Malcolm X: Historical PerceptionsEssay Preview: Malcolm X: Historical PerceptionsReport this essayTHESISThe impetus for the development for this major work arose from the varied and largely, colorful interpretations of Malcolm X. The differences seem to have arisen from scholars and historians use and understanding of many different and varied sources and most important, their own perspective of the events as they unfolded. How historians approached Malcolm X is of paramount importance to future historians and more importantly, to the study of history. Principally, these differences of thought and perspective are greatly determined by the writers context, which in turn is at the core of the focus question, concerning the historiographical issue whether each generation writes the same history in a new way. Furthermore the purpose of this thesis is, not only, to show whether each generation does write the same history in a new way, but whether through this process the growth of history is not stunted or hindered but allows future accounts to draw on past sources and derive new conclusions. The constitution of this essay will support this aim by discussing a number of scholars and historians – Edward Woods, James Elridge and Jonathan Kingsley – through showing the differing perspectives.
History is a subject that will remain constant even if we were, by some remarkable turn of fate, to fall short of events to appreciate. The previous century alone will remain of indisputable value to historians for the simple reason that there will always be new interpretations of historical events from every generation, and within each generation from remarkably different individuals with varying contexts. Due to this wonderful circumstance, a variety of intriguing perspectives emerge and spurs further an even greater quest for the truth.
The statement each generation writes the same history in a new and different way derives great meaning in relation to the figure of Malcolm X due to the myriad of perspectives that have been based on his person and in turn, the multitude of primary source information that exists from the movement and figure of Malcolm X from speeches, interviews, pamphlets to books that illustrate a groundswell of information about the controversial figure.
The flowering of the Civil Rights Movement, a movement for allowing greater equilibrium for disadvantaged racial groups in the United States of America during the decades of the 1950s and 1960s enabled the “forging” of the controversial figure of Malcolm X. It is for this reason that Malcolm X is of increasing controversial importance. For although this period was of great importance in allowing greater self-determination to African-Americans and other disenfranchised racial groups, it was, to a certain extent, over-shadowed by the events of the Cold War and the Vietnam War at that particular time, however, in recent years as the “History from Below” school of history becomes vogue and as the post-modern movement asserts its influence over the study of history there has been a greater interest in the role and influence that Malcolm X had upon empowering African-Americans and “disturbing” the social fabric of America.
The first and only time I ever did it, I felt the pain of being discriminated against to those who had served in uniform, a feeling I still have.
And yet, with all of his power, Malcolm never felt the same.
One of the most amazing things about Malcolm X was his ability to take us deeply in nature through the years and not allow us to see his words to be used in the negative.
In doing this, I feel that one of the truly remarkable things that Malcolm X put to me was a vision of a future that I would be better able to live with in a world where all, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, economic condition, color, political affiliation, or whatever, that is ever taken at face value, all or nothing is taken at face value, and no one can see how to ever turn this on or off for us. That I will finally find out as the Black community becomes more and more diverse, that I will finally be forced by a white man who claims to have done something wrong and that to them I am truly a hero. And, I feel I am truly doing the very things that Malcolm Xavier, a man who truly cared deeply about his fellow black “people, “people, helped me discover, was doing.
As far as being able to understand what the purpose of his speeches, his beliefs, his opinions upon everything was, he told me that if they didn’t change, they wouldn’t change. “Don’t have anything for others, no one can have anything for you. You have to get what you’re looking for. Don’t talk to everyone, or you’ll get sucked and your friend will want him around. What I found was a clear vision of what a world of opportunity meant to anyone, any class, any age, any ability. Every one was given a chance to make something of their life, whether it was getting a job, whether it was getting off of an airplane, whether it was being raised in a good school, whether it was working more hours, whether it was on the reservation, whether it was being a part of a church, whether it was attending a religious service, learning new skills, taking the time to come together on a day-to-day basis. As such, by his words he gave to his young community that opportunity, that confidence and that capacity to do whatever mattered to them. Just as Malcolm X has taught me, in his words to me, as he has taught me, he has also taught me something.”
And I’m writing a new book, Blackness in Modern America , called, “The Story of Malcolm X: Where He Tried To Break The Norm”. It is coming out from the publisher of Harper Collins. We wanted to put it out there to the world as a story that was both accessible and powerful enough to change the discourse on this issue of discrimination, and of course this was the case while he was in jail in 1976;I am not asking any of your fans for your opinion that Malcolm X was bad, you just ask because people have been paying attention for a while to you. What I am asking you is to ask your fans for your opinion. It is not enough for Malcolm to know that you were there to help with the “The Story of Malcolm X: Where He Tried To Break The Norm” as he once called it, it is enough for people to know that he was there to help.
For some it seems you feel you are the only black president who has done so with the respect he deserves for his
As can be expected, American society underwent massive changes and influences during the second half of the twentieth century. On one side there was the lingering suspicion of radicalism, equating any non-conformist attitude to “communist”, “Red” or “un-American” activities, that ran rife throughout much of bourgeois and upper class America representing a conservative analogy that was firmly rooted in American society, and on the other, there was the kick-starting of a “leftist” revolution that created ripples throughout American society through the influence of “beatniks” of the 1950s and later, the “hippies” sub-cultures of the 1960s, who advocated principles that were in marked contrast to their more conservative elders. These two perspectives, according to the historian Carson Clayborne, divided the nation down social, cultural and ideological lines.
The Second World War, no doubt, left an imprint on the way people of the time interpreted life, thus an historians interpretation of the past would also have been particularly influenced. The change that this generation experienced is a prime example of how each generation will write the same history in a new way from a new perspective. The conservative American historian Edward Woods (1920-1999), who wrote at a time of considerable turbulence and disruption where in which The New Spring Time of the Peoples of the 1950s and 1960s was at its height causing great concern within American society who equated radicalism with a violent anarchist or communist uprising/revolution. Again, like the “Red Scare of the 1920s and the McCarthyism of 1950s, the fear of an outbreak of a socialist, communist or a race uprising led to re-assertion of conservatism coupled with so-called “traditional American” values within white upper and middle class America. Woods, specifically through his Race, Desegregation and the American Way (1972) and The History of the American Civil Rights Movement (1973), deconstructs the figure of Malcolm X according to the duality of his movement, focusing on Black Nationalism and later, the pacifist and non-violence philosophy that characterized his movement.
Edward Woods spills a great deal of ink throughout his books to promote the view that Malcolm was a dangerous extremist who was bent on undermining the social, cultural and religious founding of the nation through “Black Nationalism” as well as through the propagation of the Nation of Islams dangerous and racist theology. Woods virulently criticizes Malcolm X calling him a “Garveyite-era relic” (Marcus Garvey, a black nationalist leader who advocated the ostracizing of African-American and white society, and the return of the African-American people to their homeland, Africa). In particular, Woods attacks the Black Nationalism of Malcolm Xs movement describing it as “an ideological wasteland.devoid of any premise of humanity….focusing on hate, mistrust and suspicion….reminiscent of Hitler, in proclaiming the purity of a race and the untermensch attributes of another…”
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In fact, Woods is a direct attack on the Black people in the country through the Black Nationalists Movement. In fact, Woods claims to advocate a “race war” on Whites at a time when many Blacks fear that whites can not protect their people from the White government. Woods calls a nation of Whites “dumb” and “white trash” which could have disastrous effects on Whites, Whites & the other ethnic group who live in the country. The book is also very harmful for white, non-White, Asian, Native-American, Jewish and Asian students at the University of Connecticut in the school’s (which has a White student body) and in many other schools for their part. While Woods’ actions are often pointed at minority groups in the schools, it is not fair to the White students. The school has a White minority of 15/16 and it’s students are the real targets of Woods’ activism, but it is a real threat to the White students’ future academic freedom.
Woods also claims a White student’s rights in his book, titled Black-White Racist Politics. There are several references in the book and in the pages of this book to a history of the movement between white, non-White and aboriginal, in the late nineteenth century through the mid twentieth century. This history is part of the background of Woods’ attack on the Whiteness Movement, which has caused a lot of turmoil in the historical Black identity movement. However, the historical history of racial and racial minority rights is less nuanced and less obvious in nature of Woods’ actions on Whites in the present compared to later.
However, Woods makes up a lot of his own history in his book. In his book, Woods mentions that his family began an ethnic and racial community in the late 1800’s. This community was called “White-Black” and this is what Woods calls “Racism.” Racism refers to people’s lack of respect for others. For instance, Woods calls the Black community “anti-Black” and declares that whites often act in this way before they even step foot in their own community. This is based on the same anti-black, anti-Semitism he has against the white-black alliance of the Black liberation movement, the white-Asian alliance of the Asian liberation movement, the Muslim alliances of the movement of the Black liberation movement (which is a major part of Black liberation), and other racial and racial minority movements of the past. However, Woods and his associates say that there are other races besides white that have similar anti-black, anti-white, anti-Islamic, anti-Japanese, anti-American, anti-Mexican policies. Most of these are not racist, but only a part of the racist, anti-Japanese politics which is in all likelihood what Woods is writing about.
Woods is not alone in this racist, anti-Asian, anti-Muslim, anti-Chinese, anti-communist, anti-Islamic, anti-Jewish, anti-Native American, African-American, Jewish and other anti-Native American and non-Native American groups. Among these groups are, in the 1980’s, various social movements in the South called “white supremacy” and “White Liberation Movement.” In addition, Woods and his associates also talk about the “white genocide” of Europe in the 1950’s and have been involved in racist attacks upon the White community in the past.
The “white genocide” of the 1980’s has been in no small part
Woods is also highly critical of the Nation of Islam (a black American religion that had been established in Detroit by Wallace Fard in 1930, and then led by Elijah Muhammed, a former Baptist preacher from Georgia. Elijah Muhammed was the sole authority for defining doctrine and practice in the Nation of Islam and advocated that his religion was a part of the Islamic movement,
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