First off, rest in peace and rise and power to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s son Dexter King, who made the transition and reunited with his parents and older sister a few days ago on January 22 of this year. But let’s talk more about Dr. Martin Luther King and how the real-time media and hindsight history books love to compare him to Malcolm X. I have to give a downplay of the Dr. King propaganda spewed by mainstream media and mainstream thinking blacks. Growing up in the 1990s I used to hear mainstream Blacks and media favorably compare Martin Luther King to Malcolm X. Martin Luther king was considered the premier leader for Blacks and Malcolm X was that secondary ok, other leader. The media bastardized both leaders’ ideals to a nutshell description. Martin was for non-violence and Malcolm was for violence. And as we all know, non-violence is good, and violence is bad. Right? Martin was for integration, and Malcolm was for segregation. And as we all know, integration is good and segregation is bad. Very, very bad. Right? Martin was called a civil rights activist, and Malcolm was sometimes referred to as a black separatist. This label of separatist has a negative connotation to it. Malcolm was labeled a separatist more than the Jim Crow America he was reacting to. And I believed this nonsense as an adolescent and teen.
As I read more about Malcolm and heard his speeches and interviews as he eloquently defended his position, his ideals made more sense to me, while realizing Dr. King’s views- the slightly whitewashed version at that- were simply, more palatable to a good portion of white America’s precious little feelings. Malcolm didn’t preach segregation for segregation sake. He just thought if we have to endure assaults and have drinks and food spilled on us as the sit-in protesters endured, just so we can integrate, then just separate from a hostile White America and build your own nation with black owned institutions. He didn’t have a senseless belief in segregation, it was a cynical belief in segregation based on the demonic Whites violent insistence of segregation. Considering his assassination was February 21, 1965, he never lived to see the late 60s early 70s full integration, as racism transformed from blatant and consistent to subtle and sporadic.
Malcolm didn’t preach violence I learned. It was self-defense from initiated violence by the Caucasoid psychopaths of the day. Mainstream blacks said Malcolm was impractical and Dr. King’s strategy of passive resistance was smarter than Malcolm’s strategy of self-defense. Why? Because us Blacks are outnumbered by Whites in America and we’ll lose if we fight back. Malcolm’s reason was you already endure violence or “catching hell” as he would say. You might as well fight back. He also added that we are only outnumbered nationally- but globally, if you add the 700 million at the time of Africans and Asians overseas who endure exploitation and colonialism to the 22 million at the time blacks in America, that far outnumbers whites in America.
Gradually I learned Malcolm had a great plan of nation building and even Dr. King later spoke of the Black dollar circulating in our communities. That’s the Dr. King you don’t hear about. You only hear the “I Have A Dream” Dr. King.
Martin had more backing, considering he was financed by the middle class and received more publicity by the media. Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, and his teacher Elijah Muhammad were grassroots and it’s way harder to get a grassroots movement off the ground than a leader who has elite backing. That’s why Dr. King was able to get his partial plan of integration off the ground quicker. His complete plan was reparations for Blacks and the then, annual $30 billion Black spending to circulate to Black businesses with the option for White businesses along with the dissolution of state-sanctioned racial segregation and hostility. Dr. King was grassroots also, but slightly more mainstream.
Be that as it may, Martin Luther King was more influential and accomplished more with his stronger team. The Emmett Tills, Birmingham church bombings that killed four little girls, swift and blatant acquittals of white murderers against blacks are no longer as frequent and blatant. The “Whites Only” and “Colored” signs no longer exist. Blacks can frequent any public facility they want. The Civil Rights Movement was the cause of this and Dr. King was the driving force behind the movement. He led the charge of ending those blatantly flagrant forms of discrimination.
And FYI, King wasn’t a softy the way some non-mainstream, and conscious Black people think. He didn’t just kick this kumbaya-we are the world stuff the way the mainstream media’s white washed image of him will lead you to believe. The good media loves to play cheesy snippets of his “I Have A Dream” speech. A lot of his other speeches sounded demanding, strong willed, uncompromising, and still pro-Black- even prior to his early 1966 meeting with Elijah Muhammad.
