Malcolm X Was Right About America

[JEB]

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/02/02/malcolm-x-was-right-about-america

by
Chris Hedges

snip>


King was able to achieve a legal victory through the civil rights movement, portrayed in the new film “Selma.” But he failed to bring about economic justice and thwart the rapacious appetite of the war machine that he was acutely aware was responsible for empire’s abuse of the oppressed at home and abroad. And 50 years after Malcolm X was assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem by hit men from the Nation of Islam, it is clear that he, not King, was right. We are the nation Malcolm knew us to be. Human beings can be redeemed. Empires cannot. Our refusal to face the truth about empire, our refusal to defy the multitudinous crimes and atrocities of empire, has brought about the nightmare Malcolm predicted. And as the Digital Age and our post-literate society implant a terrifying historical amnesia, these crimes are erased as swiftly as they are committed.

<snip>

“The price of freedom,” Malcolm said shortly before he was killed, “is death.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Fascinating short read. Well worth the bit of time to thoughtfully read.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/02/02/malcolm-x-was-right-about-america

[libdem4life]

1. Should be required reading for every person. I barely remember his murder as I was living in LA

but yet not old enough to experience my adult personal political conversion. To see and read it many decades later is poignant. Now is a good time to bring it up and out...yet again. We've a long way to go.

[ND-Dem]

2. “It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some

blood to suck,” Malcolm said. “Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it’s more like a vulture. It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody’s blood whether they were strong or not. But now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the helpless..."


But I think that's because the trajectory of capital is to make the line between helpless and 'strong' ever more stark, as the 'strong' aggregate more power and wealth to themselves.

“The price of freedom,” Malcolm said shortly before he was killed, “is death.”

[malaise]

3. It is that simple

and it will get worse before it gets better

[JEB]

4. Seems Malcolm was right about capitalism

as well as the American empire. He was right about a lot of things. From the article:

He told Lewis he would never reach old age. “If you read, you’ll find that very few people who think like I think live long enough to get old. When I say by any means necessary, I mean it with all my heart, my mind and my soul. A black man should give his life to be free, and he should also be able, be willing to take the life of those who want to take his. When you really think like that, you don’t live long.”

Lewis asked him how he wanted to be remembered. “Sincere,” Malcolm said. “In whatever I did or do. Even if I made mistakes, they were made in sincerity. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong in sincerity. I think that the best thing that a person can be is sincere.”

[kelliekat44]

21. So is Farrakhan. nt

[ND-Dem]

23. maybe, but he'll live to a ripe old age, surrounded by wealth.

[brush]

5. Pure capitalism is a rapacious system that cannot survive without . . .

an endless supply of low-paid labor. This supply has to be there and the search is always on for even lower paid sources of labor

Which is why our jobs here are being exported even though the corporations are profitable here — just not profitable enough to satisfy the greed factor.

Jobs have been going to China and India but i understand they are even exporting jobs from China now as workers there have begun wanting, justifiably, a bigger piece of the fruits of their labor.

Indonesia is now a target. There always seems to be a country that the profit motive seeks out. Once they run out of Asian countries they'll go into Africa despite their racism. That's probably decades down the road though, and by the time Africa is used up, the good ol' US of A will be a third world country by then (except for the "job creator 1%&quot and a prime target to move the jobs back to.

Only the jobs won't be the good-paying ones they were when they left.

And if that logic sounds faulty to you, think about this. China's middle class is larger than our entire country so the corporations don't even need a middle class here anymore to buy their products. And that's not even counting India's also huge new middle class.

The only way to stop this musical chairs vampire is for workers to unite and demand fair pay or no work — and it most likely will take more than just unionism.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

6. Ever increasing resources, be it fish, trees, water.....

How is that possible?

[AZ Progressive]

15. And a rampant predatory culture only creates more weak to be sucked on

Many Americans are being made weak by the rampant predatory culture in America (trapping people in debt for instance), and your more likely of course if you are anything lower than in the top 10%.

[azmom]

7. He spoke the truth

One of my favorite historical figures.

[jwirr]

8. I don't remember but the reason he was killed. I mean the reason other followers of the state of

Islam killed him. What had he done against them?

[azmom]

10. He exposed the leader of islam

[azurnoir]

12. Elijah Muhammad was the leader of an American religion Nation of Islam

that is separate from mainstream Islam, Malcolm had left Nation of Islam and converted to Sunni Islam he had also renounced separatism that is espoused by Nation of Islam

[rbrnmw]

13. that's exactly right

[KamaAina]

19. The hajj is what changed him

He looked around Mecca and saw Muslims of all colors, even white ones (Bosnians, among others). That's what changed his mind about race.

[azurnoir]

20. yes that too however he went on the Hajj as a Sunni not Nation of Islam

there are 'theocratic' differences between mainstream Islam and Nation of Islam, to the degree that Muslims I've known (mostly Sunni) do not consider Nation of Islam to really be Islam

[jwirr]

16. Thank you - I was trying to remember what they were disagreeing on. He was a real lose.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

17. Among other things Elijah Muhammad was having an affair with his secretary and Malcolm exposed him

Plus Malcolm X had outgrown the NOI.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

9. It is seldom reported that Martin's ideology was moving rapidly towards Malcolm's philosophy

before he (Martin) was assassinated. Selma film doesn't cover this aspect of Martin's evolution and because so many in America cling to this "I Have a Dream" perception of the man and either refuse or are too afraid to admit (if they are aware) Martin's philosophical transformation, we don't understand just how complex Martin was. We are unaware of his constant internal struggles and conflict, and we certainly are ignorant of the fact that as the years went on blacks, the poor, and other marginalized communities continued to be treated as 2nd and 3rd class citizens, if human at all. What's more he constantly questioned his devotion to Nonviolent Social Resistance as blacks continued to suffer more violence, despite civil rights and other legal victories.

Many younger black generations are beginning to look to Malcolm, not Martin, because they too see that he was right.

Definitely a worthwhile read!!

[BobbyBoring]

11. Huge K+R!

I was only 12 when Malcom was killed but I remember how feared he was by white America. We didn't know about any Muslims except Black Muslims and they were feared as well.
I also doubt NOI had anything to do with his murder.

[rbrnmw]

14. thank you for posting this

more people should study Malcolm X, he wasn't the man they made him out to be. Betty Shabazz (his wife) was also a very strong person, she should be studied by all too.

[rbrnmw]

22. here are some of his speeches and interviews

[JEB]

25. K&R&bookmark

Thanks for the link. Malcolm understood so much and did his best to teach the rest of us. The man himself is as fascinating as his insights.

[JEB]

26. Bitten with a smile or bitten with a growl.

Still happening.

[rbrnmw]

29. he was a brilliant man

[hifiguy]

18. K n R

Malcolm was correct.

[Oilwellian]

24. Malcolm was correct but then as Hedges points out...

this is where we are today:

The integration of elites of color, including Barack Obama, into the upper echelons of institutional and political structures has done nothing to blunt the predatory nature of empire. Identity and gender politics—we are about to be sold a woman president in the form of Hillary Clinton—have fostered, as Malcolm understood, fraud and theft by Wall Street, the evisceration of our civil liberties, the misery of an underclass in which half of all public school children live in poverty, the expansion of our imperial wars and the deep and perhaps fatal exploitation of the ecosystem. And until we heed Malcolm X, until we grapple with the truth about the self-destruction that lies at the heart of empire, the victims, at home and abroad, will mount. Malcolm, like James Baldwin, understood that only by facing the truth about who we are as members of an imperial power can people of color, along with whites, be liberated. This truth is bitter and painful. It requires an acknowledgment of our capacity for evil, injustice and exploitation, and it demands repentance. But we cling like giddy children to the lies we tell ourselves about ourselves. We refuse to grow up. And because of these lies, perpetrated across the cultural and political spectrum, liberation has not taken place. Empire devours us all.

He is so right.

[G_j]

27. K&R

great read!

[Newest Reality]

28. K&R

[RoccoR5955]

30. We all know that he spoke the truth

Those of us who lived in the low income projects, like my family did, in Brooklyn, NY knew that Malcolm X was right. Even the white folks. Even though some were afraid of him.
Many of us white and black and other folks tried to have a peaceful community in the Projects back in the 60s, but we were always held down.
Now they are using the oldest trick in the book, divide and conquer, to destroy everything, so that they, the 1%, can have it all.
Malcolm and Martin told us a long time ago. People just have not listened.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

31. Every American, and especially white ones,

would benefit by reading the "Autobiography of Malcolm X" with help from author Alex Haley.
It's very powerful, imho..........

[whatchamacallit]

32. The resident tools of empire will be along shortly

to simultaneously trash Hedges and pay lip service to Malcolm X.

K&R