Author: Manning Marable
Publication Date: 2011
Rating: 4/5
My choice to read this book did not arise from the events of 2020 - the murder of George Floyd; the overblown reaction of BLM and anarchic leftists across the world. But of course, at the same time, it was all on my mind. And as it turned out, reading the life of Malcolm X proved for me a formative and timely experience that I needed in order to at least somewhat better understand and sympathise with the plight of black people the world over.
To be entirely honest, I knew very little about him before I started this book. He only appealed to me in that he is celebrated by the Right (somewhat mistakenly) as being critical of white liberals, to the point that he preferred an openly racist Southerner to a deceitful Democrat who just wanted his vote. And especially in his earlier political phase where, at the same time as he preached racial segregation, revolutionary violence and black supremacy, he was very contemptuous of the liberals, once stating they were "those who have perfected the art of selling themselves to the black man as our friend to get our sympathy, our allegiance and our minds," among many other damning things.
But to paint him as a pro-Republican conservative black man is quite ludicrous. Indeed, while I wholeheartedly believe Martin Luther King would have denounced much of the violence perpetrated by BLM in recent years, the truth is Malcom X probably would have supported it if not actually engaged in it himself.
But this is all relating to my preconceptions, and with a book like this, I feel little justification in focusing on myself in regards to what it covers. Suffice to say that Malcolm X was an incredible man, a flawed and conflicted one, but at the same time amazingly strong and courageous, intelligent and full of integrity. His tragic end, as well as Mr King's shortly after, shines a heartbreaking light on the often brutal relationship between speakers for truth and justice, and the societal establishment of their time. As Manning Marable clearly details in this book - its sub-title is A Life of Reinvention - Malcolm X was always on a journey of development, honing and refining his ideas, his methods and his rhetoric, but never betraying those who shared his skin colour for a free and easy life of celebrity. He not only died but lived a martyr, denounced and maligned until it was safe and fashionable to honour his struggle for the betterment of humanity.
He is now a rightful hero of history, but he was also a victim of it. But like all great martyrs, he has become immortalised, and this book does a fine and thorough job in presenting his life, with all its colours and contradictions. There is a question posed on Goodreads about whether this book or Malcolm's autobiography (published posthumously, and co-written by Alex Haley) is the better read. Most seemed to favour the autobiography, but (while I am now very interested in reading that) I think this book is the way to go because, as much as it upholds and does justice to its subject, it also makes sure to point out the fictive elements inherent in the myth of Malcolm X. It portrays the real man, rather than the mythological hero he became and that he himself had an influential part in creating. This biography offers, I imagine, a richer and more realistic portrait of Malcolm X that ultimately does him much more justice.
A fine biography, intensively researched and very well presented. Made all the more poignant as the writer died very shortly after its publication.
