Obama and Malcolm X: Far From Opposites
Recently Al Qaeda's #2, Ayman al-Zawahri declared that Barack Obama was a house negro and was the opposite of black leader Malcolm X. While many have compared Obama to Martin Luther King, not as many people have noted the differences and similarities between Obama and Malcolm X.
Many people may see Malcolm X and Barack Obama as opposites of each other in the sphere of black political figures. While Malcolm pushed for black nationalism, didn't renounce violence, came across as very militant and scared white people, Obama has pushed for an inclusive nation that includes people of all backgrounds, pushed a message of hope and change, and came across as very amiable and acceptable to white people.
However the comparison cannot be as cut and dry as that. Are we comparing the militant Nation of Islam disciple Malcolm X who railed against blue eyed devils or the Malcolm X who split with the Nation of Islam and renounced racism and met with Martin Luther King?
Even if we were to compare the nation of Islam's Malcolm X to Barack Obama it is hard to cast them as opposites. Obviously one of the main differences between the two is the places and eras they grew up in. Malcolm X grew up in a time of segregation, police brutality, lynchings, and Jim Crow laws. These circumstances did a lot to shape his world view.
As someone whose father was killed by the KKK and whose world views were shaped by the NOI, Malcolm had a lot of hostility towards white people and America in general. Barack Obama grew up in the multiracial society of Hawaii and later in equally diverse, Indonesia, where he was minority in more ways than one, being both American and of African blood.
It wasn't until Malcolm X went on a pilgrimage to Mecca that he abandoned the principles of racism upon meeting people of all colors who prayed to the same God as him and saw that they were good and decent people. Barack Obama grew up within that same diversity, with two white grandparents and a white mother who helped raise him, as well as with people from all sorts of backgrounds so he probably came to the realization of the futility of racism earlier in life.
However even the militant Nation of Islam has endorsed Obama. Farrakhan has spoken very kindly of Obama, even referring to him as the Messiah and the hope of the entire world. With the leading figure for black nationalism in America praising the man who is now the President of the country he once demonized, the black nationalism of Malcolm X may have been replaced by inclusion in the greater United States of America. This is not to say that the struggle is over, but that it has taken a different form and philosophy.
Obviously Obama's message of hope, unity and diversity counters against Malcolm X's 'blue eyed devil rhetoric.' However the views that Malcolm X had after leaving the Nation of Islam are more in line with Obama's. Here are some quotes from Malcolm after his epiphany of race in Mecca.
I realized racism isn't just a black and white problem. It's brought bloodbaths to about every nation on earth at one time or another.
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 [Black] Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then -- like all [Black] Muslims -- I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march.
I am not a racist.... In the past I permitted myself to be used...to make sweeping indictments of all white people, the entire white race and these generalizations have caused injuries to some whites who perhaps did not deserve to be hurt. Because of the spiritual enlightenment which I was blessed to receive as a result of my recent pilgrimage to the Holy city of Mecca, I no longer subscribe to sweeping indictments of any one race. I am now striving to live the life of a true...Muslim. I must repeat that I am not a racist nor do I subscribe to the tenants of racism. I can state in all sincerity that I wish nothing but freedom, justice and equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people.
The last lines that Malcolm X said sound like something out of the declaration of independence or a Barack Obama speech. Here Malcolm, like Obama and MLK is tracing his struggle to himself and black people in general to n American struggle, a struggle based on the same principles that America was founded on.
Many people have compared Obama to Martin Luther King. People have compared King to Obama on their similarities but most often compare King and X on their differences. Despite the fact that they employed different tactics and rhetoric, in many ways King and X had the same goals. Here are some things that X had to say regarding King
I'll say nothing against him. At one time the whites in the United States called him a racialist, and extremist, and a Communist. Then the Black Muslims came along and the whites thanked the Lord for Martin Luther King.
Dr. King wants the same thing I want -- freedom!
After leaving the nation of Islam, X decided that he would work with leaders in the civil rights movement but wanted it to become a global human rights issue, rather than a domestic issue. In many ways Obama's struggle for global human rights can be traced to Malcolm's.
Malcolm also was one of the first black leaders to talk about the importance of the black vote, claiming that it was it would take the ballot or the bullet to bring about true change. Malcolm also realized and preached about the importance of the black vote, one of the major factors that got Obama elected.
Malcolm's own family has come out publicly for Obama. Malcolm's daughter Malaak said
Actually, him and Michelle remind me of my parents, and what they have to face with children, and with the climate that we're dealing with politically. She's brilliant. My mother's brilliant. He's brilliant. My father was brilliant. And they're still sticking to the community. So, no, they are not Betty and Malcolm. But they are the present day Betty and Malcolm.
Obama himself has said that he admired Malcolm and even used some of his rhetoric. Obama used the 'hoodwinked and bamboozled phrase' made popular in Spike Lee's epic Malcolm X bio-pic. Spike Lee, one on the biggest proponent's of Malcolm's legacy, has been very enthusiastic of his support for Barack Obama.
Obama would talk about the impact of Malcolm X's Autobiography on his life and identity in his own Autobiography, Dreams From My Father.
Only Malcolm X's autobiography seemed to offer something different. His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me; the blunt poetry of his words, his unadorned insistence on respect, promised a new and uncompromising order, martial in its discipline, forged through sheer force of will. All the other stuff, the talk of blue-eyed devils and apocalypse, was incidental to that program, I decided, religious baggage that Malcolm himself seemed to have safely abandoned toward the end of his life. And yet, even as I imagined myself following Malcolm's call, one line in the book stayed me. He spoke of a wish he'd once had, the wish that the white blood that tan through him, there by an act of violence, might somehow be expunged. I knew that, for Malcolm, that wish would never be incidental. I knew as well that traveling down the road to self-respect my own white blood would never recede into mere abstraction. I was left to wonder what else I would be severing if and when I left my mother and my grandparents at some uncharted border.
Reverend Wright, an important figure in his life can be seen as Malcolm to Obama's Martin. While the media may have put a wedge between the two, it is clear that Obama understands the anger that both Malcolm and Reverend Wright have displayed against America.
Reverend Wright obviously drew a lot of inspiration from Malcolm X. His whole infamous God Damn America speech drew from Malcolm's famous 'chickens coming home to roost' statement after Kennedy's assassination. Reverend Wright is not the opposite of Obama and definitely helped shape Obama's worldview as did Malcolm. After the controversy of Reverend Wright's statements, Obama spoke on the anger that both Reverend Wright and Malcolm X in his More Perfect Union Speech.
The anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
Maybe because Obama grew up vastly different than Revend Wright or Malcolm X he is less cynical about racism and believes that progress can be achieved.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country -- a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.
So in no way is Barack Obama the 'direct opposite' of Malcolm X. Rather the two are complimentary figures. Malcom's anger and militancy allowed white America to be more accepting of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. Malcolm came around before his death to incorporate his idea of Black Nationalism into the Civil Rights movement that set the groundwork for Obama's presidency. Malcolm's struggle developed into a struggle not only for black people but for oppressed people, a struggle that Obama has continued. Remember, like Obama, Malcolm X had his roots as a community organizer.
Here's some final quotes to show the connection between Malcolm X and Obama
Malcolm X Was a Patriot and Died For This Country:
It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That's the only thing that can save this country.
Malcolm X Realized The Factors For Change Before Obama:
Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.
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What's revealing about Obama's election is the nationwide preoccupation with race. The "historic nature" of his campaign, etc. The fact that 4 million people plan to pack Washington D.C. when he is inaugurated, shows just how much more work needs to be done to establish a system of justice, and how far we are from a post-racial society.
Malcolm challenged whites directly on their racism, or their sitting idly by while racism was practiced. The fact is if racism had been opposed more strongly opposed by whites in general, there wouldn't have needed to be as mainly lives lost and people maimed and beaten to within an inch of their lives. There also wouldn't be the gross inequities that you see among non-white people worldwide.
Whites didn't and don't want to be reminded of their undeserved privilege. That's why you often hear things like "I don't think this has to do with race so much as it has to do with ______." You will often see that blank filled in with poverty, or the notion that class somehow shields one from racism.
Surely Obama wouldn't have been subjected to racism throughout his time on the campaign trail if this were the true.
continued from above
Obama's race speech was somewhat bold, and came the closest that I have ever heard him come to telling white people what they don't want to hear. But there are places that even he knows that he can't go, and he knows its not his fault that he can't go there. But just look around you, at the arrangement you see between white and non-white, and ask yourself "Is it mere coincidence that black people are collectively in this kind of shape, and white people are in that kind of shape?"
The truth is Barack Obama has to compensate. Compensate for what you ask? Compensate for the system of White Supremacy.
Casey, great to see you on HuffPo and breaking down topics that I don't see written about anywhere else! It's amazing to see Obama in a position to expand Malcolm's post-nationalist dialogue of criticial thinking on race, but this time with the power of the American system supporting, not condeming, the lead speaker! We have a lot to look forward to with Obama's presidency including your continuing analysis. I only found this because my friends were sending it around as a good read but I'll be reading all your posts now. G&P for life!!! ABM
Casey,
Another great post. This one
about the monumental
El Hajj Malik El Shabazz.
http://en.
They did meet. There's even a picture of it. They seemed pretty jovial together too.
Here's the link. It was a short meeting but they met
http://afr
Thanks. I had been taught otherwise. I appreciate the link!
Actually, Martin Luther King, Junior, never actually met with Malcolm X.
There is a brilliant dialogue, alas fictional, called "The Meeting".
Read it. Then continue with this unobstructed multilogue.
What? So, the picture with the two of them shaking hands was doctored? What? You're kidding, right?
Ah, look, the play "The Meeting" is a fictional account of what might have been discussed "during their meeting". These two men did meet.
Learn your history (better yet GOOGLE your history) so you won't post nonsense about an historical even which DID take place.
I was misinformed. My bad.
A lizard like Al Zawahiri even mentioning Malcolm X's name is disgusting and demeaning to that great activist's name. He should be cruise-missiled for that alone. Malcolm X might have been a radical and hardline, but he never did or would condone killing innocent people.
Good point about the right wing fodder. When I was doing research, most of the google results for Obama and Malcolm X was rightwing blogs claiming that Obama was the bastard son of Malcolm X. I wouldn't have put this up before the election.
Hopefully people will find out more about Malcolm X and the demonization of him will stop. One generations rebel is the next generations patriot.
Since when is Al Zawahiri a right winger?
One more thing: How is Al-Qaeda suddenly a friend to black people? Where were THEY during the Jim Crow years and slavery? They didn't come over here and jihad and terrorize to help black Americans not one time in history so they need to keep our Malcolm's name out of their filthy, hateful mouths.
It reminds me of reading about the propaganda the Vietnamese had strewn all over the jungle telling black American soldiers to "go home", "its not your war", "your country enslaves you", "you should be on our side" and rubbish such as that. Its an insult. This is our America, too. We've been here for several centuries and helped build this culture.
Why do our war foes always have to point out that this is not a country that belongs to black Americans and we have no right to take up arms? Do they know what a frickin insult that is????
It's a classic tactic of any enemy group: exploit dissent and division among your enemies for your own ends.
Every military power or political group does it.
That Al-Qaeda fool is an idiot for talking up Malcolm X and praising him for saying "blue eyed devil" when Malcolm denounced racism at the end of his life and was killed for it...by radical over zealous Muslims like al-Zawarhi (sp?)
Like American neo-cons, Al-Qaeda uses fear and lies to sway the people and are banking on the hope that nobody in the middle east has actually read the Autobiography of Malcolm X or saw Spike Lee's movie.
I was unaware that Harry Belafonte is an American "neo-con". Zawahirir's outrageous insults against Obama are nearly a word-for-word parroting of those that Belafonte made against General Powell. (and as I recall, Sec. Rices, as well)
This should be posted in magazines and in as many blogs as possible. Well stated.
Very, very good essay Casey. Its important that people understand how varied and layered Macolm X's life was, especially after Al Qaeda invoked his name in a racially charged attack on Obama.
I've read THE AUTIBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X three times. It's a truly mesmerizing book. Without a doubt, the best autobiography I've ever read. And while I've learned something new each time, you don't get a chance to really see absorb the ideas and philosophy that accompanied Malcolm as he went from "the militant Nation of Islam disciple Malcolm X who railed against blue eyed devils" to the "Malcolm X who split with the Nation of Islam and renounced racism and met with Martin Luther King".
Obama T' Shaka's book THE POLITICAL LEGACY OF MALCOLM X is probably the best exposition and analysis of Malcolm X's ideas and actions after his seperation with The Nation of Islam. In fact, Clifton Marsh has a great esseay on Malcom X's political legacy in the late Ivan Van Sertima's book GREAT BLACK LEADERS.
So thank you Casey for your great post above...an
lets hope this doesn't turn into crazy right wing fodder...
You may be right. Some people will never get it. I grew up thinking I had to choose between Malcolm and Martin. I realized they both were relevant to what I felt. That is why I believe in President elect Obama, just like Malcolm and Martin, you can feel their belief in their words. Great article.
Excellent essay.
Be brave HuffPo.
One thing not mentioned is the historical legacy of the Motherf###er. The slave master who invaded the slave lodgings with regularity to have his way with his female property. He left a deep scar in the psyche of people like Malcolm, and indeed the vast majority of African Americans who have, somewhere in their bloodline, the legacy of the mofo. Even our own Arianna has noted as much;
http://www
It is also true that vast majority of European Americans who trace their American ancestry back before the Civil War (especially those form the South), have African blood coursing through their veins. If the one-drop rule is to be adhered to, we are ALL ni##ers.
The ultimate question Malcolm must have posed to anybody questioning their non-racial stance is this;
'Can you love the ni###er in you, as much as I now love the mofo in me'?
That, for me, represents the ultimate American destiny...
Thank you for this beautiful commentary on Malcolm X and Obama.
I am an old fan of Malcolm X, as a teenager, watching him change week after week, to become a global thinker in the months before he was assassinated. When I first noticed Obama, what I saw was the pathway that led from one generation to the next, and cried with gratitude for this new generation of leadership that Obama represents.
You realize that his assassination, was due precisely to his becoming a "global thinker"? The same fate was in store for Dr. King who became a "global thinker" in the same vein. As global thinkers, they began to confront American imperialism, America's wars of aggression against dark people the world over, and most significantly, the notions of unity between America's oppressed and the world's oppressed populations.
Study the life and work of Marcus Garvey, the pattern is as old as a certain history.
Good point Nommo.
Marcus Garvey's life is a great read. I also suggest reading the life of 19th century afro-centric writers/activists like Edward Blyden and Alexander Crummel. A really good book on afrocentric thought in black literature and activism is Sterling Stuckey's SLAVE CULTURE. Mr. Stuckey, a college professor, dramatically shatters the notion that white historians can't write movingly and substantively about African-American history. Its a truly great book. When you read it, you'll see how the ideas that Garvey espoused gained traction in the African-American community even before he stepped on U.S. soil.
Fantastic essay!
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