Thursday, May 19, 2016

Happy birthday, Malcolm X! (video)

Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Imixwhatilike.org; Donnie Mossberg (video); Wikipedia edit
"If you're not careful the [media] will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." - Malcolm X

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It would be Malcolm X’s 91st birthday today (May 19th) if he had not been assassinated. So it's a good time to learn more about this great American figure (Biography.com) and hear oral histories from the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (mxgm.org). Here is one about the lesser known history of armed self-defense in the Black American liberation struggle: We Will Shoot Back.
MALCOLM X (Malcolm Little, el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz) was born on May 19, 1925 and assassinated at age 39 on Feb. 21, 1965. He was a human rights activist and lapsed American Muslim minister. In the eyes of admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a leader who indicted white America in harsh terms for its crimes and biases against black Americans. Detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence in the name of self-defense and quote him by saying, "By all means necessary." He has also been called one of the best and most influential African Americans in history (Wiki).
 
Why racism? Hate, ignorance, greed
"There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time." - Malcolm X
 
Three things poison the heart/mind.
It should be noted that "racism" implies social power, the power to oppress, which racial minorities in America do not have. So Malcolm X was not "racist." Some would argue that only whites in America can be "racist."

It's true anyone can be prejudiced, discriminatory, biased, fearful, hateful, angry, resentful, or ignorant, but only those in power can practice "racism." If Africans oppressed nonblacks, that would be racism.

The same goes for sexism (the systematic oppression of one sex over another, particularly the mistreatment of females). Why do people engage in self-serving behavior? Greed (self-interest, avarice, smallmindedness, selfishness, lobha).

White Christian terrorists love to instill fear. Do U.S. blacks face  "genocide"? (rap videos)
 
In ignorance, we may all be contributing to these two isms, but only those in power in a biased patriarchal society can impose it; the rest of us are foolishly promoting and perpetuating it by failing to resist or rectify it.

How can we awaken and free our minds so our b[odies] will follow?

We must decolonize our minds so that we do not advance the injustices of the racist-sexist power arrangement that makes us hate ourselves and serve in our own oppression. In other words:

"If you think the system works,
you must work for the system."
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