24. Malcolm X And The Media
Malcolm X and the Media1
Who can deny the power and influence the media has in shaping our opinions, views, and ways of thinking? The media has the power to glorify and to humiliate, to exalt and to destroy, and to corrupt and mutilate reality. Of the many people who have been victimized and whose vision and beliefs have been distorted by the media, the case of Malcolm X stands out clearly. Not only was he victimized in life, but also in death.
Who exactly was Malcolm X? And how is it that so many conflicting images of him exist? We shall attempt to elucidate this matter and depict the role of the media in distorting the image of the true Malcolm X. Our approach has been a holistic one. We have studied Malcolm’s life in its entirety, basing ourselves on his autobiography, articles, studies, and various films. Furthermore, we have examined his speeches extensively. All of this information gives us a fairly good idea of exactly who Malcolm X was, and the influence the media had in shaping the various contradictory images of him.
When we examine the life of Malcolm X, one thing stands out clearly: Malcolm X was a man of change. As a teenager and a young man, Malcolm was a slave of himself: a slave to his lower animal instincts. He was a hustler, a pimp, a drug-dealer, a thief, a womanizer, and a drug-addict. His life of crime led to his imprisonment for ten years. While in prison, where he had been nicknamed “Satan,” he was introduced to the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. On the basis of his experiences with white people, Malcolm came to accept the Nation of Islam’s racial doctrine and became a Black Muslim.
After much struggle, self-discipline, and study, Malcolm was able to educate and reform himself. After his release from prison, he became a Black Muslim Minister and served the Nation of Islam for the next twelve years. During this period of time, Malcolm was essentially the slave of the black man and of Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm said of that phase in his life:
I guess it would be impossible for anyone to fully realize how complete was my belief in Elijah Muhammad. I believed in him not only as leader in the ordinary human sense, but I believed in him as a divine leader. I believed he had no human weaknesses or faults, and that, therefore, he could make no mistakes and that he could do no wrong.
Malcolm eventually abandoned Elijah Muhammad’s teachings and became an orthodox Muslim. His pilgrimage to Mecca enabled him to realize that not all whites were devils and that under Islam true brotherhood could exist. Hence, he rejected many of his previous positions. Concerning Elijah Muhammad’s teachings and his new perspective, Malcolm said:
I’ve had enough of someone else’s propaganda. I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such, I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.
This period as a servant of Allah did not last long. Malcolm, now al-Hajj Malik al-Shabazz, was brutally assassinated shortly thereafter.
Those white supremacists, black nationalists and Communists who claim that Malcolm somehow justified their ideologies conveniently forget Malcolm’s conversion to orthodox Islam and the major changes that occurred in him as a result of his pilgrimage to Mecca. When Malcolm X was a follower of Elijah Muhammad, he promoted the latter’s ideas concerning the “separation of the races” and that blacks should “return to Africa” or have their own “black states” within America.
Essentially, this was the very same thing white supremacists wanted. Malcolm, on Elijah’s orders, met with and signed a peace treaty with the Ku Klux Klan. The white supremacists that use Malcolm to justify their ideology do so on Malcolm’s Nation of Islam phase. They conveniently ignore that Malcolm was disgusted by such an act and that this was one of the reasons that made him drift away from Elijah Muhammad’s teachings. After breaking off with the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X vowed to organize black guerrillas to defend blacks in the southern states and to take offensive action against white racists.
The Malcolm X glorified by black nationalists is based on Malcolm’s Nation of Islam days. They get some king of ego boost by the harsh way Malcolm used to refer to whites. Again, they conveniently ignore that Malcolm X rejected his previous position. Two days before his assassination, commenting about his long years of promoting Elijah Muhammad’s teachings, he said: “That was a mad scene. The sickness and the madness of those days! I am glad to be free of them.”
Malcolm X categorically rejected the Nation of Islam’s racial doctrine and wholeheartedly embraced true Islam. These facts stand out clearly in the last two chapters of his autobiography, and in his last speeches. Malcolm made it explicitly clear to Alex Haley (the writer of Malcolm’s autobiography) that he had found the perfect system in Islam. This, by itself, categorically denies any truth to the claims that Malcolm X was an advocate of Communism. What he was, though, was open-minded and supportive of the struggles of the oppressed of the Earth. He was definitely anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist, but that does not make one a Communist. Malcolm never stood up and declared, “I am a Communist!” But, he repeatedly declared that, “I am a Muslim!” What he did acknowledge, however, was that most peoples who had freed themselves from colonialism had chosen a Socialist model for their new society. It was a comment, not a profession of faith. As we have shown here, many groups pick and choose sayings of Malcolm to justify their ideologies. However, they will never examine Malcolm holistically, for by doing so, the truth would stand out clearly.
Malcolm X is considered to be the first person to truly understand the power and impact of the mass media. Although the media tried to depict him as a hate-preacher and a black demagogue, he was able to surpass such images, even though he cherished them. What we mean is that the media wanted to project him in a certain way with bad intentions. What Malcolm was able to do was to twist around that projection, exploit it, and make it benefit himself and the cause of black people. The true ideas of Malcolm X are in much greater now than when he was alive, for when he was alive, he was able to defend himself, and his ideas, but now that he is dead, he is unable to respond to false allegations.
Half of Spike Lee’s movie deals with Malcolm’s criminal career and a blown-out of-proportion relationship with some insignificant white woman. It is preposterous that half of the film would be dedicated to a period of time in Malcolm’s life that only lasted for two years. The film has failed to mention much more facts about the real Malcolm X. In his autobiography, Malcolm mentions his travels to Africa and the support he received from numerous heads of state for his plan to take the United States to the United Nations’ court in order to face trial for its mistreatment and human rights abuses against American blacks. The movie fails to mention that Malcolm X had visited guerrilla training camps in Algeria and that he was making arrangements to have African Americans trained there so that they could defend blacks in the southern United States against the violence of white racists, and to take offensive action against the Ku Klux Klan. Malcolm also had strong ties with Cuba. Fidel Castro came to visit him in Harlem.
Contrary to the film, which portrays Malcolm as a careless father and someone who had no time to spend with his family, he was in reality a caring and affectionate father. In order to understand who Malcolm X was, people must know this important information. Young blacks consider Malcolm as a hero on their baseball caps and t-shirts, but do they really know who they are supporting? The fact of the matter is the Malcolm that they are projecting is the pre-Mecca Malcolm and they seem to be completely (or deliberately) ignorant of the fact that Malcolm changed and that there was a post-Mecca Malcolm who was very different.
Malcolm X was certainly victimized by the media in his life and in his death. Different groups with different interests have attempted to distort his message to suit their particular ideological y plans. Those who are still caught up with Malcolm’s Nation of Islam days are precisely those who understand him the least. Anyone who studies Malcolm’s life and does not learn that Malcolm was a man of change who was in a constant evolution has not learned a thing from him. One cannot take the Malcolm from one particular period of time and say, “This is what Malcolm X was!” What we must accept, though, is Malcolm’s climax: his final ideological position, and the one for which he died. That position was Islam, and his tombstone bears witness to this fact. He was not buried as “Malcolm X” but as “El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz,” as a new man, as a Muslim.
