The Story of the Struggle of Malcolm X - Essay Example

Islam’s Prime Role in Malcolm X’s Fundamentalist African-American Civil Rights Movement In the history of African-Americans’ fight for their civil rights in the latter part of the 20th century, Malcolm X figured as the most radical activist who sought for an altogether independent African-American society from the dominant white American society. As an activist, Malcolm X advocated the fusion of both religion and politics—particularly advocating for Islam, citing its advantages over the Christian values of the black American oppressors, the white Americans. This paper discusses Malcolm X’s persona as an Islam activist. While he identified himself as a Muslim and black American living in the white American society, there are characteristics that make him both typical American and African-American. Drawing primarily from his autobiography, specifically on the speeches he delivered during the height civil rights activism in the 1960s, this paper discusses the characteristics that make Malcolm X a typical American and African-American. This paper posits that religion is the common denominator found in Malcolm X’s being American and African-American. Malcolm X is a typical American because he subsists to the fundamentalist view of religion and politics: for him, African-American society should seek its own society independent from white American society and guided under the values and teachings of Islam. Malcolm X is also a typical African-American because he confronted his unique experience of oppression by subsisting to religion and faithfully following the teachings and religious principles of Islam. The first position this paper discusses is how Malcolm X became the typical American. As a Muslim fundamentalist, Malcolm X strictly adhered to the teachings of Islam, which includes the belief in establishing an independent society wherein the rules of Islam religion dominate and becomes the socio-political structure of this new, independent society. This is the proposition that has always been advocated by Malcolm X, citing how the religious teachings of Christianity have been used to oppress and take advantage of the African-American society. To demonstrate that the African-Americans always had the right to become independent from the white Americans, Malcolm X argued that the white man had ‘no sense of history.’ In his speech, “After the Bombing,” Malcolm X asserted that the Negro has a sense of history because all races take root from the Negro heritage—even the white man. From Latin America to Europe, the African-American race dominated the world, until the white American came to rob them of their ‘supremacy’ among all races. What makes the African-American experience in America more oppressive and hopeless was the fact that the Negro in the country did not seek to assert his rights in the face of oppression, and simply accepted the fact that he is subordinate to the white man: The only difference on the continent was the American Negro. Those who were over there werent even thinking about these over here. This was the basic difference. The Africans, when they escaped from their respective countries that were still colonized, they didnt try and run away from the problem. But as soon as they got where they were going, they then began to organize into pressure groups to get governmental support at the international level against the injustices they were experiencing back home. The passage above calls for a more active response to the inflicted oppression among Negros by the white American. This active response will be achieved, according to Malcolm X, by “re-organizing” and establishing a new and independent Negro society. This proposition is observed from the context in which Malcolm X and his fellow Negros were in. As he elaborated, the world has been divided into “white and dark worlds” for the longest time, and the time for the Negro has come—thus, his call for an independent society under the rule of the Islam religion. What made Malcolm X’s position on the oppression among African-Americans is that he viewed it as a sign through which the Negros can respond through the establishment of an autonomous society. Like the Christianity-taught white Americans, the white Americans believed that America is their own society, thus African-Americans, belonging to a different race, should also be treated differently and subordinately to the “owners” of America—the white Americans. This fundamentalist ideology has been supported by Christianity, rationalizing that the white man deserved to have the African-American slaves, in the same manner that Jews deserve to live in the “Promised Land” given them by God. Thus, Malcolm X is the typical American because of the similar beliefs and practices he has with the white Americans. The white man believed he owns America, Malcolm X also believed that Negros should “own” their own society, independent of any race and religion apart from African, African-American, and Islam. The white man believed that Christianity is the only and right way to live life, being the master of the African-Americans; Malcolm X believed that Islam will guide the African-Americans in their path towards establishing independence and being the black man. Malcolm X is also the typical African-American because he subsisted to Islam as his way to understand the oppression he was witnessing ever since he was a young man. This experience is not uncommon among African-Americans, who resorted to religion in order to bear and understand the oppression that they experienced by the white Americans. During his time, most of the African-Americans have subsisted to Christianity as their form of escape and way of calling help to God. Malcolm X considered the African-American subsistence to Christianity as seeking belongingness, which only furthered the oppression that the white man inflicted on them. Thus, in order to become fully independent from the white man and his utilization of Christianity to perpetuate the Negro’s oppression, Malcolm X found Islam as the only way to become independent and be guided rightfully into establishing an autonomous Negro society. Islam, like Christianity, offered its unique traditions and conservative teachings that Malcolm X considered appropriate for the African-Americans’ version of society-building. The establishment of an Islam-ruled Negro society is the “justice” that African-Americans have been waiting for, as the world reaches a period wherein the white American power is gradually decreasing its force (“God’s Judgment of White America” speech): Our present generation is witnessing the end of colonialism, Europeanism, Westernism, or "White-ism"...the end of white supremacy, the end of the evil white mans unjust rule. I must repeat: The end of the world only means the end of a certain "power." The end of colonialism ends the world (or power) of the colonizer. The end of Europeanism ends the world (or power) of the European...and the end of "White-ism" ends the world (or power) of THE WHITE MAN. Read More