This article was first published on Crasstalk last year in honor of Malcolm X’s birthday.
Today would have been the 86th birthday of Malcolm X, had he not been gunned down at the age of 39 at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan while delivering a speech to the Organization for African-American Unity. In an editorial following his death, the New York Times called his worldview “distorted and dark,” his intentions based on a “ruthless and fanatical belief in violence.” Such opinions on Malcolm X were not uncommon; to many he was a demagogue, a troublemaker, the dangerous antithesis of Martin Luther King Jr.
While these charges are still thrown about today, you probably are not likely to hear or see this: “We respect anyone who respects us.” Malcolm X did talk about violence, often and at length. What seems to often be lost in reference to Malcolm’s beliefs is that he emphasized self-defensive or responsive violence, violence as the last resort after being denied using the more politically and socially palatable nonviolent methods of King and his followers. In a country where African-Americans were still subject to lynching in many places, still denied voting rights, still pushed into crowded and unsafe housing, still denied adequate education, still denied fair treatment before the law, still denied equality of opportunity to secure jobs, still subject to other violent acts in the north and south alike without justice done to the perpetrators––was calling for violence against that system that radical?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRSgUTWffMQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7f5NTLgtEA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3WMfAmg3Bo
Videos thanks to YouTube user Antihostile
Full interview at UC Berkeley
Photo: Wikipedia
