Malcolm X Didn’t Hate White People, He Loved Black People

When Malcolm X called white people devils, he was not talking about any one specific person. He was commenting on the evil that had been done to his people by members of America’s dominant race. Malcolm Little, the man he was before his religious and cultural awakening, had experienced all manner of devilry at the hands of people with white skin. Two of his childhood homes were burned to the ground by white supremacist groups, and he believed his father, who was a proud Garveyite and Baptist preacher, was killed by white racists (Malcolm X, 1964).

So, I think it is fair to say that Malcolm X had his reasons for saying what he said. Those remarks aside, Malcolm was solely concerned with the plight of the “22 million so called Negroes in America.” As a resident of Harlem in the 1940s, he had experienced life in an impoverished community, and he and the other residents were mistreated on a regular basis. Slum lords charged high rent for run down tenements, and merchants charged high prices for inferior goods and services.

To Malcolm, the worst part about living in Harlem was that, even though black people were in the majority, they had no control over their circumstances. They were at the mercy of the property owners and the business people. Under this reality, Malcolm knew that Black people needed a new way of doing things. So, he preached a new philosophy – the economic and political philosophy of Black Nationalism.

According to Malcolm X “The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that if you and I are going to live in a Black community – and that’s where we’re going to live, cause as soon as you move …out of the Black community into their community, it’s mixed for a period of time, but they’re gone and you’re right there all by yourself again – we must understand the politics of our community and we must know what politics is supposed to produce.”

Malcolm X stated that “the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community [because] until we become politically mature we will always be mislead, lead astray, or deceived or maneuvered into supporting someone politically who doesn’t have the good of our community at heart.”

In addition to controlling politics in the black community, Malcolm also believed that black people should control black money. Malcolm said “The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism means that we should own and operate and control the economy of our community. You can’t open up a black store in a white community. White men won’t even patronize you. And he’s not wrong. He’s got sense enough to look out for himself. You the one who don’t have sense enough to look out for yourself.” He wanted black people to open up and shop in black owned stores because that would keep our money in our community.

He analyzed the problem saying: “When you spend your dollar out of the community in which you live, the community in which you spend your money becomes richer and richer; the community out of which you take your money becomes poorer and poorer. And because these Negroes, who have been mislead [and] misguided, are breaking their necks to take their money and spend it with The Man, The Man is becoming richer and richer, and you’re becoming poorer and poorer. And then what happens? The community in which you live becomes a slum. It becomes a ghetto. The conditions become run down. And then you have the audacity to complain about poor housing in a run-down community. Why you run it down yourself when you take your dollar out.”

Malcolm did not mince words or beat around the bush. He told black people what they needed to know and hoped they would heed his word. While trying to change the black community, Malcolm had no time to worry about people of other races. He spent his time trying to teach black people to love themselves and to invest in their communities. Teaching black people to love themselves under no circumstances translates into teaching them to hate white people.

Reference

Malcolm X. Ballot or the Bullet. Speech. Delivered 12 April 1964.

X, Malcolm & Haley, A. (1964). The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.

A History Lesson: Men of the Harlem Renaissance

When slavery ended, Jim Crow was king in the South. The need to be free from oppression prompted African Americans to leave en masse in what would come to be called The Great Migration. Many of those fleeing the South found themselves in the all black metropolis known as Harlem, New York. What they found there, between the end of World War I (1914-1918) and the mid 1930s, was a cultural and artistic revolution like nothing the world had ever seen. African American writers, actors, and musicians were showing the world that their works were just as good if not better than those produced by the dominant society. Among these artists were Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington and Paul Robeson.

Langston Hughes

Paul Von Blum, Senior Lecturer Emeritus in African American Studies at UCLA said “Langston Hughes is important because he was one of the early figures to show the dignity and the beauty of ordinary black life.” His poem “Mother to Son”  is in the voice of a women who tells her son to keep going despite blinding poverty because if she could do it he could. His poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” talks about how black people have known rivers in Africa and rivers in America. With this poem, he illustrates what it means to be a people in the diaspora.

Langston Hughes was born James Mercer Langston Hughes on February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. He first found fame in 1920 when “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” was published in The Crisis, the NAACP’s magazine which was run at the time by W.E.B DuBois. In 1921, he came to New York to study at Columbia University. While there, he got involved in the artistic and cultural movement that was happening in Harlem. During his career, he published numerous poems, and contributed greatly to American literature. He died on May 22, 1967.

Duke Ellington

Famous big band leader and scat singer Cab Calloway once said that “Duke Ellington was one of the greatest musicians that ever lived. What he gave music, nobody had ever done it before or after.” Calloway was one of Duke’s contemporaries, but he and other musicians of the time had great respect for him. Duke broke down barriers in music when his 15 piece ensemble became the house band for the whites only Cotton Club. While there, the band became wildly popular, and eventually was able to leave the Cotton Club. The band’s popularity was due to Duke’s ability to write and compose great songs like “Mood Indigo,” “Cotton Tail,” “Sophisticated Lady” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing.” His music was not only performed in clubs, but they were also in heavy rotation on the radio, yet another ground breaking accomplishment for an African America musician.

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on April 29, 1899, and he began honing his piano skills at age 7. He opted not to fully pursue an academic career in order to become a full time musician. A proud resident of Washington D.C., he joined a band called the Washingtonians which grew to become the band that would captivate Cotton Club goers for years. Over his career, he was awarded 12 Grammys. Three of which he got after his death in 1974.

Paul Robeson

In the documentary Paul Robeson: Here I Stand, historian and professor Martin Duberman said “Paul Robeson believed that if individual blacks would distinguish themselves in a variety of fields whether it be sports or music…they would thereby demonstrate that blacks were capable of doing anything as well as any white.” Paul Robeson not only believed these words, he lived by them. He became a well-known college athlete at Rutgers University, and during the twenties in Harlem he was famous for his acting and singing performances. His repertoire included the stage productions The Emperor Jones, Othello, and Show Boat and in 1925, he was in his first film, Body and Soul. He would go on to star in 12 other films.

Robeson was not only an accomplished stage and screen performer, he was a staunch activist for human rights, and he used his platform as a performer to speak out against the oppression of African Americans. Unfortunately, because of his activism, he was black balled, and he would make his last film, Tales of Manhattan, in 1942. Robeson was born April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey and he died in Philadelphia in 1976. He spent his life traveling the world, entertaining the masses, and fighting to create change for his people.

References

Duke Ellington. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 11:46, Feb 25, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/duke-ellington-9286338.

History.com Staff (2009). Harlem Renaissance. Retrieved February 25, 2015, from http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/harlem-renaissance

Langston Hughes. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 11:44, Feb 25, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/langston-hughes-9346313.

Paul Robeson. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 11:45, Feb 25, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/paul-robeson-9460451.