Of course, when Malcolm left the NOI, he started hanging out with Trotskyites, but that's another story.
The cynical story at the time of Malcolm's so-called conversion and subsequent death was that he was starting to realize that things were about to take a nasty turn with Elijah and the brothers and that maybe The Man, this devil, was someone he could work with after all.
Well, Trotskyites have better table manners than Stalinists so there's always the bright side
Handout after handout ? Like enforcing and protecting the right to vote ? Like an end to casual white violence ?
Each had a vital role to play. Malcolm X is an exact parallel to Michael Collins. Both knew that freedom isn't just about words on pieces of paper. It is about taking a people bowed down by centuries of oppression and teaching them to fight back. Michael Collins in creating the IRA in 1919 made the Irishman disciplined, efficient, and competent, not the comical, drunken leprechaun. Both saw that it was about turning feckless slaves into fearless men.
It was a good guy, bad guy routine. Before Malcolm, white people saw MLK as the 'troublemaker'. After Malcolm they realized that the days of cringing black deference were over forever and protest was turning into rage. For the first time in 300 years a black person could express anger to a white person and live. Whites now had to face the fact that a lot of anger had been boiling up over those 300 years.
King never begged for government handouts or preferences, just asked for equality and justice. You obviously didn't do your homework.
I have WAY more respect for Malcolm AND King because neither sought personal wealth or self aggrandizement from the movement,unlike two other current well known black"leaders"
I don't agree that Malcolm wanted NOTHING!
I think the Trots gave Malcolm a forum and a publishing contract. That relationship with the SWP was too short to see how it would play out, since Malcolm was killed weeks after he began that association.
I've a better opinion of X than Stanley, who I have a great deal of admiration and respect for. However, we would never know.
The thing about X was he woke up during his Haj. I think he was still shaking off the sleep of hate when he died, but again, to quote Fats Waller--one never knows, do one?
Do you have any examples of him looking for government handouts? I don't recall any.
Hoo boy. I was flamed royally around here for calling Martin Luther King a Commie. Hope you fare better!