“I believe in the brotherhood of all men, but I don't believe in wasting brotherhood on anyone who doesn't want to practice it with me. Brotherhood is a two-way street.” -- Malcolm X.
You can't go through Black History Month without considering the impact on civil rights that Malcolm X had. An early disciple of the Nation of Islam's black separatist / anti-integration teachings, Malcolm X's early racial pronouncements were provocative and well out of the civil rights mainstream. By the early '60s, he had grown disillusioned with the Nation of Islam's leader, Elijah Muhammad. After a visit to Mecca and conversion to orthodox Sunni Islam, he moderated his racial views, reconciling with the civil rights movement before his assassination 56 years ago today in 1965. Today, he's celebrated widely as an early visionary for black empowerment and racial justice, whose impact would have been greater had he lived.
His "two-way street" philosophy should be adopted by Dems in the political sphere, as Republican hacks plot to undermine President Biden's agenda while hypocritically calling for "unity."
(photo: Malcolm X with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964. Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
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