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- [00:01]
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There is an old African proverb that says the child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth. Malcolm X was one of those children and he saw Meriden burning down the structure of the village that had oppressed him and others like him for centuries. His life and perspective were as polarizing in the 1960s as his death and legacy have been to this day. Some saw him as a passionate political activist intent on rectifying the damage done by constant subjugation from a white supremacist power structure. Some saw him as a vehement separatist content with using violence as a means of enact goals. But one of the most compelling aspects of the life of Malcolm X is that he was so much more than one thing. And his willingness to grow and adapt ironically played a role in why his life was cut short. Growing up in white Christian nationalism, my dad and my church hated and demonized both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X King because of his rumored affairs. Unabashedly ironic considering who the Christian movement supports now and Malcolm X because of his acceptance of violence. He was all the trigger words people throw around today. They called him a radical, they called him a terrorist. Never mind that the KKK has yet to be deemed a terrorist organization. In the Reconstruction era alone, the period leading up to the 1868 election alone, over 2000 murders were committed in Arkansas in connection with election violence. And 1,000 African Americans were killed in Louisiana. Acts included lynching, beating, floggings, mutilations and burning of black schools and churches. This was all done by the kkk, which is still not designated as a terrorist group in Virginia. I knew an elderly woman who would tell me about how when she was going to walk to school to her black school, the sons of Klan members would stone her. No charges were ever pressed. We also see these trigger words used against Malcolm X because he was black, but also because he was Muslim. Think of all the hateful rhetoric spewed towards Zoran Mamdani because of his faith. During my deconstruction, Malcolm X was one of the most eye opening people to learn about. And the older I get, the more I understand the things he said. In the 50s and 60s, Malcolm X was deemed a terrorist while the Klan still was not. The same clan that didn't wait for Malcolm to be born to impact his life. While pregnant with him, Louise Little was fending off harassment from the Ku Klux Klan. While they searched for her husband, Malcolm's father, Reverend Earl Little. Hooded Klansmen came to their House brandishing rifles and shotguns, warning Earl that white Christian people would not tolerate his back to Africa preaching. Malcolm's parents, who were devout followers and hosts of Marcus Garvey, were deemed troublemakers. Malcolm's parents had established a local chapter of Garvey Garvey's United Negro Improvement association, or the unia, whose Pan African ideology was causing an uproar with the federal government, the KKK and Garvey's contemporaries alike. Such teachings of black liberation and empowerment were considered disruptive to the fabric of American subjugation of the Negro race. So anyone preaching such a message was treated as an enemy of the status quo, a terrorist. For someone of Garvey's renowned status and public profile, that meant frivolous charges for mail fraud. But for a lowly black Baptist preacher, it nearly cost him his life. Ear Little took no chances after the Klan's attempt on his life and put his family of four on a train to Milwaukee. After the Little family moved to Lansing, they were targeted by white supremacists because of Malcolm's father Earl Little's Garveyite activism. Their home was burned down by the Black Legion, which was a white supremacist vigil antifascist group active primarily in the American Midwest during the 20s and 30s. The fire department was called and every single white firefighter did nothing. They sat and they watched it burn. Soon after, Earl died, officially ruled a streetcar accident, but widely believed by the family to be a murder. Welfare authorities then pressured and undermined Malcolm's mother, Louise Little. Malcolm recalls that welfare workers frequently visited the home questioning her decisions, disciplining her children for her and in front of her, and treating her as unfit simply for being a poor black woman raising eight children alone. We subsidize the rich white men to the tune of $700 billion a year. But poor black mothers have always been demonized as welfare queens for trying to fe their children. Their oversight was invasive and rather than supportive, it eroded Louise's confidence and authority. Malcolm X would later write, the state people constantly told her what she should do, how she should raise us. They acted as though she was a child. The welfare authorities continued this mistreatment until she suffered a mental breakdown and was committed to a State Hospital in 1939. The children were scattered into foster care. Malcolm, bright but increasingly alienated, grew up between Lansing and Mason until he left Michigan as a teenager to live with his half sister Ella in Boston. Beginning the next May, major phase of his life in Boston and later Harlem, Malcolm plunged into street life drugs, gambling, burglary, until his arrest in 1946. Prison became the hinge of his transformation. He educated himself intensely, converted to the Nation of Islam, emerging after his 1952 release as one of its most influential ministers. His sharp critiques of racism and his charisma brought national attention. But ideology, ideological and personal conflicts with Elijah Muhammad led him to break from the NOI in 1964. His pilgrimage to Mecca broadened. His vision moved him towards orthodox Islam and global human rights approach to black liberation. He founded the Muslim Mosque Incorporated and the Organization of Afro American Unity before being assassinated in 1965. His journey from the trauma of Lansing to international leadership became central to his enduring legacy. Today we'll cover the life, fire and controversy of Malcolm X, a man meant for movement, for change, even if it required violence. I hope this story is as transformative for you as it was for me several years ago. Malcolm X today on Flipping Tables.
- [05:36]
All right. Well, hello and welcome back to Flipping Tables. I'm Monty, your host. Thank you to the recent people who have joined our little coven of curiosity. Thank you for those reviews for the shares of the show. It's been really cool to see this grow. It's been great to see comments and emails and people learning and talking and asking questions. I'm in a new phase of my life. As of two weeks ago, I closed my small business. I am now doing act activism and education full time. And it's been really exciting and really strange. But having a new schedule where I actually have a little breathing room is going to mean a lot more time to make more content, to make things better, kind of upgrade the shows, upgrade what I'm doing. And so just keep an eye out for those. I'll announce things specifically on the podcast, but I'll also be doing things, especially in my Instagram stories. A big thank you to Patreon members. You are the like the power behind the machine that makes all of this run. And again, again, because I don't run a small business anymore, we're going to be doing some extra stuff on Patreon starting in December. So this month, Patreon users are going to get a bonus episode that we are going to stream live. So it's going to be a podcast episode with me live on Patreon. Of course, the recordings will be there as well. We're going to do a lot of really cool, interesting history. I think I'm going to start with the Night Witches, which were the pilots of the Red army that were women who were the most deadly pilots that The Russian army had that we never hear about. And also on Patreon, we're going to start doing some things called Sunday service where we do just like a 20, a 30 minute live stream on Sundays to give people a sense of community. I'm just going to teach a lesson or talk about biblical history. The topics will change. My goal is, I know that a lot of people are feeling really alienated from their church communities in light of what's going on culturally. And a lot of people who walked away from the church still miss the community. So I'm trying to create some of that, even if it's online. And if you are in Tennessee this month, there's going to be some public speaking events as well. I'm going to be emceeing an event on December 11 and some later events. So just again, just stay posted on my Instagram as well as go to montemater.com and on the contact page you can sign up for my weekly newsletter. I usually focus on one really important news item and I give action points. I know a lot of people are like, well, what do I do? How can I help? I give a very simple action point that everybody can do and I have all of my weekly announcements there. Um, but I just wanted to say thank you for making this phase of my life possible. I am now finishing up my book proposal. There's a lot happening, so I'm still extremely busy, but because of closing my business down, I've freed up about five to six hours every day, which is nice and I'm excited to get started. But let's jump into Malcolm X today. I loved learning about Malcolm X when I was deconstructing because again, I had been told my whole life he was a radical and he was a terrorist and all the Islamophobic terminology. And the more I learned about him and the older I get, especially in the movements we're seeing right now. I get it. And I think he was unfairly demonized. I don't agree with him on everything, but I think he's a very honest reflection of what it means to fight against an oppressive system. Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, at the University Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents were Earl Little, a Baptist minister and a handyman, and Louise Little. Originally from Granada in the British West Indies, Earl and Louise's marriage had produced a large blended family. Malcolm was the fourth child of Earl and Louise together. Though Earl had fathered children previously, their home from the beginning was steeped in political identity. The Littles were ardent adherents of the ideas of Marcus Garvey. An active members organization, the Universal Negro Improvement association. Unia, Earl reported, reportedly served as chapter organizer. Louise was involved as well. And throughout this episode. When I'm using the word Negro or colored, I'm only going to use it if it's included in a direct quote or the name of an organization. I know that some people find those words offensive, as do I, because usually they're set in an offensive way. But if I'm using those, it's only because it's the name of an organization or a direct quote from one of the the characters of the members. Marcus Garvey was wildly controversial and made Littles a target. Let's talk about him briefly because it'll help give context to why the Klan was so opposed to his movement. Marcus Garvey was born on August 17, 1887 in St. Anne's Bay, Jamaica into a working class Afro Jamaican family. His father was a stonemason, his mother was a domestic worker and a farmer. From a young age he worked in printing. He became master printer and became involved in labor activism in Kingston in the early 1910s. After traveling through Central America and spending time in England, he returned to Jamaica and in 1914 founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Again that UNIA and also the African Communities League. It's often simply UNIA. In 1916 Garvey moved to United States, to New York city, and by 1917 through 1919 transformed the UNIA into a truly international movement. Throughout the 1920s the UNIA assembled what many historians call the largest mass movement of people of African descent in modern history. Garvey was a charismatic orator, an ambitious organizer and an entrepreneur and a visionary. He combined radical rhetoric with business ventures, publishing, shipping, commerce, all designed to empower black people economically and politically. Garvey's ideas came to be known collectively as Garveyism, which fused Black nationalism, Pan Africanism, economic self help, racial pride and a vision of global unity for people of African descent. Here are some of the core tenets of his teachings. He taught black pride and racial dignity. Garvey argued that people of African descent worldwide should reject the inferiority imposed on them by white dominated societies. He insisted that blackness was not a stigma, but a source of pride, history and shared identity. Global Unity of the African Diaspora Garvey envisioned all people of African descent in the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa as a single family. He urged the diaspora communities to unify economically, politically, socially and transcend national and colonial borders. He preached economic self reliance and institutional building. Rejecting dependency on the white run institutions, Garvey promoted black owned businesses, cooperative economies and trade among black communities worldwide. To that end, he launched enterprises through the UNIA like the Black Star Line, a shipping company meant to link the Americas West Indies and Africa and the Negro Factories Corporation to support black industrial and commercial enterprise. He also advocated for Back to Africa and African Redemption. Garvey preached that African Americans and Afro Caribbean people should consider returning to Africa Africa, either literally or spiritually by reconnecting with their ancestral homeland. He framed this not as retreat, but as a reclamation of selfhood on African soil. He also taught the moral uplift, social solidarity and community building. The UNIA under Garvey provided cultural, social and spiritual community, including youth divisions, women's auxiliaries, social programs and even quasi religious rituals. For many impoverished or marginalized black people, the UNIA offered dignity, belonging, pride and hope. And one of the things I do want to mention this was something I learned in my, my deconstruction when you. Because to my parents credit, even though I grew up very far alt right, very white nationalist, my family would have never even dreamed of having a swastika anywhere. My grandfather who fought in both my grandfathers fought in World War II, as did my adopted grandfather and my grandmother was a wasp. Would have lost their ever loving minds if someone flew a swastika near them or someone did the Hitler salute like so. My family was not there. But there was so much ingrained racism and so many of the, you know, you hear white people give kind of these devil's advocate arguments. It's like, well, why is there a black entertainment channel? Well, why is there black pride and not white pride? Part of the reason, the main part of the reason that until recently we have like the black community or black pride is because, because they were ripped from their homelands and had their heritage and their beliefs and their rituals erased. They didn't know where they came from. There's no such thing as white pride in the sense that I know where I came from. I know that I'm of Scottish, German and Norwegian descent. I know what my heritage is. That's my heritage. And my family, especially the Scottish part of my family, very, very proud of that. But for a lot of black people, especially throughout the history of the United States, had no idea where they came from. And if they kept any of their rituals or their traditions or their religions, they had to hide it within Christianity because the goal of white colonization was to erase their individualism. So there's something that is completely different of coming together as a community because you're being discriminated against based on race and you have no idea who you are. So for those of you, if you've ever wrestled with that or you've heard that argument, that's why it's different. Because until you know, with recent, like DNA tests, there was no way for people who had been stolen from their homeland and sold into slavery to know where they came from. Now they can find out. But prior to this, all they had was their community that was being ostracized by white colonial America. So in Marcus Garvey's own words In a 1921 address, he said the aim of the UNIA was to unite the 400 million Negroes in the world for the purpose of bettering our industrial, commercial, educational, social and political condition. Garveism was not simply a political program. It was a global vision of black solidarity, self determination, human dignity and transformation. While Garvey inspired millions, his vision and methods provoked sharp criticism from within the black community, from other civil rights leaders and from the US government. The controversies fall into several interlocking categories. Obviously, he was advocating for black separatism and racial nationalism. Garvey's insistence on racial separation and eventual repatriation of the diaspora black people to Africa rather than fighting for integration and equality within existing societies, clashed with more assimilationist and integrationist leaders. So many black civil rights leaders thought it was almost cowardly to run away instead of fighting for equality here. Many black leaders believed the struggle for civil rights required working within American or Western political structures. Garvey's separatist vision was seen as retreat or rejecting progress in the West. Number two, he often demonstrated authoritarian leadership and there was problems in the internal UNIA dynamic. Despite the populist rhetoric, Garvey ran the UNIA with tight control and expected strict loyalty. He did not tolerate dissent, even on minor internal matters which created tension and led to defections. His style has been criticized as authoritarian, cult like or demagogic. He also had several business failures and legal troubles. For instance, the Black Star Line and also the fraud conviction. Garvey launched ambitious business ventures, most famously the Black Star Line, to operationalize his vision of black economic independence and Pan African trade. But the Black Star Line was plagued with mismanagement, technical problems and possibly sabotage. Its collapse, coupled with stock sale controversies resulted, resulted in the Garvey's 1923 conviction under U.S. mail fraud laws. Now, to be fair, these were pretty, pretty flimsy trumped up charges because they couldn't get him on Anything else. He was sentenced to print his prison and the legal troubles undermined his credibility. Critics, including both black leaders and mainstream media, accused him of being a charlatan or a con man. For many, the failure of his ventures exposed Garveyism as impractical at best, fraudulent at worst. He also participated in associations with white supremacists when it served his goals. One of the most contentious and morally ambiguous aspects of Garvey's political strategy was his willingness at certain points to entertain cooperation with white supremacist groups when he believed their interests overlapped, namely racial separatism. Garvey was a racial separatist, so this included overtures and reportedly meetings with leaders of white supremacists Ku Klux Klan. And Garvey made a tragic mistake in 1922 when he met with KKK leaders to reassure them that Garveyites and white supremacists shared a common goal of racial purity, that he didn't want to intermix with them and wanted nothing to do with them. Such associations infuriated many in the black community, rightly so. And among civil rights leaders who saw this as a betrayal of black dignity and an acceptance of white racial hatred for strategic expediency. And I agree with them. There was also a cultural and ideological critique, the Westernization versus African authenticity. Though Garvey championed African identity, critics argued that he paradoxically embraced Western cultural cultural trappings like classical music, Western business structures, European dress, Christian religious references, rather than emphasizing African tradition, languages, spirituality and aesthetics. Some scholars see this as evidence that Garvey's worldview remains shaped by colonial mentality while capitalizing off of claiming African authenticity. Additionally, some accused him of promoting racial purity or exclusion of mixed race and lighter skinned black people, complicating the egalitarian rhetoric of the unia. And there does seem to be a fair amount of credible accusations of colorism within the unia. There was also a lot of government surveillance, persecution, and then the eventual collapse of the UNIA influence. Garvey and the UNIA became subjects of intense federal scrutiny. Beginning in 1919, the precursor of the FBI, the U.S. bureau of Investigation carry out a nationwide campaign of surveillance, infiltration and reporting on the UNIA branches across dozens of cities. This goes back to what we see even right now, that anytime there's a group that the government doesn't like what they're teaching, they become like, they kind of like throw the terrorist word at it. We've seen that recently with antifa, which isn't even an organization. The legal prosecution Together with internal dissent, financial failures, and growing distrust led to the decline of the UNIA in the United States. Following Garvey's conviction and deportation in 1927, the organization splintered and lost much of its potency. Despite the controversies, Garvey's influence on black political thought, identity and global consciousness was immense. For many people of African descent in the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa, Garvey represented empowerment, self respect, and the possibility of a collective future beyond the repression of white dominated societies. His vision of the Pan African unity and black economic independence inspired future generations of civil rights leaders and liberation movements, including those associated with the Nation of Islam and later the Black Power movement, and even the cultural religious movement, Rastafarians. This reminds me of the argument that you see online around misogyny and misandry. So you have, like the US Government and white supremacist groups really upset that, that this, this man is teaching black nationalism, black pride, and a rejection of white society as well as resistance to these societies as a whole. We look at the Black Panther movement and there's this claim, oh, they were this violent terrorist organization. But the reality is that movement was a very logical response to hundreds of years of white supremacy, colonialism and oppression. And so when you see these argum, you know, where these men are claiming, you know, complaining about misandry, oh, like these women hating or these men hating women. And the problem is, is that misandry is the very logical response to thousands of years of misogyny. If someone continuously mistreats you, continuously violates your trust, continuously treats you as subhuman, the logical response, like the logical predictable response, is to not like or respect them. And the other difference, and I think that this is a great parallel both between a white nationalist and a black nationalist movement and a misogyny and misandry is the proximity to harm versus the proximity to power. So we'll use the misandry example again. What does misandry cause? Well, it causes women to not like men, right? They avoid men. They might say something mean and hurt their feelings. Misogyny gets women killed. Misogyny is the guy stabbing a woman to death because she ignored his cat call. Misogyny is the husband beating his wife and not going to jail for it. Misogyny actually leads to the oppression, rollback of rights, and death of women. Misandry might cause a man to get his feelings hurt, but in the eyes of misogynists, that is the equivalent of causing them physical harm. And so when you compare the same thing so white nationalist movements versus black nationalist movement. Black nationalism is a logical response to white nationalism. Abusing them, enslaving them, raping them, murdering them. And then they want to claim upset or how dare you not want us around when there's a black nationalist movement or when black people would come together to defend their neighborhoods from violence, White nationalists would say, oh my goodness, they're so violent because you hurt my feelings. You rejected me, you called me out, you said you don't like me. You said I'm a bad person. That is the same to me because I'm so used to privilege. That is the same to me as you causing me physical harm. Harm. The arguments are very much the same where anytime the oppressor is pushed back against at all, it's, it's labeled violence. Anytime their feeling gets hurt, they equate that with violence. And also when you're used to being the oppressor, equality feels like oppression to you because you are so used to privilege and because of the hostility and danger generated by Earl Little's activism. So Malcolm's dad and being associated with this Garvey movement. The Little family did not long remain in Omaha. In December of 1926, when Malcolm was about a year old, the family moved first to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and then eventually to Lansing, Michigan. Once in Michigan, the Littles tried to establish stability, but the racism and hostility followed them. Their house in Lansing was firebombed in 1929 again by that Black Legion white supremacist group when Malcolm was roughly 4 years old. In his autobiography, Malcolm Leader recounted the horror. The house was on fire. White firemen and police arriving, yet doing nothing, standing as the house was consumed in flames. To escape that racial violence, his father built a modest four room house a couple of miles outside of East Lansing on a farm setting where the family tried to raise food and eke out a living through simpler means and just literally try to just be like not involved. We're, we're going to try to stay away from these people. We're going to try not to interact. We're going to mind our own business, which is sad in, in and of its own right that they couldn't safely be part of the community. But even moving outside of town, even trying to just remove themselves from the situation, was not enough for white supremacists. In 1931, when Malcolm was 6, his father Earl died under circumstances that Malcolm and his family believe were no accident. Officially, the death was recorded as a streetcar accident. Ear girl's body was found across streetcar tracks it is very, very likely that he was murdered by white supremacist groups. But in the view of Malcolm and his siblings, the official verdict rang hollow. Given the violent threats and the racial hostility the family had endured, they believed that white supremacists, likely members from groups such as that splinter faction known as the Black Legion, had murdered him. I just want to say really quick, I find it ironic that they call themselves the Black Legion. You would think it would be the White Legion because they're so obsessed with their own mediocre whiteness. I just found that interesting. As Malcolm would later write, that moment marked the beginning of a psychological collapse. He said, quote, some kind of psychological deterioration hit our family circle and began to eat away at our pride. End quote. With Earl gone, the family's economic security vanished. Louise struggled to provide for her eight children. And in the depths of poverty, within limited options and the Great Depression, she sometimes turned to desperation. Malcolm remembered in later life that his mother boiled dandelion greens, gathered from the street to try to feed her children with them. The pressure and despair wore on Luis. By the end of the 1930s, after years of hardship and torment from welfare officials who would demonize her and abuse her children, she suffered that mental breakdown and was committed to a psychiatric hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Once she was institutionalized, the children were dispersed. Siblings were separated and sent to foster homes or relatives across the Midwest. Malcolm, along with several of his brothers and sisters, lost not just their parents, but their home, their community, and their sense of security. In that moment, the house of the Littles, already battered by arson, threats and forced moves, collapsed completely. For Malcolm, his childhood ended. Despite the trauma, Malcolm exhibited intellectual promise in the unstable circumstances in junior high in Mason, after living with a foster family, he excelled. He was academically strong and was even elected class president. Still, that success exposed the deep structural racism of his society. Malcolm later recalled that his teacher, while encouraging white students of lesser ability to strive for professional careers, bluntly told him that law was not a realistic ambition for a black kid, suggesting he should instead become a carpenter. The moment marked a turning point. He realized that no amount of academic achievement would overcome the racial barriers erected by a society built on white supremacy. And so, so true. Like so many of these stories we see where black men and women are required to do two to three times amount, the amount of effort they are required to outperform, outwork, outdo, and they are still considered less than. And I think of this with, you know, because this has been, you know, a big talk this fall with Charlie Kirk and his black pilots coming comment where? And obviously Charlie Kirk was a white supremacist and a racist piece of garbage. But he's like, well, if it's a black pilot, I'm going to wonder if he's qualified. Even though all pilots have to have the same qualifications, the same certifications, like they. There are regulations that apply to every single pilot. But he still, even though a black pilot would meet or excel those requirements, would still be like, he's not as qualified as a white dude. Like, what, what illogical argument of. I'm just gonna assume because this person's white that they're qualified. I don't know if you ever did group projects in high school or college. It was always, I'm a throw shade, I'm gonna do it. This is my experience. I'm gonna speak, I'm gonna say, this is my experience. May not be everyone else's experience. It was always the white dudes that were popular in school or jocks that were the laziest, most unqualified in those classes. I hated having any of those fuckers in my group projects because they wouldn't do anything. And it fell to everyone else, mostly me, to do all the work for them. And they went through like all of their education that way. They were the most mediocre performers. But because of who their dad was or cause they were a white guy, they were given so much extra grace than everyone else was. Whether you were a woman or a person of color, we all had to work twice as hard as they did. And black women have to work four times as hard as any of the rest of us to get the same kind of credibility. So comments like that just show, like, how ingrained white supremacy is this assumption that we assume that a white man is more qualified because of something that he was born into that he didn't earn. Right. You don't pick how you're born. He didn't earn it and he also can't change it. Like it's, it's just, it's so illogical. And it's funny to me how I see those subtle things growing up that I. That you don't understand when you're a little kid. But how there was. There was this assumption of excellent excellence and qualification for white people that was never, ever extended to black people. So in effect, Malcolm's school years, rather than liberating him, deepened his alienation. He said he felt like a, quote, pink poodle, a mascot among white classmates, accepted only as long as he was small, compliant, and not threatening. Even when respected by his peers, he was aware of being treated as a novelty rather than as a full human being equal in worth. And that line right there, as long as he was small, compliant and non threatening. I see so much in our society today how, how especially white white supremacists and Christian nationalists treat people of color but also treat women in general, right? Like you're fine and we'll accept you into our movement, but you gotta sit down, be pretty, shut up and obey. Hate it. Nope, I'll pass, thank you. Gradually disillusioned, Malcolm left school. He felt there was no future for him within a system that valued his labor but denied his dignity, that allowed black faces but rejected black aspirations. This decision to quit school marked another turning point. A psychological shift towards bitterness, mistrust and a sense of abandonment by white Americans. America. By the time Malcolm approached adolescence, his identity was shaped less by stability and more by rupture. The loss of a father, the institutionalization of a mother, the scattering of siblings, the destruction of a home and the constant threat of racial violence all left their marks. At the same time, the early ideological environment established by Earl and Louise, the values of self respect, racial pride, resistance to white supremacy, global consciousness via Garveyism and the unia remained latent and waiting. They would show up for him lately later. That duality, trauma and ideological inheritance formed the psychological and moral soil of Malcolm Little's early years. He learned early and viscerally that being black in America meant vulnerability. He also learned that dignity, self definition and community were not gifts bestowed by a racist society, but values to be defended, claimed and sometimes struggled for. When he was in his mid teens, he eventually moved to Boston to live with his older half sister Ella. Due to his parents, radical for the time, ideas of black Americans deserving equal treatment as Americans and human beings. Malcolm was raised with the belief that the liberation of the mind was the key to liberation of the body. Louise, his mother in particular, imparted the value of knowledge and education, refusing to bow to the inferiority complex that ravaged the black community. She shunned the terms Negro and colored and taught Malcolm and his siblings that the power of non reaction to the N word was their strength, which was obviously thrown around freely at the time in their direction. And I love that, I love that she refuses to accept these words that are, that are trying to like, make her feel inferior and teaches her children, no, we're not responding to that, we're not engaging in that and, and giving them this sense of self worth. This approach would have been appreciated as a beacon for nonviolence who would later become one of Malcolm's ideological rivals. Malcolm arrived in Boston around 1941 to live with Ella. Her home was in Roxbury, near Dudley street, the center of black life in the city. In his autobiography, which is my. My dominant source for this episode, Malcolm recalls that his neighborhood was the first place he saw black people in their own environment. At first, he worked mundane jobs, shining shoes, carrying trays, running errands in bars and dance halls. But those spaces gave him intimate access to hustlers, gamblers, pimps and musicians. Among the most formative places were the Roseland state ballroom and the Harlem Cafe and later the jazz clubs of the south end. They were not merely entertainment spaces. They were ecosystems of shadow economies where money changed hands off ledger reputations were currency and elegance massed exploitation. It was in Boston that Malcolm adopted the Persona Lansing Red that would later became known as Detroit red. He modeled himself after the figures he admired, men whose power came not from institutions but from charisma, threat, confidence and cash. He began selling small quantities of marijuana to musicians who played late sets and needed to stay awake. He learned the numbers racket, an illegal lottery that circulated in the black community long before the state formalized gambling. He observed how pimps controlled women, how fences move stolen goods invisibly through the economy, and how status was earned by risk and displays. Zoot suits, conch straightened hair, shadowy hats and fast speech. While not yet a hardened criminal, Malcolm was now living with street logic, immediate gratification, fast money, moral flexibility in a world that had denied him structure and stability. His real transformation came when he moved to Harlem, New York, around late 1942. There, he said, I was at home. Harlem was larger, sharper and more dangerous than Boston. Here on Lenox Avenue, which is now named Malcolm X Boulevard Boulevard 125th street and 1 35th street, he entered a world of organized vice, prostitution, drug dealing, gambling houses, stick ups and backroom transactions that never touched police records. He worked in several well known establishments, including Smalls paradise, one of the most famous jazz clubs in the world. He sold marijuana to musicians and patrons, moved betting slips for numerous bosses, shined shoes for visiting celebrities, and served as a lookout or a courier for hustlers who trusted his speed and discretion. He was not merely adjacent to crime. He was integrated into its economy. Economy. Malcolm's criminal portfolio grew quickly. He graduated from petty hustles into pimping, introducing women to sex, work and collecting payment from their clients. He learned the psychology of control, how Fear, charm, and manipulation could operate simultaneously. And he saw how poverty made people vulnerable to exploitation and how wealth in Harlem flowed not from stability, but from calculated lawlessness. And one of the things that, again, I think that we learn as we get older, you know, there's again, this. This whole thing of. Of the. The white nationalist, Christian nationalist movement will demonize, you know, oh, well, they were criminals. Well, you should have just obeyed the law. And if you haven't seen it yet, I wish I could remember the name of it. But the Hulu TV show about the Wu Tang Clan. Anyone who knows me, I'm a huge Wu Tang Clan fan. And they really break down their lives. And when you see. Growing up in these environments where you're surrounded by violence, you're surrounded by poverty, people are trying to feed their kids, and you see it play out in real time, it kind of becomes this thing of, well, no wonder. Like, how could you not? If you see an opportunity for fast cash. And again, not saying any of it's right, but I'm saying that there's a huge ecosystem built around specifically poverty, where, if your option is, I can work a day job where I'm not going to make enough money to feed myself and pay rent, or I can work with these guys over here and I can make enough money to pay my rent tonight. Those are extremely compelling circumstances. And I think. I think when we look at crime, and I'm not even going to get into privatized prisons, which is just crazy. But for profit prisons is just a human rights violation, in my opinion. But we cannot address conversations around crime unless we're willing to address conversations around poverty. Malcolm's rise was steep, and so was his fall. After conflict with a Harlem drug supplier, he returned to Boston, but with greater ambition and a lot less moral breaks. He assembled a burglary team that targeted wealthy homes in Beacon Hill and Back Bay neighborhoods whose wealth contrasted sharply with the poverty of Roxbury, where he lived. Sorry. Roxbury. His partners were also hustlers with specialized skills. Shorty Jarvis was a safe man and his closest companion, Rudy, was a seduction thief who robbed wealthy white women. I'm seeing a crime show episode there, Sammy. Quote, the pimp was a fence and an underworld broker. The crew broke into upscale residences, stole jewelry and valuables, moved them through Boston's criminal circuit. Mal Malcolm studied layouts, casing houses while working as a waiter in downtown hotels. His intelligence, later lauded as revolutionary, was in this period, applied to criminal logistics. This period was intense, profitable, reckless, and short lived. Malcolm later Described himself as, quote, high all the time on power, women, weed and speed. It was the height of Detroit Red's life and the brink of his destruction. In January of 1946, law enforcement caught up with him. He and Shorty were arrested. Two white female accomplices confessed under questioning, testifying against the young men. Race played a role. White men who committed similar crimes often received lighter sentences. But Malcolm received eight to 10 years in state prison. Entering Charleston State Prison and later Norfolk Prison colony. The street life ended abruptly. Detroit Red died there. Malcolm X would later be born. Malcolm, who would later reject this entire phase of his life. He called it wasteful, degrading and spiritually numb. Yet it was foundational in Boston and Harlem. He learned how power functions outside of the law, how class and race shape opportunity, how charisma, intelligence and discipline can move people, how systems exploit the poor and how the poor adapt to that. Inmate number 22843 was booked and photographed in prison on February 27th of 1946. And before we get into his time in prison and his conversion to Islam, it's time for our first of two mid show sponsor breaks. If you don't want to hear these ads, please sign up to be an accomplice on patreon@patreon.com Monty Mater. This episode is brought to you by Ground News. I love the alerts from Ground News because between the breaking news page and my customizable for you page, I often see headlines might have otherwise missed. That helped me get a clearer picture of the whole story. Last month, Pete Heath said, quote, kill them all in response to two survivors clinging to a, quote, suspected narcotics boat who were then in short order executed. There has been no evidence that any of the boats off the coast of Venezuela had drugs on them. Nobody was arrested. Nobody was given due process. Some were confirmed civilian fishermen. These are war crimes. This is murder. The Trump administration has said it's about drug. Drugs. Well, I mean, mostly. But many Central and South American leaders have said it's about something else entirely. Oil. Venezuelan oil. Matter of fact, Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican representative from Florida, said in a live interview that going into Venezuela was going to generate, quote, billions for U.S. oil companies. No comment about drugs. No comment about democracy. The entire conversation was about oil. Then, as this is all happening, the headline I would have missed without ground newspaper popped up in the midst of all this. 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You can do the same customizing your own for you page and never missing an alert by subscribing to ground news news.com tables for 40% off their vantage plan. It comes to $5 a month. And welcome back. Hope you enjoyed those ads. Hope you find something interesting that you can use. Let's get back to Malcolm X. Malcolm entered prison wholly unprepared for the stark reality that lay ahead. He was 21 years old, hardened by street life, addicted to hustling, and motivated by survival rather than ideology. His mind, as he later wrote, was quote, caged long before my body ever was. End quote. Yet it was behind bars that the man who would become Malcolm X was born. His transformation from Detroit red the hustler to disciplined thinker to devoted follower of Elijah Muhammad remains one of the most dramatic intellectual metamorphoses in American history. He describes this early period as one dominated by rage, profanity, and a hard facade developed from years in Boston and Harlem underworlds. He argued constantly with guards, mocked chaplains, and viewed religion, Christianity especially, as hollow moral decoration. His literacy was shallow, vocabulary untrained and intellectual. Common confidence underdeveloped. Malcolm's transformation to Norfolk prison colony marked a turning point. Norfolk was radically different from Charleston. It held a library of tens of thousands of books, supported debate clubs, educational programs and programs for self directed learning. Malcolm, in his autobiography, describes discovering a new world inside the library, one where the boundaries of his vocabulary became a barrier. He could physically feel his transformation began with reading and man, do I support every prison having a library library and prisoners getting educational opportunities. That I think is the number one way. One of the, I mean maybe not the number one way, but like one of the best ways to help people give themselves a better future. So much of the dumb shit we do is from lack of education and lack of opportunity. I so support this when I, when I'm, when I'm super, super rich, I'm going to sponsor libraries. He copied the entire dictionary page by page to rebuild his language from scratch. I want to say that again. He copied the entire dictionary so he could rebuild his language from scratch. He read history, philosophy, linguistics, religion, sociology and economics. He can see he consumed W.E.B. dubois, H.G. wells, Herodotus, Spinoza, Kant, Nietzsche, Gandhi and the life of Frederick Douglass. He studied black history, obsessively writing to the Library of Congress, requesting materials. The reading stripped away the illusions. In his autobiography, Malcolm writes, quote, for the first time I might life. I looked back into history and I saw the white man as the devil. End quote. If you hear that and it makes you upset, calm down, calm down. There's an arc here. There's an arc here. And honestly, Malcolm's again, hatred towards white people and Christianity. Do not blame him. I do not blame black people that have animosity towards a white person or towards Christianity, especially because Christianity was twisted and used as an excuse to subjugate and abuse them. I do not blame them. When I think of about, if, if I was born black, I.
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I don't think I would have the moral, the moral and character fortitude to not hate white people in Christianity. I think I. I think I would carry so much anger and resentment, especially seeing them continue to perpetrate these crimes and these harms or pretend like they're. They don't matter. Oh, why don't you get over it? Slavery was so long ago. Do you throat punch, Immediate throat punch, like, it is amazing to me the grace and the love that black people can carry in spite of all this. I don't think I would be that big of a person, like just being a hundred percent honest. Don't think I would be the bigger man. I don't think. I think I would carry so much hatred and animosity. It's one of the. There was a quote, and I have no idea who originally said this, and I've heard it said with black people. I've heard it said with women. It's like, be thankful they want equality and not revenge. And that resonates with me. That resonates with me. Anyways, this was not yet a theological doctrine, but it was intellectual rebellion. History, as Malcolm read it, was a record of European conquest, slavery, colonization and cultural domination. Christianity appeared not as a liberating faith, but as a companion to the empire. And historically this has unfortunately been true. And this made me think of the fact that when slavers were forcing their slaves into Christianity, which is what they did, they had their own version of the Bible called the slave Bible, Bible that they removed, like most of Exodus and any. Any chapter or passage that talked about freedom or redemption. So obviously they didn't want Exodus in there where the slaves get free, because they didn't want their slaves getting ideas about being free and treated like humans or that God would step in to defend them and redeem them. Malcolm had been exposed to Christianity through childhood, but in prison, he severed ties consciously and permanently. He came to see the religion of the United States as hypocritical. It preached brotherhood while sanctioning slavery, Jim Crow lynching, and system destruction of black families, including his own. To Malcolm, Christianity was less a moral system and more a political instrument of white supremacy. And unfortunately, historically, he's correct. And if you are a Christ follower, I have so many Christ followers that follow my podcast. I love you. I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about Christian nationalism as a whole. White nationalism that was married into the power of the Christian religion to use it to exploit people. He's absolutely right. And Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, if he could appear and have a conversation about this, would be furious at what white people that were hungry for power and money did to his teachings and to his followers. In Malcolm's own words, he said, quote, the white man's Christianity is deceitful, hypocritical, and has kept us blind for centuries. Scholars note that Malcolm's critique paralleled anti Christian sentiment emerging from black nationalist thought, resistance theology, and postcolonial critique. Christianity and Malcolm's developing worldview was not merely a religion. It was a psychological weapon. And again, historically, he's correct. He's correct. And that is something that all of us who love the teachings of Christ have to get real honest with. We have to get real honest with what Christianity has been used to do to people. Because Christianity was responsible for the Inquisitions, the witch trials, the Holocaust, because people have hijacked this religion, religion, and it's been allowed to happen. So for people who, whether you believe Jesus was divine or not, if you are a Christ follower or honor Christ teachings, it is our job to advocate that those people not be able to hijack these beliefs, to use them for abuse. Malcolm's intellectual transformation dovetailed with a spiritual invitation. While incarcerated, he received letters from his siblings, most importantly Filbert, Wilfred and Reginald, urging him to consider the teachings of the Nation of Israel, Islam and its leader, Elijah Muhammad. They wrote that true liberation for black people could only come through Islam and a separation of white from white society. The Nation of Islam or the NOI emerged in the early 1930s as both a religious movement and a response to the psychological, economic and spiritual devastation that black Americans faced after centuries of enslavement and Jim Crow oppression under leaders like Elijah Muhammad. The Noi taught that traditional American institutions, especially Christian Christianity, capitalism and government, had failed black people and were tools of white supremacy. They're not wrong. The Nation framed Islam as the true religion of black people stolen during slavery and argued that reconnection to this identity could restore dignity, discipline and self worth. Their theology blended scripture with black nationalist history, declaring that black men were the original men and that liberation would come not through integration with white society, but through reclaiming separation, sovereignty and self determination. The NOI believed that the only genuine path to black liberation because. Excuse me. The NOI believed it was the only genuine path to black liberation because it addressed what they saw as the root of oppression, mental colonization. They argued that freedom required more than laws. It required a transformation of identity through strict moral disciplines, economic independence, control of black institutions and the rejection of white cultural authority. They taught that black people could rebuild themselves without relying on those who had historically oppressed them. Where integrationist movements pursued equality within America, the Nation of Islam message insisted on something more recognized, radical. Not acceptance, but self ownership of body, mind, history and spiritual destiny. This was the first time Malcolm had encountered Islam as an alternative to Christianity. And significantly, it came not through scripture but through a distinctly black nationalist framework which he was raised under. The NOI doctrine presented the white race as inherently oppressive, the black race as original and divine, and the Christian west as a corrupt civilization. And again, it's interesting here because again, people be like, what? How dare they say that this one race is divine? I'm like, yo, like white Christians have been doing this that for hundreds of years. So calm down, calm down, deal with the, you know the plank in your own eye before you address the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye. Malcolm resisted this at first, but the idea haunted him. In solitary reflection, he came to believe that his anger, addiction, crime and imprisonment were evidence of a life lived blindly under the structure of white domination. In 1948, Malcolm knelt on his prison floor, prayed for the first time, and submitted to the spiritual discipline of the Nation of Islam. He quit smoking, drinking and profanity. His mind reorganized around purpose. He wrote to Elijah Muhammad long before they met in person. And Muhammad responded, encouraging Malcolm to continue reading, studying and recruiting others. Inside the prison, Malcolm became a devout student. He debated fellow prisoners, evangelized from the teachings, and expounded his his command of history, economics and global politics. Malcolm was paroled in 1952 after six years behind bars. His transformation was unmistakable. Detroit read the hustler, the burglar, the addict was gone. His name was now Malcolm X. The ep. The X represented stolen African ancestry and erased tribal roots. Within months, he rose rapidly within the Nation of Islam, becoming its most powerful minister, orator and recruiter. The seeds of global revolution were planted inside a prison cell. For nearly 12 years, he served as the most recognizable voice of the Nation of Islam, credited with expanding its membership from a few thousand to tens of thousands. The same qualities that made Malcolm invaluable Intellectual intensity, organizational discipline and fierce independence eventually led to a rapid rupture. His split from the Nation of Islam in 1964 and his subsequent pilgrimage to Mecca were not sudden transformations but a culmination of evolving worldview disillusionment and spiritual rebirth. Malcolm first joined the Nation of Islam while imprisoned in the late 1940s and under Elijah Muhammad's guidance. He embraced the strict discipline, the rejected rejection of destructive habits of his early life and immersed himself in black nationalist theology. Upon his release again, he became a minister of several key mosques in Detroit, Boston and Harlem. And through public debates, television appearances and fiery rhetoric, he brought the movement to the national stage. At the height of its influence, Malcolm was the Nation of Islam's most effective recruiter and ideological architect. Yet beneath the surface, the theological and strategic tension was building. And I also think that the Nation of Islam within the US Specifically, being a black liberation, black nationalist movement and Malcolm X participation in it is part of the severe Islamophobia that we now have, especially from Christian nationalism and white supremacist groups. I don't think it's as much to do with. With Islam as long as it's far away. But when Islam became associated with black liberation, it. They kind of grouped it in with all the things that they hate. And that's just. That's just personal opinion. First, Malcolm began to question the Nation's political isolation. Elijah Muhammad discouraged participation in civil rights activism and refused coalition with other black leaders. Malcolm, increasingly aware of the brutality of police repression in Birmingham and the courage of grassroots organizers, believe that black nationalism could not remain spiritually. It must become politically active. To Malcolm, separation without strategy became stagnation. Second, a personal crisis deep in the divide between Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. Because Malcolm discovered that Elijah Muhammad had fathered children with several of his young secretaries. Of course, like these man spiritual leaders man, just every time it was. This was A serious violation of moral authority inside an organization that was built on sexual discipline. Malcolm, consumed, considered this a huge betrayal. In his autobiography, Malcolm describes this revelation as spiritually devastating. His faith in Muhammad is a divinely guided leader fractured, and the organization's demand for silence. So the organization, like so many religious organizations, was like, no, don't say anything. They were just going to hide it, sweep it under the rug. Malcolm said, no. The final break, however, came in late 1963 when Malcolm commented publicly on President Kennedy's assassination, saying it was, quote, chickens coming home to roost, end quote. On December 1st of 1963, about two weeks after Kennedy's assassination, Malcolm responded to that question, to a question about the meaning of the murder, by saying that phrase in his own explanation. Later, Malcolm clarified that he was not celebrating the assassination, but asserting that the killing was a predictable response of decades of US Violence, both at home and abroad, towards black people and oppressed peoples globally. He argued that the assassination was the manifestation of broader systems of oppression, not an isolated tragedy. In his words to the interviewer Louise Lomax, he said, quote, I did not say that Kennedy's death was a reason for rejoicing. Rather, I meant that the death of Kennedy was the result of a long line of violent acts, the culmination of hate and suspicion and doubt in this country, end quote. It makes me think of the phrase, if you live by the sword, you die by the sword. He framed Kennedy's death as a kind of divine or moral reckoning, a sign that years of oppression, state violence, racism, and foreign interference would eventually return home, often violently. As he put it, quote, the white man has planted the seeds of hatred, and now those same weeds have choked one of its own garden. Nurse. That's. That's powerful. Elijah Muhammad responded by silencing Malcolm for 90 days, a public humiliation that revealed Malcolm's rising influence had become a threat to Elijah. In March of 1964, Malcolm formally left the Nation of Islam and founded the Muslim Mosque Incorporated, followed later by the Organization of Africa Afro American Unity. His goal expanded beyond religious instruction. He now sought global solidarity, black political autonomy and human rights. Recognition, recognition. The true transformation began when Malcolm traveled to the Middle east and North Africa, culminating in his pilgrimage to Mecca. To Mecca, which is called Hajj. This journey dismantled assumptions that had shaped his earlier racial worldview. In Mecca, he witnessed Muslims of all colors, African, Arab, European, Asian, eating, praying, and living together without a hierarchy. He wrote, quote, I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of Their color. End quote. He consumed the experience not as a symbolic unity, but as lived proof that racism was not universal. It was American. In his letters, Malcolm expressed shock at being treated with dignity by white Muslims, contradicting his previous beliefs that all white people were irredeemably oppressive. Islam, unfiltered by American racism, expanded his understanding of human community. And that story where he. He's shocked that a white person is treating him with respect reminds me of a really good friend of mine I made in New York in my early years there. And he was. He's a musician and a producer, just a credible human being. And we were sitting on the train talking and chatting and laughing, and I was still like a very devout, like, still very Christian nationalist. But I was starting my deconstruction. And he turned and looked at me and he was like, I want you to know that you're the first white person who's ever been kind to me. And I. I just sat there because what do you say to that? And in my head, and again, as I'm deconstructing these issues, I'm like, why is the world like this? How is it that this. This young man in his 20s, it's the first time a white person has treated him with respect, especially when so many have said white people consider themselves Christians. When Malcolm returned to the United States, he was no less committed to black liberation, but his framework had shifted from national to internationalism. He still condemned white supremacy, but no longer believed it was biologically inherent. His new goal was to bring the struggle of African Americans before the global community, reframing civil rights as human rights. His split from the Nation of Islam was not a rejection of black pride, but an evolution beyond the limits of separationism. He was growing and learning. Mecca transformed him from a domestic revolutionary into a global one. Malcolm X did not die the same man he was when he entered the Nation of Islam. His evolution, sharpened in prison, realized in Mecca, and tested in Harlem, is one of the most dramatic ideological transformations in American civil rights history. The shift was not one of just character, but of worldview. His discipline and fire never faded. What changed was the direction of that fire and the scale of his vision. And I want to do a little comparison of how Malcolm X grew in his belief and how he changed so. Prior to his journey to Mecca, while he was part of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm taught that white race was intrinsically oppressive, that race racism was biological and an inherent defect of white nature. He taught that the world was framed as oppositional binaries. Black equals victimized. White equals oppressor. And this was where he said, quote, the white man is the devil. After Mecca, he no longer believed that all white people were inherently evil. Racism became structural and historical, not genetic. He accepted that sincere solidarity across race was possible under just conditions. And that was where he said, I saw all colors from blue eyed blondes to black skinned Africans worshiping as one. In regards to black liberation prior to Mecca, he focused on black separation and internal independence, believed that integration was a trap, that equality must equal total, excuse me, equality must equal total autonomy. He also saw solutions were domestic and insular to the Nation of Islam. Post Mecca, he advocated for global political alignment. Africa, Asia, Middle east and Latin America. He saw black freedom as part of a worldwide anti colonial movement. And he began to work to bring us racism before the United nations as a human rights violation. We're going to get to that in a second. He also changed his attitude towards religion. Pre Mecca, Islam was interpreted through the structure of the Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad was viewed as divinely guided. He fused his theology with black nationalism, not universalism. And after Mecca, he practiced orthodox Sunni Islam and focused on unity of humanity under one God. His faith expanded beyond on race, spiritual but not racial brotherhood. He also changed his rhetoric and tone to a degree. Prior to Mecca, Malcolm was blunt, militant and confrontational. He served as the necessary fire to shake black America awake. He would say things like, quote, by any means necessary. And he said, we are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with us. Post Mecca, he remained militant, but strategic and diplomatic. He paired his fire, which was so necessary, with vision and added political sophistication. So he said, quote, I am for truth no matter who tells it. I'm for justice no matter matter who it's for or against. All that said, Malcolm X reshaped the political imagination of black America. While Martin Luther King Jr. Was appealing to conscience, Malcolm appealed to power and to the millions who felt that polite appeals were insufficient for survival. He legitimized anger as a political force and gave structure to black urban frustration, which again is so important, the anger is so justified. And when you, we can't act like that anger is not justified. And when we subjugate that anger or we pretend that the anger is the problem, we're not actually willing to deal with the anger issues. His presence in the movement forced white America to recognize that the demand for equality was not a request, it was a warning. Malcolm's insistence on self defense was perhaps his most radical departure from the mainstream. He famously argued, and I Quote, I don't call it violence when it's self defense. I call it intelligence. And amen. Right? How many of these black groups and Malcolm X himself were called violent and radical? Even the Black Panther Party when they were started as a way to protect their own neighborhoods from violence. That's not violence, that's self defense. This was a direct response to the brutal patterns of police assaults, lynchings, racial terror that continued even during the peak of nonviolent civil rights demonstrations. In Malcolm's view, to demand obedience to non violence while black communities were attacked was an act of political containment, not moral clarity. His philosophy empowered younger activists who felt unprotected, the same youth who later formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, militants and the Black Panther Party. Malcolm also widened the scope of struggle beyond bus boycotts to D or desegregation. He framed the black condition not merely as a civil rights issue, but as a global human rights struggle. Linking African Americans to anti colonial movements around the world. He declared, we are fighting for the right to be human beings. Amen. This global framing influenced the Pan African thought, Afro Caribbean revolutionaries and liberation theology across the black world. The Black Panthers later adopted his internationalist model model establishing diplomatic relationships with China, Algeria, Cuba and Vietnam, something that originated with Malcolm, not king. Malcolm's philosophy evolved over time, but several core beliefs defined his public message. He remained consistent with self determination that black people must control their own communities, businesses, education and politics. He said, quote, nobody can give you freedom. If you're a man, you take it. End quote. And I'll add, if you're, if you're a woman, you take it too. Number two, he was always consistent with self defense. He rejected the idea that oppressed people must endure assault without responsibility response. He said, quote, I am for violence if nonviolence means we continue postponing a solution, end quote. He also advocated consistently for mental liberation. Oppression begins in the mind through shame, invisibility and white centered narratives. He said, quote, we didn't land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us, end quote. He also consistently focused on internationalism, that black Africans were part of a global African family, not an isolated minority. And he said, quote, the black man's struggle is international, end quote. He advocated for truth over comfort. Malcolm believed that revolution required honesty even when it frightened people. And I so agree. We need the anger, we need the bluntness, we need the honesty. And that was also when he said, I am for truth no matter who tells it. I am for justice no matter who it is for or against. These ideas did not Replace the integrationist movement. They forced it to grow and I think they forced it to be a little more honest. I'm going to get into that in a second. King himself would later adopt more radical language after Malcolm. Malcolm's rise. Pushing beyond mere desegregation into poverty, war, economic critiques. Malcolm changed the temperature of the era. And I do believe that it was really Malcolm's influence that caused King to so adamantly oppose the Vietnam War. But it was his push to get the UN to condemn the US for human rights violations against African Americans that would get him killed. Malcolm was like, okay, you're not going to do something about it. I'm going to take this to the United Nations. Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1960 at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. Shot more than 20 times by multiple gunmen. Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted. But historical evidence strongly suggests the story is incomplete. By the time of his death, Malcolm had made powerful enemies. The Nation of Islam leadership threatened by his departure and rising influence. The nypd, specifically the Bossy Division were monitoring him extensively. The FBI, cointelpro, which labeled him as a threat to national security because of course they did. And the CIA interest due to his growing alliances in Africa and the Middle East. Multiple sources confirm heavy state surveillance. The FBI had wiretapped Malcolm's phones, infiltrated organizations, recorded speeches speeches and monitors as travel. The NYPD stationed undercover officers in the Audubon Ballroom the day of his death. The CIA was monitor monitoring his international meetings post Mecca and tracked African alliances. They were going to make sure he couldn't take this to the un. Declassified Council Pro Declassified COINTELPRO documents show that the FBI and the NYPD had informants inside Malcolm's inner circle, including in the room the day he was killed. The law enforcement, the FBI and NYPD had people in the room like I don't. I don't buy that as coincidence at all. Two men, the two men that were convicted for the murder were exonerated in 2021 after spending 50 years in prison. With the court acknowledging that the FBI and the NYPD withheld evidence that could have cleared cleared them. Moreover, Malcolm himself predicted his fate. He said, quote, it is the government, the system that will try to kill me. They will just use others to do it. The state had motive. Malcolm was advancing, advancing towards the petition to the United nations to condemn the US for crimes against black people. No other civil rights leader posed such a direct diplomatic threat to the American global credibility during the Cold War. His Assassination halted that trajectory. In the. In the words of Rage against the Machine, networks at work, keeping people calm. You know, they murdered X and tried to blame it on Islam. He turned, turned the power to the have nots. And then came the shot. And that's from their song wake Up. Rage against the Machine is one of my favorite bands of all time. Malcolm X's legacy reverberates across decades. The Black Panthers called him their ideological father. Nelson Mandela credited Malcolm for shaping his revolutionary identity. Contemporary abolitionist thinkers like Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, that's Tupac's mother, Cornel west draw from his critique of state violence. Hip hop culture resurrected him as a symbol of resistance. His autobiography, which I highly recommend you read, remains one of the most influential political memoirs in black America. Malcolm did not offer comfort. He offered clarity. And often, you know, I. Comfort is the enemy of change. And I think that that is so important that he made people uncomfortable. He made America look at itself without myth and without sugarcoating it. He held up a mirror to power and power blinked. His impact is not measured in laws past, but in mind sharpened posture straightened and the refusal of black people to negotiate their duty, dignity. Malcolm X taught a generation that freedom is not granted. It is claimed. He died at 39, but his voice never has. And before I get into a little bit more of a deep dive of the FBI surveillance on Malcolm X, this is our second of two mid show sponsor breaks again. If you do not want to hear these ads, you can get the entire catalog ad free on patreon@patreon.com montemater Marshall's.
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All right, let's talk about. Let's talk about the FBI real quick. So the FBI opened a formal file on Malcolm X in March of 1953, two years after his release from prison when he was becoming a prominent minister in the Nation of Islam. Surveillance continued beyond his assassination into the early 1970s. The file ultimately ran thousands of pages. Around 3,600 pages were later compiled and published as Malcolm X, the FBI file. From those files and related research, we were able to identify that there was telephone taps and mail monitoring. The FBI reports repeatedly referred to monitored phone calls, intercepted communications and reports from informants summarizing his activities and travel that there was physical surveillance. Agents recorded his speeches, rallies, mosque activities, travels across the US and abroad. The surveillance file tracks his movements and public statements from 1953 to his death in 1965. They targeted his organizations. After he broke with the NOI, the FBI opened a separate file on the Muslim mosque incorporated and monitored the organizations of Africa, Afro American Unity as part of its, quote, black nationalist hate groups. So amazing to me that a black nationalist group is a hate group. But again, the KK K still not a hate group. Okay. Within cointelpro, the FBI laid out explicit goals for the operation against black nationalist leaders and organizations. They said to, quote, expose, disrupt, misdirect and discredit and otherwise neutralize black nationalist groups and to, quote, prevent the rise of Messiah who could unify and electrify the militant black nationalist movement. And I will. I will. Christian nationalists translate that. We want to make sure that they don't realize that they can stand up and defeat us. And so we're going to make them and to terrorists. Malcolm X clearly fit that Messiah profile. He was charismatic, militant, increasingly international and independent of white liberal influence. They also. Most of the COINTELPRO activity peaked after his death. The methods the Burrow Bureau used against black leaders were well documented. They used infiltration, planning, informants and agents inside groups. Again, they had officers in the room when Malcolm was shot. Sometimes those informants even rose to leadership roles. They use psychological warfare such as anonymous letters, forged documents, rumor campaigns and attempts to sow division and paranoia within the groups. They use provocation and disruption, encouraging international rivalry, internal rivalries, conflicts and splits between the leaders of organizations. For example, between Malcolm and the NOI or between different national currents. Researchers like Claiborne Carson and Manning Marable argue that based on the FBI file that Malcolm was not just watched but actively targeted for neutralization. Especially after he left the NOI and began building his own organization. So let's talk about the original convictions. After Malcolm X was assassinated at The Autobahn Ballroom, February 21, 1965, three men associated with the Nation of Islam were convicted. There's Tamaj Hair, AKA Mujahid Abdul Halim, who admitted involvement. Norman Butler later Muhammad Aziz denied involvement. Thomas Johnson, later Khalil Islam, who denied involvement as well. For decades, historians and journalists raised doubts about the guilt of Aziz and Islam, noting contradictions, shaky identifications and the fact that Hayer later swore they were innocent. And named other menace's accomplices. They were not exonerated until 2021. In November of 2021 and reinvestigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's office, the Innocence Project and civil rights lawyers led to the vacating of the convictions of Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam. The key points from that reinvestigation is the DA acknowledged that both the FBI and the NYPD had withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense and the court. They withheld material, including police reports naming other suspects and witness statements that did not place Aziz or Islam at the scene or that contradiction or that contradicted the prosecution's theory. A 2024 federal opinion summarizing the case notes the FBI NYPD employees concealed evidence of Aziz and Islam's innocence, calling it a serious breach of law and public trust. And again, it is so unfortunate that in the justice system in the United States this is so common. If you have not read Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, I highly recommend it because it's. It's not just about, you know, black people getting longer sentences than white people who commit the same crimes, but it's about intentionally framing, withholding evidence, putting people on diseases death row. Highly recommend you read it. This does not legally prove that the FBI organized or ordered the assassination, but it does prove that federal and local law enforcement manipulated the case intentionally. They knowingly let the false conviction stand and they protected undisclosed suspects and informants whose identities are not fully public. Even now there are several lines of evidence that suggest that state linked interference with Malcolm's security and the investigation. Obviously there was heavy infiltration of Malcolm's organizations FBI files. Later research confirmed that Malcolm's circles, including the Muslim Muslim mosque contained multiple informants feeding information back to the Bureau and the nypd. The fact that the NYPD had undercover officers inside the Audubon ballroom, the identities and full reports of those officers were not disclosed to the defense at trial. And then there's been recent testimony by former security guards. In 2024, two former security team members, including Khalil Salar said publicly alleged that they were falsely arrested by the NYPD just days before the assassination, effectively stripping Malcolm of crucial protection he needed. Saeed and argued that it was part of a coordinated effort by the NYPD and possibly the FBI to ensure Malcolm's vulnerability at the Audubon. And then there was known FBI focus on preventing, quote, black messiahs. They just didn't want black leaders that could rally African Americans to actually advocate for equality and civil rights. Cointelpro memos explicitly speak of the need to prevent the rise of a black leader who could unify and electrify the movement. Malcolm was exactly that kind of figure, especially after Mecca when his influence became more international and less easily demonized. Taken together, historians like Manning, Marable and journalists writing for outlets like the Jacobin and others argue that at minimum federal and local agencies created an environment where Malcolm was heavily penetrated by informants deprived of security, falsely implicated others and shielded unnamed figures from exposure. A pattern that looks less like passive observation and more like strategic containment and damage control. So what the record supports Malcolm X was a major coin tower pro. There was intentional withholding of evidence allowing false convictions to stand. We know that the NYPD removed his security days before the assassination, that they had undercover officers inside the room when he was assassinated. But we really can't say with 100 certainty that they had him assassinated. But that would be my bet. That would, that would be my bet because I don't believe in that many coincidences. Especially when they are so afraid of a leader who could unite the civil rights movement. And, but, and to end here I kind of want to talk a little bit about Malcolm X versus Martin Luther King as far as what their ideologies were and their impact on the civil rights movement and why. I think Malcolm X deserves a little bit more of our attention and a little bigger slice of the pie if you will. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Are often portrayed especially in their lifetimes as opposites. One preached nonviolence, the other self defense. One sought integration, the other separation. One appealed to America's conscience, the other challenged America's legitimacy. But history is more complex than a caricature. And though they were born of different traditions and strategies, both men ultimately envisioned a future rooted at the same core demand full human dignity for black people without compromise or delay. And their paths began, they did begin very far apart but move steadily and kind of eerily toward convergence in the final months of their lives. So Martin Luther King Jr. Moral transformation through nonviolence. King's ideology was rooted in Christianity, Gandhian non violence and the belief that racial racial justice could be achieved by appealing to the moral conscience of the American nation. His vision was integrationist, a future where black and white live side by side. He said, quote, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And this is from his letter from Birmingham jail. He believed that America could be redeemed through democratic pressure, nonviolent protest and policy reform. Malcolm X on the other hand, liberation through power and self determination. Malcolm again shaped by his street struggle, state violence, black nationalism. Of course, encountering all those issues with the KKK early in his life, arguing that freedom required power, not permission, he distrusted integration narratives and viewed American institutions as inherently anti black. He said, quote, you don't integrate with a sinking ship. And his early worldview acknowledged the legitimacy of self defense and favored political separation instead of assimilation into a white society. Again, the turning point was Malcolm's break from the nation of Islam, particularly his trip to Mecca. After his pilgrimage to Mecca, his worldview expanded beyond racial absolutionism. He no longer believed that all white people were inherently evil. He embraced global anti colonial struggle, Sunni Islam and human rights as universal. This shift opened ideological doors that had once been closed. Malcolm began pushing for alliances between beyond the nation of Islam. He sought to work with King, the sncc, African revolutionaries and even white leftists, which was a huge change for him. Under a human rights framework rather than purely nationalistic one. He saw and understood that this could be a global movement in know that this was structural and it was historical, it wasn't genetic. He was evolving from a revolutionary separatist to a revolutionary internationalist. Meanwhile, between 1965 and 1968, King's worldview had slightly grown more militant. Birmingham, Selma, Watts, Vietnam, each exposed the limits of moral persuasion. America responded to non violence with dogs, bombs, assassinations and war. Again, it's interesting, like we see all these pictures from the civil rights movement where they're unleashing like German shepherd words on peaceful protesters. But as soon as those protesters arm themselves are pushed back, they're the violent ones. It's, it's just gaslighting. King began to question capitalism, militarism and u. S Imperial power. His final campaigns emphasized poverty, police violence and systemic economic exploitation. Issues that were long central to Malcolm's critique. In 1967, Martin Luther King said, quote, the movement must evolve from civil rights to human rights rights. That statement could have easily come from Malcolm. And here's where they converged. So despite never having a collaboration they eventually envisioned which was their goal before Malcolm x was assassinated, their philosophies grew closer than ever near the moment of Malcolm's assassination. And they converged on three central ideas. Human rights over civil rights. They began to understand that the black struggle was, was a global fight against oppression. These were not about civil rights. This was human rights. I agree. Number two, economic justice as essential to liberation. It wasn't just about voting rights, which I'm so devastated that the voting Rights act of 1965 is essentially getting gutted. By the Trump administration. But it wasn't just about voting rights, but wealth, housing, land, food, wages, and health care. All economic justices needed to be given as part of liberation. And number three, operas up. Excuse me. And number three, they both agreed on opposition to American militarism and imperialism. Malcolm after Mecca and King during Vietnam, both confronted US power directly. So there's evidence that Malcolm had sought a meeting with King in 1965. They crossed paths once, very briefly, Malcolm approached King to tell him he supported the movement despite tactical differences. Those present said King smiled, almost surprised they were no longer opponent opponents. They were compliments, two halves of the same liberation struggle. And once Malcolm embraced internationalism and King embraced economic justice, both men shifted from social reforms to threats to national power. When they made these changes, as soon as, as soon as King wasn't playing gentle and nice anymore, as soon as he was realizing that they had push back a little more, he became a threat. And Malcolm was always a threat. But Malcolm's step, that made him.
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A bigger threat. We'll just say a bigger threat was trying to go to the UN. Historian Manning Marble writes that by 1965, the US government viewed both men not merely as activists, but as destabilizing forces. Malcolm sought to bring the US before the United nations for human rights violations. King started planning the Poor People's Campaign, a mass disruption in Washington, D.C. both were being monitored by FBI Coin Pro as potential black messiahs. I love how that's the worst word they used, right? Like just. It's just. It's so racist. Malcolm was assassinated at 39, and King was also 39. Both feared it, both predicted it. Martin Luther King said in 1965, it is a time for martyrs now, and if I'm to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. And Malcolm X said, it is the system that will kill me. They will do it through others. Their lives bent away from each other, then back towards one another, almost like two sides of a closing circle. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Began as ideological opposites, but their trajectories reveal parallel evolution. Malcolm moved from rage to global vision. King moved from integrationism to social structural critique. They had lived. Many historians believe the two would eventually lead. Excuse me, had they lived, many historians believe they would have led a unified front eventually. Militant, yet moral, spiritual yet uncompromising, Domestic and international. And how cool would it have been to have a Christian leader and a Muslim leader like spearhead that, oh, I wish they were would have survived. One fought the conscience of America. One fought the power of America. And together they could have, and have in many ways, changed the foundation. And that, perhaps, is why they're both gone. And what I will say is that there's something about. And not. Not to diminish, you know, the. The legacy of either man, but I. The part of the reason that I think that Malcolm X deserves more. More space is because I think it's a little bit more honest. Right. I mentioned earlier in the episode that I know my. I know myself well enough to know how angry and resentful I would be if I had grown up in the type of circumstances that many African Americans have grown up in. I would resent white people. I would resent Christianity. I don't blame them for it at all. And that anger is so important because in. In structures of white supremacy, anger from minorities is demonized as violence. And you're reckless and you're emotional and you're. This anger is such a horrible, holy emotion, in my opinion, because what it does is it says, this is wrong. A boundary has been crossed. And your anger lets you know that that boundary has been crossed. So I. I think that I find Malcolm's story to be so honest, right? Imperfect, absolutely. Just a loose cannon in his younger life. But, like, his anger and his growth, I think are so genuine to the human experience. Experience. It's. It's so incredibly honest because I don't think any of us, if we're on, if we're really honest, especially if you're a white person listening to this. I'm talking to you. If we're really honest, if we grew up in this environment, we'd be so angry. Like, we're not better than that. We'd be so angry, we'd be so resentful. There's so many things that because of privilege, we never had to think about when we were growing up. And. And privilege does not mean that, you know, your dad wasn't an abusive alcoholic or you didn't go through hard times or that you didn't suffer or that you weren't poor. It doesn't mean any of that. It means that that suffering was not enacted upon you because you're white. There's no system built in the US to discriminate against you because you're white. And one of the things that. That I realized, privilege really went home for me when the Black Panther movie came out. And it seems trivial, but again, it's just such a clear and easy example of what privilege looks like. So, again, I told you, my family's Scottish. They're very proud of it. We're related through marriage to William Wallace. So I saw Braveheart when I was growing up, like, yeah, woo. Hate the English. And I realized when I went to Black Panther and I loved that, like, everybody was dressed up and they were wearing traditional African garb and they were so proud. And so many people were sobbing through that movie because they were seeing themselves in a positive light for the very first time.
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A black cast.
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And I realized in that, that moment, using the Scottish reference, I had seen myself my entire life. I never even had to think about it. I was always represented and I was always represented in a positive light. And I had seen entire white casts for most of the movies I had ever seen. It had never occurred to me until that moment that I had never had to think about that. I had never had to think about references, representation, and it's those things. That's. That's what privilege looks like. Privilege looks like. Even though I grew up in an extremely, insanely abusive home, but I've never faced discrimination from systems because of my skin color, my gender to a degree, but not because of my skin. And I. And I think of something, I was caught drag racing when I was 17 and I was going like 105 in a 75 and I was going faster than that in. He had caught me behind the hill. That cop sat and had a little firm talking to me, you know, talking to. With me and like wrote down the speed so that I wouldn't lose my driver's license and just made me promise not to do it again. You can't for one single second tell me that that's how that would have played out if I was a black guy. Not for a single second. We see this in drug laws where until the laws were modified by, by Obama, you had to have 500 times the amount of powdered cocaine to serve the same sentence for crack cocaine. Why? Because powdered cocaine users are white. And Obama modified the rule to make it more fair. You still have to have a hundred times the amount of powdered cocaine to get the same sentence. That's the difference. And that's why I think that Malcolm X is so important. Because I think it's. I think it's honest and I respect his growth. I don't at all blame him for hating white people, hating Christianity, considering what happened to him, what happened to his family, how Christianity has been hijacked by these movements. Don't blame him a single bit. And I think it's honest. And I think that if we're honest with ourselves, we'd feel exactly the same fucking way. But I also admire his growth. You see him change over time. He recognizes that what he did in his younger life was debaucherous and what he called spiritual, spiritually numb. And not only does he change it, he. The second he prays that prayer, he quits drinking, quits swearing, quits womanizing, and like, pledges allegiance to discipline. And when the leader that he loved and respected broke those so those sexual codes by exploiting his young secretaries, Malcolm X said, I'm out. It's integrity, it's change. And then to be able to go to Mecca and see all of these people of different colors worshiping together, he was able to expand his view. And that's the whole goal of my entire platform and this podcast is that we can sit with the question and we can grow and understand more. Going to the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem when I was studying there was one of the most life changing experiences of my life. In part because of this reason. I had never interacted with Muslim people before. And I'm seeing so many of them and they're from all different countries and they're, they're crying and they're worshiping and you can tell that some of them have never seen it. And this is a huge moment, moment for them. And that's when I realized that the type of faith I was carrying was broken. I was like, why? Why is the faith that I've been giving making people so violent and so hateful? What I'm witnessing right here is beautiful and it's solidarity, and I feel a connection to their spirit, watching them worship, even though I'm of a different faith. That's the whole point, is to grow, to wrestle with the questions and to change. When you are able to access more information and you change your worldview, it doesn't make you stupid. It doesn't. It just means you're growing. If your worldview has not changed since you were a teenager, I would strongly advise you look into that. If nothing has changed, it means you're not learning. When you get new information, the most educated, integrous thing you can do is say, I want to change because. Because now I know a better way. The question is always, is there a better way? And I love Malcolm X's story. I think that it's so honest and I think that it's devastating and heartbreaking that he and Martin Luther King, you know, thanks to the US Government, were not allowed to continue their mission because I don't think we would be where we are, where we're seeing civil rights roll back right now. If those two had been able to survive and spearhead that movement long, long past the 60s. And I hope that this inspired you the way that it inspired me and I encourage you, please go read his autobiography again. I think it's honest to the human condition and I think that Malcolm X has been unfairly demonized by a lot of white nationalist and Christian nationalist supremacy around being a strong black man, around self defense of black communities and around being Muslim.
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And that's it for today. I want to give a special thanks to Phoenix Studios and Seeger for producing this behind the scenes. Thank you to Lara and Emily Battles for helping my whole machine keep running. Especially a big thank you to my Patreon supporters because you are the reason I'm able to do this. You're the reason I was able to close down my business and do this full time. And I'm going to give some shout outs to some Patreon members, some new joins. We appreciate it. If I haven't read your name yet, don't worry, it's a long list. I'm working through these piece by piece. Huge thank you to Larry and Anna Moore, Larissa Tillinger, Rachel Smith, Margie Smith Millenick, Francine Lash, Latia Smith. Hello, my name is Janet. Laura, Laura Badot, Laura Packness, Laura Bateman, ljb, LJ Boss, Laura William Burke, Laura Wagner, lots of Laura's, Laura Lobly, Laura Cabello, Caballero, Laura Rubio, Lara Hedrickson, Lorette, Lauren Aquino, Lauren Melissa, Lauren Trotter, Lauren Caproni and Devast. What the devastation stadia. There it is. There it is. Devastatia, thank you so much for supporting me on Patreon. Thank you so much for your effort to grow and learn, making this all possible. And I will see you next week on Flipping Tables.