Malcolm X -- After Giuliani

It is the 50th anniversary of the death of the black activist Malcolm X.   I am old enough to have been immersed in the black civil rights movement of the 1960's.   I heard Dr. King, I heard the thoughts of Malcolm X, I read James Baldwin, Marcus Garvey, Frederick Douglas, and the abolitionists.   I knew about SNCC, CORE, the Black Panthers, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church and the killing of four young girls by the KKK and many other crimes against people of color too numerous to mention here.   I became furious at the centuries of injustice black people experienced in this very exceptional country.

I am also a Jewish woman who is not afraid to say I loved Malcolm X. He expressed a rage at the injustice that I feel when I see an obstructionist racist Republican Congress pillory our first black president no matter what he does as they try to lie their way to power any way they can and appeal to the basest instincts of our nature.   I am angry when I see raised the noxious Confederate flag, a symbol of white southern racism and the deaths of thousands of innocent black men at the poplar tree hands of white racists in the south.

 

Flying the Confederate flag is as if a Nazi one were raised in my sight.   What must it mean for persons of color who see that treasonous flag emblematic of a segregationist south?

 

I am angry when a hateful former NYC Mayor Giuliani insults our president disparaging his patriotism. This coming from a man who avoided the Vietnam draft and did not protect the Trade Towers he knew were a prime target for attack.   He impunes the president's childhood while the uncle Giuliani touts as having the most influence on him was a felon who ended up in Sing Sing and worse along with his other uncles evaded the WWII draft. That is who taught former Mayor Giuliani and that is who he thinks taught him patriotism while the president’s grandfather and great uncle fought in WWII and, indeed, his great uncle was among those who liberated Ohrdruf, a Nazi work camp and a sub camp of Buchenwald.

 

I am, indeed, furious about what Giuliani said against our president as furious as I am when Netanyahu tries to spit in the face of the president and accept a Republican obstructionist Congress's invitation to speak before it subverting the all important nuclear talks with Iran. I am furious at the racist inhumane, cruelty and abuse minorities have had to swallow at the hands of white racists like Giuliani and the entire Republican Party of our modern era.

 

What can I do about it? Not much except to universally reject and oppose what he said and for which the Republican Party stands. Disparaging the consummate patriot Obama's good name cannot be tolerated.

 

Malcolm X instilled fear in white America and told it things they did not want to hear.   He said America was racist, treated the black man abominably for centuries and killed him mercilessly while claiming the nation’s “exceptional” character.   Malcolm told America that he and persons of color were not going to take it anymore.   He did not mince words but in soft tones explained to a white interviewer why he believed as he did.   Malcolm said no to violence BUT he would NOT be nonviolent toward those who were violent to him.

 

I loved Malcolm X.   I still do.   No one said it better or fought against injustice harder than Malcolm X did.   This slender 6 foot 4 inch tall man with his piercing eyes, charismatic presence and wry smile told the black man he should take the freedom that should rightfully be his.   After Giuliani’s inane and hateful comments receive such a plethora of news coverage they do not deserve I suspect Malcolm X would say fight those words "by any means necessary."

How much longer can we suffer the insufferable?  How much longer can we take the evil and lies the Republican Party spews.  When will we as a nation come to our senses and reject ALL Republican candidates for anything not even dog catcher.  There is no other election that will be as important as 2016.  It will be the test as to whether our nation lives 98% slave and 1% free or whether we DEMAND what should be the right of the middle classes, a more economically equitable nation and climate change policy that reverses this planetary threat. 

The time grows short as it is five minutes to midnight. Now is the time as there will be no other.  Our planet through our extreme weather is screaming at us.  If only we would listen.  Our only choice is through the Democratic Party.  Do NOT let Republicans fool you again.