2001-12-05 (Wednesday) - 9:13 a.m.

I wonder if there will be a backlash against Black Studies now that, according to John Lehmann and Ronna Abramson in yesterday's edition of The New York Post, it has come out that The Autobiography of Malcolm X.was a major influence on John Walker.

FWIW, I read Autobiography in the spring of 1992 while in eighth grade and learned a lot from the text. It caused me to question Christianity, nonviolence and liberalism as a whole. My favorite line has to be "I believe in anger."

Still it should be kept in mind that the text is imperfect as it doesn't capture the full political trajectory of Malcolm X. For that I suggest collections of his speeches including Malcolm X Speaks as well as George Breitman's The Last Year of Malcolm X. (Keep in mind that I think Breitman went a bit too far in analysis.)

If I ever make the time, I would like to write a lot more about this.

email me if you care to,
micah
 
 

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