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Malcolm X Rejected Identitarianism and Black Nationalism
If Malcolm X had been killed in 1963, he would be remembered as just another of Elijah Muhammad’s racist followers. Malcolm admitted that in a letter written after he left the Nation of Islam (boldface mine):
“I declare emphatically that I am no longer in Elijah Muhammad’s ‘strait jacket,’ and I don’t intend to replace his with one woven by someone else. I am a Muslim in the most orthodox sense; my religion is Islam as it is believed in and practiced by the Muslims here in the Holy City of Mecca.
“This religion recognizes all men as brothers. It accepts all human beings as equals before God, and as equal members in the Human Family of Mankind. I totally reject Elijah Muhammad’s racist philosophy, which he has labeled ‘Islam’ only to fool and misuse gullible people, as he fooled and misused me. But I blame only myself, and no one else for the fool that I was, and the harm that my evangelic foolishness in his behalf has done to others.” — Malcolm X, September 22, 1964
I love Malcolm X because he was able to reconsider his beliefs, admit his errors, and say things like these:
“I have made sweeping indictments of all white people. I will never be guilty of that again.” — Malcolm X (As quoted in Malcolm X: The Seeker of Justice (2003)
