Looking into Malcolm X: The Man
As a student researcher finding facts about the history of substance use, the criminal legal system and other related issues, I was interested in learning about Malcolm X. I’ve always heard stories about how he was a man that went to prison, became a great hero, and was killed all before he turned 40. However, I didn’t know the full extent of his story. In order to learn more, I watched the 1992 film, Malcolm X, starring Denzel Washington. What I found was not merely a story about a man who struggled with substance use in the past and then “pulled himself up by his bootstraps” as I’ve heard before, but an account of a man who struggled with the poor hand he was dealt from birth, used the resources and community that he had, and through this, became a leader.
In his life, X faced a lot of hardships. Losing both of his parents to racism before he was a teenager and facing barriers because he was a Black man in America were hard things for him, as they would be for anyone. But what is interesting is that these personal experiences didn't make him an activist. Instead, he became a hustler known as Detroit Red, struggling with feelings of racial inferiority along with gambling, using and selling substances, and abusing women. His behaviors resulted in many arrests by the time he was 21. Usually in stories like this, if a person had a complicated past, it would be presented as a footnote to preserve their “clean record.” But in Malcolm X’s life, his criminal legal experiences were an integral part of his story which shows that yes, while he was that person, it didn’t define who he would become.
The movie depicts Malcolm X’s metamorphosis in prison, showing how Elijah Muhammad wrote to Malcom X, inspiring him to convert to Islam, and become a minister for the NOI (Nation of Islam) and an activist. Unfortunately, everything eventually broke apart for X: countless FBI investigations, terrorist attacks, and a fraction between X and Muhammad caused him to leave the NOI. This movie shows that these struggles not only failed to break X, but actually ushered in another drastic change in his personal outlook and perspective. After he left the NOI, he did the Hajj, a pilgrimage to the Holy city of Mecca that is a duty for Muslim people. There he broke bread and prayed with people from many backgrounds, including white people (something NOI Malcolm would never do). During this trip, X’s persona went from being someone who would never work with “Uncle Toms” like Martin Luther King Jr., to someone who believed that the liberation work of all Black people, no matter the method, was valid. And though he still didn’t want white people to join his organizations, he no longer believed that all men were devils. It
As a student researcher with SHAWN, watching this movie reminded me of how important it is to humanize the populations who I serve. No one should be written off for their past and everyone deserves a chance to change. Malcolm X was given that chance, and from it he blossomed; the justice-involved women who we work with deserve the same grace.
