After recently seeing the film "Malcolm X" by Spike Lee for a second time I was very moved. It brought back past ideas and thoughts that I've had on the subject of Race and Racism in America for a long time. And it struck me in a powerful way, how much I actually agreed with much of what Malcolm was saying especially before he was killed.
The first thing that came to me was how courageous he was not only to stand up to the power of the ruling class especially from the racial vantage point but to stand up to himself and his own ignorance. It takes a very brave man to admit to himself that the life he's been leading is false and that his philosophy of life may be twisted around. And I don't just mean the stuff that happened with the Nation of Islam and the Elijah Muhammad necessarily. It goes back to being able to stand up in prison and stand up against your own conditioning and being compelled and then to prevail in your search for self truth. And from self truth comes universal truth ask any poet.
What came across to me from the movie and later when I did some research on the web and listened to quite a few speeches and from having thought about the problem of Race and Racism in America since the time when I was about four or five and my father put me on his shoulders and pointing over the backyard fence to a huge blaze off in the distance towards Detroit and saying "Look the Niggers are burning the City" was Malcolm's message of the Power (and the absolute necessity) of Self-knowledge and Self reliance for communal and individual survival.
If for one moment you could suspend the idea of race and black nationalism from Malcolm's sermons(cause they were sermons in the best sense of that term) and not diminish their seriousness or poignancy you could hear one voice loud and clear "Self-Determination".
Self-Determination, put another way by a very esteemed man Abraham Maslow, Self-Actualization,realizing your true self. And isn't that what the "American Dream" is all about, not necessarily the supposed common denominator dream of career,property,wife and children(and not necessarily in that order) which can be good rich fulfilling experiences but just the idea that anybody can find self-actualization(the unfolding of their true natures whomever they maybe) or self-determination(the want and will to be someone other than who they are now) if they are willing to sacrifice to get it.
Give up your self to gain your self, now that goes back to Jesus and to Buddha and even to Socrates, baby!
Malcolm X inspired me.Malcolm X inspired me because I stopped seeing him as a great Afro-American but instead as Malcolm X a great American in the tradition of self reliance and self determination. Is it possible for a white man to be inspired by Malcolm X ? I think it is. I hope it is.
Do we despise inspiration or knowledge if it comes from some place other than our own head?
Socrates was a Greek school teacher who liked boys.
Buddha was a wealthy prince from India who left his wife and family.
Jesus was a common Jew who died a criminal.
Martin Luther was a pissed off German with a long list of complaints.
These guys all had serious attitude problems according to the authorities of the day.
And can't we be proud that someone of that caliber came from America and his name was Malcolm X. I am.
If you learned that the Arabs were the first humans who discovered the concept of zero and used it, would you stop using it?
Before you answer remember without zero there can be no computers.
