The Autobiography of Malcolm X is a fascinating, mind opening, inspiring life story I would recommend for everyone to read. I would especially recommend it to current activists and those interested in America’s history of Racism, Civil and Human rights movements, injustice and inequity, Othering of Blacks by Whites, the de-humanizing effects of colonialism, Pan-Africanism, and comparative studies. Malcolm X offers the reader a unique take on America and the world through a brilliant intense critique from the perspective of a Black Nationalist, Muslim, highly influential leader. Malcolm X and Alex Haley reflect on Malcolm’s life from childhood until his assassination with this perspective in a way that can help the reader question everything in America, a country dominiated by Eurocentrism . As police brutality and white supremacy are as alive in America as ever, Malcolm X’s perspective is just as relevant now as it was then. 

Before Malcolm X was the powerful human rights leader, he had spent time in prison after spending time as a hustler. He uses this time to transform into a powerful leader of the Nation of Islam and then one of Americas most influential Human Rights leaders and speakers, giving voice to Blacks in America and around the world. During this time in prison, Malcolm becomes obsessed with reading and studying books from the prison library. He begins to study the effects of colonialism and becomes critical of the White Eurocentric Bias of much history and literature, right down to the dictionary, in which he studies and interprets every word. Of this Malcolm says; “Book after book showed me how the white man had brought upon the worlds black, brown, red, and yellow peoples every variety of exploitation. I saw how since the sixteenth century, the so-called “Christian trader” white man began to ply the seas in his lust for African and Asian empires, and plunder, and power. I read, I saw how the white man never has gone among non-white peoples bearing the Cross in the true manner and spirit of Christ’s teachings– meek, humble, and Christ-like. 

I perceived, as I read, how the collective white man had been actually nothing but a piratical opportunist who used Faustian machinations to make his own Christianity his initial wedge in criminal conquests. First, always “religiously”, he branded “heathen” and “pagan” labels upon ancient non-white cultures and civilizations. The stage thus set, he then turned upon his non-white victims his weapons of war” (X, Haley p. 176-177). Here we are reminded of the missionaries in Chinua Achebe’s book Things Fall Apart. 

In the autobiography, Malcolm X criticizes and compares his perspectives with that of non-violent leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis. In an article in Teen Vogue Prince Shakur talks about how the characters in the popular recent film Black Panther mirror the leaders “Both Killmonger and Malcolm X learned to confront the systematic wrongs waged against black people globally while condemning internalized racism, whitewashing of history, and nonviolent direct action by black people. In contrast, the Black Panther, T’Challa, can be argued to resemble Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As King, he is entrusted with the health and future of Wakanda, which he hopes to defend morally.” (Shakur, p.1 www.teenvogue.com) 

Toward the end of his life, Malcolm X makes a pilgrimage to Mecca and travels to visit several African countries. Malcolm again begins to transform his thinking more in line with that of Homi Bhabha. The experience he has outside of America helps him to enter a sort of Third Space where he is able to see his own hybridization in the world and that he has to go beyond the cycle created by the colonizers for the colonized and into an international Pan-African approach. As he says “we Afro-Americans might remain in America, fighting for our Constitutional rights, but that philosophically and culturally we Afro-Americans badly needed to “return” to Africa –and develop a working unity in the framework of Pan-Africanism”(X, Haley p.350). 

Shakur, Prince. “Black Panther” Mirrors the Duality of Martin Luther King Jr. And Malcolm X. (www.teenvogue.com) March 10, 2018 

X, Malcolm, and Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York; Grove Press. 1992 

The recent social and political climate in America has placed racism at the forefront of everyday dialogue in such places as social media platforms. The Donald Trump presidency of the past four years was associated with increased racial violence and the empowerment of white supremacy. Instances such as the killing of Black man George Floyd by the police have been pivotal in bringing more awareness and protest of systemic racism. The Covid pandemic has heighted the focus on racism as well, as people, including many of White-privilege, had the more opportunity to reflect on racial injustice. The pandemic brought much more exposure to systemic racism and inequities of poor people in the last year. The Covid pandemic has demonstrated harmful injustices in the dualities created in conceiving ourselves as one and the other. Dualities of white vs. non-whites, and those with means vs. the poor result in inequalities in health care, and a number of other institutions in our society. 

The Eurocentric worldview that creates social and biological others, continues to have a large role in the fabric of everyday life in America. This worldview constructed the idea of race, and has placed humanity on a scale of evolution with Whites on the top and Black people at the bottom, with everyone else in between. This scale has dehumanized non-white groups of people and given false justification for inequity and injustice in our competitive capitalistic society of people that have vs. people who have not. As Simone de Beauvoir wrote “Thus it is that no group ever sets itself up as the One without setting up the Other…against itself. If three travelers chance to occupy the same compartment, that is enough to make vaguely hostile ‘others’ out of the rest of the passengers of the train. In small-town eyes all persons not belonging to the village are ‘strangers’ and suspect; to the native of a country all who inhabit other countries are ‘foreigners’; Jews are ‘different’ for the anti-Semite, Negroes are ‘inferior’ for American racists, aborigines are ‘natives’ for colonists, proletarians are the ‘lower class’ for the privileged.” (Introduction. de Beauvoir) 

“Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly” From Letter to Birmingham Jail. Martin Luther King Jr. 

Systemic racial injustice often goes hand in hand with systemic inequality. Not only has the Covid pandemic shown disproportionate death rates on Americas non-white populations but disparities in income as well. Steve Greenhouse states in his July 30, 2020 article in the New Yorker “The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted America’s enduring racial disparities, which are fueled by decades of unequal treatment, unequal opportunity, and structural barriers like job discrimination and poor schools. Blacks have been infected with covid-19 at three times the rate of whites. (The same is true for Hispanics) The coronavirus is also having a hugely disparate impact on Black people’s finances and prospects” (Greenhouse p.1). According to this article America has a political economy that makes Blacks vulnerable to preexisting conditions, and Blacks are more likely to be essential workers (Greenhouse p.1)  

The February 5th, 2021 episode of the Rachel Maddow show included a segment on what Maddow referred to as vaccine inequity. The Covid pandemic has demonstrated the systemic inequities in America and throughout the world in the way poor people, poor countries, non-white, and specifically Black people have gotten sick and died disproportionately compared to their white counterparts (msnbc.com). 
 Racial Disparities Already Taking Shape In Covid Vaccination Rates | Rachel Maddow | 
 The recent development and roll out of the distribution of the vaccines in America once again points to the same inequities. Black people in America are receiving disproportionately less vaccinations than the rest of the population. According to a February 1st, 2021 article on Politico Magazines website, only five percent of the vaccines administered since the beginning of the rollout in December 2020 have went to Black Americans (Politico 1). 

Maddow points out that racial and economic disparities have been the root causes that Blacks have less access to vaccines and are sick and dying more in this country. I agree with Maddow on the fact that because we are familiar with these disparities, we should be able to have a vaccine roll out that avoids such pitfalls. This is one of the most current examples of the fact that as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out, in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” that if we fall back on the status quo systems and leadership, we will continue to see the same injustices. 

Before the pandemic, our health care system (just one component of this network of systemic injustice) was underserving Black Americans. Reducing the component of poverty in this country would help because Blacks are disproportionally poor. Lessoning the digital divide in America would help the situation access to technology needed to register for the vaccine. Improved access to transportation would help as people without cars are not able to take advantage of such programs as drive-through vaccinations. Maddow interviews Dr. Jerry Abraham of Los Angeles Kedren Community Health Center, who has demonstrated success in using community programs to network and provide resources to underserved populations in vaccination access. 

 Removing Barriers Is Key To Getting Vaccine To Underserved Communities | Rachel 

The hesitancy of many people to receive the covid vaccine has been another issue in fighting the pandemic. Some have pointed to the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, where Black men were denied treatment, as a reason many Black people do not trust vaccines and the healthcare system. However, according to a recent article in the L.A. Times, when Karen Lincoln of Advocates for African American Elders talks to Black seniors “Tuskegee rarely comes up. People in the community talk about contemporary racism and barriers to healthcare…while it seems to be mainly academics and officials who are preoccupied with the history of Tuskegee” (p.1 Dembosky. latimes.com)’ 

Another part of the issue is the implicit bias of many individuals throughout healthcare systems. “Implicit bias refers to unconscious attitudes and stereotypes held toward other people. In a healthcare setting, when ideas about a patient are made because of unconscious associations rather than that person’s individuality, it can lead to poor care” (p.1 www.usnews.com). There has been a history of implicit bias in America in the medical management of non-white people. Because of this there have been multiple articles and accounts of Black people who died of Covid because medical facilities deemed symptoms were not enough to receive testing and sent them home (p.1 www.usnews.com). 

The CDC website highlights social determinates and inequities that increase the risks of death and sickness due to COVID-19. According to the CDC, discrimination “can lead to chronic and toxic stress and shapes social and economic factors that put some people from racial and ethnic minority groups at increased risk of Covid-19 (p.1 cdc.gov). 

An additional factor of injustice that has been magnified by the Covid pandemic is homelessness. According to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty discriminatory economic and housing policies, among other variables, have historically led to disproportionate numbers of homeless in people of color. They also point out homelessness puts people at greater risk for covid due to increased difficulty accessing resources. They go on to say that “Homeless individuals infected with Covid 19 will be twice as likely to be hospitalized, two to four times as likely to require critical care, and two to three times more likely to die than the general population” (nlchp.org p.1).
 

As we slowly pull ourselves out of the pandemic, recovery is inequitable as well. The February 12 2021 PBS News article Amid systemic inequality, U.S. salaries recover even as jobs haven’t talks about how people in low-income occupations have been disproportionately affected during the pandemic compared to higher-paying industries. Low-income workers from restaurant, hotel, entertainment, low paying health care, and retail industries. Recent indications have shown that overall, Americans are earning similar wages that they were before the pandemic (Rugaber p.1). The Washington Post reported in September 30th 2020 that groups slowest to recover economically from the pandemic recession are “mothers of school age children, Black men, Black women, Hispanic men, Asian Americans, younger Americans (ages 25 to 34) and people without college degrees “(Long, Van Dam, Fowers, Shapiro p.1). We can see here that a proper recovery from the pandemic will involve dealing with systemic injustice as well as inequality.  

We must and rebuild all of America’s racist intuitions, in government, health care, education, economy, to name a few. In our information and technological age, everyone needs the same access to information and technology. We must work to end poverty. These are just a few things we can do to lessen the social inequity that make events like pandemics especially horrible and tragic. As Martin Luther King believed, “Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly” (King p.1) We are all one human race, interdependent on each other. Injustices arise in the creation and maintaining of inequalities rooted in conceiving human groups as one and the other. Once again, we must remember as Simon de Beauvoir said;

 “Thus it is no group ever sets itself up as the One without at once setting up the Other…against itself” (Beauvoir p.1) 

References; 

 Racial Disparities Already Taking Shape In Covid Vaccination Rates | Rachel Maddow | 

 Removing Barriers Is Key To Getting Vaccine To Underserved Communities | Rachel 

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/01/covid-vaccine-racial-disparities-464387 (Links to an external site.)  

Greenhouse, Steve https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-pandemic-has-intensified-systemic-economic-racism-against-black-americans (Links to an external site.)  

Rugaber, Christopher. Associated Press https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/a-sign-of-stubborn-inequality-u-s-salaries-recover-even-as-jobs-havent (Links to an external site.)  

Long. Heather, Van Dam. Andrew, Fowers. Alyssa, Shapiro, Leslie, https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/business/coronavirus-recession-equality/ (Links to an external site.)  

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/01/covid-vaccine-racial-disparities-464387 (Links to an external site.)
Beuvior, Simone de. The Second Sex Introduction. Bantum Books. 1961
King Jr. Martin Luther. Letter to Birmingham Jail. Harper San Francisco. 1994 

Dembosky, April. https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2021-03-25/current-medical-racism-not-tuskegee-expls-vaccine-hesitancy-among-black-americans 

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-01-14/racial-bias-in-medicine-a-barrier-to-covid-health-equity 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/race-ethnicity.html 

The insurrection of the U.S. Capitol many of us witnessed on January 6th 2021 was a large contrast to the non-violent protests Martin Luther King Jr. And John Lewis participated in during the 1950’s and 1960’s. A small similarity between the two, was the act of marching.What started on that day as a rally and march to the Capitol building became a riot and attack that resulted in death, injuries, and damage that is now considered an act of domestic terrorism.  

The larger contextual commonality between what happened January 6th and the Civil and Human rights movements of King and Lewis involves the social position of Black people in America. It is no coincidence that a placard memorializing Congressman John Lewis was destroyed on January 6th in the Capitol. What happened at the Capitol was not a recent phenomenon stirred up by President Trump, but part of the long tragic story of America, a country built on the exploitation of non-white people here and around the world, through colonization. 

People often think of the Civil Rights movement as something that happened in the 1950’s and 1960’s, but it began hundreds of years ago when the first person resisted coming to America and continues now in such movements as Black Lives Matter, which John Lewis was supportive of. The 2020 protests of the killing of George Floyd brought debate over the effectiveness of non-violent and violent group actions. One can imagine that Martin Luther King Jr. would have much to be proud of now but would be deeply disappointed by the lack of progress in civil rights and the polarization of American citizens. 

King and Lewis were working towards freedom and democracy for all American citizens in general, Black people in particular. Trump supporters involved on January 6th were working for Trumps authoritarian rule, an un-American anti-democratic, White Nationalist agenda. The peaceful transition from one president to another is a symbol of the health of American democracy. 

Does your definition of protest include rioting?  

Does rioting go against what a protest is?  

When it comes to the positive evolution of humanity, which has a larger impact, violence or non-violence?