(C) Carlos Latuff
What Would Malcolm Say About Obama
From the Ramparts
Junious Ricardo Stanton
“The real religion of Islam doesn’t teach anyone to judge another human being by the color of his skin. The yardstick that is used by the Muslim to measure another man is not the man’s color but by his deeds, his conscious behavior, the man’s intention and when you use that as the standard of measurement you never go wrong. But when you just judge a man because of the color of his skin you are committing a crime because that’s the worst kind of judgment.” ~El Hajj Malik El Shabazz
As we pause to honor the life, legacy and memory of Malcolm Little a.k.a. “Detroit Red” “Satan” Malcolm X and finally El Hajj Malik El Shabazz on his natal day May 19th, we learn he was a committed seeker of Truth who was uncompromising in his quest for justice and right. Based upon his love of Black people, what he stood for, his world view and evolving philosophy it is good we pay homage and respect to him. Malcolm was a model for us. He demonstrated personal redemption and transformation are possible even in an insane society such as ours.
Malcolm was born into a family that believed in “race first”. His parents were avid and active Garveyites. Later despite severe social hardship following the death of his father, his mother being institutionalized due to an emotional breakdown, Malcolm fell into a culture of depravity and crime; but when he was exposed to the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad while in prison he saw the light. Malcolm made a conscious decision to change, he rekindled his dormant pursuit of intellectual growth and personal development. He honed his reading and oratory skills after he joined the Nation of Islam and he was eventually elevated by Mr. Muhammad to become the national spokesperson for the NOI.
The socially and politically conscious Malcolm was on a collision course with the status quo. Malcolm helped spread the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and had a huge hand in the growth of the movement. But Malcolm disobeyed Mr. Muhammad when he commented publically on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Mr Muhammad had warned his ministers not to say anything controversial about Kennedy’s assassination because the nation was in mourning and folks were caught up in the emotion of it all. But when asked by the media for a statement, Malcolm spoke truth to power by saying the US had assassinated leaders all over the world and now the chickens had come home to roost.
Malcolm’s keen insight into geopolitics as truthful as it was, created a rift between him and NOI hierarchy which eventually led to him leaving the Nation and starting his own Pan-African organization. This rift was ultimately capitalized upon by the US government’s covert counterinsurgency campaign called COINTELPRO as a cover to assassinate Malcolm. Malcolm was building a case and planning to take the US before the world court for human rights violations. He traveled extensively to Africa and Asia to gain support for his plan. Just the notion a Black man had the audacity do attempt such a thing sent chills down the spines of the US government and their puppet masters. It would have been a disaster for the US image. The US government could not afford to allow Malcolm to continue.
Given what we know of Malcolm and his unwillingness to compromise, tip toe or soft shoe around the critical issues of his day and his willingness to take a principled stand no matter how controversial, we can surmise what he would say about Barack Obama. First of all Malcolm exposed shufflin’ handkerchief head Negroes everywhere he encountered them. He could see their true motives. He knew they were puppets working for a ruthlessly oppressive system. Malcolm opposed imperialist wars. He vocally opposed the Vietnam War early on, even before the war escalated to the point it was all consuming because he saw it for what it was: a racist imperialist projection of white supremacy, the US picking up where the French left off.
Based upon these facts, I have no hesitancy stating Malcolm would be one of the first to denounce Barack Obama as a warmonger and puppet of the multinational corporations, international financiers and the military industrial complex. He would probably be even more vociferous in his criticism because Obama is bi-racial and his father was an African. El Hajj Malik El Shabazz would have discerned Obama was selected by the ruling elites to do their bidding just as he denounced the impotent handkerchief head Negro politicians of his era.
The fact the US under Obama in concert with other European nations is openly waging war in Africa in Somalia and Libya and covertly in Cote d’Ivoire would have incensed Malcolm. Obama’s forays into Pakistan would really make him persona non grata to Malcolm especially since those I mentioned are Muslim countries !
Malcolm spoke out against the draft and going to war. He said, “We who declare ourselves to be righteous Muslims should not participate in wars which take the lives of humans . As Muslims we don’t go to war, we don’t get drafted, we don’t join anyone’s army. We don’t teach you not to go because they will put us in jail for sedition. I would never tell you not to go, I wouldn’t be that dumb. But I will tell you if you are dumb enough to go that’s on you. If you’re dumb enough to fight for someone who means you no good, if you’re dumb enough to fight for something that you’ve never gotten, if you’re dumb enough like some of your brothers to go to fight in Korea and came back and still caught hell or the older ones who fought in World War II and came back here, came back to this country like Isaac Word who got his eyes put out by the police right here in this country, well go right ahead. But I’m not that dumb. For me and I can only speak for myself I’ll go to jail, I’ll go to prison first. We do not believe that this nation should force us to take part in such wars for we have nothing to gain from it...”
Malcolm would see the volunteer military and the mercenaries the US is using all around the world and denounce them for what they are: hypocrites, warmongering troublemakers working against the best interests of humanity. When Obama staged the hoax about the killing of the long dead Osama bin-Laden two weeks ago, unthinking Black folks were giddy. Many fell for the okey-doke saying “Obama’s a bad man, he is The Man.” As astute as Malcolm was, if he were alive today I’m sure he would have something to say not only about the Osama bin-Laden scam but about 9-11 as well; how the government’s narratives on both of these are as phony as a three dollar bill. Malcolm would chide brainwashed Negroes for being so gullible and silly. He would remind all of us of the atrocities the US government has committed against black and brown people over the years and the lies it regularly tells about everything. In fact Malcolm would be so vocal and persuasive and so on point to seek justice in a world court, the US government would probably kill him.
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