{"id":1276,"date":"2015-03-27T22:37:20","date_gmt":"2015-03-28T02:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1276"},"modified":"2015-03-27T22:39:24","modified_gmt":"2015-03-28T02:39:24","slug":"forgetting-malcolm-x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/03\/forgetting-malcolm-x.html","title":{"rendered":"Forgetting Malcolm X"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year isn\u2019t just the golden anniversary of Selma. It is as well marks the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of the murder of Malcolm X.<\/p>\n

Malcolm X has been mythologized. According to the myth, there are, essentially, two <\/em>Malcolms: the \u201cpre-Mecca\u201d Malcolm and the \u201cpost-Mecca\u201d Malcolm X. The former, a national minister for Elijah Muhammad\u2019s Nation of Islam, preached black separatism. The latter, in glaring contrast, rejected the Nation and promoted interracial unity.<\/p>\n

That this is revisionism at its best (or worst) is gotten easily enough from the inconvenient facts that it omits:<\/p>\n

(1)Malcolm X taught that the white race<\/em> was the creation <\/em>of an evil black scientist named Yacub.<\/p>\n

(2)Malcolm as well taught that history would culminate in a racial Armageddon in which God would enable blacks to bring about the extermination of the white race. And how would this occur? According to Malcolm X biographer Bruce Perry, Malcolm, following Elijah Muhammad, informed his congregants of \u201cthe mother ship,\u201d a \u201cwheel-shaped flying saucer that contained hundreds of \u2018baby planes.\u2019 Each baby plane carried bombs filled with two tons of a powerful explosive. Piloting the planes, he said, were men who had been trained to fly since the age of six\u2014men who had never smiled.\u201d<\/p>\n

(3) In 1962 a French airliner crashed and 121 whites from Georgia were killed. Malcolm\u2019s response seems not to have made it into any of the collections of his quotations: \u201cI should like to announce a very beautiful thing that has happened. I got a wire from God today. He really answered our prayers over in France\u2026We will continue to pray, and we hope that every day another plane falls out of the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n

(4)Whites, Malcolm taught, were \u201cdevils.\u201d But it wasn\u2019t just whites for whom he reserved his venom. His black rivals he showered with degrading insults as well. Take, for example, Malcolm\u2019s public comments on Martin Luther King, Jr.<\/p>\n

King, Malcolm said, was \u201ca chump, not a champ.\u201d King was \u201ca little black mouse sitting on top of a big white elephant\u201d [the United States]. When King received the Nobel Peace Prize, Malcolm publicly remarked: \u201cHe got the Peace Prize; we got the problem.\u201d Malcolm added: \u201cI don\u2019t want the white man giving me medals.\u201d King, he said, \u201cis the best thing that ever happened to white folks. For <\/em>white folks! As long as anybody can keep Negroes nonviolent, it helps white folks.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the way, Malcolm X made these remarks after <\/em>his split with the Nation of Islam.<\/p>\n

(5)On January 28, 1961, Malcolm met with the Ku Klux Klan in Atlanta, Georgia. On behalf of the Nation of Islam, he sought to elicit help from the Klan in obtaining land in the South that could be used as an independent nation for black Americans. According to Bruce Perry, Malcolm blamed Jews for hijacking the civil rights movement by promoting integration, and he expressed his dismay to the Klansmen that they hadn\u2019t yet killed King.<\/p>\n

(6) Booker T. Washington, Malcolm said, was a \u201cwhite man\u2019s nigger,\u201d Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis were \u201cstooges\u201d for \u201cthe white man,\u201d and the NAACP was a \u201cblack body with a white head.\u201d In fact, as far as Malcolm was concerned, every black integrationist was either a \u201cQuisling\u201d or an \u201cUncle Tom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malcolm X did not <\/em>split with the Nation of Islam; the Nation split with Malcolm.<\/p>\n

Against Elijah Muhammad\u2019s orders to refrain from commenting on the assassination of JKF, Malcolm remarked to the media that Kennedy\u2019s murder was a case of \u201cthe chickens coming home to roost\u201d and that this made him \u201cglad.\u201d Livid, Muhammad reacted, and Malcolm was in effect shown the door.<\/p>\n

But this wasn\u2019t the end of it: Malcolm threw himself at \u201cthe Messenger\u2019s\u201d mercy by beseeching him, on multiple occasions, to reinstate him\u2014all to no avail.<\/p>\n

It was then <\/em>that Malcolm retaliated by publically charging his former mentor with having fathered at least eight illegitimate children with several of Muhammad\u2019s young assistants.<\/p>\n

And it was then that the call for Malcolm\u2019s head was issued.<\/p>\n

In desperate need of a new public relations image, Malcolm made his trek to Mecca where, after a mere eleven days, he returned to the states a new man, a champion of the brotherhood of all men.<\/p>\n

Sure.<\/p>\n

Malcolm founded a new organization, the Organization for African American Unity (OAAU). Its newspaper continued to feature the same incendiary racial rhetoric\u2014e.g. headlines like \u201cRacist America\u201d\u2014for which Malcolm was known, and Malcolm himself pledged to haul the United States government before the United Nations for its violation of the \u201chuman rights\u201d of its black citizens.<\/p>\n

However, on February 21, 1965, while about to address a crowd at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, thugs from the organization to which Malcolm committed his adult life\u2014thugs whose frame of mind he did as much as anyone to shape\u2014filled him with bullets. Such was the determination of his fellow black Muslims\u2014not <\/em>the United States government\u2014to avenge \u201cthe Honorable\u201d Elijah Muhammad that even the knowledge that Malcolm\u2019s pregnant wife and four little daughters were in attendance didn\u2019t suffice to deter them.<\/p>\n

These are just some of the ugly details that don\u2019t make the cut when it comes to the mythology surrounding Malcolm X.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year isn\u2019t just the golden anniversary of Selma. It is as well marks the 50th anniversary of the murder of Malcolm X. Malcolm X has been mythologized. According to the myth, there are, essentially, two Malcolms: the \u201cpre-Mecca\u201d Malcolm and the \u201cpost-Mecca\u201d Malcolm X. The former, a national minister for Elijah Muhammad\u2019s Nation of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nForgetting Malcolm X<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/03\/forgetting-malcolm-x.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Forgetting Malcolm X\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This year isn\u2019t just the golden anniversary of Selma. It is as well marks the 50th anniversary of the murder of Malcolm X. Malcolm X has been mythologized. According to the myth, there are, essentially, two Malcolms: the \u201cpre-Mecca\u201d Malcolm and the \u201cpost-Mecca\u201d Malcolm X. The former, a national minister for Elijah Muhammad\u2019s Nation of…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/03\/forgetting-malcolm-x.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-28T02:37:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-28T02:39:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Forgetting Malcolm X","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/03\/forgetting-malcolm-x.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Forgetting Malcolm X","og_description":"This year isn\u2019t just the golden anniversary of Selma. It is as well marks the 50th anniversary of the murder of Malcolm X. Malcolm X has been mythologized. According to the myth, there are, essentially, two Malcolms: the \u201cpre-Mecca\u201d Malcolm and the \u201cpost-Mecca\u201d Malcolm X. The former, a national minister for Elijah Muhammad\u2019s Nation of…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/03\/forgetting-malcolm-x.html","og_site_name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","article_published_time":"2015-03-28T02:37:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-28T02:39:24+00:00","author":"Jack Kerwick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/03\/forgetting-malcolm-x.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/03\/forgetting-malcolm-x.html","name":"Forgetting Malcolm X","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-03-28T02:37:20+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-28T02:39:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/03\/forgetting-malcolm-x.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/03\/forgetting-malcolm-x.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/03\/forgetting-malcolm-x.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Forgetting Malcolm X"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/","name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jack Kerwick","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5","name":"Jack Kerwick","description":"I have a Ph.D. in philosophy from Temple University, a master's degree in philosophy from Baylor University, and a bachelor's degree in philosophy and religious studies from Wingate University. I teach philosophy at several colleges in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jackkerwick.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/author\/jkerwick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1277,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions\/1277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}