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Commentary: Donald Trump brings Malcolm X to mind
The Winston-Salem Chronicle ^ | August 6, 2015 | Dr. Bill Turner

Posted on 08/05/2015 10:56:40 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Those who want to understand why Donald Trump is so popular going into this week’s Fox News-sponsored Republican debate for the 2016 presidential nomination need look no further than back to the life and times of Malcolm X, the much maligned human rights leader of the 1950s and ’60s, who, to the shock and annoyance many Americans, was much loved in the American black community during similar times like these.

Malcolm X, like the blacks whose cause he championed, had nothing to lose and everything to gain as does Mr. Trump; who, by similarity, might as well amend his political slogan “Make America Great Again” by adding Malcolm’s tagline, “By any means necessary!”

Donald Trump is all the rage because he says whatever he wants without fearing the loss of financial support from deep-pocketed Republican political action committees, the Super PACs.

Trump’s Republican challengers are like –although quite cautiously – the so-called respectable black civil rights leaders who disparaged and devalued Malcolm, mainly because they depended on white liberals for money.

Malcolm had the Nation of Islam behind him; while Mr. Trump, by contrast, is among America’s richest entrepreneurs, with real estate around the world, to which he flies to aboard his name-emblazoned private aircraft, decked out, no less, in red, white, and blue.

Mr. Trump rides the wave of his charisma, celebrity status and independence; and like his fiery forerunner, works the media to his advantage.

Mr. Trump’s Malcolm X-like raw rhetoric and belligerence reflects and appeals to a large segment of the white conservative electorate; his intense dread for politics-and-politicians-as-usual are the same anxieties felt by the right wing of the GOP.

In the same way, but for obviously different reasons, Harlem’s ghettoized blacks in particular hung onto their homeboy’s every utterance: “Say it!, Tell ’em!, Brother Malcolm!”

Malcolm was not short on creating a whirlwind of controversy every time he opened his mouth, from calling the assassination of President JFK “nothing but an example of the chickens coming home to roost,” to the regular use of “cracker” when referring to whites or as when he described the 1963 March on Washington as “nothing but a circus, with white clowns and black clowns!”

A master at wordplay, biting humor sarcasm, and black idiomatic signifying and speechifying, Malcolm had no peer.

Donald Trump, likewise, has no equal on the presidential stump when it comes to contentious and divisive comments such as he made about “rapist immigrants” from Mexico or his attack against “no war hero,” Sen. John McCain.

Many Americans do a hue and cry when Mr. Trump spews his broadsides, but plenty of people also respond with uproarious agreement when their deliberately confrontational leader is at his best!

Speakers like Malcolm X and Donald Trump make moderates and middle-of-the-roaders more plausible and acceptable.

But, as Malcolm might have put it, “Ain’t nothing in the middle of the road but white lines and dead ‘possums!” Mr. Trump agrees.

The main differences between Donald Trump and Malcolm X lie in the dissimilarity of their backgrounds and between their beliefs, values and ideas about the social, economic, and political landscapes of America and the world.

Also, Minister Malcolm X was not incendiary just to be provocative, nor was he ever, like Trump, pompous and full of himself, and he was much smarter and more well-read; but, as givers-of-speeches, Malcolm X and Donald Trump – who, unlike Malcolm, also doesn’t have a political platform to speak of – are cut from the same cloth.

Whatever Mr. Trump’s run for the White House looks like at the end of the day, his supporters should study the life and times of Malcolm X and they will see that The Donald, when it comes to turning up the heat, is not too unlike the man some called Brother Malcolm.

If not that, they might thank their lucky stars that Malcolm X isn’t here today, speaking unbridled and unbought truth to power and privilege.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: blacks; frustration; malcolmx; trump
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Comments?
1 posted on 08/05/2015 10:56:40 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This guy has a doctorate?

In what, stupidity?


2 posted on 08/05/2015 10:58:14 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Be a blessing to a stranger today for some have entertained angels unaware)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The world is in utter chaos.
3 posted on 08/05/2015 11:01:21 PM PDT by Irish Eyes
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To: SaveFerris
For all of his faults and grievous sins, Malcolm Little ("X") was spot on when it came to the Second Amendment. He was pro-gun and in that aspect alone, he was a absolutely right as this video shows:

MALCOLM X ON THE SECOND AMENDMENT

4 posted on 08/05/2015 11:03:28 PM PDT by re_nortex (DP - that's what I like about Texas)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Commentary: Donald Trump brings Malcolm X to mind

Does this mean Soros or the Koch Brothers are going to murder him and get away with it even though everybody in the world knows whodunnit?

5 posted on 08/05/2015 11:03:29 PM PDT by FredZarguna (Some FReepers see things as they might be, ask why not? chinaboy sees things as they are:tell my why)
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To: re_nortex

Probably for all the wrong reasons. Given his other rants.


6 posted on 08/05/2015 11:04:56 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Be a blessing to a stranger today for some have entertained angels unaware)
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To: SaveFerris

Taking guns away from Negroes was a tactic of the DemonRAT party. And so it remains today but the ‘RATs want all colors disarmed so that hussein’s muslim invaders can establish the caliphate he envisioned for this Republic.


7 posted on 08/05/2015 11:07:17 PM PDT by re_nortex (DP - that's what I like about Texas)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Malcolm X was a member of the Nation of Islam - a group that demands separation of the races.

In NOI it’s not legal for the races to date, much less get married.

NOI doctrine states that white people are second class citizens created by an evil scientist to screw over the perfect people (namely the black man).

At the final battle, God will judge us all - but he’ll judge the black man first.

Does this sound like the stuff Trump is espousing?

It’s ironic that Malcolm X - a man who wanted separation of the races and hated Jews is remembered for his Civil Rights activism. It’s like remembering Hitler fondly for being an animal lover who made the trains run on time.


8 posted on 08/05/2015 11:09:50 PM PDT by Tzimisce
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Well if The Donald is like Malcolm X he better beware of Calypso Louie. Word is that Farrakhan had a hand in killing Malcolm X.


9 posted on 08/05/2015 11:09:54 PM PDT by Pelham (Deo Vindice)
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To: re_nortex

I think O wants only the criminals, whomever they may be, armed.


10 posted on 08/05/2015 11:10:10 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Be a blessing to a stranger today for some have entertained angels unaware)
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To: FredZarguna

+1


11 posted on 08/05/2015 11:10:16 PM PDT by Pelham (Deo Vindice)
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To: Tzimisce

Sounds almost as goofy as Scientology.


12 posted on 08/05/2015 11:14:25 PM PDT by Bobalu (If we live to see 2017 we will be kissing the ground)
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To: Bobalu

It’s worse.

The latest NOI leader (Louis Farrakan - however you spell his name) advocates violence against whites and has done so for decades.

Malcolm X supposedly renounced violence when he converted to Islam.

Of course, I’m constantly told that Islam is a religion of peace and yet the Muslim on everyone violence continues...


13 posted on 08/05/2015 11:21:22 PM PDT by Tzimisce
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To: Tzimisce

Farrakan should be jailed for his incitement to violence IMO.


14 posted on 08/05/2015 11:31:28 PM PDT by Bobalu (If we live to see 2017 we will be kissing the ground)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Somewhere on my dead computer, I have an MX speech where he tells Blacks not to trust Lib Dems.


15 posted on 08/05/2015 11:32:16 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra (Don't touch that thing Don't let anybody touch that thing!I'm a Doctor and I won't touch that thing!)
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To: Bobalu

If he was white, he would be.

Interesting how he’s out there demanding to be treated like a white man. I don’t think him and his followers would be happy if he was arrested for inciting violence.


16 posted on 08/05/2015 11:34:01 PM PDT by Tzimisce
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

To: 2ndDivisionVet

I read Malcolm X’s autobiography in the 1960’s. Interesting guy.


18 posted on 08/06/2015 12:07:07 AM PDT by haroldeveryman
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To: All
You know who really reminds me of Malcolm-X???


19 posted on 08/06/2015 12:10:21 AM PDT by LegendHasIt
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Oh brother!


20 posted on 08/06/2015 12:12:20 AM PDT by Ray76 (Obama says, "Unlike my mum, Ruth has all the documents needed to prove who Mark's father was.")
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