Malcolm X

This thesis is a historical and filmic analysis of the Black Panther Party, using two documentaries, All Power to the People: The Black Panther Party and Beyond (1996) and The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015). It is first stated what the documentary film should set out to achieve when framing a political narrative. The films will be looked at separately, in regard to the context of their production and release. Power to the People was a reaction to the Rodney King riots. Vanguard of the Revolution was filmed alongside the rise of the Black Lives Matter Movement. The Black Panther origins as a movement are briefly considered to allow for a base understanding of the party’s precepts and aims. This includes the roles of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and an introduction to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The content analysis begins by looking at the main ideologies of the party and its operations. The empowerment of women but also hyper masculinity within the party is then discussed. This follows on to social and survival programs set up by the party. Primarily using two significant cases, the deaths of Bobby Hutton and Fred Hampton, there is an examination of concerted efforts by police and FBI to mobilise and neutralise the party. Comparisons and contrasts are then made between the style and content of the two films. It will be concluded that the films serve two purposes, to give the positive work of the Black Panthers a legitimate platform, but also to address the criticisms levelled at the party. The overarching conclusion will be that the Black Panthers were involved in a vicious cycle. Once they brought any semblance of solidarity to their communities, the FBI and Police would move against them leading to reactionary violence which caused the party’s eventual disbandment.

Two weeks ago, the world witnessed a murder of an innocent Black man, George Floyd, what many, including Jesse Jackson, called a “public lynching” in broad daylight, at the hands of a white policeman. It was a brutal killing by the manner in which Minneapolis policeman, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck, slowly and viciously forcing the life out of Floyd for almost 9 minutes. While Chauvin’s fellow officers, by not coming to Floyd’s aid, were complicit to the crime. There was no need for Chauvin to have subdued Floyd in such a cruel and purposeful way until Floyd could no longer breathe, especially since Floyd had already been restrained. Nor, did Floyd have any weapon. Nor had he committed any crime warranting such force. In a video captured by a teenager, Floyd could be heard stating he could not breathe, and calling out for his deceased mother. Since 2014, there have been other police killings of African-Americans with no consequences for the police officers involved.

I would consider Baldwin's writings about Malcolm X/el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz and several queries. First, how do Baldwin's representations of el-Shabazz compare with The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley? This is a comparison that elicits two different metrics. There are the nonfiction writings by Baldwin which present the politics of el-Shabazz as a praxis that merits comparison and contrasting with the praxis Haley described. The other metric is with regards to adaptation. In 1967, Baldwin authored a text, begun as a theatrical script to be staged by Elia Kazan and, following a mid-project purchase of textual rights, a screenplay for Columbia Pictures, that adapted The Autobiography titled One Day, When I Was Lost. Another inquiry is how el-Shabazz impacted Baldwin's writings by furthermore seeking to inquire whether we see this el-Shabazz-inspired political ideology manifest in two posthumous film adaptations of Baldwin's works, JAMES BALDWIN: I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (2016) and IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (2018).

James Baldwin in Context provides a wide-ranging collection of approaches to the work of an essential black American author who is just as relevant now as he was during his turbulent heyday in the mid-twentieth century. The perspectives range from those who knew Baldwin personally, to scholars who have dedicated decades to studying him, to a new generation of scholars for whom Baldwin is nearly a historical figure. This collection complements the ever-growing body of scholarship on Baldwin by combining traditional inroads into his work, such as music and expatriation, with new approaches, such as intersectionality and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Edited by D. Quentin Miller

Ethnologiquement et historiquement, l’Afro-Américain et l’Arabo-Européen ont beaucoup en commun. Plusieurs générations après avoir été “importés” dans une terre promise, ils ne sont toujours pas considérés comme des citoyens à part entière. Dans “Malcolm X, Discours aux Cités de la République”, l’islamophobie française est comparée au racisme américain à travers les discours de Malcolm X qui retourne à l’époque de l’esclavage américain du XVIIIe siècle pour résoudre les problèmes de la communauté noire aux Etats-Unis. Bien que cette recherche fut écrite (en anglais) il y a huit ans, elle semble aujourd'hui être d’actualité plus qu’elle ne l’était à l’époque…

Theologically speaking, human rights emerge from God’s creative act of humanity from a single soul (Adam) and appointing
humanity as Earth’s vicegerent. Any subsequent denial of a person’s dignity and right of existence therefore implies the denial of God
and Its sovereignty over creation. Malcolm asserts that Islam, through the rites of hajj and other practices, contains convincing evidence for the possibility of spiritual reformation and is an authentic method through
which Blackamericans and all other peoples can reconstitute their dignity. In other words, Black lives matter because all lives matter,
and vice versa.

What stands in the way of this process is the repressive, idolatrous and destructive nature of White supremacy. Malcolm argues
that this attitude enables the social denigration of anyone who doesn’t fit the established profile of a worthy human being and, by extension, citizen. It both facilitates political oppression and marginalizes anyone who doesn’t conform to the system’s ideals. His analysis effectively institutes the concept of “systemic racism.”

In this paper, I examine works of fiction, digital resources, and speeches of Malay political ideologues who engaged in the mythologization, mo- numentalization, and mobilization of Malcolm X's thought. As a travel- ling model, his life and thought has been translated from one language to another, absorbed, adapted, appropriated, and vernacularized among Malay-Indonesian Muslims, ushering novel formulations of the notions of justice, freedom, and equality in a setting Malcolm X was least familiar with but had gained much intellectual stimulus from. It follows then that this paper seeks to address two main gaps in the ever-growing studies on Malcolm X: First, the lack of attention to how his ideas and life story were recast outside the Anglo-American world. Second, I hope to show how a study of Malcolm X can generate the development of new concepts in the path to analyze how political theologies travel from one particular temporality to another.

Afro-Amerikan Müslüman lider Malcolm X'in (El Hacc Malik El Şahbaz) birçoğu ilk kez Türkçeleştirilen ve dönemine damgasını vurmuş, üniversite öğrencilerine hitaben yaptığı konuşmaları içeren Amerika'ya Meydan Okurken kitabının ilk baskısı 2017 Ekim ayında Pınar Yayınları'ndan çıktı.

Assignment This critical writing assignment asks you to discuss any one or two of the texts on the syllabus. The topic is up to you to choose, though it is important that you do more than rehash class discussion. Given the length of the essay, you should focus on a topic that doesn't demand extensive background information, but instead allows you to make a clear, compelling thesis claim and support it with textual evidence efficiently.

Born out of a critical deconstruction of the Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley (1965), Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (2011) by Manning Marable takes upon a significant task: not only placing Malcolm’s life and death within an accurate socio-political context, but actually reevaluating his life itself. Drawing upon the Autobiography of Malcolm X, oral histories and personal interviews, archival research, and an extensive investigation of FBI records and other government documents made available under the Freedom of Information Act, Marable aimed to restore the “historical Malcolm.” While the Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Haley has chapter titles that suggest the redemptive arc of the book such as “Satan” to “Savior,” from “Hustler” to “Minister Malcolm X,” through Marable's lens, Malcolm emerges not as a redemptive symbol but as a political theorist and tactician. In Malcolm X: A Life in Reinvention, Marable provided a new architecture for understanding Malcolm X as a deeply flawed individual full of unresolved personal and philosophical contradictions.

Malcolm X is an iconic figure who has inspired, controversy, debate, scholarship, revolution, fear, nationalism, and pride in the hearts and minds of those who contemplate his memory. One of the many topics of his ideology that intellectuals enjoy debating is whether Malcolm was a sexist or feminist. To be honest, there are very few who would call him a feminist, but many will readily admit that towards the end of his life El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz had a new view of women-one that was far more accepting and egalitarian than it once had been. A handful of writers will interpret this new gender inclusive attitude as feminism (although it would probably better be described as anti-sexism) but many more continue to focus only on the misogynistic words and actions he exuded. This paper will examine the various ways in which Malcolm's feelings toward and beliefs about women have been interpreted by scholars within academia. Clenora Hudson-Weems offers an insightful womanist perspective of Malcolm X in her article, "From Malcolm Little to El Hajj Malik El Shabazz: Malcolm's Evolving Attitude Toward Africana Women," in which she argues that "in all stages of his development, there is a clear connection between Malcolm's spiritual and

This article examines the political development of Malcolm X domestically. Malcolm influenced and was influenced by activists in the United States. The long held notion that Malcolm's critiques of capitalism and imperialism only emerged after his trips abroad and the assumption that Black Americans had no part in his development are critically assessed. Acknowledging the impact his journeys to Africa, Europe, and the Middle East had on his political conceptions, this article locates Malcolm's burgeoning anticapitalist stance through his relationships with Black radical Detroit.

When it was first published, many Black writers condemned William Styron's biographical novel The Confessions of Nat Turner. What few scholars have noticed is that there were many Black intellectuals who defended and even supported Styron and his novel. Is there a way to explain the different responses? I argue that there is. Black separatists (Vincent Harding, John Henrik Clark, Charles Hamilton, and John Oliver Killens, to mention only a few) faulted Styron and his novel, while Black integrationists (James Baldwin, John Hope Franklin, and J. Saunders Redding, to mention only a few) defended Styron and his novel. What differentiated Black writers was an intellectual orientation: Black separatists have an atomistic conception of human identity, which leads them to treat groups of people as ontologically separate and distinct. Given this approach, Black separatists treat homosexuals as separate and distinct from heterosexuals, and in the writings of prominent Black separatists, they say disgraceful things about gay people. By stark contrast, Black integrationists deconstruct binaries like black and white as well as gay and straight. Not surprisingly, black integrationists have a much more positive approach to homosexuals than black separatists. If we approach Styron's novel through an integrationist lens, we will arrive at a very different interpretation than the Black separatists.

This essay reflects an attempt to advance our understanding of the relationship between argument and history, as well as to add to the scholarly conversation surrounding Malcolm X by explaining how he was able use history as argument to render the fantastical theology of the Nation of Islam persuasive. Given that the central audiences of this theology were reared with a Judeo-Christian understanding of the world, the Nation of Islam's contra-Christian message posed a uniquely difficult message to which Malcolm was instructed to render palatable. I submit that by utilizing a mutually reinforcing system of historical retelling, Malcolm X partially overcame the constraining influence of NOI's doctrine to enhance the persuasive capacity of NOI history. I begin by briefly discussing four aspects of NOI doctrine as professed in the 1950s and continue with a brief examination of the constraints this doctrine placed on NOI ministers.

O artigo tem por objetivo refletir sobre alguns aspectos da vida de Malcolm X. O objetivo central do trabalho é apresentar Malcolm como um representante da “diáspora negra” que lutou pelo fim da supremacia branca e pelos ideais de emancipação humana. A justificativa desse trabalho é desenvolver uma reflexão crítica sobre a modernidade a partir do pondo de vista do ativista afro-americano. Outra justificativa para este trabalho se dá ao impacto que a obra de Paul Gilroy, O atlântico negro: modernidade e dupla consciência (2012) produziu ao apresentar a modernidade aos olhos de ex-escravos, como Frederick Douglass; de ex-escravas como Margaret Garner; e os descendentes de escravos e intelectuais como W. E. B. Du Bois, Richard Wright e James Baldwin. Uma terceira justificativa é da ordem do cinema. Com a adaptação cinematográfica da vida de Malcolm X feita pelo diretor Spike Lee. O filme Malcolm X foi lançado em 1992 e teve o ator negro Denzel Washington como protagonista. A dramatização biográfica feita por Lee é uma experiência estética de alto nível. O filme mostra a vida de Malcolm a partir de alguns recortes históricos que procuram dar coerência ao desenvolvimento da consciência social e política do líder negro. Dessa forma, o artigo está dividido em duas partes. Na primeira parte discuto o filme de Spike Lee a partir de cinco atos. Na segunda parte, tomando como referência o livro de Manning Marable, Malcolm X: uma vida de reinvenções (2013), procuro elaborar uma reflexão sociológica e política sobre a vida e trajetória de Malcolm X.

Office hours: MWF 10:30-11, 1-2, 4-4:30; by appt. Course Description This course surveys African American literature from the end of the Harlem Renaissance through the period of the Black Arts Movement to the present. The primary objective is to gain an understanding of the various ways in which African American literature both shapes and is shaped by the changing conditions under which it is produced, including segregation, the Civil Rights movement, and the Vietnam War, among others. Students develop critical thinking and communication skills through discussion and exams as they cultivate knowledge of texts covering a wide range of genres, themes, styles, and points of view. Key topics to which the course returns throughout the semester include the representation of race and gender, social and economic mobility, freedom, community, identity, and nationalism, among others. Students will also reinforce analytical, critical thinking, and communication skills; build content knowledge; and expand computer and information literacy by pursuing a collaborative, interdisciplinary, digital humanities project culminating in the presentation of a research paper. A blog will be used to host course-relevant internet resources discovered and annotated by students. The research paper will incorporate one or more texts from the syllabus, internet resources from the blog, and at least one non-literary primary text (film, painting, photograph, song, etc.) so as to illuminate relations between literary works and the social, political, economic, and artistic culture as a whole.

En el presente Trabajo de Fin de Grado se estudian las vidas e ideas de dos de los líderes negros estadounidenses más importantes del siglo XX: Martin Luther King Jr. y Malcolm X. Para ello, en primer lugar, se exponen sus respectivas biografías, necesarias para, posteriormente, analizar sus ideas políticas, económicas y sociales. Por último, se realiza una comparación ideológica de ambos, tratando de poner de manifiesto sus semejanzas.

The present paper studies the lives and ideas of two of the most important black leaders in the United States during the 20th century: Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. For this purpose and in first place, their respective biographies are presented, as they will be useful for the later analysis of their political, economic and social ideas. Finally, an ideological comparison of both is carried out in an attempt to reveal their similarities.

Resumen
El feminismo negro o afrofeminismo surgió como fenómeno social y político a finales del siglo XIX, cuando las mujeres blancas estadounidenses líderes del movimiento sufragista decidieron dar prioridad a su derecho al voto sobre el de las mujeres de color, dejando un espacio para el activismo de quienes querían luchar contra esta doble discriminación por igual. El presente trabajo se centrará en los sesenta del siglo XX, años en los que se desarrollaron con mayor fuerza los movimientos por los derechos civiles en Estados Unidos. Mediante el estudio de casos específicos de activistas del feminismo afroamericano, analizaré la evolución del papel desempeñado por las mujeres en el Movimiento por los Derechos Civiles, en la lucha por la liberación de la mujer afroamericana y contra el racismo de la sociedad estadounidense.
Abstract
Black feminism, also known as afrofeminism, started as a socio-political event in the end of the 19th century. Internal differences in the suffragist movement from the United States of America led to a scission with the white women fighting only for their own right to vote, thus generating an activism against the double discrimination former black slaves were subjected to. The following paper will provide a general overview of the US Civil Rights mobilizations and, more specifically, the paper women emancipation movement had during the sixties of the 20th century. Through the political experiences of some of its main afrofeminist activists, I will analyse the evolution of female role in the Civil Rights Movement, their role in the Afro-American woman’s liberation and their battle against the racism in the US society.

Argumentative tactics honed while participating in formal debates were a central foundation of Malcolm X's rhetorical practices. Despite this fact, structured debates and panel appearances represent one of the least theorized aspects of Malcolm X's rhetoric, with only Robert Branham (1995) addressing these rhetorical situations. Yet, one of Malcolm's greatest attributes as a speaker was his use of tactics learned in and borrowed from formal debate settings (Banks, 2006, p. 53). Better understanding Malcolm's use of arguments in formal debates and later extended into his general public address lends insight into the rhetoric of Malcolm X and contemporary argumentation. First, viewing the discursive practices of Malcolm X displayed in debates and public confrontations as rhetorical refusals allows us to see how these unique arguments promoted social change. Second, such an approach can help us understand how some debate tactics that circumvent the topic are not merely poor argumentative practices, but operate as argumentative tactics that effectively prosecute the status quo.

There are many good reasons why Malcolm X's legacy has outlived his short life. Though his life as a public figure lasted just thirteen years before an untimely death-murdered by gunfire at 39 years old while speaking at the Audubon Ballroom-his ideas about achieving racial justice remain among the most influential of any thinker or leader before or since. He is arguably responsible for giving birth to the movements for black pride and Black Power. Perhaps even more memorable than the challenging and powerful ideas he advanced, it was Malcolm's literary style in the fight against racism-both in speech and writingthat make him an entirely unique figure among contemporary or subsequent civil rights leaders. This is why Ossie Davis presciently predicted over fifty years ago that despite the many enemies his fiery and controversial rhetoric produced, Malcolm X would be remembered as a martyr for the cause of racial justice. So, it's not surprising that his story has been told and retold countless times through popular and scholarly literary works, films, theater, opera, music, ancillary products, and more. 2 As it stands, Malcolm's life is generally remembered as the heroic struggle of an individual who overcame extreme odds all on his own, rising from ignorance and obscurity to become one of the great thinkers and leaders of his time. But it is curious that a key period in his life-the prison yearsremains largely unexamined. And examining this period complicates what we think we know about who he was and how he came to occupy such a central and influential space in the American psyche.

Former Washington Post editor Karl Evanzz is the leading advocate of the "Elijah Killed Malcolm" claim. He is also the principle fabricator of the evidence supposedly proving that the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad ordered the murder of Malcolm X. In his The Judas Factor: The Plot To Kill Malcolm X (1992), Evanzz writes: On January 7, 1964, the FBI taped a conversation involving Elijah Muhammad which should have-but didn't-resulted in his arrest. The Messenger made a veiled reference to killing Malcolm X. "It's time to close his eyes," Elijah Muhammad said. 1 Many people cite this alleged "Kill Order" of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, all drawing from Evanzz. 2 What is the source of this claim? Evanzz's source at footnote no. 19 (p. 345 of his book) is listed simply as: "Ibid.," a refence to the above footnote no. 18 which reads: "FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad." Evazz gives us no help in identifying in which of the hundreds of released FBI files on Elijah Muhammad this alleged "Kill Order" is found. Nevertheless, we have succeeded in locating that document, 3 and we see clearly why Evanzz was reluctant to lead us to it. This document demonstrates two things:

Here are a set of comprehensive notes aimed at framing a discussion around the work of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X.  Coming on the heels of a discussion of W.E.B. Du Bois, one major aim here is to see how King and Malcolm are able--in their own distinct ways--to answer Du Bois' call for a new rapprochement between religious language and political action.  To do so, we should look especially closely at King's "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" and Malcolm's "The Ballot or the Bullet."

God & Apple Pie: Religious Myths and Visions of America
by Christopher Buck
Kingston, NY: Educator's International Press, 2015

Contents
Introduction, by J. Gordon Melton
Chapter 1: America: Nation and Notion
Chapter 2: Native American Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 3: Protestant Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 4: The Christian Right’s Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 5: Catholic Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 6: Jewish Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 7: Mormon Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 8: Christian Identity Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 9: Black Muslim Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 10: Contemporary Muslim Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 11: Buddhist Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 12: Baha’i Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 13: Conclusion: How Minority Faiths Redefined America’s World Role

Two sample chapters (by publisher's permission):
1.  Native American Myths and Visions of America (Chapter 2)
2.  Black Muslim Myths and Visions of America (Chapter 9)

Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/God-Apple-Pie-Religious-Visions/dp/1891928155/

Introduction by J. Gordon Melton,
Distinguished Professor of American Religious History, Baylor University

Far from being an interesting additional topic for the religious dilettante, the discussion around the theological reality that is America, periodically bursts forth as an important item on the nation's agenda, from the place of prayer services in the White House, to the issuance of an annual government report on religious persecution, to the rise of contemporary terrorism. As one traces radical Islam, for example, one arrives at the writings of one Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian who spent some of his younger years in America, and came away with his own vision of a country mired in sin and decadence. He would posit America as the image of everything he hoped to escape in promoting the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Now, in all honesty, I must admit that over the years as I encountered all of the intriguing, even fascinating, ideas about America in the great cosmic scheme of things, I never got around to systematically gathering the different visions and trying to make sense of them in any detailed fashion. Thus, I have been more than happy to receive, and now with this modest introduction, pass along to my scholarly colleagues and the reading public the work of Christopher Buck.

During his years of observation and research, Buck has surveyed the spectrum of visions of America that have energized and motivated the America's religious community, and has selected from among them a sample that both (1) represents the spectrum of opinion about America and its importance, and (2) highlights the more important visions of America that have shaped and are continuing to shape the way we understand this country we call home. His work calls us to become self-conscious about the assumptions we use in our day-to-day movements that massage the ways we approach our neighbors, our colleagues at work, and the politicians for whom we vote.

Buck begins with the visions of America present at the founding of the nation, aspects of which still strongly permeate the culture today, and have found a new home among conservative Protestants in their innovative idea of Christian America. Amid the Protestant context, we often forget the role of the Roman Catholic Church, which became the largest religious body in America in the 1840s and is now three times larger than its nearest competitor. At the end of the nineteenth century, a controversy on Americanism would erupt around Catholic visions of their place in a changing world that would drive it from participation in the nation's public square for a half-century, and molded its reentrance after World War II.

And then there are all the other-than-Christian religions, from Ahmadiyya Muslims to Zoroastrians, all of which possess their its own vision of America that shapes their appropriation of life in the United States and guides their development as their place in the nation was challenged, then accepted, and most recently affirmed and even celebrated by the nation as a whole. We have watched as Buddhists have carved out a place as cultural peacemakers, Muslims have struggled with separation of religion and government, and Baha'is have tried to understand the communication of their founder, Baha'u'llah, with the presidents of the Americas collectively, and with 'Abdu'l-Baha's statements about the destiny of America in particular. All of this occurs in the ebb and flow of religious life. One day we envision the possible unity of America's religions only to be thrown up against the many harsh divisions, which motivates us once more to seek realms of agreement, which again highlights the array of issues that can drive wedges between those who accept the label "American" as part of their self-identity.

In conclusion, I can, as a scholar, reflect on the contribution that this book, Religious Myths and Visions of America: God and Apple Pie, is making to our understanding of the American mosaic and how various segments of the religious community have found their way to being American. As an informed citizen I welcome its information that allows me to empathize with and make informed decisions relative to those with whom I might align (or oppose) as I sally forth in the public square. And on a personal level, I welcome the author's invitation for me to meet anew the residents of my neighborhood, those who shop in the same stores I do, send their children to the same schools my grandchildren attend, and diligently work toward their own appropriation of the American dream.

J. Gordon Melton
Distinguished Professor of American Religious History
Baylor University

January 2015 — This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Experience is an universal phenomena that is interpreted, framed and narrated by individuals and communities to orientate, bind together or divide, to create continuity and difference. Experience of the Ultimate, whether named God, the Divine, the Sacred, Wholly Other, Sublime, and so forth, is contoured within historical locations, often inflected by theological, cultural, linguistic, and embodied lives of the individual and within communities. Committed to an interdisciplinary approach, this course explores the nature and interpretation of experience across interrelated frameworks, including the following disciplines: historical; theory; philosophical; sociological; theological; critical studies located at the intersections between sexuality, gender, the body and race. This course introduces seminal theorists (from ambivalent to the skeptical and constructive) who interrogate the nature, relevance, interpretation and communication of what may be deemed religious, spiritual and other awe-inspiring experiences, including contributions from William James, Rudolf Otto, Charles Taylor, Ann Taves, Martin Buber and Wayne Proudfoot. In addition to readings from theorists, this course explores human experience of God from within the Christian (e.g., Gregory of Nyssa; Thérèse of Lisieux; Liberation Theologies; Feminist Theologies; Evangelicalism) and Islamic tradition (e.g., Rumi; Sufism; Malcolm X). This course alsoexplorestheexperienceofNature (e.g.,Transcendentalism;RalphWaldoEmerson);SolitudeandLoneliness(PaulTillich) and of Aesthetics (Arthur Schopenhauer). To engage in closer readings on the narration of experience in the lives of two influential individuals, there are two weeks and papers devoted to the following two autobiographies (required textbooks): The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley and The Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux (both pictured below on the left). Every other course reading will be available on Brightspace. Amongst the variegated readings discussed within this course, the three books pictured below to the right are suggested readings, which contain some of the chapters and themes that will be returned to throughout our time together.

Afro-Amerikan Müslüman lider Malcolm X'in (El Hacc Malik El Şahbaz) birçoğu ilk kez Türkçeleştirilen ve dönemine damgasını vurmuş, söylev, söyleşi, gazete yazıları ve mektuplarını içeren Biraz Aksiyon-Rahat Durmayacağız kitabının ilk baskısı 2018 Ocak ayında Pınar Yayınları'ndan çıktı. Amerika'ya Meydan Okurken adlı çalışmanın devamı niteliğindeki kitapla birlikte, Malcolm X'in kitleleri harekete geçiren ünlü konuşmalarının birçoğu ilk kez kitaplaştırıldı ve bugüne dek yapılmış en hacimli çalışmalardan biri olarak yayımlandı.

As an organization, upon the orders of Elijah Muhammad the Nation of Islam were the killers of Malcolm X.-Zak Kondo on Riot Starters TV February 24, 2022 Zak Kondo has been described as the author of "a definitive account of the assassination." 1 However, his account, Conspiracys: Unravelling the Assassination of Malcolm X, 2 is anything but definitive. In fact, many of Kondo's conclusions are demonstrably wrong. Amiri Baraka offers this just criticism of Manning Marable's book, Malcom X: A Life of Reinvention 3 : "Marable spends most of his time trying to make the NOI Malcolm's murders." 4 This criticism applies with equal force to Zak Kondo. And, in order to make the Nation of Islam the murders of Malcolm X, Kondo has engaged in some very suspect scholarly practices, not unlike Karl Evanzz. 5 Kondo, like Evanzz, often totally misrepresents his sources. This misrepresentation always leads to the same conclusion: Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam's guilt. But the point here is important: Kondo has to misrepresent his sources in order to make Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam guilty. I cite three examples here.

was firebomb in an FBI-and NYPD-involved operation. A justifiably angry Malcolm X immediately laid the blame on the Nation of Islam and any behind-thescenes reconciliation negotiations that might have been engaged in at the time between Malcolm X and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad seemingly went up in flames with the house. On Monday February 15 th Malcolm spoke to around 500 persons at the Audubon Ballroom. A furious Malcolm X voiced for the first time publicly the supposed details of a pact that the Nation of Islam allegedly entered into with the Ku Klux Klan, a "conspiracy between the NOI and the Ku Klux Klan that is not in the best interest of black people," 1 Malcolm claimed. He said further Don't you know? The way they threw that bomb in there they could have thrown it in a Ku Klux Klan house. Why do they want to bomb my house? Why don't they bomb the Klan? I'm going to tell you why. Negroes and therefore lessen the pressure that the integrationists were putting upon the white man. I sat there. I negotiated it. I listened to their offer. And I was the one who went back to Chicago and told Elijah Muhammad what they had offered. Now, this was in December of 1960... From that day onward the Klan never interfered with the Black Muslim movement in the South. Jeremiah attended Klan rallies, as you read on the front page of the New York Tribune. They never bothered him, never touched him. He never touched a Muslim, and a Muslim never touched him. Elijah Muhammad would never let me go back down since January of 1961. I never went South, as long as I remained in the Black Muslim movement, again, from January of 1961, because most of the actions the Muslims got involved in was action that I was involved in myself. Wherever it happened in the country, where there was an action, it was action that I was involved in, because I believed in action. I never have gone along with no Ku Klux Klan. 2

One myth that is important to the Malcolm X False Narrative is the claim that, in preparation for the February 21 st assassination, the Nation of Islam rented the Audubon Ballroom a week prior (Tuesday, February 16) in order to dress rehearse the upcoming Hit. This "dry-run" allegation is a pillar of the larger "The Black Muslims Killed Malcolm X" false narrative; Les Payne and Tamara Payne included a whole "Dry-Run" chapter in their Pulitzer Prize winning Malcolm X biography. 1 But this "Dry-Run" allegation itself is demonstrably false. We find the claim spelled out in the Journal American two weeks after the murder: Black Muslims rented the Audubon Ballroom in Upper Manhattan less than a week before the February 21 murder there of Black Nationalist leader Malcolm X, for an apparent "dress rehearsal" of the assassination, a high police official told The Journal-American today. "Except for the mishap of one man getting shot before he could make it to the door, their plan worked smoothly, almost perfectly," the official said. "The killers must have had prior knowledge of the ballroom and the building itself in order to execute their plan with such a degree of speed and precision. The Black Muslims had never used the ballroom before. It seems to be more than mere coincidence that they should suddenly choose to hold a meeting in the very place that Malcolm was to appear the following Sunday. During the Muslim meeting there would have been ample opportunity to study exits and entrances, to plan step by step the timing and determine the escape routes. It is conceivable that a dry run took place during that meeting.' Disclosure of the murderous 'practice session' came as the third and final alleged trigger-man in the killing faced arraignment today on a homicide charge in Criminal

Malcolm was our manhood, our living black manhood. That was his meaning to his people. And, in honoring him, we honor the best in ourselves...And we will know him then for what he was and is-a Prince, our own shining Black Prince who didn't hesitate to die, because he loved us so.-Ozzie Davis, Eulogy for Malcolm X Muslims, do you know that we are the only thing that stands in between their wicked plan of the demasculinization of Black men? The ONLY thing that stands between that is the Nation of Islam!-The Honorable Brother Minister Farrakhan, Watergate Press Conference, November 16, 2017. "a cursory glance at the footnotes reveals that [Manning] Marable's conclusions lack concrete evidence." 1

Malcolm X is one of the most iconoclastic persons in the African American political and intellectual traditions. The challenge in performing the research for this thesis, was to find a way to examine the life of Malcolm X that is different from the scholarly work published to date. I contemplated on what might be the most impactful Islamic concept that has influenced American dominant culture during the past twenty years. The critical lens I chose to utilize is the Islamic cultural practice of Jihad. The attraction for me was juxtaposing various concepts of Jihad, which is most closely aligned with the manifestations of Malcolm's faith as a Muslim. By using Jihad as my critical lens for analyzing his life and speeches I hope to present an even greater appreciation for Malcolm X as a person of deep faith. The forms of Jihad I will apply for contextual analysis are Jihad bin Nafs {Jihad of the Heart}, Jihad bil Lisan {Jihad of the Tongue}, and Jihad bin Yad {Jihad of Action}. Having read the Autobiography several times at different stages during my academic career I thought I had gained a good understanding of Malcolm X's life. However, reading his published documents,

For nearly four-hundred years, blacks in North America have survived under conditions of oppression or in environments where they are required to assimilate into communities that have historically served the predominantly white privileged culture. This thesis examined the results of black needs to assimilate into the predominantly and historically powerful white American culture that often believes it understands what best serves the needs of blacks, without having ever been subject itself to historically evolved black survival culture and values. Unfortunately for blacks, over the centuries the black socio-economic development emulates more of a survival culture and identity that is unequal to white privileged culture and identity. Blacks have neither the economic nor the political power in North America to accumulate the wealth or socio-economic status of the privileged white Americans, and remain disadvantaged unless they can redeem black identity through assimilation. The unique black survival culture has its own communication styles and interpersonal relation values. For blacks to exist comfortably in predominantly white communities, their communication styles and interpersonal relational styles may be exhibited briefly, but ultimately blacks must assimilate into white culture to obtain acceptance. Although diversity and inclusion have both emerged as popular concepts for white Americans, they address only the inclusive behaviors and diversity for the physical and legal identity of blacks. The evolutionary black survival strategies of unique interpersonal and communication styles remain inappropriate for integration into white culture; consequently, black identity and culture will only be tolerated by whites for a second and exhibited by blacks for a mere second more.