W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Books Review: "A Life Of Reinvention" Is 'A Necessary Evil' And A Must Read For Any Malcolmite And Those Seeking Answers And Questions About Malcolm’s Final 3 Years Of Transformation…
By r2c2h2 tha artivist
In July 2007, I had the pleasure of interviewing the late Dr. Manning Marable, arguably the most preeminent Malcolm X scholar of all time…On several occasions this year I also had the pleasure of interviewing the gregarious, humorously prodigious and brilliant Bro. Dick Gregory, a close friend and supporter of Malcolm X...Saying that the two distinguished gentlemen did not necessarily see eye to eye on how the legacy of Malcolm X should be interpreted is like saying that Donald Trump has only a slight obsession with Pres. Obama’s birth certificate…
By r2c2h2 tha artivist
In July 2007, I had the pleasure of interviewing the late Dr. Manning Marable, arguably the most preeminent Malcolm X scholar of all time…On several occasions this year I also had the pleasure of interviewing the gregarious, humorously prodigious and brilliant Bro. Dick Gregory, a close friend and supporter of Malcolm X...Saying that the two distinguished gentlemen did not necessarily see eye to eye on how the legacy of Malcolm X should be interpreted is like saying that Donald Trump has only a slight obsession with Pres. Obama’s birth certificate…
Unfortunately Dr. Marable died April 1st from supposed chronic medical complications due to Sarcoidosis (although he successfully recovered from a double lung transplant) on the eve of the publication of his magnum opus “A Life of Reinvention: Malcolm X”…And so unfortunately he won’t be able to defend or expound on some of the positions he took on his favorite subject for Bro. Dick Gregory or anybody else…But all the same to quote Bro. Dick Gregory concerning his thoughts on nonviolence and Malcolm X during the time of the turbulent 1960s which was printed in a newspaper article that was included in Dr. Marable’s book, “A Life Of Reinvention” is a “necessary evil” in understanding how the man, myth and legend of Malcolm X intertwine with each other to create a fascinating and enduring living legacy.
As the name implies the book has garnered a lot of controversy surrounding the recasting of a true Black Nationalist Icon and American Iconoclast…Many critics of this work point out and consider the salacious details surrounding Malcolm X’s sexuality (his alleged homosexual relationship with a rich white male named Paul Lennon who was his ‘sponsor’ during his Detroit Red hustling days), the alleged real reason for breaking with the Nation Of Islam (his mentor Elijah Muhammad impregnating his first love and longtime girlfriend Evelyn Williams) and the book claims that the ruthless nepotism and internecine culture of The Nation Of Islam is solely responsible for the demise of Bro. Malcolm as being acts of treason and slander perpetrated upon the legacy and memory of this undisputed freedom fighter of Black liberation and champion of Black male masculinity…
The book’s other scandalous claims include that Malcolm had a one night stand with a UN Secretary named Fifi on his last extensive African/World tour of 24 weeks, that his wife Betty accused him of having relations with Lynne Shifflett the leader of his secular OAAU (Organization Of Afro American Unity) and that Malcolm shared his last night on earth and bed with his young secretary Sharon 6X who later married a man from the Newark Mosque where the assassins allegedly originated from and who was also present during his assassination are considered low blows and blasphemy to those who believed that Malcolm was committed to his marriage like he was to the struggle…The book also mentioned Betty Shabazz’s alleged affair with her bodyguard Charles 37X Kenyatta, a man who Malcolm appointed to this task of protecting his family and sincerely trusted…The revelations of infidelity in this book makes Dr. King look like a monk in a reversal from the memorable off color line from a CIA agent in the 1992 Spike Lee ‘Malcolm X’ Movie…
Also another sticking point for me would be in the beginning when Dr. Marable considers the death of Malcolm to be different from King and Medgar Evers because they were killed by “lone White Supremacists” which dismisses the undisputed fact to me that they were also killed by the same conspiratorial forces of institutional racism that got Malcolm…Albeit Malcolm’s executioners were Black, they were still pawns exterminating a threat on the behalf of the White Supremacist culture…
With all of that said I think the book’s strength is that it picks up where the Autobiography leaves off in terms of trying to piece together Malcolm’s last three years of life as well as his complex and ever changing religious views and political philosophies/ideologies respectively…I find it both exhaustive and a true page turner for Dr. Marable to recount with great care and detail the places, people, things, and ideas that Malcolm encountered on his several trips abroad…He painted Malcolm as a true sponge and synthesizer of complex information…He also show how Malcolm embodied his famous phrase ‘make it plain’ by how adept and at ease he was with relaying this complex info to an audience with limited formal education in an entertaining and provocative style of delivery that was empowering and not condescending nor patronizing…Whereas this made him a tremendous asset to the community, this of course also made him a tremendous threat to the system of white supremacy…These trips to Africa and Europe also show Malcolm to be more of an ambassador and diplomat for THE DARKER hue-manity than a demagogue or apostle of hate…
Dr. Marable does great job of outlining the inner workings of Malcolm’s organizations: the secular OAAU and Muslim Mosque Inc…It seems like both organizations were doomed from the start because they were too dependent on Malcolm to create the vision and to initiate agendas and call to actions rather than they themselves taking the initiative to make decisions and delegate responsibility…In other words they seem to have lacked the confidence to take it upon themselves to feel empowered enough as a collective to practice self-determination…Also Malcolm’s extended absence from his trips abroad created a leadership vacuum and a very counterproductive power struggle and feud between the two orgs to get his attention and approval which was almost eerily reminiscent of the internecine culture of The Nation minus the violence and bloodshed…Unfortunately, both orgs would eventually lose momentum and become irrelevant after Malcolm’s tragic murder…Once again the reasons are because they were both too dependent on Malcolm’s charismatic leadership model so neither did not truly have a plan of action or working infrastructure in place before his untimely demise, something that current and future would be leaders and organizations should take note of...In the words of one of Malcolm’s dearest friends and supporters, the late historian Dr. John Henrik Clarke, you must be able to “bury the man and continue the plan”...
The book was also great at conveying Malcolm’s genius for reading an audience and giving them what they needed to hear and yet his failure to discern those around him in his inner circle who would ultimately betray his trust and hurt him immensely which makes the Malcolm legend that more complex, tragic and compelling…
Another strength of the book is the fact that Dr. Marable interviewed the honorable Min. Louis Farrakhan of The Nation Of Islam, arguably the greatest of “Malcolm’s ministers” (a term used to refer to the group of young ministers in The Nation who were directly influenced by the proselytizing/evangelical style of Malcolm X and under his direct tutelage). For 9 hours Farrakhan shared with Dr. Marable his candid thoughts on Malcolm, The Nation and the fallout between The Messenger (Elijah Muhammad) and Disciple (Malcolm)…This indeed puts flesh to the myth and fire to the legend and makes for a great read as it seems that Farrakhan is coming full circle with his part in this whole affair…
One of the highlights of the book for me came in the chapter entitled “As Sure As God Made Green Apples” where Malcolm tried to form a hit Squad from the Fruit of Islam, the paramilitary arm of The Nation, to take on the LAPD after the killing of the unarmed Black muslim Ronald Stokes and the raiding of Mosque No. 27 in Los Angeles..Although Elijah Muhammad eventually told Malcolm and his squad to stand down this beautifully illustrates how far Malcolm was willing to go to make his rhetoric match his reality and how the apolitical stance of Elijah and The Nation could not satisfy a true political maverick and social activist like Malcolm which will eventually lead to them parting ways in several years…
Another attribute that Dr.Marable highlighted of Malcolm was his effectiveness as a community organizer something that the autobiography did not do…Malcolm who possessed the evangelical fervor of a Billy Graham in his prime took a religious sect whose numbers were in the low hundreds when he first started and turn it into a force numbering 200,000 in less than 12 years…
Unfortunately, Malcolm's uncanny success and zealot like commitment to the cause of growing The Nation made many connected to Elijah Muhammad by blood and other close associations anxious. They perceived Malcolm as a threat to their powerbase and wealth although it was Malcolm the road weary traveling evangelist who took a vow of poverty for the cause that enabled them to enjoy a lifestyle that was unprecedented for them in the first place…They feared that if he would become successor to an ailing and ever frail Elijah Muhammad that he would clean shop at the national leadership level and run a tighter more transparent leadership style…So Malcolm made enemies within and outside The Nation for being too effective at what he did best…
Another highlight or some call a low mark is The Nation Of Islam’s relationship with White Supremacist and Terrorist organizations such as The American Nazi party & Ku Klux Klan something that many folks including Malcolmites may not be consciously aware of or try to downplay but nevertheless should take note…
In terms of the Nation killing Malcolm X, I don’t think Dr. Marable is saying that they alone masterminded it but that there was a collusion of forces from the NYPD and the American Intelligence community (FBI & CIA ) that wanted to see Malcolm silenced…The fact that there was no substantial police presence and that Malcolm’s security did not check folks that day or carried weapons @ the Audubon Ballroom ( which they should have did in spite of Malcolm's objections to not do so) and that the crime scene was not sealed off, properly investigated and destroyed because of a scheduled Church dance that night all the more speaks to a conspiracy of the highest order…Through his magnum opus, Dr. Marable makes a direct call of action to law authorities into reopening the Malcolm X murder case by highlighting that the person responsible for killing Malcolm with the initial shotgun blast to the chest, William Bradley, who resides in Newark, New Jersey as a respected member of that community has never been brought to justice for his part in the assassination…Malcolm wanted to bring the U.S.A. up on charges of violating the human rights of 22 million African Americans , and with his considerable influence and fame growing tremendously in Black Nationalist, Islamic and Pan African circles worldwide as well as throughout the third world the powers that be certainly did not want to see that happen and they made sure that it didn’t…
Historians are like forensic scientists, trying to use circumstantial evidence, cryptic facts, and a fertile imagination to reconstruct or rather in this case reinvent or complete the missing final chapters from a past life's narrative...Dr. Marable takes questionable liberties in making his thoughts seemingly Malcolm’s own thoughts in terms of where he was going in his ideological evolution before he died…Anything after he died and how he Malcolm himself would respond is pure speculation, should not be seen as fact and is up for debate…I do not think for example that Malcolm would have had a problem in incorporating the Black Panther Party (BPP) into his ideological framework and the secular OAAU, after all even the BPP founders said that they would have never formed the BPP had Malcolm lived because they would have joined his organization respectively…Also I do not think Malcolm would have been completely sold on The Obama Train as much as he was not sold on the LBJ Great Society plan especially since Obama, who has both an interesting Islamic and African background due to his Father and upbringing, is known for bombing Islamic and African Nations with drones and U.S. air missiles via fighter jets with impunity…
I do not think Malcolm was against violent revolution if it meant freeing people of color and other oppressed people period and especially if he was willing to meet with the Cuban Revolutionaries Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. You cannot reform a system that is not broken, built on deceptions and lies, and is meant to deny you your full rights as human beings regardless of your efforts and Malcolm theoretically ‘overstood’ that to the core as evidenced by his speeches… Malcolm even said once that “If you're not ready to die for it, put the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary” and he vocally supported Barry Goldwater’s run for presidency in 1964 who stated that, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” However, Malcolm did embrace both the Constitution and Declaration of Independence and his rhetoric and actions echoed the spirit of Jefferson in using these ideals as building blocks/a foundation to start over completely from scratch and build a system on true justice and equality…
In spite of flaws and controversy because after all it sells, A Life Of Reinvention is worth the read. Speculation about Malcolm’s political and ideological objectives as well as his sex life aside, the book’s strength is the fact that it gave substantive meat to Malcolm’s last three years as he undertook several complex transitions/transformations in an attempt to manifest an international proletarian social freedom justice revolution or movement to elevate Africans at home and abroad…
Also another sticking point for me would be in the beginning when Dr. Marable considers the death of Malcolm to be different from King and Medgar Evers because they were killed by “lone White Supremacists” which dismisses the undisputed fact to me that they were also killed by the same conspiratorial forces of institutional racism that got Malcolm…Albeit Malcolm’s executioners were Black, they were still pawns exterminating a threat on the behalf of the White Supremacist culture…
With all of that said I think the book’s strength is that it picks up where the Autobiography leaves off in terms of trying to piece together Malcolm’s last three years of life as well as his complex and ever changing religious views and political philosophies/ideologies respectively…I find it both exhaustive and a true page turner for Dr. Marable to recount with great care and detail the places, people, things, and ideas that Malcolm encountered on his several trips abroad…He painted Malcolm as a true sponge and synthesizer of complex information…He also show how Malcolm embodied his famous phrase ‘make it plain’ by how adept and at ease he was with relaying this complex info to an audience with limited formal education in an entertaining and provocative style of delivery that was empowering and not condescending nor patronizing…Whereas this made him a tremendous asset to the community, this of course also made him a tremendous threat to the system of white supremacy…These trips to Africa and Europe also show Malcolm to be more of an ambassador and diplomat for THE DARKER hue-manity than a demagogue or apostle of hate…
Dr. Marable does great job of outlining the inner workings of Malcolm’s organizations: the secular OAAU and Muslim Mosque Inc…It seems like both organizations were doomed from the start because they were too dependent on Malcolm to create the vision and to initiate agendas and call to actions rather than they themselves taking the initiative to make decisions and delegate responsibility…In other words they seem to have lacked the confidence to take it upon themselves to feel empowered enough as a collective to practice self-determination…Also Malcolm’s extended absence from his trips abroad created a leadership vacuum and a very counterproductive power struggle and feud between the two orgs to get his attention and approval which was almost eerily reminiscent of the internecine culture of The Nation minus the violence and bloodshed…Unfortunately, both orgs would eventually lose momentum and become irrelevant after Malcolm’s tragic murder…Once again the reasons are because they were both too dependent on Malcolm’s charismatic leadership model so neither did not truly have a plan of action or working infrastructure in place before his untimely demise, something that current and future would be leaders and organizations should take note of...In the words of one of Malcolm’s dearest friends and supporters, the late historian Dr. John Henrik Clarke, you must be able to “bury the man and continue the plan”...
The book was also great at conveying Malcolm’s genius for reading an audience and giving them what they needed to hear and yet his failure to discern those around him in his inner circle who would ultimately betray his trust and hurt him immensely which makes the Malcolm legend that more complex, tragic and compelling…
Another strength of the book is the fact that Dr. Marable interviewed the honorable Min. Louis Farrakhan of The Nation Of Islam, arguably the greatest of “Malcolm’s ministers” (a term used to refer to the group of young ministers in The Nation who were directly influenced by the proselytizing/evangelical style of Malcolm X and under his direct tutelage). For 9 hours Farrakhan shared with Dr. Marable his candid thoughts on Malcolm, The Nation and the fallout between The Messenger (Elijah Muhammad) and Disciple (Malcolm)…This indeed puts flesh to the myth and fire to the legend and makes for a great read as it seems that Farrakhan is coming full circle with his part in this whole affair…
One of the highlights of the book for me came in the chapter entitled “As Sure As God Made Green Apples” where Malcolm tried to form a hit Squad from the Fruit of Islam, the paramilitary arm of The Nation, to take on the LAPD after the killing of the unarmed Black muslim Ronald Stokes and the raiding of Mosque No. 27 in Los Angeles..Although Elijah Muhammad eventually told Malcolm and his squad to stand down this beautifully illustrates how far Malcolm was willing to go to make his rhetoric match his reality and how the apolitical stance of Elijah and The Nation could not satisfy a true political maverick and social activist like Malcolm which will eventually lead to them parting ways in several years…
Another attribute that Dr.Marable highlighted of Malcolm was his effectiveness as a community organizer something that the autobiography did not do…Malcolm who possessed the evangelical fervor of a Billy Graham in his prime took a religious sect whose numbers were in the low hundreds when he first started and turn it into a force numbering 200,000 in less than 12 years…
Unfortunately, Malcolm's uncanny success and zealot like commitment to the cause of growing The Nation made many connected to Elijah Muhammad by blood and other close associations anxious. They perceived Malcolm as a threat to their powerbase and wealth although it was Malcolm the road weary traveling evangelist who took a vow of poverty for the cause that enabled them to enjoy a lifestyle that was unprecedented for them in the first place…They feared that if he would become successor to an ailing and ever frail Elijah Muhammad that he would clean shop at the national leadership level and run a tighter more transparent leadership style…So Malcolm made enemies within and outside The Nation for being too effective at what he did best…
Another highlight or some call a low mark is The Nation Of Islam’s relationship with White Supremacist and Terrorist organizations such as The American Nazi party & Ku Klux Klan something that many folks including Malcolmites may not be consciously aware of or try to downplay but nevertheless should take note…
In terms of the Nation killing Malcolm X, I don’t think Dr. Marable is saying that they alone masterminded it but that there was a collusion of forces from the NYPD and the American Intelligence community (FBI & CIA ) that wanted to see Malcolm silenced…The fact that there was no substantial police presence and that Malcolm’s security did not check folks that day or carried weapons @ the Audubon Ballroom ( which they should have did in spite of Malcolm's objections to not do so) and that the crime scene was not sealed off, properly investigated and destroyed because of a scheduled Church dance that night all the more speaks to a conspiracy of the highest order…Through his magnum opus, Dr. Marable makes a direct call of action to law authorities into reopening the Malcolm X murder case by highlighting that the person responsible for killing Malcolm with the initial shotgun blast to the chest, William Bradley, who resides in Newark, New Jersey as a respected member of that community has never been brought to justice for his part in the assassination…Malcolm wanted to bring the U.S.A. up on charges of violating the human rights of 22 million African Americans , and with his considerable influence and fame growing tremendously in Black Nationalist, Islamic and Pan African circles worldwide as well as throughout the third world the powers that be certainly did not want to see that happen and they made sure that it didn’t…
Historians are like forensic scientists, trying to use circumstantial evidence, cryptic facts, and a fertile imagination to reconstruct or rather in this case reinvent or complete the missing final chapters from a past life's narrative...Dr. Marable takes questionable liberties in making his thoughts seemingly Malcolm’s own thoughts in terms of where he was going in his ideological evolution before he died…Anything after he died and how he Malcolm himself would respond is pure speculation, should not be seen as fact and is up for debate…I do not think for example that Malcolm would have had a problem in incorporating the Black Panther Party (BPP) into his ideological framework and the secular OAAU, after all even the BPP founders said that they would have never formed the BPP had Malcolm lived because they would have joined his organization respectively…Also I do not think Malcolm would have been completely sold on The Obama Train as much as he was not sold on the LBJ Great Society plan especially since Obama, who has both an interesting Islamic and African background due to his Father and upbringing, is known for bombing Islamic and African Nations with drones and U.S. air missiles via fighter jets with impunity…
I do not think Malcolm was against violent revolution if it meant freeing people of color and other oppressed people period and especially if he was willing to meet with the Cuban Revolutionaries Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. You cannot reform a system that is not broken, built on deceptions and lies, and is meant to deny you your full rights as human beings regardless of your efforts and Malcolm theoretically ‘overstood’ that to the core as evidenced by his speeches… Malcolm even said once that “If you're not ready to die for it, put the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary” and he vocally supported Barry Goldwater’s run for presidency in 1964 who stated that, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” However, Malcolm did embrace both the Constitution and Declaration of Independence and his rhetoric and actions echoed the spirit of Jefferson in using these ideals as building blocks/a foundation to start over completely from scratch and build a system on true justice and equality…
In spite of flaws and controversy because after all it sells, A Life Of Reinvention is worth the read. Speculation about Malcolm’s political and ideological objectives as well as his sex life aside, the book’s strength is the fact that it gave substantive meat to Malcolm’s last three years as he undertook several complex transitions/transformations in an attempt to manifest an international proletarian social freedom justice revolution or movement to elevate Africans at home and abroad…
Got A Book You Want W.E. A.L.L. B.E. To Review?
Please Send All Review Copies To The Following Address...
Attn: Ron Herd II
The W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Group Inc.
P.O. Box 752062
Memphis,TN 38175
More Malcolm X On W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/search?q=malcolm+x
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/search?q=malcolm+x
W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Needs Your Support...Give To Grow The Movement!
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=10544097
Or You Can Mail Us A Money Order:
Attn: Ronald Herd II
The W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Group Inc.
P.O. Box 752062
Memphis,TN 38175
Create a Radio Show and Reach Millions. Free for 30 days. Start now.
Or You Can Mail Us A Money Order:
Attn: Ronald Herd II
The W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Group Inc.
P.O. Box 752062
Memphis,TN 38175
Create a Radio Show and Reach Millions. Free for 30 days. Start now.
No comments:
Post a Comment