KINKY PORN HD... #CancelMalcolmX: A peek at the problematic views held by one of black history's mos

As I was reading about the youth of one of black history’s most iconic figures, I couldn’t help but wonder if his past mistakes, if brought to light in the current Twitter-driven outrage machine, would have led to the cancellation of his voice before it truly had time to develop, mature, and eventually shine."

"After prison, Malcolm wanted to make sense of his past. He crafted a narrative, later published in his autobiography, rooted in the truth as he remembered it. The memories that were most distressing revolved around his mistreatment of women. Detroit Red’s romantic life, from the perspective of the newly reborn Malcolm X, was littered with emotionally abusive relationships. — The Sword and the Shield, page 36."

"He attributed much of the pain he experienced in his childhood and as a young man to the failure of morally, economically, and spiritually compromised women. Bea’s betrayal made him publicly disparage the morality of white women. 'I got my first schooling about the cesspool morals of the white man from the best possible source, from his own women,' he remembered. The Nation of Islam’s focus on the restoration of a patriarchal black family, whose loss Malcolm still mourned, resonated deeply. The group’s insistence that black women adopt roles as caretakers, teachers, and nurturers of black families and helpmates of black men shaped Malcolm’s reinterpretation of his past and his plans for his future.
—The Sword and the Shield, page 37."

"At larger gatherings, signs proclaiming 'We Must Protect Our Most Valuable Property Our Women' exemplified the patriarchal gender roles that the Nation [of Islam] embraced. — The Sword and the Shield, page 40."

"… a duality existed in Malcolm's understanding of gendered violence. He viewed historic assaults against women as illustrating a shameful lack of patriarchal authority and black male power in America. While he blamed white men for these crimes, he also held black women accountable for what he saw as their willingness to imbibe the worst aspects of Western society, a world that mocked black men’s intelligence, power, and authority. From this perspective, the perceived dysfunction of the black family could be attributed to black women who became unwitting tools of white supremacy by resisting the teachings of the Nation of Islam."

"Malcolm X saw the emotional intimacy demanded by a marriage to be a liability to his career as an activist and public intellectual. Furthermore, he 'often generalized women as treacherous, disloyal, and selfish. He wanted a wife who would conform to the [NOI gender roles].'"

"[Malcolm X] often highlighted sexual violence directed against black women. Rape, to Malcolm, represented an assault, both physical and psychological, that black women endured and that men were helpless to prevent. In vivid, dramatic detail, Malcolm X portrayed white society as a criminal syndicate whose anti-black racial violence shaped the twentieth century. From the perspective of both Malcolm and black nationalists, black political self-determination meant black men assuming the kind of power over businesses, communities, and families that white supremacy had historically denied them. — The Sword and the Shield, page 40."

"Would he have been canceled as soon as his views on women were made known?"

"Or would the movement have been able to look past those views and forgive him, or even be willing to admit that there was some truth to his perspective?"

"It would seem as if the social justice wing of our culture has become more critical, not less, and this extends even into an analysis of attitudes held in the past, when the context was different."

"At present, I’m inclined to believe that Malcolm would have been canceled."

"... it would be remiss of me to not make known my opinion that, given the nature of intersectionality, the requirement to pass an increasingly stricter test of moral purity and ideological rigidity stands opposed to the end-goal: a broad coalition."

"Agree or disagree, that is up to you."

"My goal here was simply to share some history related to one of the most significant figures in black history, who no doubt played an instrumental role in restoring some of the dignity that black men (and even women) had lost during their time in bondage."

Perhaps it can even be said that Malcolm X is inspiring for other reasons, as he was a man who sought dignity not through violence — as a white, racist media knowingly or unknowingly attempted to sell to its audiences — but through the development of his intellectual faculties, which allowed him to become a captivating speaker and activist."

"He walked along a path toward dignity that was uniquely his own."

"And if it is not one’s own, inherent sense of dignity that we hope to help others feel, then what are after?"

#MalcolmX #BlackHistory #SocialJustice