- Jun 8, 2004
- 3,210
- 64
To paraphrase another late-lamented ancestor, the great Ossie Davis, in honoring this man, Minister Malcolm X, we honor the best in ourselves... The gravity of his meaning to us as a people is bilbical, koranic, a holy parable akin to any ever told in these and other spiritual texts... He is our Black Phoenix, as well as, Our Black Shining Prince, because from the ashes of his personal ruin he arose like a Black Swan aflight, to fight the same oppressive system that continues aflict our people to this day...
When I was 13, two events occured to change my lfe... One was a gang beatdown, and the other was one of my elder brothers gave me Malcolm X's biography to read before he went off to the Marine Corps... I later joined the very organization this man talked of as delivering the message that turned the light bulb on his head, and though he talked rather negatively about the organization at later stages of the book, even then I understood what was behind it... His sense of loss over something and someone that had meant so much to him...
Well, over the years, I have come to understand what HIS loss meant us as a people... His message is not lost in the slick, well-dressed imagery and street smart, hip eloquence of the man... It is in his well-rounded understanding of international, as well as, national Black/African affairs... His voluminous and perceptive knowledge and clarity about the who, what, when, where, and why we were/are in the condition we are in, and how to get our act together, still astounds and confounds me how, in 1960-something, a brother could be so doggoned deep and clear in his knowledge! Just imagine if there were such a thing as personal computers and the internet around when this man walked Harlem 40-something years ago?! And he was a man who never finished HIGHSCHOOL!
That is only touching the surface of how much is to be gained by us reading and re-reading his autobiography... Again, the main is a wonderful African Diasporic parable, only he is real, and we have pictures of him, as well as the pictures, and numerous other books about his life... Who needs Jesus, and all these mysterious people, like LAZURUS and JOB, when we have our own Black Shining Prince from whence to draw our sustenence??? Think about THAT... Happy Birthday, Brother Minister... Rest in Eternal Peace...
Peace!
Isaiah
When I was 13, two events occured to change my lfe... One was a gang beatdown, and the other was one of my elder brothers gave me Malcolm X's biography to read before he went off to the Marine Corps... I later joined the very organization this man talked of as delivering the message that turned the light bulb on his head, and though he talked rather negatively about the organization at later stages of the book, even then I understood what was behind it... His sense of loss over something and someone that had meant so much to him...
Well, over the years, I have come to understand what HIS loss meant us as a people... His message is not lost in the slick, well-dressed imagery and street smart, hip eloquence of the man... It is in his well-rounded understanding of international, as well as, national Black/African affairs... His voluminous and perceptive knowledge and clarity about the who, what, when, where, and why we were/are in the condition we are in, and how to get our act together, still astounds and confounds me how, in 1960-something, a brother could be so doggoned deep and clear in his knowledge! Just imagine if there were such a thing as personal computers and the internet around when this man walked Harlem 40-something years ago?! And he was a man who never finished HIGHSCHOOL!
That is only touching the surface of how much is to be gained by us reading and re-reading his autobiography... Again, the main is a wonderful African Diasporic parable, only he is real, and we have pictures of him, as well as the pictures, and numerous other books about his life... Who needs Jesus, and all these mysterious people, like LAZURUS and JOB, when we have our own Black Shining Prince from whence to draw our sustenence??? Think about THAT... Happy Birthday, Brother Minister... Rest in Eternal Peace...
Peace!
Isaiah