This morning brotha oldsoul talked about Malcolm X to commemorate his recent 88th birthday. Well, da river got to thinking. What do you mean uh oh? Actually I've thought of two challenges that will get y'all to thinking and spark some interesting conversation Since they are kinda different, I will put each in it's own thread.
Challenge 1
What would Malcolm have had to say about the election of Barack Obama to the presidency? Base your answer on actual opinions Malcolm expressed in his speeches before and after his journeys to Africa and Europe.
On the ELECTION itself he'd probably have a positive review. The election was portrayed as an example of mass mobilization in electoral politics and Malcolm X favored just that.
“So what you and I have got to do is get involved. You and I have to be right there, breathing down their throat. Every time they look over their shoulder, we want them to see us. We want to make them– we want to make them pass the strongest civil rights bill they’ve ever passed, because we know even after they pass it they can’t enforce it. In order to do this, we’re starting a voters registration drive, not as Democrats or Republicans, but registered as Independents. If you don’t have the sense of responsibility to get registered, we’ll move you out of town.”
When describing the OAAU--an example of his latest evolution he said,
“The Organization of Afro-American Unity will organize the Afro American community block by block to make the community aware of its power and its potential; we will start immediately a voter registration drive to make every unregistered voter in the Afro-American community an independent voter.”
. . .
“We propose to support and organize political clubs, to run independent candidates for office, and to support any Afro-American already in office who answers to and is responsible to the Afro-American community.” We don’t support any black man who is controlled by the white power structure. We will start not only a voter registration drive, but a voter education drive to let our people have an understanding of the science of politics so they will be able to see what part the politician plays in the scheme of things; so they will be able to understand when the politician is doing his job and when he is not doing his job. And any time the politician is not doing his job, we remove him whether he’s white, black, green, blue, yellow or whatever other color they might invent.
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=1964-malcolm-x-s-speech-founding-rally-organization-afro-american-unity
The bold will show he might not SUPPORT Obama; but it's reasonable to presume Malcolm X like most of us would certainly oppose Romney as he opposed Romney's Father,
“Don’t call Governor Wallace a Dixie governor; Romney is a Dixie governor.”
See 26:50 --
I think there needs to be a distinction made between having nothing to gain and having nothing to lose.
Obama's victory over McCain and Romney is a victory. It may not directly empower African people; but that's obvious from it being an election in a White Power Structure. I can see Malcolm X opining similarly. But of course also using the OAAU to speak directly to Obama with the Power to effect change--something missing today.