The Autobiography of Malcolm X is a collaboration between Malcolm X himself and Alex Haley. The book details his entire life and is easily one of the most powerful things I have ever read. The first thing you have to know is that Malcolm X was an ever changing and dynamic character. Any criticism you read of the man might be true depending on what stage of his life you are looking at. This seems pretty unextraordinairy, you could say that about anyone. The difference between Malcolm X's auto biography though, is how many times he went through a complete overhaul of his identity. He changes his names 3 times alone, each reflecting a new life, a new ideology, and a new kind of leader.
Malcolm X's most consistent quality is his "fire". It really defined him as a leader of the struggle, probably more so than his often confused ideology. This fire manifests itself in a variety of ways that make Malcolm so facisinating. Sometimes it is aimed at the collective action of the white man in the form of pure, unabashed truth telling. Despite the fact that he was never formally educated, his mastery of knowledge over the history of his people can indict even the most progressive whites of his time or any. No one is safe. He takes on the given racist institutions like prisons or the government, but he also takes down education and the media. He went after them in ways the more peaceful leaders did not. Every word is deliberate, every message is clear. It is almost hard to describe how blunt and truthful this man could be, the conviction he gave to his words made everything he said hammer home. No other word but "powerful" can convey this mans presence, even his literary one.
For the same reasons it was the most powerful book I ever read, it was also the most challenging. It challenged everything I previously thought about race and everything that ever taught me about it. The power behind Malcolm's accusations that welfare tore up his family or that the integrated school systems were used to ensure the demise of his education, had me seriously questioning these systems. Obviously I believe in integration and government assistance to the poor still, but this is why reading Malcolm was so challenging. He shook the foundation of what I know to be true. One line captures this perfectly for me. Alex Haley is telling Malcolm that whatever he says, the white publishers are contractually obligated to publish. X says he doesn't trust the white man, Haley assures him he can, and Malcolm responds: "You trust them and I don't. You learned about him in schools where he taught what he wanted you to know about him and I learned about him locked in the ghetto streets and in prisons - I will tell you about trust". This had me thinking about how in public school I never learned about Malcolm X, or Angela Davis, or Stokely Carmichael or any movement that was outside the most famous, non violent, civil rights movements. I did learn about Christopher Columbus' heroic discovery of America, our heroic founding fathers, our historic sense of justice as a nation. Of course I knew all these things were just pretty pictures of our past that were painted to hide the real ugliness of it. What I never really suspected was that other movements and conditions were left out by design, in order to write off their importance, their reality, or even their existence. The most challenging and powerful part of this book was reading Malcolm lay these truths out in front of me and making me aware of how little I know about my own education.
But despite its power and challenge, there are some serious flaws in Malcolm, his ideology, and his book. Malcolm I believe was deeply sexist, which is a hard thing to admit, but ultimately true. It is hard to admit because he has so many speeches that really empower African American women, but he expresses too many times his belief in their fundamental weaknesses and toxicity to men. This duality made me uncomfortable and didn't seem all that useful to the narrative. I'll grant that it was at least honest. I've also mentioned before that his ideology was confused, but people often cite how his discovery of true Islam (away from the Elijah Muhammad Islam of Black America) and his pilgrimage to Mecca helped change his personal philosophy into one of brotherhood. Yet I find his understanding of Islam to be surprisingly flat. He points out that Muslims don't often care about color, that white muslims and black muslims work together sincerely, this leads him to believe that Islam is the only true religion of brotherhood and he doesn't hesitate to tell this to everyone. While I think he is right about the muslim community's regard toward race, he seems to completely ignore the history of violence within the religion as he uses it to assail christianity. This shows an unprecedented ignorance of history - it is fairly disappointing to see. Finally, the book glorifies his criminal past far too much. In its first chapter and a half, we are met with vivid and powerful memories of racism unlike anything I've ever read. Yet when Malcolm falls into the life of crime, it reads like a crime novel; drug runs, shoot outs, showdowns, the works. As destitute as he wants you to believe it was, it is hard to believe it when he treats his criminal self as a hero of the underworld. The re-birth into Islam then seemed insincere and caricatured. It made his transition away from this phase all too unbelievable. It set kind of an off pace for the rest of the book.
Overall though, reading the autobiography of Malcolm X is worth it. It is bound to inspire and challenge, but it is not guaranteed you will like it. After reading this book I think it is upsetting to hear Malcolm's constant comparison to Martin Luther King Jr. It is true they often criticized one another, but Malcolm was the fire under America's ass - his goals were not the same. This devotion to the struggle of his people, his willingness to burn himself to extinction in order to incite change...or else, makes for a very riveting and mind altering read. This book offers you something very deep; I think whether you walk away with it like Spike Lee did, or you walk away from it - you will not be the same after you've seen it.
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