Rowan became somewhat less vociferous about X with the passage of time. For with the passage of time, Afro-Americans who “wished they were white” (as Malcolm used to say) seemed to come around – as did many whites who in the early sixties seemed terrified of the views of Malcom X (though probably, it must be said, not knowing or understanding very much about them).
In fact, some of this may have started almost as soon as the book here reviewed was published, the year after his death. The New York Times reviewer described it as a "brilliant, painful, important book". Two years later, historian John William Ward wrote that it would become a classic American autobiography. In 1998, Time named it one of the ten most important nonfiction books of the twentieth century.
By now, the list of “Memorials and Tributes” to Malcolm X cannot be enumerated easily. Places that he lived are now adorned with Historic markers; many streets (in Harlem, Brooklyn, Dallas, Lansing) and schools have been named after him - grade schools, high schools, the El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz Academy, a public charter school with an Afrocentric focus, located in the building where he attended elementary school. In cities around the world, Malcolm X's birthday (May 19) is commemorated as Malcolm X Day.
In 1996, the first library named after Malcolm X was opened, the Malcolm X Branch Library and Performing Arts Center of the San Diego Public Library system. In 2005, Columbia University announced the opening of the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. The memorial is located in the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was assassinated.
And the U.S. Postal Service issued a Malcolm X postage stamp in 1999. [This was the inspiration for the Foreward in this book by his daughter.]
who I think Malcolm X was – I think
Having read this book, I do have a view of Malcom X. I never really did before. But first,
an aside
At the time that X was beginning his mission to found mosques for the Nation of Islam, I, like almost all whites in the U.S. (except perhaps certain people in the FBI), had never heard of the man. But my ignorance was much more long-lasting. By 1962, when I graduated from high school, X had achieved a good deal of public notoriety. But I have no memories from that time of having heard his name.
I was raised in a small town in west central Minnesota. I don’t think there was ever a Black person living there as I grew up. Never a Black kid in school with me. We may have occasionally played a football or basketball game against a larger school’s team that included a Black player, I can’t say for sure. And even though I was a reader, it was books I read, not newspapers. Look, I imagine there were adults in town who had read something about Malcolm X. But I’d never heard any talk, that I can remember.
Well, then I went off to college. Out East. Okay, now I start knowing some Blacks, right? Uh-uh. Not at Georgetown University in the years I was there. [Don’t blame me, take it up with the Jesuits. We didn’t even have a Black on the basketball team in those years.] But hadn’t I wanted to go to college to broaden my horizons? Specifically, to become more diverse in my outlook? Heck, I didn’t even know what that use of “diverse” would have referred to. I thought it was pretty cool that I had the first couple of Jewish friends I’d ever had. But a Black?
Whoa! I just thought of a Black at Georgetown in those years. A janitor who was often seen around the basketball arena. We all knew him, sort of. Pebbles.
Well, I can’t recall ever hearing Pebbles talk about Malcolm X. Maybe he did. But even in February 1965, when X was killed, I have no recollection of knowing anything about it – or about him.
So.
After twenty plus years of utter ignorance, and then a few more decades of knowing so little that I never even considered having an opinion about Malcom X, this is the way the book affected me.
As I read the early chapters, I kept having thoughts of Manchild in the Promised Land, which I read last year. When X, at the age of 18, got to Harlem in 1943, Claude Brown was four years old (and I wasn’t born). A lot of the experiences that Malcolm had in the Harlem years were pretty much lived by Brown, starting when he was only about eight years old.
Thus the early part of the book, while incredibly interesting, and well-written, didn’t really affect my too much. Yes, here was an urban Black living by the way of the streets. But I’d read about it already. But then, reading on, as X went to prison and then became familiar with the teachings of Mr. Elijah Mohammad, suddenly I was reading these views about whites being devils, all whites being racists – that stuff.
And here I am, thinking, “no, that’s not right. Not ALL whites. Not ME!” But every now and then, X would say something in a certain way, make a certain point, that would bring me up short. And I’d think, well MAYBE when it’s put like that … maybe … maybe he’s got something there, I’ve never looked at things from that exact angle.
This actually happened several times, going from “not ALL whites” to suddenly “well maybe …”. And that really confusing state of mind, is what I would have been left with, had the book ended at the chapter before X went to Mecca.
When Malcolm made his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, he flew to Jedda, Saudi Arabia as a starting point. There he connected with a man he’d been referred to in America, Dr. Omar Azzam. X relates how this man would have been perceived as “white” in the U.S. Yet Azzam treated him as if he, Malcom X, were royalty.
X wrote to his wife, “America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem… people who in America would have been considered ‘white’ [have had] the ‘white’ attitude removed from the minds by the religion of Islam… I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the oneness of God, then perhaps too they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man… With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called ‘Christian’ white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem.”
So, in Saudi Arabia, X learned that the ‘Islam’ taught by Elijah Mohammad was not the true Islam of the world’s Muslims, which did not teach that the people of the white race were devils, and that these ideas that had seemed so right to his sense of injustice for many years were a chimera. From that day forward his ideas about racism in America began shifting significantly.
Knowledge of this change in X’s ideas preceded him home. When he arrived back in the U.S. a press conference had been arranged. In Haley’s Epilogue he decribes what happened (he was there) when X was asked, “Do we correctly understand that you now do not think that all whites are evil?”
My view of the man is still colored somewhat by the fact that two different versions of a religion were of such enormous importance in forming his own outlook on the racial problem. (But in a way this isn’t quite fair, since I, a generation younger than X, look at things from a viewpoint of having lived through the Civil Rights movement of the 60s, supporting that, and at the same time losing religion pretty completely.)
At any rate, Haley tells us that in his last few weeks, X seemed often a confused man. In an interview he had said, “I’m man enough to tell you that I can’t put my finger on exactly what my philosophy is now, but I’m flexible.” A few days before his death, he had said to a Life magazine photographer/author whom he’d long respected, “In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a Muslim [ie, as a Nation of Islam Muslim] that I’m sorry for now. I was a zombie then – like all [of them] – I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man’s entitled to make a fool of himself if he’s ready to pay the cost. It cost me twelve years.”
Malcolm X led a fascinating, and significant, life. This book is an honest telling of his story. As he changed at critical junctures, he gained and lost friends, admirers, disciples, enemies – on both sides of the color line. In the end, I believe he had reached a point where, if he’d lived, he would have been acknowledged by most as a great man; not just from a nostalgic, rose-colored-glasses viewpoint, but from the leadership that he might well have provided in bringing black and white people together. But I could be wrong.
Read the book. Decide for yourself.
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Previous review: My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante
Random review: State of the World 2013 from The Worldwatch Institute – global warming, the environment, etc
Next review: The Timetables of History
Previous library review: Manchild in the Promised Land
Next library review: The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln
Malcolm's dedication of the book.
Note: I will often refer to Malcolm X in the following as simply “X”.
the edition I read
Besides the first person narration, this edition contains a Foreword by Malcolm’s eldest daughter, Attallah Shabazz; an Introduction by M.S. Handler, a NYT reporter whom Malcolm X reportedly believed had "none of the usual prejudices or sentimentalities about black people"; an indispensable Epilogue by the writer of this book, Alex Haley (written for the first edition I believe); and a short essay, “On Malcom X”, by Ossie Davis.
Attallah Shabazz
Alex Haley, the writer. Also the author of Roots
Ossie Davis - Civil Rights Activist, Director, Actor, Playwright
can a review of such a book worry about spoilers?
Normally one would think that a review of an autobiography could just jump around when talking about the book and the protagonist. This book is a bit different, in that the interviews that Alex Haley (the writer) had with Malcom X (the first person “narrator”) were mostly done before a major turning point in Malcolm X’s life. They both agreed, as the proofs neared their final version, that the sudden change in X’s views that occurred very late in his life should be left as the interviews originally made them – basically, a surprise ending.
That said, I’m still not going to do spoilers. I’ll tell what I feel like telling, when I feel like telling it.
who was Malcolm X?
Let Z = the number of people who have ever heard of him. Then I would suggest there are Z+2 views of who he was. One for each of those Z people, one that he believed about himself, and one that he really was.
If you read this book, you’ll gain an idea of who you think he was, and who he thought he was. If you can read the Forward that’s in this edition, by Attallah Shabazz, you’ll discover who she thought he was; and if you can read the long epilogue written by Alex Haley (which you must, but only after the part told by X), you’ll find out who Haley thought he was. And the review will give you an idea of who I think he was.
the narrator: the arc of his life
Here are some of the things I (mostly) remember about Malcolm’s life, as he related it.
His father, who traveled between various Black churches within driving distance of their home, espousing the ideas of Marcus Garvey; who was reviled by local whites, and was probably murdered, when Malcolm was six.
His mother and siblings, who made do with almost no income for years, until the children were taken away and the mother put in an asylum when Malcolm was thirteen.
The scattering of the children, to different foster homes. Malcolm lived with white families, whom he seems to remember fondly in the second chapter of the biography. Malcolm’s school years, in integrated schools in Lansing and Mason Michigan. His intelligence and popularity, his election as class president in seventh grade, one of the top students in school. Then that fateful day when a white eighth-grade teacher asked him what he wanted to be in life. Malcolm, who hadn’t thought about it, blurted out “a lawyer”. The teacher thought to help Malcolm by saying, “Malcolm, one of life’s first needs is for us to be realistic… you’re good with your hands, why don’t you plan on carpentry?” X calls this “this first major turning point in my life.”
His leaving Mason at fourteen to stay with his half-sister near Boston. (“All praise is due to Allah that I went to Boston; if I hadn’t, I’d probably still be a brainwashed black Christian.”) The friends he made there, good and bad. The stylish, tall, younger-than-he-looked manchild who, among many jobs, worked on a train so he could travel for free.
1943, age 18, settling into the world of Harlem, taking to the life of the streets and crime – drug dealing, gambling, racketeering, robbery, pimping.
In 1945 Malcolm Little, now called “Detroit Red” for his hair color, returned to Boston, where he led a gang of housebreakers. The next year he was arrested, convicted, sentenced to 8-to-10 years in Charlestown State Prison, where he began reading and studying. The introduction, through fellow-inmates and letters from some of his siblings, to the Nation of Islam and the teachings of Elijah Muhammed. The interesting aspects of those teachings: how people of the white race had been created as devils, how their abiding goal was to subjugate all non-whites; how the white man attempted to further these aims by foisting a religion (Christianity) on non-whites – a religion which would help satisfy natural desires in this world by promising rewards in another. How Malcolm came to accept these views as an explanation of the behavior of whites toward Black people.
Paroled from prison in 1952, Malcolm journeyed to Chicago to meet Elijah Muhammed, impressed him with his intelligence and allegiance to Elijah’s teachings; and both wanted and was granted the role of principle agent for organizing Nation of Islam Mosques (“Temples”) in cities far and wide.
The notoriety X gained, once the white world in the U.S. began taking notice of the Nation of Islam in the late ‘50s. He, rather than Elijah Mohammad, became the flashpoint for the white public’s fear of the Black Muslims.
1961-2, the break with Elijah Mohammad, over sexual indiscretions of the leader on X’s part, and (presumably) fear and jealousy on Elijah’s part. The silencing of X by Elijah, accepted with humility by X.
Then the pilgrimage to Mecca, on which everything changed. (See below, So.)
posthumous public views of Malcolm X, positive and negative
Malcolm X was assassinated on Feb. 21, 1965.
From Haley’s Epilogue, we learn that Attallah, at that time six years old, carefully wrote a letter: “Dear Daddy, I love you so. O dear, O dear, I wish you wasn’t dead.” Also that Carl T. Rowan, at that time Director of the U.S. Information Agency, and in later years a highly respected Afro-American commentator, at the time said, “Mind you, here was a Negro who preached segregation and race hatred … All this about an ex-convict, ex-dope peddler who became a racial fanatic.”
Well, I wonder if Mr. Rowan became somewhat less vociferous about X with the passage of time. For with the passage of time, Afro-Americans who “wished they were white” (as Malcolm used to say) seemed to come around – as did many whites who in the early sixties seemed terrified of the views of Malcom X (though probably, it must be said, not knowing or understanding very much about them).
In fact, some of this may have started almost as soon as the book here reviewed was published, the year after his death. The New York Times reviewer described it as a "brilliant, painful, important book". Two years later, historian John William Ward wrote that it would become a classic American autobiography. In 1998, Time named it one of the ten most important nonfiction books of the twentieth century.
By now, the list of “Memorials and Tributes” to Malcolm X cannot be enumerated easily. Places that he lived are now adorned with Historic markers; many streets (in Harlem, Brooklyn, Dallas, Lansing) and schools have been named after him - grade schools, high schools, the El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz Academy, a public charter school with an Afrocentric focus, located in the building where he attended elementary school. In cities around the world, Malcolm X's birthday (May 19) is commemorated as Malcolm X Day.
In 1996, the first library named after Malcolm X was opened, the Malcolm X Branch Library and Performing Arts Center of the San Diego Public Library system. In 2005, Columbia University announced the opening of the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. The memorial is located in the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was assassinated.
And the U.S. Postal Service issued a Malcolm X postage stamp in 1999. [This was the inspiration for the Foreward in this book by his daughter.]
who I think Malcolm X was – I think
Having read this book, I do have a view of Malcom X. I never really did before. But first,
an aside
At the time that X was beginning his mission to found mosques for the Nation of Islam, I, like almost all whites in the U.S. (except perhaps certain people in the FBI), had never heard of the man. But my ignorance was much more long-lasting. By 1962, when I graduated from high school, X had achieved a good deal of public notoriety. But I have no memories from that time of having heard his name.
I was raised in a small town in west central Minnesota. I don’t think there was ever a Black person living there as I grew up. Never a Black kid in school with me. We may have occasionally played a football or basketball game against a larger school’s team that included a Black player, I can’t say for sure. And even though I was a reader, it was books I read, not newspapers. Look, I imagine there were adults in town who had read something about Malcolm X. But I’d never heard any talk, that I can remember.
Well, then I went off to college. Out East. Okay, now I start knowing some Blacks, right? Uh-uh. Not at Georgetown University in the years I was there. [Don’t blame me, take it up with the Jesuits. We didn’t even have a Black on the basketball team in those years.] But hadn’t I wanted to go to college to broaden my horizons? Specifically, to become more diverse in my outlook? Heck, I didn’t even know what that use of “diverse” would have referred to. I thought it was pretty cool that I had the first couple of Jewish friends I’d ever had. But a Black?
Whoa! I just thought of a Black at Georgetown in those years. A janitor who was often seen around the basketball arena. We all knew him, sort of. Pebbles.
Well, I can’t recall ever hearing Pebbles talk about Malcolm X. Maybe he did. But even in February 1965, when X was killed, I have no recollection of knowing anything about it – or about him.
So.
After twenty plus years of utter ignorance, and then a few more decades of knowing so little that I never even considered having an opinion about Malcom X, this is the way the book affected me.
As I read the early chapters, I kept having thoughts of Manchild in the Promised Land, which I read last year. When X, at the age of 18, got to Harlem in 1943, Claude Brown was four years old (and I wasn’t born). A lot of the experiences that Malcolm had in the Harlem years were pretty much lived by Brown, starting when he was only about eight years old.
Thus the early part of the book, while incredibly interesting, and well-written, didn’t really affect my too much. Yes, here was an urban Black living by the way of the streets. But I’d read about it already. But then, reading on, as X went to prison and then became familiar with the teachings of Mr. Elijah Mohammad, suddenly I was reading these views about whites being devils, all whites being racists – that stuff.
And here I am, thinking, “no, that’s not right. Not ALL whites. Not ME!” But every now and then, X would say something in a certain way, make a certain point, that would bring me up short. And I’d think, well MAYBE when it’s put like that … maybe … maybe he’s got something there, I’ve never looked at things from that exact angle.
This actually happened several times, going from “not ALL whites” to suddenly “well maybe …”. And that really confusing state of mind, is what I would have been left with, had the book ended at the chapter before X went to Mecca.
When Malcolm made his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, he flew to Jedda, Saudi Arabia as a starting point. There he connected with a man he’d been referred to in America, Dr. Omar Azzam. X relates how this man would have been perceived as “white” in the U.S. Yet Azzam treated him as if he, Malcom X, were royalty.
That morning was when I first began to reappraise the “white man”. It was when I first began to perceive that “white man,” as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. In America, “white man” meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been.X had dinner at Azzam’s home. Azzam’s father treated Malcom like a son, and explained to him, “how color, the complexities of color, and the problems of color which exist in the Muslim world, exist only where, and to the extent that, that area of the Muslim world has been influenced by the West.”
That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about “white” men.
X wrote to his wife, “America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem… people who in America would have been considered ‘white’ [have had] the ‘white’ attitude removed from the minds by the religion of Islam… I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the oneness of God, then perhaps too they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man… With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called ‘Christian’ white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem.”
So, in Saudi Arabia, X learned that the ‘Islam’ taught by Elijah Mohammad was not the true Islam of the world’s Muslims, which did not teach that the people of the white race were devils, and that these ideas that had seemed so right to his sense of injustice for many years were a chimera. From that day forward his ideas about racism in America began shifting significantly.
Knowledge of this change in X’s ideas preceded him home. When he arrived back in the U.S. a press conference had been arranged. In Haley’s Epilogue he decribes what happened (he was there) when X was asked, “Do we correctly understand that you now do not think that all whites are evil?”
”True, sir! My trip to Mecca has opened my eyes. I no longer subscribe to racism! I have adjusted my thinking to the point where I believe that whites are human beings … as long as this is borne out by their humane attitudes toward Negroes.”Several pages later Haley describes a Canadian TV program on which X was asked about integration and intermarriage:
They picked at his “racist” image. “I’m not a racist. I’m not condemning whites for being whites, but for their deeds. I condemn what whites collectively have done to our people collectively.”
The Times’ Handler, beside me, was taking notes and muttering under his breath, “Incredible! Incredible!” I was thinking the same thing.
”I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being – neither white, black, brown, or red; and when you are dealing with humanity as a family there’s no question of integration or intermarriage. It’s just one human being marrying another human being …And Haley writes, “From this, it would be fair to say that one month before his death, Malcolm had revised his views on intermarriage to the point where he regarded it as simply a personal matter.”
My view of the man is still colored somewhat by the fact that two different versions of a religion were of such enormous importance in forming his own outlook on the racial problem. (But in a way this isn’t quite fair, since I, a generation younger than X, look at things from a viewpoint of having lived through the Civil Rights movement of the 60s, supporting that, and at the same time losing religion pretty completely.)
At any rate, Haley tells us that in his last few weeks, X seemed often a confused man. In an interview he had said, “I’m man enough to tell you that I can’t put my finger on exactly what my philosophy is now, but I’m flexible.” A few days before his death, he had said to a Life magazine photographer/author whom he’d long respected, “In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a Muslim [ie, as a Nation of Islam Muslim] that I’m sorry for now. I was a zombie then – like all [of them] – I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man’s entitled to make a fool of himself if he’s ready to pay the cost. It cost me twelve years.”
Malcolm X led a fascinating, and significant, life. This book is an honest telling of his story. As he changed at critical junctures, he gained and lost friends, admirers, disciples, enemies – on both sides of the color line. In the end, I believe he had reached a point where, if he’d lived, he would have been acknowledged by most as a great man; not just from a nostalgic, rose-colored-glasses viewpoint, but from the leadership that he might well have provided in bringing black and white people together. But I could be wrong.
Read the book. Decide for yourself.
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Previous review: My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante
Random review: State of the World 2013 from The Worldwatch Institute – global warming, the environment, etc
Next review: The Timetables of History
Previous library review: Manchild in the Promised Land
Next library review: The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln
August 31, 2020
منذ بضعة شهور .عرضت الجزيرة الوثائقية ضمن سلسة وجه لوجه
مقتطفات من مواقف ملكوم إكس و لينكولن
و منهج دفاع كل منهم على قضية السود.
انهيت الفيلم بالإنطباع أن ملكوم عنيف في خطاباته
و توجهه غير سليم .
لكن قررت أن اقرأ سيرته يوما ما كي اتاكد من ذلك
و كنت اؤخر اللقاء .فشعور إمتعاض مازال قويًا.
في شهر جوان تعرض امريكي أسود لمعاملة لا إنسانية من امريكي أبيض .
حينها تذكرت السيرة الذاتية و بتشجيع من الصديق
أحمد طه بدات هذه الرحلة المختلفة و المتميزة
و الجرئية
انا أدين بالاعتذار لسيد ملكوم لقد اسات الحكم.
رحمك الله .و غفر لك
عدة جملٍ لمست قلبي .💕
“انني كنت أسفل سافلين في قاع المجتمع الأمريكي عندما اهتديت الى الله و الى الإسلام تغير مجرى حياتي"
“لا يدرك الناس أن كتابا واحدا قد يغير حياة انسان”
“عاهدت الله على الا أنسى أن الاسلام هو الذى اعطانى الاجنحة التى احلق بها ولم انس ذلك ابدا ... لم أنسه لحظة واحدة”
"إن الزوجة في الحضارة الغربية تفقد جاذبيتها بمجرد ما تفقد جمالها المادي أما الإسلام فيحثنا على رؤية جمال المرأة الباطني”
18/juin/20🌸
مقتطفات من مواقف ملكوم إكس و لينكولن
و منهج دفاع كل منهم على قضية السود.
انهيت الفيلم بالإنطباع أن ملكوم عنيف في خطاباته
و توجهه غير سليم .
لكن قررت أن اقرأ سيرته يوما ما كي اتاكد من ذلك
و كنت اؤخر اللقاء .فشعور إمتعاض مازال قويًا.
في شهر جوان تعرض امريكي أسود لمعاملة لا إنسانية من امريكي أبيض .
حينها تذكرت السيرة الذاتية و بتشجيع من الصديق
أحمد طه بدات هذه الرحلة المختلفة و المتميزة
و الجرئية
انا أدين بالاعتذار لسيد ملكوم لقد اسات الحكم.
رحمك الله .و غفر لك
عدة جملٍ لمست قلبي .💕
“انني كنت أسفل سافلين في قاع المجتمع الأمريكي عندما اهتديت الى الله و الى الإسلام تغير مجرى حياتي"
“لا يدرك الناس أن كتابا واحدا قد يغير حياة انسان”
“عاهدت الله على الا أنسى أن الاسلام هو الذى اعطانى الاجنحة التى احلق بها ولم انس ذلك ابدا ... لم أنسه لحظة واحدة”
"إن الزوجة في الحضارة الغربية تفقد جاذبيتها بمجرد ما تفقد جمالها المادي أما الإسلام فيحثنا على رؤية جمال المرأة الباطني”
18/juin/20🌸
August 7, 2022
By some fateful coincidence, I find myself writing this review on the 55th anniversary of Malcolm X’s murder. The coincidence feels significant, if only because this is probably one of the most crucial books in my reading life. I originally encountered the little paperback in university—borrowed from a roommate who had to read it for a class. Though I had only the vaguest idea of who Malcolm X was, the book transfixed me, even dominated me. Every page felt like a gut punch. My love of reading was substantially deepened by the experience. One decade later, The Autobiography of Malcolm X has lost none of its power.
This book has so many things going for it that it is a challenge to ennumerate its virtues. For one, Haley has beautifully captured Malcolm X’s voice. You can really hear him speak through the page—with humor, with wit, with passion, and most of all with righteous anger. (This time around, I listened to Lawrence Fishburne’s excellent audio version, which brought an extra dimension of realism to Malcolm’s voice.) What is more, the story that he tells is simply a good story on any terms, even if it were all made up. His childhood poverty, his gradual introduction into the ‘hustling life’ (as he called it), his incarceration, his conversion, his betrayal, his journey to Mecca—a novelist would have difficulty coming up with anything better.
But what is most valuable about the book is, as Malcolm X himself says, its sociological import. The first time I read this, I thought of it mainly as a historical document. Yet the sad truth is that Malcolm X’s story is still very much possible—indeed, a reality—in the United States. All of the essential ingredients are still there: segregation (de facto if not de jure), limited job opportunities, and mass incarceration. Indeed, while some things have gotten better, and much has remained the same, in some ways things have gotten worse. For example, the US certainly imprisons more people nowadays (disproportionately POC) than in Malcolm X’s day. There is still a direct pipeline from the failing public school in the black neighborhood to the prison cell.
Malcolm X is often contrasted with Martin Luther King, Jr., for presenting a “violent” alternative to King’s non-violence. But the perspective that Malcolm X consistently articulates cannot be simply boiled down to violence. His essential point is that, if any group of people in the world had been treated like black people in America have been—enslaved, lynched, legally disenfranchised, economically shut out, thrown into jails—then they would be well within their rights to fight back, “by any means necessary.” One can hardly imagine a group of, say, German immigrants, after undergoing such an ordeal, marching “peacefully” for their rights. Few ethical or legal codes prohibit self-defense. And it is the height of moral hypocrisy to hold the oppressed to a higher ethical standard than the oppressors.
The best response to this I know is from James Baldwin, who, while conceding the premises, wrote: “Whoever debases others is debasing himself.” In other words, if blacks did unto whites what whites did unto blacks, they would do spiritual damage to themselves. Now, not being of any religious bent myself, I at first treated this as a vaguely mystical sentiment. But I have to admit that, during the presidency of Donald Trump, I gradually came to see the real, practical truth in this statement. Racism is really a kind of psychic rot—not localized simply to our attitudes about race, but spreading in all directions, poisoning our sense of justice, spoiling our intelligence, stultifying our emotions. Though Malcolm X never gave up his insistence on the right to self-defense, he agreed with Baldwin in treating racism, not simply as a matter of prejudice to overcome, but a gnawing cancer at the heart of the country, capable of destroying it. And, for my part, I am no longer inclined to view such statements as merely rhetorical.
So in addition to being a thrilling story, wonderfully told, The Autobiography of Malcolm X presents us with a challenging indictment of America—still as true and valid as when he spoke it, fifty five years ago. I think any citizen will be improved by wrestling with Malcolm’s story and his conclusions. But let us not forget the personality of Malcolm, the man—someone who radiates genuine charisma. For my part, what I find most appealing and inspiring in Malcolm X is his intellectual side. Deprived of a formal education, he largely educated himself in prison by reading voraciously. And this curiosity stayed with him all his life. He recounts the thrill of debating college students—white and black—during his speaking tours, and speaks wistfully of going back to school to get a degree, and filling up his days studying all sorts of arcane subjects. In a saner society, Malcolm X would certainly have become a respected member of the intelligentsia, pushing the bounds of knowledge. It is up to us to create such a society.
This book has so many things going for it that it is a challenge to ennumerate its virtues. For one, Haley has beautifully captured Malcolm X’s voice. You can really hear him speak through the page—with humor, with wit, with passion, and most of all with righteous anger. (This time around, I listened to Lawrence Fishburne’s excellent audio version, which brought an extra dimension of realism to Malcolm’s voice.) What is more, the story that he tells is simply a good story on any terms, even if it were all made up. His childhood poverty, his gradual introduction into the ‘hustling life’ (as he called it), his incarceration, his conversion, his betrayal, his journey to Mecca—a novelist would have difficulty coming up with anything better.
But what is most valuable about the book is, as Malcolm X himself says, its sociological import. The first time I read this, I thought of it mainly as a historical document. Yet the sad truth is that Malcolm X’s story is still very much possible—indeed, a reality—in the United States. All of the essential ingredients are still there: segregation (de facto if not de jure), limited job opportunities, and mass incarceration. Indeed, while some things have gotten better, and much has remained the same, in some ways things have gotten worse. For example, the US certainly imprisons more people nowadays (disproportionately POC) than in Malcolm X’s day. There is still a direct pipeline from the failing public school in the black neighborhood to the prison cell.
Malcolm X is often contrasted with Martin Luther King, Jr., for presenting a “violent” alternative to King’s non-violence. But the perspective that Malcolm X consistently articulates cannot be simply boiled down to violence. His essential point is that, if any group of people in the world had been treated like black people in America have been—enslaved, lynched, legally disenfranchised, economically shut out, thrown into jails—then they would be well within their rights to fight back, “by any means necessary.” One can hardly imagine a group of, say, German immigrants, after undergoing such an ordeal, marching “peacefully” for their rights. Few ethical or legal codes prohibit self-defense. And it is the height of moral hypocrisy to hold the oppressed to a higher ethical standard than the oppressors.
The best response to this I know is from James Baldwin, who, while conceding the premises, wrote: “Whoever debases others is debasing himself.” In other words, if blacks did unto whites what whites did unto blacks, they would do spiritual damage to themselves. Now, not being of any religious bent myself, I at first treated this as a vaguely mystical sentiment. But I have to admit that, during the presidency of Donald Trump, I gradually came to see the real, practical truth in this statement. Racism is really a kind of psychic rot—not localized simply to our attitudes about race, but spreading in all directions, poisoning our sense of justice, spoiling our intelligence, stultifying our emotions. Though Malcolm X never gave up his insistence on the right to self-defense, he agreed with Baldwin in treating racism, not simply as a matter of prejudice to overcome, but a gnawing cancer at the heart of the country, capable of destroying it. And, for my part, I am no longer inclined to view such statements as merely rhetorical.
So in addition to being a thrilling story, wonderfully told, The Autobiography of Malcolm X presents us with a challenging indictment of America—still as true and valid as when he spoke it, fifty five years ago. I think any citizen will be improved by wrestling with Malcolm’s story and his conclusions. But let us not forget the personality of Malcolm, the man—someone who radiates genuine charisma. For my part, what I find most appealing and inspiring in Malcolm X is his intellectual side. Deprived of a formal education, he largely educated himself in prison by reading voraciously. And this curiosity stayed with him all his life. He recounts the thrill of debating college students—white and black—during his speaking tours, and speaks wistfully of going back to school to get a degree, and filling up his days studying all sorts of arcane subjects. In a saner society, Malcolm X would certainly have become a respected member of the intelligentsia, pushing the bounds of knowledge. It is up to us to create such a society.
March 10, 2019
عاهدتُ الله ألا أنسى أن الإسلام هو الذي أعطاني الأجنحة التى أحلِّق بها اليوم، ولم أنس ذلك أبدًا.. لم أنسه لحظة واحدة
مالكوم إكس
حاولتُ أن أكتب عنه فلم أعرف..
فقط شهدتُ بعيني كيف يرفع الإسلام بهَديْهِ المرء من أسفل سافلين إلى انسانٍ تتفتح أمام وجهه الآفاق، وتجوب شهرته البلدان، ويضع الله له القبول والحب في الأرض..
كيف يعيش رجل، لم يترك كبيرة ولا صغيرة من الذنب إلا وارتكبها، مناضلًا لأجل الإسلام.. ثم يموت شهيدًا وهو يدافع عنه ويدعو الناس إليه في النهاية!
رأيتُ كيف يعز الله بالإسلام، ولكننا نرتضي العزة فيما سواه
فما نزداد إلا ذلة!
ارق�� في سلام سيدي مالكوم إكس
إنك رجلٌ مسلم بألفٍ مما يعُدُّون، فلا نملك لك إلا الترحم اليوم..
لعل الله يعيننا على تقليدك غدًا
12.10.2015
January 29, 2020
Nobody can give you freedom
Nobody can give you equality
or justice or anything
If you're a man take it
من أروع المذكرات التى قرأتها في حياتي مذكرات مالكوم اكس او الحاج مالك الشباز .
كيف كان مفكر وقائدا ومدافع عن حقوق السود وفاضحا للممارسات العنصرية لدي البيض وتاريخهم الدموي
وفى نفس الوقت باحث عن الحقيقة لم يتوقف يوما عند رأي ثابت .. غير رأيه وحياته بالكامل عندما دخل السجن وخرج منه مؤمنا بالاسلام ولكن عن طريق الأليجا محمد وبعد اثنا عشر عاما معه وبعد ذهابه للحج عرف الاسلام على الحق , وعرف أن ليس كل انسان أبيض شيطان ولكن يجب ان نحاسبه على أفعاله وليس لونه .
ومن اكثر ما أعجبني فى شخصية مالكوم أنه قارئا وفاهما لتاريخ وواعياً وناقدا للبرجوازية السوداء كما يحب أن يوصفها والفرق بين أسود الحقل وأسود المنزل
وكيف كان واعيا فى رأيه في انتخابات الرئاسة عندما قارن بين الذئب والثعلب بين الرئيس جونسون ومنافسه وان الذئب افضل للسود لأنه يكرههم صراحة وان زمجرة الذئب ستبقهيم اكثر احتراسا ومستعدا للقتال ولكن الثعلب الذي يضحك علانية لهم ويظهر أنه يحبهم ويمارس اضهاده سرا سيبقيني غافلا
ً
وقرأة مالكوم وفهمه لمسيرة واشنطت التى تحولت من مظاهرة غاضبة الى اجتماع راق كسياق الخيل
كان مفكرا عظيما وقائدا الله يرحم الحاج مالك الشباز .
إن حسن المعاملة لا يعني لي شيئاً ما دام الرجل الأبيض لن ينظر إلى كما ينظر الى نفسه , قد يشاركني فى الحلو ولكن لن يشاركني المر, وعندما تتغول فى أعماق نفسه تجد أنه مازال مقتنعا أنه أفضل مني
إنى لا أدافع عن العنف ولكن اذا داس رجل علي قدمي فإنني سأدوس على أصابع قدمه
إن الأمريكي الأسود لا يريد الا حقوقه الانسانية ان يكرم كبني ادم , الا يفر منه البيض كما لو أنه مصاب يالطاعون, ألا يعزل فى الأحياء الزنجية كالحيوان , ألا يعيش مختفياً وأن يمشي مرفوع الرأس كبنى أدم.
النجمة الناقصة لان الترجمة فى اول الكتاب كانت سيئة ولكن كمذكرات تستحق اكثر من خمس نجوم
January 10, 2011
من العظيم جداً ليس فقط أن تتبع مسيرة شخص كملكوم إكس من مولده حتى وفاته
من المهم أن ندرك أنه ثمة مفاهيم معينة لابد أن نمررها لأنفسنا بصورة و اضحة و للآخرين
التحول الجذري في حياة ملكوم إكس ما تم إلا بشعلة ذكاء كانت مستقرة في داخله و نمت بعناية الله
وان كانت بطريقة خاطئة لزمن طويل ما كان إلا اثنا عشر عاماً قضاها يلهث خلف إيمانه بشخص
أدركت خطورة الإيمان أكثر عبر هذا الكتاب
الإيمان المطلق يعمي العقل و القلب عن كل الحقائق التي لربما يرسلها الله كل يوم لك ,
في النهاية كل يوم يضيف لنا شيء ما , حسبي على يوم ما أضاف لنا نطفة علم !
لكن الرغبة بالإنتماء أحيان تطغى على قدرتك عن قشع الحقيقة كما هيَ فعلا ,
من الضروري جداً أن نتخذ قالباً لنا ومن الضروري أكثر أن نكسر القالب
و نعيد تمديده و تضيقه كلما أقتضى الأمر و توسعت المدارك
ولا بد بالفعل من مسافة بيننا وبين نملئها بحث واعي بذهن يقظ لكل ما نؤمن به ليتجلى لنا الحق كيفما كان
أن المجتمع يصيغ نفسية الشخص و يصيغ مفاهمية في الحياة بالتأكيد ,
لكن الإنفصال عنه أو الإندماج هي خصائص إنسانية قادر الشخص عليها إن امتلك الوعي
فالنهاية المجتمع يخضع لنا و لمطالبنا النفسية و الروحية إن نحن آمنا بقضية
أو ربما شخص سخر جلّ حياته للنضال يكون هوَ مجرد حلقة في سلسلة قضية يؤمن بها أفراد كثيرون
أو يحتاجون لوعي و استيقاظ من سبات للإيمان بما يتوجب عليهم
إن المعرفة هيَ ميزان الشخص في الحياة و إن اختلفت الموازين
تظل هيَ الأصل بلا أدنى ريب
كل يوم أسلكه في ذات الدرب أدرك ماذا يعني أن تكون
أول كلمة في القرآن هيَ "أقرأ" ,
من المهم أن ندرك أنه ثمة مفاهيم معينة لابد أن نمررها لأنفسنا بصورة و اضحة و للآخرين
التحول الجذري في حياة ملكوم إكس ما تم إلا بشعلة ذكاء كانت مستقرة في داخله و نمت بعناية الله
وان كانت بطريقة خاطئة لزمن طويل ما كان إلا اثنا عشر عاماً قضاها يلهث خلف إيمانه بشخص
أدركت خطورة الإيمان أكثر عبر هذا الكتاب
الإيمان المطلق يعمي العقل و القلب عن كل الحقائق التي لربما يرسلها الله كل يوم لك ,
في النهاية كل يوم يضيف لنا شيء ما , حسبي على يوم ما أضاف لنا نطفة علم !
لكن الرغبة بالإنتماء أحيان تطغى على قدرتك عن قشع الحقيقة كما هيَ فعلا ,
من الضروري جداً أن نتخذ قالباً لنا ومن الضروري أكثر أن نكسر القالب
و نعيد تمديده و تضيقه كلما أقتضى الأمر و توسعت المدارك
ولا بد بالفعل من مسافة بيننا وبين نملئها بحث واعي بذهن يقظ لكل ما نؤمن به ليتجلى لنا الحق كيفما كان
أن المجتمع يصيغ نفسية الشخص و يصيغ مفاهمية في الحياة بالتأكيد ,
لكن الإنفصال عنه أو الإندماج هي خصائص إنسانية قادر الشخص عليها إن امتلك الوعي
فالنهاية المجتمع يخضع لنا و لمطالبنا النفسية و الروحية إن نحن آمنا بقضية
أو ربما شخص سخر جلّ حياته للنضال يكون هوَ مجرد حلقة في سلسلة قضية يؤمن بها أفراد كثيرون
أو يحتاجون لوعي و استيقاظ من سبات للإيمان بما يتوجب عليهم
إن المعرفة هيَ ميزان الشخص في الحياة و إن اختلفت الموازين
تظل هيَ الأصل بلا أدنى ريب
كل يوم أسلكه في ذات الدرب أدرك ماذا يعني أن تكون
أول كلمة في القرآن هيَ "أقرأ" ,
February 17, 2021
I loved this book the first time I read it in 2008. I loved it this time. It is profound and moving and somehow feels timeless. Malcolm X was prophetic and powerful. His willingness to be public and be open to change is unmatched.
September 1, 2017
Fantastic read! a look into the courageous life of a true believer of life's struggles in racism etc...(paperback!)
February 9, 2022
Wow, such a powerful book! I learned so much about Malcolm X and the justice he was seeking. The transformation once he got out of prison with all that angst and determination was motivating. Unity is key, racism shouldn't even exist, sad to see not much has changed since then. Praying for better days for everyone!!
February 10, 2017
I lived in a brown shingled house on Channing Way in Berkeley with 3 other roommates back in the early 70s. Next door to us, on the second story of an apartment building, lived a young black man. One day when I came home two of my male roommates said that they had something to show me in the kitchen. Spit. The black man next door had purposely spit out his window onto ours. I didn't know if either of the guys in our house had irritated him or if he just didn't like looking at us. In any case, the guys got a big kick out of it; I didn't. Knowing that they wouldn't go out and wash the window, I went outside and washed it.
The following day my roommates told me to look out the window again. This young man had hung a banner out his window, the one facing our kitchen, and on this banner was a picture of Malcolm X with the words Malcolm X written on it. The guys laughed at this also, but to me it was disquieting. Since then I have always thought of this young angry black man whenever Malcolm X's name has been brought up. and I had always thought of Malcolm X as very angry racist, a person to fear.
Here it is years later, and I have decided to learn the real story about Malcolm X. This book put me though a lot of changes. Mostly anger towards his racist views, even if I understood why. Up to a point, the news had been right about him.
The first few chapters of this book tells of his growing up without his dad, and soon his mother was in a mental institution. So, his sister allowed him to move to Harlem with her.
Now, I have always wondered what Harlem was like back then, the jazz scene and how people lived, but I wasn't ready for his kind of life. He had low paying jobs in the beginning, and then began smoking and selling reefers. Next, he went on to cocaine. He partied with the jazz musicians, even sold them dope. Next, he became a pimp, and then did some robberies. Not an interesting life to me, nor even a good read.
He even wore a zoot suit in Harlem, a suit I had seen in a library book in the 60s that was about fashion throughout the centuries. It was the zoot suit that interested me back then:
Next, he was putting down women, especially married women whose men came to Harlem to visit the prostitutes because their women were domineering, etc. It is always the woman's fault, and as I found with Malcolm, it was the white man's fault for everything too. Then, according to him, women didn't want to be treated nice; they wanted to be treated mean, because, he reasoned,if you don't treat them badly they will leave you. I thought, maybe when you treat them badly, they are afraid to leave. Ever think of that? Or maybe it is because they grew up being mistreated and don't know any better. Ever thought to treat them better? And what woman would leave Malcolm X for threating them good? After all, he was famous.
So by now I was getting sick of this book, but I wanted to educate myself about him since I only knew what I had heard on the news in the 60s, so I read on.
In the next phase of his life, he was imprisoned for committing robberies. The best thing he did in prison was read for they had a lot of good books, according to him. It was also in prison where he became a convert of the Nation of Islam--a black Muslim group that had its beginnings in America.
The Nation of Islam had taught him that the white man was the "blue-eyed devil," and then he kept repeating, throughout the book, all of the sins of the white people had committed; he painted with a large brush. Much of it was true, but I thought of the book "Mein Kampf" and its ugliness. I thought of Donald Trump. I thought of quitting this book.
Then he began talking about how brainwashed the black men are due to the white man's teachings, yet he doesn't seem to realize thatthis form of the Muslim religion was also brainwashing him, giving him half truths.
The last three chapters took a turn for the better. Malcolm X went to Mecca, and when he returned he was a changed man for he had been told that the Nation of Islam didn't teach the true Muslim faith, for the true Muslim faith loved all races.
When he was in Makkah, he wrote a letter to his loyal assistants in Harlem:
"Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors...
There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But 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 non-white.
America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white - but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color.
You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. 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.
During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept 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 the words and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana."
"We were truly all the same (brothers) - because their belief in one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their behavior, and the white from their attitude.
I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man - and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their 'differences' in color.
With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called 'Christian' white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster - the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.
Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have greater spiritual insights into what is happening in America between black and white. The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities - he is only reacting to four hundred years of the conscious racism of the American whites. But as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the walls and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth - the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to.
Never have I been so highly honored. Never have I been made to feel more humble and unworthy. Who would believe the blessings that have been heaped upon an American Negro? A few nights ago, a man who would be called in America a white man, a United Nations diplomat, an ambassador, a companion of kings, gave me his hotel suite, his bed. Never would I have even thought of dreaming that I would ever be a recipient of such honors - honors that in America would be bestowed upon a King - not a Negro.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the Worlds.
Sincerely,
Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X)"
He was murdered shortly after announcing his new way of thinking, the love he felt for all. It is thought that the Nation of Islam had him killed, that it was ordered by Farrakhan. That is a sad turn of events. I would have loved to have known how things would have changed for him. What would his speeches have been like?
As for myself, I would like there a hate speech law passed in the U.S. because, to me, free speech doesn't really include hate speech. I say this because of how this election year is going, because of Donald Trump's hate speech, but I thought it even before then. Canada has a hate speech law. They are ahead of us there.
Note: For those who have complained that their book didn't have an epilogue, this kindle book does.
The following day my roommates told me to look out the window again. This young man had hung a banner out his window, the one facing our kitchen, and on this banner was a picture of Malcolm X with the words Malcolm X written on it. The guys laughed at this also, but to me it was disquieting. Since then I have always thought of this young angry black man whenever Malcolm X's name has been brought up. and I had always thought of Malcolm X as very angry racist, a person to fear.
Here it is years later, and I have decided to learn the real story about Malcolm X. This book put me though a lot of changes. Mostly anger towards his racist views, even if I understood why. Up to a point, the news had been right about him.
The first few chapters of this book tells of his growing up without his dad, and soon his mother was in a mental institution. So, his sister allowed him to move to Harlem with her.
Now, I have always wondered what Harlem was like back then, the jazz scene and how people lived, but I wasn't ready for his kind of life. He had low paying jobs in the beginning, and then began smoking and selling reefers. Next, he went on to cocaine. He partied with the jazz musicians, even sold them dope. Next, he became a pimp, and then did some robberies. Not an interesting life to me, nor even a good read.
He even wore a zoot suit in Harlem, a suit I had seen in a library book in the 60s that was about fashion throughout the centuries. It was the zoot suit that interested me back then:
Next, he was putting down women, especially married women whose men came to Harlem to visit the prostitutes because their women were domineering, etc. It is always the woman's fault, and as I found with Malcolm, it was the white man's fault for everything too. Then, according to him, women didn't want to be treated nice; they wanted to be treated mean, because, he reasoned,if you don't treat them badly they will leave you. I thought, maybe when you treat them badly, they are afraid to leave. Ever think of that? Or maybe it is because they grew up being mistreated and don't know any better. Ever thought to treat them better? And what woman would leave Malcolm X for threating them good? After all, he was famous.
So by now I was getting sick of this book, but I wanted to educate myself about him since I only knew what I had heard on the news in the 60s, so I read on.
In the next phase of his life, he was imprisoned for committing robberies. The best thing he did in prison was read for they had a lot of good books, according to him. It was also in prison where he became a convert of the Nation of Islam--a black Muslim group that had its beginnings in America.
The Nation of Islam had taught him that the white man was the "blue-eyed devil," and then he kept repeating, throughout the book, all of the sins of the white people had committed; he painted with a large brush. Much of it was true, but I thought of the book "Mein Kampf" and its ugliness. I thought of Donald Trump. I thought of quitting this book.
Then he began talking about how brainwashed the black men are due to the white man's teachings, yet he doesn't seem to realize thatthis form of the Muslim religion was also brainwashing him, giving him half truths.
The last three chapters took a turn for the better. Malcolm X went to Mecca, and when he returned he was a changed man for he had been told that the Nation of Islam didn't teach the true Muslim faith, for the true Muslim faith loved all races.
When he was in Makkah, he wrote a letter to his loyal assistants in Harlem:
"Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors...
There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But 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 non-white.
America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white - but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color.
You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. 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.
During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept 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 the words and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana."
"We were truly all the same (brothers) - because their belief in one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their behavior, and the white from their attitude.
I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man - and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their 'differences' in color.
With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called 'Christian' white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster - the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.
Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have greater spiritual insights into what is happening in America between black and white. The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities - he is only reacting to four hundred years of the conscious racism of the American whites. But as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the walls and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth - the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to.
Never have I been so highly honored. Never have I been made to feel more humble and unworthy. Who would believe the blessings that have been heaped upon an American Negro? A few nights ago, a man who would be called in America a white man, a United Nations diplomat, an ambassador, a companion of kings, gave me his hotel suite, his bed. Never would I have even thought of dreaming that I would ever be a recipient of such honors - honors that in America would be bestowed upon a King - not a Negro.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the Worlds.
Sincerely,
Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X)"
He was murdered shortly after announcing his new way of thinking, the love he felt for all. It is thought that the Nation of Islam had him killed, that it was ordered by Farrakhan. That is a sad turn of events. I would have loved to have known how things would have changed for him. What would his speeches have been like?
As for myself, I would like there a hate speech law passed in the U.S. because, to me, free speech doesn't really include hate speech. I say this because of how this election year is going, because of Donald Trump's hate speech, but I thought it even before then. Canada has a hate speech law. They are ahead of us there.
Note: For those who have complained that their book didn't have an epilogue, this kindle book does.
May 15, 2022
As much as I thought I knew about Malcom X. I learned SO much more. A must read forsure. Such an extraordinary man. I think this might be one of my favorite books. So powerful. Such an important person that is apart of our history. A masterpiece. 🤌🏽
April 30, 2021
The Autobiography of Malcolm X is a book I’ve had on my TBR list for too long — I read this over the month of April, slowly taking it in. It’s thorough and offers a lot to think about. This is Malcolm’s autobiography as told to author Alex Haley. The last 50ish pages are direct from Alex, describing his experience working with Malcolm and his observations of who he really was as a person based on the time they spent together.
I enjoyed learning more about Malcolm X — He details his childhood, his rise to adulthood, seeing life beyond Michigan in Boston and New York, his time in prison, his conversion to Islam, and his activism. He was married and the father of several daughters. His trip to Mecca changed his life and he was also an avid reader and lifelong learner.
”So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.”
”I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive. I certainly wasn’t seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students. My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America. Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was, “What’s your alma mater?” I told him, “Books.” You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I’m not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man.”
While I knew little about him prior to reading this book, I believe it authentically captures who Malcolm X was, someone wise beyond his time. Highly recommend.
I enjoyed learning more about Malcolm X — He details his childhood, his rise to adulthood, seeing life beyond Michigan in Boston and New York, his time in prison, his conversion to Islam, and his activism. He was married and the father of several daughters. His trip to Mecca changed his life and he was also an avid reader and lifelong learner.
”So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.”
”I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive. I certainly wasn’t seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students. My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America. Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was, “What’s your alma mater?” I told him, “Books.” You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I’m not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man.”
While I knew little about him prior to reading this book, I believe it authentically captures who Malcolm X was, someone wise beyond his time. Highly recommend.
June 18, 2014
مالكوم إكس أو الحاج مالك الشباز -رحمه الله
مالكوم أمريكي أفريقي عاصر فترة من أهم فترات التمييز العنصري ضد السود في الوﻻيات المتحدة إبان فترة الخمسينيات
حياته و سيرته حكاية تروي و تدرس .. مر بمنعطفات عجيبة في حياته
في طفولته .. تم قتل والده على يد مجموعة من العنصريين البيض .. و والدته تم إيداعها مستشفى الأمراض العقلية بقرار ظالم، و تم إيداع مالكوم في دار للرعاية!
في بداية شبابه فعل ما ﻻ يخطر على بال .. خمر و قمار و مخدرات و قوادة و السرقة و السطو المسلح و غيرها ... و طبعا النتيجة كانت دخوله السجن لمدة 12 سنة!
السجن كان بداية التغيير لمالكوم لسببين رئيسين هو بنفسه ذكرهم: 1- إسﻻمه 2 - القراءة!
خرج مالكوم من السجن لتبدأ مرحلة جديدة في حياته.. أهم ما فيها هو دفاعه عن حقوق السود في أمريكا بشجاعة و بسالة منقطعة النظير ..لكن ذلك كان من خﻻل جماعة اسمها " أمة الإسلام": الجماعة دي هي اللي عرف من خﻻلها كلمة " إسلام" .. الجماعة دي كانت بتقول إن الإسلام هو دين السود فقط! و إن فيه إله بشري ظهر و اسمه" فاراد"! و أرسل نبي اسمه " إليجا محمد"!!
عاش مالكوم فترة مع جماعة أمة الإسلام بمفهوم أن الإسلام هو دين السود!! و أن البيض هم الشيطان! و ظهر نجمه في اﻷوساط الأمريكية كمدافع قوي عن قضايا السود ..
يشاء ربنا الرحيم بعباده أن تنكشف لمالكوم حقيقة النبي البشري المزعوم، لكن صاحب ذلك صدمة رهيبة لمالكوم .. فرج الله عنه بأن من عليه بزيارة مكة و بيته الحرام!
في مكة اتضحت الصورة الحقيقية لمالكوم عن معنى الإسلام .. تغيرت بعدها بعض من آرائه بحاصة فيما يتعلق بشيطنة كل البيض و معنى الإسلام الحقيقي، و بالطبع سبب ذلك له صدام مع جماعة أمة الإسلام .. و صار مهدد بالقتل من قبل العنصريين البيض و أيضا من جماعة أمة الإسلام .. لكن ذلك لم يثنيه عن الدفاع عن حقوق السود و محاولة نشر الإسﻻم الحقيقي في أمريكا!
-----
كان لمالكوم آراء مشهورة فيما يتعلق بحق الدفاع عن النفس .. و من مقوﻻته المشهورة:
-" لا تتراجع القوة أبدًا خطوةً إلى الخلف إلا عندما تواجه قوةً أكبر منها"
-"أنا ﻻ أد��فع عن العنف .. لكن أيضا لست ضد العنف حين يكون دفاعاً عن النفس، و ﻻ أسميه عنفاً بل ذكاءً"
-"إذا لم تكن مستعدا للموت من أجلها .. فاحذف كلمة الحرية من قاموسك"
-"إني أعتقد بدين يؤمن بالحرية .. و لو كان علي أن أعتنق دينا ﻻ يمكنني من الدفاع عن شعبي فليذهب خذا الدين إلى الجحيم"
-" إنه لمن الإجرام أﻻ تعلم شخصا الدفاع عن نفسه فيما هو الضحية الدائمة للهجمات الوحشية"
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لم يكن لهذه الروح الثائرة أن تعيش طويﻻ في هذه الدنيا -كما هو الحال غالبا- .. تم اغتيال مالكوم و هو في عمر الأربعين في أحد مؤتمراته واقفا ب 16 رصاصة!
ليلاقي ربه شهيدا -نحسبه كذلك- بعد حياة مليئة بالثورة و الصمود و الكفاح!
رحم الله سيد قطب حين قال:
إن كلماتنا ستبقى ميتةً لا حراك فيها هامدةً أعراساً من الشموع ، فإذا
متنا من أجلها انتفضت و عاشت بين الأحياء ، كل كلمة قد عاشت كانت قد اقتاتت قلب إنسان حي فعاشت بين الأحياء ، و الأحياء لا يتبنون الأموات! .. رحم الله الحاج مالك الشباز
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بعد شهر واحد من اغتيال مالكوم إكس أقر الرئيس الأمريكي جونسون مرسوماً قانونياً ينص على حقوق التصويت للسود وأنهى الاستخدام الرسمي لكلمة نجرو - كلمة إنكليزية تعني الزنجي وتعتبر إهانة في الغالب - التي كانت تطلق على السود في أمريكا.
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سؤال الحلقة ^_^: "سلميتنا أقوى من الرصاص" ؟ .. أم .. "لا تتراجع القوة أبدًا خطوةً إلى الخلف إلا عندما تواجه قوةً أكبر منها" ؟
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الكلام اللي فوق ملخص سريع جدا جدا .. المتعة ابحقيقية في قراءة سيرته و تتبع الفيديوهات الوثائقية عن حياته
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May 21, 2015
يجب أن نتعلم من الأطفال عدم الخجل من الفشل و أن نقوم و نعيد الكرة . إن معظم الكبار يرزحون تحت الخوف و الحذر و يركنون إلى الأمان و لذلك تجدهم مجفلين و متصلبين و خائفين و لذلك يفشل أكثرهم
***
لقد غيرت القراءة مجرى حياتي تغييرا جذريا و لم أكن أهدف من ورائها إلى كسب أية شهادات لتحسين مركزي و إنما كنت أريد أن أحيا فكريا
***
نعم كتبت رسالة من مكة تريدون الآن أن تعرفوا ان كنت قد قلت فيها إنني اقبل البيض كإخوة ؟ و أنا أجيب بأن ما رأيته في أرض الإسلام و شعرت به و كتبته في تلك الرسالة قد وسع دائرة تفكيري و أنني وجدت عندي مشاعر أخوة و حبا أخويا اتجاه مسلمين بيض لم يكونوا يعيرون انتباها لجنس أي مسلم آخر أو لونه .
لقد أوسع الحج نطاق تفكيري و فتح بصيرتي فرأيت في اسبوعين ما لم أره في تسع و ثلاثين سنة ، رأيت كل الأجناس و الألوان من البيض ذوي العيون الزرق حتى الأفارقة ذوي الجلود السوداء و قد ألفت بين قلوبهم الوحدة والأخوة الحقيقية فأصبحوا يعيشون و كأنهم ذات واحدة في كنف الله الواحد . لم أر بينهم لا دعاة عنصرية و لا ليبراليين ، و لغتهم على كل حال لا تتسع لمثل هذه المصطلحات .
نعم كنت أدين البيض كلهم بشدة و لكنني اكتشفت الآن أن هناك بيضا قادرين على أن يكنوا للإنسان الأسود مشاعر أخوة صادقة . و لقد فتح الإسلام الصحيح عيني على أن إدانة كل البيض كإدانة البيض للسود ،شئ خطأ.
نعم اقتنعت بأن هناك بيضا يودون بإخلاص معالجة العنصرية الزاحفة لتخريب هذه البلاد . و قد غير موقفي ما رأيته و عشته في البقاع المقدسة من أخوة لم تقتصر علي وحدي، و لكنها شملت كل من كانوا هناك على إختلاف جنسياتهم و ألوانهم
***
لو كان عندي الوقت لتعلمت العاميات الإفريقية و اللغة الصينية التي أعتقد أنها ستصبح أقوى لغة سياسية في المستقبل . و قد بدأت فعلا في تعلم اللغة العربية التي أعتقد أنها ستصبح أقوى لغة روحانية في المستقبل . لو كان عندي الوقت لدرست لمجرد أن الدراسة ستمنحني الشعور بالسعادة و لصنفت المعارف و تصديت لها لأنني أهتم بكل شئ
***
نعم كنت أحب دوري الذي قالوا عنه انه (ديماجوجي) و كنت أعرف أن المجتمعات تقتل أحيانا من يعملون على إحلال التغيير فيها و إذا مت و كنت قد سلطت بعض الضوء على حقيقة هامة من شأنها أن تستأصل السرطان العنصري الخبيث من جسد أمريكا فالفضل كله يرجع الى الله ، و أما الأخطاء فهي لي
.....
ذلك هو الحج مالك شباز رحمه الله ...، و ذلك ما فعله الإسلام حين ارتقى به من أوحال العنصرية الى مدارج الإنسانية ...
اثباتا لشمولية و انسانية منهجه ..
فـ#الإسلام_و_الإنسانية_وجهان_لعملة_واحدة
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طبعا اللي كنت اعرفه عن مالكوم اكس او الحاج مالك شيباز ، كان عنوان رئيسي او اتنين ، خلاصتهم انه داعية اسلامي .. عصامي .. امريكي .. اسود ، دعى للإسلام ، و للمساواة مابين السود و البيض في امريكا اقتداء بالنموذج الإسلامي ، و ان متطرفين امريكان قتلوه بسبب دا
و بس #
دلوقتي اصبحت صورته في ذهني مختلطة ، لا هي صورة داعية 100% ، و لا مناضل 100% ، قد تكون صورة لداعية ضل طريقه ، او لمناضل ضل طريقه ! ، ساعد في تشويشها بعض الشئ ، تلك الظروف الاستثنائية اللي تمت كتابة المذكرات خلالها ، و اللي أخبرنا بها اليكس هاليي في
(الخاتمة)
و ان كانت في المجمل صورة لإنسان بيبحث عن الحرية و الحق و العدل و الجمال
:)
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كمان خلفية الحكاية ...
(أمة الإسلام)
(إلايجا محمد)
!
محمد علي كلاي وحقيقة إسلامه اللي وصلت لنا غلط :))))
...
كل المواضيع دي اتفاجأت بيها هنا
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في البداية وجدت أن ما أقرأه هو سيرة ذاتية لشخص متصالح مع ذاته و بيتكلم بموضوعية ، بيتكلم من خلالها ايضا عن فترة مهمة في تاريخ أمريكا .. و عن مشاكل السود الإجتماعية و الإقتصادية في تلك الفترة (حسيت في هذا الجزء اني في فيلم من افلام هوليوود اللي بيتم تصنيعها حديثا عن السود و مشاكلهم في الفترة دي ! ، او من اللى اتعرضّت لتاريخ مزيكا البلوز و روادها من السود في الفترة دي بالذات ايضا ، خصوصا مع حكاياته الكتيرة عن المزيكا و الفرق الموسيقية و صداقته بالفنانين و تناوله للجو دا عموما في سرده ، و دا طبعا بالمناسبة معناه ان رؤيته و كتاباته تركت انطباع و تأثير على النوعية دي من الافلام حاليا موش العكس طبعا) و دا كان شئ رائع جدا
،
بعدها و في الفصل العاشر لمّا ابتدى يتطرق لموضوع (أمة الإسلام) و يتكلم عن إلايجا محمد اللي راح لهم امريكا و اللي كانوا بيسموه
(رسول الله)
صدمت و ذهلت من كمية الهذي الديني اللي تم نسبه إلى الإسلام
خصوصا و ان الكتاب من أكثر الكتب تأثيرا و رواجا و شهرة بين ابناء التيار الإسلامي
،،
لمّا تعرض لأسطورة بدء الخليقة بالذات ، التي آمنت بها تلك الجماعة ، و اللي بتقول بإنشقاق الأرض عن القمر ، اللي خلّفه وجود كائنات بشرية سوداء ، هي اللي بنت مكة المكرمة ..
:)
I felt like
انهم يدعون الى دين جديد يا ابن ابي حنظلة
:)))
و وقفت عندها كتير حقيقي .. لأني كنت اعرف عن رحلة الحج مالك شباز إلى مكة و مدى تأثيرها عليه في الجانب الروحاني ، فتخيلت انه لو فعلا فيما هو قادم أكد على ايمانه بتلك الأسطورة .. إني وقتها هانظر لرحلته الى مكة (و اللي كنت هافصّلها تفصيل روحي تاني خالص ، و كنت متشوقة جدا لقراءة تفاصيلها) ..، هانظرلها وقتها و انا حاطة في اعتبارى انه مؤمن بالأسطورة اللي بتقول ان الرجل الأسود هو اللي بنى مكة و بالتالي كان دا هينتقص من روحانية رحلته في نظرى و هيديلها بعد تاني ماكنتش حابه اني اتصوره
،
خصوصا بعد ما اخدت بالي كمان من أصل اختياره للقبه الجديد (شباز) بعد الاسلام ، و اللي واضح انه اقتبسه من نفس الاسطورة الماضية و اللي بتقول
(نقلا عن الكتاب) :
عندما انشق الأرض عن القمر كانت الكائنات البشرية فيها سوداء ، و هذه الكائنات هي التي بنت مكة المكرمة . و كان يوجد بينها أربعة و عشرون عالما اعتزلهم احدهم و أسس قبيلة قوية تسمى قبيلة (شباز) هي التي ينتمي زنوج أمريكا اليها
و لكني لاحظت تدوينه كل ذلك بصيغة الماضي ، مما أعطاني انطباع بأن ايمانه بتلك الأسطورة هو من (الماضي) ، و ان هناك ما لم يتكشف لي بعد ،دا غير اننا بنتكلم عن الاربعينيات من القرن الماضي و في امريكا ! ، هنا في مصر مثلا و اللي هي أحد معاقل الإسلام و بلد الأزهر ما زلنا بنعاني في سينا و مطروح و الصعيد من الآثار اللي تركها ادعياء التصوف من فتن و خزعبلات ..، فأكيد لازم ناخد دا في اعتبارنا على أي حال
و ايضا ناخد في اعتبارنا ان تلك التجربة اثبتت ان مجرد استدعاء و استلهام التجربة الإسلامية (حتى مع تحريفها)هو استدعاء لقيم النبل و الكرامة و العدالة
...
.. فإنتظرت و نويت أن أستطيع معه صبرا
:) ..
خصوصا و اني كنت مقدرة و محترمة جدا معجزة خروجه من
(الحضيض)
اللي كان عليه ، أي كان المؤثر اللي زكاها ، و حبذا و إنه الإسلام
*****
بعدين عرفت ان رحلته لمكة كانت بعد خلافه مع إلايجا محمد و محاولته الشخصية لمعرفة الحقيقة و البحث عنها بالعودة الى منابع هذا الدين ، و ان تلك الأسطورة لم يكن لها أي علاقة او تأثير في رغبته بالحج ابدا ، كمان تخيلت ان اختياره لإسم (شباز) بعد ما صححوا له في مكة فكرته عن قصة بدء الخليقة في العقيدة الإسلامية ، و ايمانه بصحيحها ، كان رمزي تأكيدا على تضامنه مع القضية السوداء ، و التي كان واحد من أهم رموزها
و ان كان بخصوص تأخر رحلته و بحثه عن حقيقة هذا الدين ، لا أجد أنسب مما ذكره له الملك فيصل (رحمهما الله) حين قابله في مكة على حسب ما ورد في الكتاب :
على أن هناك عددا كبيرا من المنشورات عن الإسلام بالإنجليزية و لذا فإن التعلل بعدم المعرفة ليس عذرا كما أنه لا ينبغي للمسلم الحق أن يسمح لغيره بتضليله !
خصوصا و ان مسلمين من الشرق و من الجزيرة العربية واجهوه و ناظروه في عدد من ندواته عن حقيقة الإسلام ايامها ايضا ، لكنه تملص منهم في عز حماسه و ايمانه بـ إلايجا محمد و دعوته ..، لكن أظن انها كانت بداية ما اعتمل في قلبه من شك حول دعوة إلايجا محمد على أي حال ، كمان المسلمين ايامها ماكانوش ناشطين في الدعوة كما الآن ، و هو ما اشار له الحج مالك معتذرا و متعللا في نهاية الفصل العا��ر حين أخبر :
قد قلت لهم عندما زرت مكة أن الخطأ خطأهم لأنهم لايفعلون كل ما يجب للتعريف بالإسلام الحقيقي في الغرب فيتركون الباب مفتوحا أمام المشعوذين و المضللين
*****
اقتباس له عن (لبنان) عجبني ، بيبين مدى وعي و إحاطة هذا الرجل :
ثم خرجت أتمشى فأثار إنتباهي ، بعد الأسابيع التي قضيتها في البقاع المقدسة ، تصنع اللبنانيات و تأنقهن . بعد نساء البقاع المقدسة اللاتي كن في منتهى البساطة و الرقة ، كانت النقلة عنيفة إلى هؤلاء اللبنانيات النصف عربيات النصف فرنسيات اللاتي يدل لباسهن و سلوكهن في الشارع على أنهن أكثر حرية و أكثر جرأة .
كان التأثير الأوروبي واضحا على التراث اللبناني ، و اتضح لي أن القوة و الضعف المعنويين للبلدان يظهران بسرعة على مظهر النساء في تلك البلدان و سلوكهن في الشارع و لا سيما الشابات ، لأن انحطاط الأخلاق و ذهابها ينعكسان على النساء و يأتيان نتيجة سيادة الماديات . راقب النساء في أمريكا و ستفهم ما أعنيه .
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ملكوم إكس/الحاج مالك شباز و مارتن لوثر كينج
يقول أليكس هاليي (من دوّن السيرة الذاتية لمالكوم إكس/الحاج مالك شباز) : ..
و ذات صباح في أواسط صيف 1964 طلبني (ملكوم إكس) هاتفيا و قال إنه سيسافر بعد يومين أو ثلاثة لقضاء بضعة أسابيع في الخارج ثم كتب لي من القاهرة و (الصيف الطويل الحار) الذي تكهن به يصطخب بالأحداث و الإضطرابات الزنجية التي شملت ضواحي فلادلفيا و روشستر و بروكلين و هارليم و مدنا أخرى . عند ذلك أقر اجتماع للمثقفين الزنوج حقيقة مفادها أن الدكتور مارتن لوثر كينج يضمن ولاء الطبقة الزنجية المتوسطة ، و أن ولاء الطبقة الزنجية الدنيا لا يضمنه إلا ملكوم إكس ، و زادت الجريدة قائلة : (إن الزنوج يحترمون هذين الرجلين لأنهم يثقون في نزاهتهما و يعرفون أنهما لن يخوناهم ابدا . إن ملكوم إكس غير قابل للفساد و الزنوج يعرفون ذلك و يحترمونه على أساسه . و هم يعرفون كذلك أنه ينتمي إلى طبقتهم الدنيا و يعتبرونه منهم و ‘إليهم . إن ملكوم إكس سيقوم بدور عظيم بعدما انتقل الصراع العنصري إلى مدن الشمال .. و إذا كان الدكتور كينج يظن أنه ضحى بعشر سنوات من الزعامة المتألقة فسوف يكون عليه أن يغير رأيه لأنه لم يعد يستطيع أن يتحرك الآن إلا في اتجاه واحد و هو الإتجاه نحو ملكوم إكس) . و قصصت تلك المقالة و بعثت بها إلى ملكوم إكس في القاهرة ...
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و في موضع آخر من الكتاب ينقل أليكس هاليي على لسان ملكوم إكس ايضا ، ما قاله الأخير بمناسبة إنتخاب أخو الأول عضوا في مجلس الشيوخ بكونغريس ولاية كانساس :
قل لأخيك ألا ينسانا . قل له إن عليه و على أمثاله الزنوج المعتدلين الذين وصلوا أن يتذكروا دائما أننا نحن المتطرفين من مهد لهم الطريق !
*****
أليكس هاليي:
عندما وقّع ملكوم إكس على عقد هذا الكتاب حدق في و قال : (أريدك أن تكون كاتبا لا مترجما) . و قد حاولت أن أكتب حياته بتجرد . كان شعلة من نار و لذلك مازلت لا أستطيع أن أتصور أنه أصبح جثة
فأشعر كأنه ...
((مر إلى فصل موالي سيكتبه المؤرخون)) ...
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