Regardless of what approach we use to dealing with the issue of racism, or what our individual perspectives might be on the issue, we cannot treat the subject without mentioning some of the key players who were involved in the struggle to combat it. In this essay, we will deal with the person of Malcolm X. In retrospect, all of us have different opinions and views about Bro. Malcolm. My intention here, is not to persuade you, the reader, to discard whatever your perspective is, nor to adopt a new one, but rather, to present him in a historical context, and allow readers to draw their own conclusions about him and his work. I am also making every attempt to have us explore how a biblical and theological approach to racism would be relevant to this discussion.
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925. His father was a Baptist minister, and a former member of Garvey´s UNIA. When Malcolm was four, his family´s home wains burned down by Ku Klux Klan members. After living in various state institutions, Malcolm moved to Boston and from there to New York City. He became involved in petty criminal activity on the East Coast, was convicted for larceny in Boston, and sentenced to an eight-to ten-year jail term in 1946. While in prison, he became involved with the Nation of Islam. and on his release in 1952, he quickly rose to prominence in the organization, playing a crucial role in its increasing size and influence (Ahmed Shawki, Black Liberation and Socialism, p. 171).
In formal terms, the ideas of the Nation of Islam were profoundly conservative. The organization combined elements of orthodox Islam with ideas of its own making, claiming that the ¨Original Man¨ was Black and that whites were a degenerate and inferior offshoot, destined to rule the world for 6000 years, after which they would be destroyed. That 6,000 year period was coming to a close, and Blacks could only save themselves by withdrawing into their own society and separating from whites. The only salvation lay in following Elijah Muhammad, Allah´s messenger on Earth. The Black Muslims, as the NOI was known, preached a doctrine of hard work, thrift, obedience, and humility. The Nation´s militia, i.e. the Fruit of Islam, strictly enforced an ultra-puritanical sexual morality (Shawki, p. 172).
Beyond pressing for demands and or defending their interests, the organization was hostile to political involvement. That such an inward-focused religious sect was capable of substantial growth growth is a testimony to the widespread bitterness of urban Blacks. To hundreds of young recruits, the Nation of Islam represented self-respect, self-reliance, and Black pride. The group´s unabashed condemnation of white America as well as its rejection of integration and non-violence, rang true, and especially appealed to Malcolm X (Shawki, p. 173).
Malcolm X rejected the view that integration into American society was possible or desirable. He said, when someone sticks a knife into my back nine inches, and then pulls it out six inches, they have´nt done me any favor. They should not have stabbed me in the first place. During slavery, they inflicted the most extreme form of brutality against us to break our spirit, to break our will........after they did all of this to us for three hundred and ten years, then they came up with some Emancipation Proclamation.......and today, the white man runs around here thinking he is doing Black people a favor (Jack Bloom, Class, Race, and the Civil Rights Movement, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1987, p. 194).¨
According to Malcolm X, the Federal Government and the Democratic party were not allies, but part of the problem. ¨ Roosevelt promised, Truman promised, Eisenhower promised. Negroes are still knocking on the door, begging for civil rights. Do you mean to tell me that in a powerful country like this, a so-called Christian country, that a handful of men from the South can prevent the North, the West, the Central States, and the East from giving Negroes the rights the Constitution says they already have? No, I don´t believe that, and neither do you. No white man really wants the Black man to have his rights or he´d have them. The United States does everything it wants to do ( Bloom, pps. 194-195).¨
Malcolm X was sharply critical of liberals who talked about racism in the South, but had nothing to say about conditions in the North. He said ¨They front-paged what I felt about Northern white and Black Freedom Riders going South to ´demonstrate.´ I called it ´ridiculous´; their own Northern ghettos, right at home, had enough rats and roaches to kill to keep all of the Freedom Riders busy......... The Northern Freedom Riders could light some fires under Northern city halls, unions, and major industries to give more jobs to Negroes......Yes, I will pull off that liberal´s halo that he spends such efforts cultivating! The North´s liberals have been so long pointing accusing fingers at the South and getting away with it that they have fits when they are exposed as the world´s worst hypocrites (The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley. New York: Grove Press, 1964, p. 274).¨
Malcolm X separated from the Nation of Islam in December 1963. Responding to a question from the audience at a meeting in New York City, Malcolm attributed John F. Kennedy´s assassination to the hate and violence produced by a society that whites themselves had created. ¨The chickens have home to roost,¨ Malcolm said. ¨Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they´ve always made me glad.¨ The statement was consistent with the hostility to the U.S. administration that Black Muslims had expressed in the past. Elijah Muhammad did not see it that way, informing Malcolm that ¨the country loved this man (Kennedy)¨ and that he (Malcolm) would be suspended for 90 days so that ¨Muslims everywhere can be disassociated with this blunder (George Breitman, The Last Year of Malcolm X: The Evolution of a Revolutionary ( New York: Schocken Books, 1967, p. 9).¨
Malcolm accepted the suspension without protest. But soon it became clear that the suspension was in fact an expulsion( Shawki, p.177).
There are various opinions as to the actual reasons for Malcolm´s separation from the Nation of Islam. One opinion is that he separated from the Nation because he had embraced the theological tenets of mainstream Islam. Another opinion is that he posed a threat to Elijah Muhammad because of his ¨enlightment" about the true nature of the Islamic religion. Others, yet, think that the above-referred suspension/expulsion was the main factor in the separation. The reader is encouraged to draw her/his own conclusion.
The question for us from a biblical/theological standpoint would be: Are the Bible and Christian theology more resonant with Malcolm´s Black Nationalism, or with with mainstream Muslim theology which he later embraced? This minister/theologian believes that Black Nationalism is consistent with the Gospel to the extent that both are mechanisms of economic, political, and social liberation. The reader is encouraged to read ¨Black Theology and Black Power¨ by James Cone, and also ¨God of the Oppressed¨ by the same author.
This writer (yours truly) also believes that the Gospel has limited resonance with mainstream Islam, in that their Scriptures (the Holy Qu´aran) affirm the revelation of God through the prophets, including Jesus. That Christian believe that Jesus Christ and the New Testament are the final revelation of God to humankind, and that Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him) and the Holy Qu´aran are the final revelation, does not prevent both faith groups from focusing on the common goal of participating in God´s liberating acts in history. It is this writer´s conviction that both the Gospel and the Holy Qu´aran can be seen as instruments of a theological commitment to liberation from individual and corporate racism.
In the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen
Rev. Dr. Juan A. Carmona
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