Comment by poppysan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by poppysan | Hacker News Reader

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It seems to me, in many cases, hate for Malcolm X is usually centered around his view of militancy as a viable option and his connection to the Nation of Islam.

America was established through violent militancy, so I don't understand the first point. Many great conflicts have proven that as a viable solution.

The second point makes many people uncomfortable because of the NOI's vocal opinions of the white race as a whole. While the "white devil" philosophy can be supported with case studies of deplorable acts against blacks, such as slavery, Jim Crow laws, segregation, lynchings, to name a few, it was and is a gross exaggeration that is becoming less and less supportable. Malcolm X, later in life, experienced a different side of whites and race, that later led him to shun those negative beliefs.

I admire him for his zest for learning, and his courage to have a militant position in a time of great injustice. I was born in a much better America, and have still faced racism that made me feel worthless, defenseless, and angry -- but I still hesitate to even call out racism for fear of negative reprisal.

While I don't think you or any contemporary "non-racist" white person is responsible for those acts, denial of the past and its lingering effects, and hatred for those who fought to end it doesn't help. Without the fear of violent revolution, I question if we would have progressed as far as we have.

> While the "white devil" philosophy can be supported with case studies of deplorable acts against blacks

To be clear, the NOI teaches that "white" people are literal devils - they were created by a scientist named Yakub ~6,000 years ago for the express purpose of fighting the "original" (i.e. "black") people.

I can sympathize with mistrust, and even hostility, towards a culture which historically and presently supports systems which oppress those of ones own culture but I find such teachings undesirable and dangerous. I only bring it up because I don't think most people are aware that the NOI teaches such things (or that they have ties to Dianetics/Scientology, but I digress).

It should also be noted the NOI didn't invent this play. The Israelites used a story of a curse upon Canaan to justify their conquest of it, and later various "white" religions like some Protestant sects, Mormonism, some Baptist groups, etc used the same story or "the mark of cain" to justify their treatment of the people of African origin - another set of disturbing/dangerous teachings that I'm sure many people today are unaware of.

At any rate, I agree that someone subscribing to any of these religions, or advocating actions I don't approve of wouldn't preclude me from being able to admire certain aspects of their personality/life or learn from them.

To be clear, the old testament curses an entire race of people because Noah got drunk and his son saw him naked, so one of his grandsons and all the descendants thereof were to be cursed (and then later on exterminated as part of stealing their land).

I'm not sure why you gave the crazy details of the NOI story and the weirdly detached and vague paraphrase version of the OT one.

Thanks, for the clarification. I am aware of the aliens and recent Scientology association. I am not NOI, nor prescribe to their beliefs, but I can see why they were attractive during the "civil rights era".

It's worth reading the book just to understand in some small way the experience of Malcolm X and people like him. His father was murdered (probably by the police & because he was becoming politically active) and then his mother was cheated out of the life insurance because his death was falsely ruled as a suicide.

In turn the struggle of bringing up her family ruined his mother's health and probably her sanity.

So one can understand his being bitter and twisted. What is impressive is that he overcame this. I would put this book on any must-read list.

Also -- it took the Civil War to end slavery in this country.

It should be pointed out that he later left the NOI and became an adherent to mainstream Islam. That was another step in his transformation.

Use of violence to establish territory or control, or to attain freedom from oppression is human nature. There is absolutely nothing uniquely American or white about it.

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