Malcolm X and Black Women: Struggling For Closure

EXCERPT FROM CLUTCH MAGAZINE.COM ~ Known at his death primarily to the laity as a fastball (fiery) elocutionist with Black Nationalist intentions, Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925) has come to be favored in recent years as a lover of justice and a martyr for human rights. From Chuck D to Spike Lee to the Joe on the street, the rejuvenation of Malcolm as a Black history deity has been propelled to the head of Black freedom fighter lore. In this regard, it turns out that “demagogue” and “race-baiter” were only footnotes in Malcolm’s legacy.Much is known about his peripatetic and felonious past, his recovery in the penitentiary, his autodidactic ways, his conversion to Islam under Elijah Muhammad, and his subsequent re-conversion from a separatist exclusionary to an ecumenical inclusive fighter for human rights. He discovered that the fight for black rights is indeed a human rights fight as well. But perhaps the most understated matter of Malcolm’s legacy was his renunciation of his entrenched sexist attitudes toward women.Sexist attitudes were already pervasive in this era (feminist movement didn’t come until the seventies), but the Nation of Islam was no exception. Despite its claim of deviation from mainstream Christianity practice, the NOI subjugated its women into capes and minimal activity within their sect, with Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm (being the Nation’s most promulgated face) heading the charge. In his book, Message to the Black Man in America, Muhammad wrote that women should be kept off the street because “they are given to evil and sin, while men are noble and given to righteousness.” As to be expected at the time, Malcolm’s notions were not too far behind. CONTINUE READING...