SeparationSegregationIntegration Sandwich

Sometimes, I forget how I attend a liberal school in a liberal city in a blue state in the United States. I don’t have many experiences of meeting and talking to someone who I would not consider to be a part of the “liberal bubble” within which I find myself and most of my contacts to live in. Sure, a few comments may be slurred here and there, but seldom have I met someone who believed it down to the core of their existence.

I don’t really know what to say about Malcolm X’s idea for separation. In all honesty, I don’t feel so high and mighty to have an opinion to back him up or oppose him. If he would like to separate himself from the white people, that’s fine by me. If he would like to go up and hug every white person within a five block radius, I would find that odd but still accept his decision. (Quite a strange visual that is, imagining him running up and kissing white people on the cheek).

It seems understandable to me that everyone should have the right to decide whether they want to be a part of society or not. Sure, they may be looked at funny for their choices, but a person’s decision to do so does not offend me. I know that Malcolm X wishes to separate from the white man, and I don’t blame him. I would separate too if I had his history and ancestry woven into my identity as well.

I do note that we live fifty years after his time, where racial tensions quietly flicker in a dying fire of hate (or so people tell me). I do note that integration is very common, but I also see it being rare in Chicago, one of the most separated cities today. People still keep to their own kind, so how can I call Malcolm X a sissy or any other name when what he speaks is being practiced in the futuristically present time of 2013? I can’t yell obscenities at him or cruel words, because his idea is actually a foundation for Chicago’s layout.

And you don’t hear people yelling about their quiet separation today, now do you? We consciously or unconsciously chose the path which Malcolm X wished for the Nation of Islam in the 60s. Only those who purposefully seek out integration have the right to judge his idea.

If he wishes to separate, so be it. 

Malcolm X Does Not Wish to Be My Friend

I’ll tell you this-this book is a hefty piece of work. It’s everything but a quick read.  Preparing to read it feels like training for the Olympics- I can’t dive into it until I’m in the right frame of mind.

Every word which Mr.  X poured into this biography was written with an agenda. Because of this, I usually find myself rereading sentences and paragraphs, sometimes entire pages. This book may as well have been written in a foreign language. It’s not that I’m too ignorant to understand all which Malcolm wishes to say (safe to say, we’ve all been drilled with lessons on racial turmoil and injustice). It’s actually the fact that with each chapter, I find myself wishing with more urgency to somehow slap the people who thought it was a good idea to oppress entire continents of people.

The more Malcolm preaches in his book, the more loose ends I tie together in my mind. His commentary on the leaders who acted as parrots, his specific conclusions on historical accounts, and firsthand experiences rivet me in a mental chokehold. His enlightening perspective on the topic of race gives me a larger framework to work with when formulating my opinions. I can’t imagine the myopic perspective of history the education system taught and continues to teach to fragile minds.

This book in no way justifies my thinking and opinions, but it does give me a real perspective. The “whites and black peacefully fought for justice hand in hand” is a bullshit picture that many an educator has tried to pass off with dignity and pride. History is brutal and bloody, but most importantly an account of perspective. Malcolm X could not emphasize that enough for me.  He’s right to provide a different account of oppression and slavery. He’s as right as he thinks he is.