Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary: By Any Means Necessary
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Community Reviews
Excellent, excellent book. Wow. This book went through Malcolm X's life and delved into his beliefs, the times, other major figures, and managed to do it in a way that presented a nuanced, thorough, and introspective account of this complicated man's life. It is for children, but it does not shy away from difficult topics. Rather, it approaches them in the quiet, rational-feeling way that some adult books seem to have forgotten how to do. I feel like every time I read an opinion piece, especially about something controversial, there's a lot of fire and brimstone to go around. This book laid it all out without a lot of judgment. It took the time to go into a lot of background and history in a way that few things tend to do these days, I think. It was a great introduction to Malcolm X, even if it was "written for children".
I've been wanting to read more about Malcolm X for several years. When I found this short audiobook while looking for books by Walter Dean Myers, I thought I'd give it a whirl. I've been teaching black history during black history month now for about three years. I started doing black history my third year when I switched books and, spurred on by a black father who brought to my attention many things about the portrayal of the black experience (and specifically how I needed better resources and knowledge), began actually delving into much of this history. It has been quite a learning experience. That first year, I realized how little I knew, but unfortunately didn't have time to fix these huge knowledge gaps I had. I've been working on it little by little since then, by trying to read a variety of black literature (particularly for children) and trying to educate myself about the black experience, black history, and current and topical black struggles. The thing that has always gnawed at me has been Malcolm X.
Malcolm X was a shadowy historical figure for me. If I had learned about him outright, I didn't remember it. Modern history usually got shafted (and still gets shafted) because when taking a survey of American history, teachers tend to get bogged down and are lucky to make it with depth to past WWII. Most barely go into such movements as the Civil Rights Movement, and then it's all about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., largely because he has been whitewashed into something comfortable for middle America. (Side note: I don't think MLK is unworthy of attention or praise, but I do think his legacy has been tarnished by only painting him in a single light and forgetting about him as a round, human person.) Malcolm X's picture was usually in the history textbook, usually with a quick caption about how he was MLK's opposite, not to mention the fact that the pictures they use are always the ones where he looks the angriest. As time has gone on, I've tried to learn more about Malcolm X, though it's been spotty at best until now. Now I at least have an introduction. And the introduction I do have is a revelation.
Malcolm X is one of the most interesting, misrepresented people I think I've ever had the pleasure to read about. What a life. I had known that he grew up hard and tough and on the streets, and that he had been in jail, but I knew so little about the specifics of his growing up. His father was a passionate minister, a religious man who held people in the sway of his convictions. For this, he was killed (left to die on trolley tracks) when Malcolm was young. His mother tried her best to raise her large family but eventually strained under the pressure and was institutionalized by white social workers who then split up the family. Malcolm was very smart, but went to mostly white schools and, though he excelled, was called nasty names and told he could never succeed. When he was a young teenager, he moved to Boston to live with his half-sister, Ella. He fell in with the wrong crowd and saw firsthand how he could make as much money as black men who had college degrees. At that time, he saw how black people were getting short-shafted economically, but decided the best way to circumvent this was through crime. This led to his imprisonment, where he decided that the best thing he could do for himself was educate himself.
When he got out, he channelled his knowledge and energy and charisma into the Nation of Islam, a religious organization for black Muslims that his brothers had become a part of. The Nation of Islam took many ideas of Marcus Garvey, who felt that blacks should help raise each other up and they only needed each others' help, and focused it into real, lived practices. They had schools where they educated young black children, they had restaurants and businesses where blacks served blacks with respect and decency, they instilled a sense of black pride. The ultimate message was that if black people continued to believe that the lie they had been told by white people to keep them down -- that they were racially inferior -- then they would never be able to rise up. And also that white people had a long, long list of ways to create self-hate in black people: drug addiction, poverty, etc. Thus, the message of the Nation of Islam was that black people should try to separate themselves from the mainstream white population. Trying to fit themselves into the white mainstream would not erase the feelings of racially-motivated self-hate that that white mainstream perpetuated, to their detriment. So the Nation of Islam was anti-integration. But when you say it like that, without any of that other background, it sounds kind of bad, doesn't it? When you say black people should remove themselves from a system that will never allow them any success, that sounds a lot better. It's all about how it sounds and this book did a great job of trying its best to remove "how it sounds" or to couch "how it sounds" in history and background and context.
Likewise, this book took a good, hard look at MLK. It analyzed the reasons for his rise, why he became a counterpoint to Malcolm X, how they were similar, how Malcolm X felt about MLK and the non-violent movement. It makes so much more sense when articulated this way. History classes, to me, always seemed to make Malcolm X out to be this violent, white-hating zealot, on par with terrorists and angry mobs. He was so much more than that, and to reduce him to such violent and hateful terms is untrue and, I feel after reading this book, slanderous. Yes, he said some intense things, but that does not mean that his movement was hateful. Intensity and conviction does not automatically invalidate their ideas, like history has so often attempted to paint those it doesn't like. And I don't think history really likes Malcolm X.
He had yet another change when he ended up breaking with the Nation of Islam shortly before his death. He created a new organization and even went on a hajj to Mecca. On his journeys, he grew yet again and became a different person. He began opening the door wider and wider to people of all colors and realizing that he was reducing people, and that there were good people in the world to work with in order to achieve progress. This never gets mentioned. It never gets mentioned that he was a diverse, multi-faceted man who continued to evolve and grow throughout his whole life.
However, I think the thing that struck me the most was his death. I knew he had been assassinated, and had been so before MLK. I did not know the exact circumstances of his death. I did not know that he died, essentially, in a firefight. I did not know that his wife was there, nor his many daughters. I did not know she was pregnant with twin daughters. I did not know that he lay there in front of them, shot to death and bleeding on a stage, with an audience in attendance. That struck me to my core. That is truly despicable and I cannot fathom the pain and suffering that must have caused his family. And for what? He often said himself that men who have strong convictions die young, and that he did not think, because of his ideas and his willingness to spread them, that he would live to be old. He was right, and I think that is an injustice.
This book, I think, is especially important right now. I think there is a lot of confusion over why many black people in this country are upset. Many people say things like, "but slavery was so long ago" and "what's so bad for them right now anyways" and a book like this goes into so much history that sheds light on the circumstances and events of today. This book really informs why movements like Black Lives Matter are important, crucially so, and are still relevant and required today. This is still a struggle that exists and goes on, and I can see the struggle between the ideas of Malcolm X and the ideas of Marcus Garvey and the ideas of MLK and the ideas of W.E.B. DuBois. This book provides a little more illumination and should be read.
If not this book, then others. Go read about the black experience, especially if you are not black. Go read about black history, especially if you are not black. Take the time to understand the concerns of the people of your country today. Take the time to look through their eyes and see their histories and read books about this struggle. It's important if we ever want to move forward.
I've been wanting to read more about Malcolm X for several years. When I found this short audiobook while looking for books by Walter Dean Myers, I thought I'd give it a whirl. I've been teaching black history during black history month now for about three years. I started doing black history my third year when I switched books and, spurred on by a black father who brought to my attention many things about the portrayal of the black experience (and specifically how I needed better resources and knowledge), began actually delving into much of this history. It has been quite a learning experience. That first year, I realized how little I knew, but unfortunately didn't have time to fix these huge knowledge gaps I had. I've been working on it little by little since then, by trying to read a variety of black literature (particularly for children) and trying to educate myself about the black experience, black history, and current and topical black struggles. The thing that has always gnawed at me has been Malcolm X.
Malcolm X was a shadowy historical figure for me. If I had learned about him outright, I didn't remember it. Modern history usually got shafted (and still gets shafted) because when taking a survey of American history, teachers tend to get bogged down and are lucky to make it with depth to past WWII. Most barely go into such movements as the Civil Rights Movement, and then it's all about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., largely because he has been whitewashed into something comfortable for middle America. (Side note: I don't think MLK is unworthy of attention or praise, but I do think his legacy has been tarnished by only painting him in a single light and forgetting about him as a round, human person.) Malcolm X's picture was usually in the history textbook, usually with a quick caption about how he was MLK's opposite, not to mention the fact that the pictures they use are always the ones where he looks the angriest. As time has gone on, I've tried to learn more about Malcolm X, though it's been spotty at best until now. Now I at least have an introduction. And the introduction I do have is a revelation.
Malcolm X is one of the most interesting, misrepresented people I think I've ever had the pleasure to read about. What a life. I had known that he grew up hard and tough and on the streets, and that he had been in jail, but I knew so little about the specifics of his growing up. His father was a passionate minister, a religious man who held people in the sway of his convictions. For this, he was killed (left to die on trolley tracks) when Malcolm was young. His mother tried her best to raise her large family but eventually strained under the pressure and was institutionalized by white social workers who then split up the family. Malcolm was very smart, but went to mostly white schools and, though he excelled, was called nasty names and told he could never succeed. When he was a young teenager, he moved to Boston to live with his half-sister, Ella. He fell in with the wrong crowd and saw firsthand how he could make as much money as black men who had college degrees. At that time, he saw how black people were getting short-shafted economically, but decided the best way to circumvent this was through crime. This led to his imprisonment, where he decided that the best thing he could do for himself was educate himself.
When he got out, he channelled his knowledge and energy and charisma into the Nation of Islam, a religious organization for black Muslims that his brothers had become a part of. The Nation of Islam took many ideas of Marcus Garvey, who felt that blacks should help raise each other up and they only needed each others' help, and focused it into real, lived practices. They had schools where they educated young black children, they had restaurants and businesses where blacks served blacks with respect and decency, they instilled a sense of black pride. The ultimate message was that if black people continued to believe that the lie they had been told by white people to keep them down -- that they were racially inferior -- then they would never be able to rise up. And also that white people had a long, long list of ways to create self-hate in black people: drug addiction, poverty, etc. Thus, the message of the Nation of Islam was that black people should try to separate themselves from the mainstream white population. Trying to fit themselves into the white mainstream would not erase the feelings of racially-motivated self-hate that that white mainstream perpetuated, to their detriment. So the Nation of Islam was anti-integration. But when you say it like that, without any of that other background, it sounds kind of bad, doesn't it? When you say black people should remove themselves from a system that will never allow them any success, that sounds a lot better. It's all about how it sounds and this book did a great job of trying its best to remove "how it sounds" or to couch "how it sounds" in history and background and context.
Likewise, this book took a good, hard look at MLK. It analyzed the reasons for his rise, why he became a counterpoint to Malcolm X, how they were similar, how Malcolm X felt about MLK and the non-violent movement. It makes so much more sense when articulated this way. History classes, to me, always seemed to make Malcolm X out to be this violent, white-hating zealot, on par with terrorists and angry mobs. He was so much more than that, and to reduce him to such violent and hateful terms is untrue and, I feel after reading this book, slanderous. Yes, he said some intense things, but that does not mean that his movement was hateful. Intensity and conviction does not automatically invalidate their ideas, like history has so often attempted to paint those it doesn't like. And I don't think history really likes Malcolm X.
He had yet another change when he ended up breaking with the Nation of Islam shortly before his death. He created a new organization and even went on a hajj to Mecca. On his journeys, he grew yet again and became a different person. He began opening the door wider and wider to people of all colors and realizing that he was reducing people, and that there were good people in the world to work with in order to achieve progress. This never gets mentioned. It never gets mentioned that he was a diverse, multi-faceted man who continued to evolve and grow throughout his whole life.
However, I think the thing that struck me the most was his death. I knew he had been assassinated, and had been so before MLK. I did not know the exact circumstances of his death. I did not know that he died, essentially, in a firefight. I did not know that his wife was there, nor his many daughters. I did not know she was pregnant with twin daughters. I did not know that he lay there in front of them, shot to death and bleeding on a stage, with an audience in attendance. That struck me to my core. That is truly despicable and I cannot fathom the pain and suffering that must have caused his family. And for what? He often said himself that men who have strong convictions die young, and that he did not think, because of his ideas and his willingness to spread them, that he would live to be old. He was right, and I think that is an injustice.
This book, I think, is especially important right now. I think there is a lot of confusion over why many black people in this country are upset. Many people say things like, "but slavery was so long ago" and "what's so bad for them right now anyways" and a book like this goes into so much history that sheds light on the circumstances and events of today. This book really informs why movements like Black Lives Matter are important, crucially so, and are still relevant and required today. This is still a struggle that exists and goes on, and I can see the struggle between the ideas of Malcolm X and the ideas of Marcus Garvey and the ideas of MLK and the ideas of W.E.B. DuBois. This book provides a little more illumination and should be read.
If not this book, then others. Go read about the black experience, especially if you are not black. Go read about black history, especially if you are not black. Take the time to understand the concerns of the people of your country today. Take the time to look through their eyes and see their histories and read books about this struggle. It's important if we ever want to move forward.
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