Our Own Black Shining Prince
An Essay By Michael Derek Roberts
Today, even as the mainstream corporate media and their minions continue to ignore him, there is absolutely no doubt that Malcolm X remains an influential, enigmatic figure in the history of the United States Civil Rights Movement and the global struggle for Black liberation. Born on May 19, 1925, Malcolm X is 97 years old today. Of his many insightful critiques of the systems of white supremacy and racism, he continues to be recognized for his anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist views in service of his advocacy for global justice.
This “Black Moses of his People” was the bane of the United States and world system of dominance and oppression, especially of Black people, the descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the United States in chains and who endured over 250 years of savage brutality. To whitewash United States history and shirk responsibility for this inhumane system of chattel slavery, many of today’s political and historical apologists tend to promote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr over the more openly and directly militant Malcolm X.
Like Marcus Mosiah Garvey, another towering Black Liberation general, Malcolm X is still viewed as ‘radical’ for all of his uncompromising, candid teachings of Black pride and liberation. This is important to remember and reflect on what continues to make him relevant to so many people – Black, Brown, and others – today.
For example, as the United States continues its imperialist wars of aggression, we must remember that Malcolm X, back in the 1960s, bitterly opposed the Vietnam War. His intense and captivating oratory propelled him as the leading advocate of Black Nationalism in the United States
. He continuously shone a spotlight on the roots of Black problems and struggles for freedom, justice, and equality. Many of Malcolm’s best moments were the ones where he refused to answer the questions that were being asked, instead choosing to tell the story of Black peoples’ systematic victimization, racial oppression, and what should be done, as he so eloquently put it to “lift the[white] foot off the necks of Black people.”
Malcolm’s unique and insightful analysis and profound understanding of America’s class and the racial system came from his own life experiences. His leadership and relationship with the Nation of Islam also helped shape him. Malcolm X was a moral and authentic leader who spoke to the needs, interests, and concerns of Black people in solid and forceful terms. As Black acting icon Ossie Davis said at Malcolm X’s funeral, “a Prince — our Black shining Prince! –” Malcolm’s message was powerful for Black people.
Because of his work, Malcolm X exposed how America’s systemic racism works. He clearly understood that capitalism, white supremacy, and imperialism were integral and critical to the ‘divide and conquer strategy that prevented people of the global majority from organizing and collaborating across identities. Following his 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcolm embraced direct action and other engagement methods to uplift and advance the demands of Black people for human and civil rights.
Malcolm X’s reputation has been increasingly whitewashed, simplified, and sanitized despite his productive, complex, and nuanced life. Making Malcolm mainstream, like MLK, cuts away his harsh, rough edges and poignant critiques of the very system that today aims to swallow the entire human and civil rights movement whole by white and Black revisionism and deliberate historical obfuscation.
Malcolm X was viciously assassinated for holding a solid and unwavering belief that global capitalism, the governments that advance its worst abuses and highest levels of exploitation, and the entities that today benefit from and increase its strength continue to work in tandem with white supremacy, imperialism, racism, and globalization to take and oppress as much as they can. The result of this multi-pronged
system of entrenched global oppression is the continued injustice against the people of the worldwide majority — Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
Let us remember Malcolm X today. Let us celebrate his life, lessons, and successes as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz — his profound impact on understanding how we view systems of racism and oppression and his advocacy for justice that demands not just equality but also equity. Salud Black Prince! May we always remember the towering example this Black Moses has left us.
and then 