Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, A Love Song

Malcolm and Betty, A Love Song

Malcolm's alleged letter to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, pleading for help with his domestic relations with Better Shabazz, may be a fabrication, but if it is authentic, it reveals, once and for all, the deep love and affection Malcolm and all followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had for the man who was a father to us all, a master teacher in the oriental tradition, someone we came before in the most humble manner, the precious lamb of God.

Malcolm's letter reveals the honor and respect paid to HEM from the highest official to the lowest believer or laborer--so it is important for outsiders seeking an understanding of the Nation of Islam to study carefully the overall tone of this missal.

It is especially important that young North American Africans consider the respect Malcolm showed his leader and teacher. Such respect must be paid to elders deserving of such. Our community will not progress until such humility is evident in the inter-generational crisis. Let not the present young generation be so ignorant as we were in the 60s that we called for the killing of any adult over thirty (Black Panther Bobby Seale). Huey P. Newton expressed great respect for the HEM, even seeing the Panthers as subservient to the NOI. Huey said to me, "A Party can be part of a nation."

As per Malcolm's letter to Elijah regarding his wife, Betty, clearly he was pleading for help in a desperate situation, a marriage on the rocks. It appears that the psychological damage he inflicted on himself during his hustling, pimping and prison life, combined with his new found responsibilities as a leader and organizer of the NOI, provided him little time and even desire to satisfy his young wife, Betty, although they didn't produce six children from doing nothing!

Life has a way of catching up with us when we least expect it--nothing in the universe is forgotten, perhaps only forgiven. And time is the great monster we see on the horizon, once we belatedly discover our life's mission. For a revolutionary, a wife and family are often merely cosmetic, for such a revolutionary personality is often totally absorbed and obsessed with his mission.

It becomes impossible to ever relax and take a chill pill, especially when we don't consider this has been a four century struggle for freedom here in the wilderness of North America. We don't know how to pace ourselves, thus we try to get to the finish line in a day, when it ain't gonna happen that way, as Dr. John Henrik Clarke reminded us, this is not a sprint but a long distance race!

So although we are provided a family or acquired one, family is often totally ignored and neglected in favor of an abstraction called freedom. But shall there be freedom without family?Are we fighting to stand on the mountain top alone? What joy is this, what pleasure? Men often have their eyes glued to the sky and it takes a woman to bring us down to earth, almost literally, as in: "Git in the bed Malcolm and let them nigguhs go for a minute. Forget the X, just be Malcolm, please. You doin all this work for what? What you gonna have for your family when them nigguhs cut you loose?"

It is so very difficult to focus on the beloved because we are obsessed with the task at hand and the snakes in the grass, with deception and treachery the nature of political life.There is clear evidence things got better between Malcolm and Betty. On more than one occasion I heard her discussing Malcolm, saying that he was, more than anything, her lover. And then she smiled, blushed and gave out that little laugh she was known for, revealing a deep love for the man. I am confident, in the afterlife, they are together in spite of the hell they endured in this life. Once I learned Betty was a Gemini like myself, I instantly understood her alleged crazy actions and insatiable desires.

--Marvin X from In the Crazy House Called America, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2002.

Chauncey Bailey and Malcolm X, A Comparison

Malcolm X and Chauncey Bailey, A Comparison

Malcolm X and Oakland Post Editor Chaucey Bailey were both killed by Muslims in conspiracy with the police. Manning Marable's biography will lay bare more evidence of police involvement. Fifty years later there is call for a new trial to consider the New York police role in the murder of Malcolm X.

We wonder will it take fifty years before the citizens of Oakland call for a new trial in the assassination of Chauncey Bailey in broad daylight downtown? But just as Malcolm's killers were acting at the behest of the New York Police, even serving as his body guards, Chauncey's killers were mentored by the Oakland Police, and were under surveillance as well. So how could Chauncey be murdered without their prior knowledge?

And to show the depths of the conspiracy, the Monkey Mind Media only lightly touches on police involvement, after all, Harry Harris, an embedded reporter with the OPD, has long ago outlived his usefulness as an objective voice. He may as well be the chief OPD spokesman. The tragedy is that we cannot separate the Monkey Mind Media from other institutions who defend the political economic structure. They all benefit from the blood of the oppressed, the wretched of the earth. The irony is that they work for the consent of the governed.

The Chauncey Bailey Project, the UC Berkeley School of Journalism and the Robert Maynard Institute has reaped millions spreading half truths and is guilty of the sin of omission by not pursuing the very subject matter that is the main reason Chauncey was assassinated: his investigation of City Hall corruption and police corruption. Why has not the Monkey Mind Media used its arsenal of writers and reporters to go beyond surface level scanning of Chauncey's most serious work, police and political corruption, including murder, drug dealing, money laundering, shake downs and false arrests? Yet they laud him as a valiant journalist, but fear to tread in his footsteps. Are they simply cowards or just sycophants. For sure, Chauncey was in the tradition of Freedom's Journal, the first African newspaper published in 1827. I will never forget the day at the Oakland Post Newspaper office when he recited the founding days of that newspaper so vital to representing the voice of slaves. The Monkey Mind Media is more in harmony with the slave masters of today, especially as we advance to neo-slavery. Ishmael Reed thus calls them the Jim Crow Media.

The result is a community full of ignorance and fear at the very thought of blaming the police and politicians for a murder that is a common occurrence throughout the world and most especially just below our border in Mexico.

If you believe in such, it is just a coincidence the Manning biography of Malcolm was released during the trial of those accused of murdering Chauncey. And just as the New York police have yet to stand trial for their role in the murder/conspiracy, the officers who mentored the Bakery brothers are yet to have their day in court.

There is a plethora of community persons willing to testify about police abuse under the color of law. There was a security guard on duty at McDonald's near the crime scene who recognized Officer Longmire as one of the officers who shook him down when he ued to hustle. Longmire was in charge of the crime scene, yes, the mentor of the suspected killers, yet he refused to talk with an eye witness at the crime scene. He was momentarily removed from duty but returned after the chief of police slipped safely into retirement.

Police from New York to Oakland should be aware there is no hiding place. As we watch people around the world, especially in the Middle East, calling for justice and the end to police corruption and abuse under the color of law, the day shall surely come when police in America will face the wrath of people's justice. They can avoid this rapidly arising day of judgment by confessing their sins and deciding to be on the side of the people's revolution. If not, they shall surely find themselves on trial for crimes against humanity.

--Marvin X, Prime Minister of Poetry, First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists

http://www.firstpoetschurch.blogspot.com/

Parable of Malcolm's Killer

Parable of Malcolm's Killer

He was rewarded for his dastardly crime by a dastardly society universally known for murder and mayhem. Why wouldn't he be rewarded with his freedom after killing one of America's most dangerous men, simply because he spoke the truth, the low down dirty truth about America, her dirty linen, her funky drawers, her bloody cum filled panties.

Yes, Malcolm told it all, in the tradition of David Walker, Henry Highland Garnett, Garvey, DuBois, and of course Malcolm's teacher, Elijah Muhammad. Why wouldn't America free the killer of Malcolm? He silenced Big Red, the main man screaming in the belly of the beast.

You gave him a stamp, a movie, streets and schools named after him, yet you disrespect him by freeing his cold blooded killer, who slaughtered him in front of his wife and children. Yes, the killer walked. He shall get a book contract and make millions as the man who slew the King, Malik, also called our black shining prince, a troubled warrior who defied his teacher that taught him trust no one, not even Elijah himself.

Listen to your teacher, don't defy him. He taught you security. Yet agents were your body guards, New York police agents in black face, self confessed, who gave you mouth to mouth resuscitation. Why would the police try to save your life? It was high drama. Why would the police apprehend the co-conspirators? It's a funky situation! The killer walked. He will get his brownie points, a book, a movie, maybe a medal of freedom.

He killed the preacher of truth for the father of lies! Where the Nation of Islam was involved, it cannot be absolved. Those who fanned the flames cannot be forgiven. They were as dastardly as the killer(s). And yet, the division in our community must be healed. The martyrdom of Malcolm, Malik Shabazz, is similar to the Sunni killing of the Shia imams. There is an eternal pain in the Shia community, and there is a similar pain in the black community.

There must be communal healing of this trauma and unresolved grief. It has poisoned our spiritual life, intellectual life and political life. There are those who hate Islam as a result of Malcolm's assassination, no matter the US Government's role in the affair--and strangely many of those who hate Islam have no similar hatred of America, so there is an addiction to white supremacy in the anti-Islamic haters.

Intellectually, scholars with a Malcolm bias have written revisionist history, blinded by their emotional bias, unable to put the NOI in perspective. No matter how one might try, one cannot go from Garvey to Malcolm in any realistic historical analysis, yet our scholars suffer a myopia when attempting to put Malcolm in his proper perspective.

Politically, at some point we must understand shit happens in revolution! Persons are betrayed, assassinated, ostracized. This is the nature of revolution. The black revolution was no different than the French, Chinese, Russian, Mexican, African. Get over it! Accept the pain of Malcolm, the tears in the night.

And how many of you who say you love him so much have done a damn thing he said? You haven't done nothing Malcolm said, for that matter, you haven't done anything anyone said, whether Malcolm, Martin, Elijah, Garvey, Noble Drew Ali, Jesus, Muhammad or Buddha!

We must attain revolutionary maturity and stop crying crocodile tears over events of the past. We must move on, understanding the actors played their parts, now the drama is over. The end. Yes, the killed has walked onto the stage of life, but it shall be short lived--what price glory? It would be better that he died long ago than face the wrath of the people who loved Malcolm as their brother, son, and black shining prince.

--Marvin X 5/2/10

Marvin X: Writes Eight Books in 2010

Marvin X: Eight Books in 2010

The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables, Volume I

If you want to learn about inspiration and motivation, don't spend all that money going to workshops and seminars, just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work. He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland.--Ishmael Reed

Hustler’s Guide to the Game Called Life, (Wisdom of Plato Negro, Volume II)

Mythology of Love:

Toward Healthy Psychosocial Sexuality, 416 pages.
This book is the most wanted title in the Marvin X collection.
Youth in the hood fight over it and steal it from each other. Girls say it empowers them, and the boys say it helps them step up their game. Mothers and fathers are demanding their sons and daughters read this. Paradise Jah Love says they fight over it as if it's black gold!

I Am Oscar Grant, essays on Oakland, $19.95.

Critical essays on the travesty of American justice in the cold blooded murder of Oscar Grant by a beast in blue uniform.

Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yoself

essays on Obama Drama, $19.95.

Marvin X is on the mark again with his accurate observation of the Obama era. The black community was so excited with Obama being the first Black Prez that they forgot he was a politician-not a messiah. Marvin X brings the community back to the reality of what Obama stands for-at the moment! He has not given up on Da Prez, he simply wants people to see what he stands for and what he still has an opportunity to do for our communities. Make sure you put Pull Yo Pants Up Fada Black Prez & Yo Self on your to-buy list It will be the best book you will read in 2010!--Carolyn Mixon

Marvin X, Guest Editor, Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies, 480 pages In honor of the Journal of Black Poetry, Marvin X collects poetry from throughout the Pan African world. This massive issue is a classic of radical Pan African literature in the 21st century. Amiri Baraka says, "He has always been in the forefront of Pan African writing. Indeed, he is one of the innovators and founders of the new revolutionary school of African writing."

Notes on the Wisdom of Action or How to Jump Out of the Box

In this collection he calls upon the people to become proactive rather than reactionary, to initiate the movement out the box of oppression by any means necessary, although Marvin X believes in the power of spiritual consciousness to create infinite possibilities toward liberation.

Soulful Musings on Unity of North American Africans, 150 pages

Marvin X explores the possibilities for unity among North American Africans. Available from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702. jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.

By Manning Marable

(New York: Viking/Peguin Group, 2010. Pp.594. Prologue, Epilogue, Bibiliography and Index,

$30.00)

Marable's Impartiality:

Tony Martin wrote the essay "George Padmore as a Prototype of the Black Historian" in his book "The Pan African Connection". He explains that there is a distinction between historical impartiality and so called objectivity.

Objectivity is academic colonialism because one can hide his biases in the shadow of objectivity. Impartiality is when the historian or social scientist honestly presents facts accurately but interprets and analyzes them critically. After reading "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention" I must say that consistent with the methodology of African history, Professor Marable was able to be impartial (scientific objectivity is impossible).

Sometime being impartial is not popular, but at least all facts concerning the subject are appraised in an effort to prove or disprove certain claims. The basic question I think Marable raises is : "Has the many published works about Malcolm done him justice?"

I think Professor Marable answered the question by saying, "Yes, but only to the extent that those writing about Malcolm were (personally) affiliated with him. So their personal misconceptions and limitations about Malcolm, to the reader of their works, becomes Malcolm's misconceptions and limitations.

Let's put Manning's narrative in context, with the thousands of documents in the book. For a long time I thought Brietman's "Last Year of Malcolm X", Collins'"Seventh Child" and Sales' "From Civil Rights to Black Liberation" were substantial attempts to articulate aspects of whom and what Malcolm was about, but the tinge of personal affiliation adversely affected their overall impartialness in assessing Malcolm and his contributions to advancing African humanity

Let's not forget Kly's "Black Book: The True Political Philosophy of Malcolm X", that Marable, or his researchers forgot to cite in his extensive Bibliography). For a long time Brietman's work stood out because he was a European American affiliated with the Socialist Workers Party and was the only writer able to show Malcolm's ideological development in the last year of his life; there seemed to be no documented works written by an African objective enough to meet this goal.

Sales was exceptional in that his was one of the few books in which the OAAU (and to an extent the MMI) was analyzed and assessed. Sales was an observer/participant in the OAAU, in the manner of Muhammed Ahmed's affiliation with RAM (see his work,"We Will return in the Whirlwind"), and was able to make a major contribution to African historiography.

Collins' "Seventh Son" was a major contribution to understanding Malcolm because it provides us with the central role that Malcolm's big sister, Ella Collins, played in his development, as well as a crucial narrative of Boston's historical role in Malcolm's development. (Marable was able to 'impartially' do this with other cities as well)

Kly's Black Book is the first book I recall that specifically deals with Malcolm's political philosophy, grounded in a uniquely Muslim perspective, especially in terms of struggle and martyrdom, and the specific objectives of the OAAU. Considering that Kly, once the Canadian coordinator of the OAAU, joined the ancestors earlier this year and Marable recently joined the ancestors, we can only wonder what insights each could have provided each other, if they were not already in communication. Dr. Kly, in line with the Aims and Objectives of the OAAU, has left us with the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities (IHRAAM); http://www.ihraam.org/ and Marable was able to leave us with this final narrative about Malcolm.

Marable has not said anything 'new'. What he did, in fact, was present as many sides and dimensions as humanly possible in one work. I cite the Breitman, Sales, Collins and Kly because they(like all who speak on Malcolm) are speaking from their personal, limited perspectives.

Manning has simply used a good method to present information available about Malcolm. No one has ever alluded to those missing "Alex Haley chapters" that the Negro lawyer (who tried to get Rosa Parks to sue the hip hop group Outkast) bought and put away in a vault.

White publishers probably had knowledge of their existence, but to make the info plain, to provide it for the people, tha the Marable contribution. But the information is not new, for certain controversies concerning Malcolm (his infidelity, internal conflicts with personnel, diplomatic ties, etc) has been housed in communities over the country.

I think Marable had the ability to present as much as he could in one document, which takes courage and impartiality, which is what he had! In this manner, the reader is presented with a fuller picture of Malcolm, and can make their own judgments and observations, because the same information is presented in a fresh manner.

What I must say to defend and support Marable's scholarship is that this book has in the most impartial way possible (since to our knowledge he was too young to be involved in the organizations centered around Malcolm), yet he provides a historiographical biography in a superior fashion than Haley.

Haley was more of a novelist, lacking the intellectual tools, acumen and agenda that Marable had to paint the most accurate picture of Malcolm based on all the information about his ideology and organization(s).

--ZULU King

Zulu King is Minister of Logic, First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists. He is associate editor of the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Issue, Guest Edited by Marvin X.

Marable Book Revises Image of Malcolm X

Marable Book Revises Image of Malcolm X

By: Joel Dreyfuss

Manning Marable died just three days before the publication of his long-awaited book on Malcolm X, the product of 20 years of intense work. Accordng to the New York Times, the book, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, challenges many of the accepted facts about the former Black Muslim leader.

Marable concluded that much of what appeared in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, his collaboration with Alex Haley, was "fictive," exaggerating his life of crime. He also suggests that the FBI and the New York City police did not act on threats to Malcolm's life because he was seen as a "dangerous rabble-rouser."

Working from sources not previously available, including 6,000 pages of FBI files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, Marable reinforces earlier reports that two of the three men convicted of Malcolm's assassination were not at Harlem's Audubon Ballroom on that day. Instead, Marable says, two of the men actually responsible are still alive and have never been charged.

The book suggests that one of the reasons for Malcolm's break with the Nation of Islam was oedipal: his discovery that the religion's leader, Elijah Muhammad, had impregnated a young woman Malcolm had loved for many years.

The book also highlights Malcolm's expanding global vision after his break from the Nation. Malcolm X’s subsequent trip to Mecca in 1964 -- a likely turning point in his religious evolution -- was recounted in both the autobiography and the biopic. The Marable book, however, provides extensive new material about a second, 24-week trip to Africa and the Middle East later that year, drawing on Malcolm X's own travel diary and providing details on a campaign he waged to have the United States condemned for racism in a vote at the United Nations.

As part of that effort to open a foreign front for the civil rights struggle, which was closely monitored by American governmental agencies, Malcolm X met with numerous African heads of state as well as Chinese and Cuban diplomats. The Johnson administration was so upset, Mr. Marable writes, that Nicholas Katzenbach, the acting attorney general, considered prosecuting him for violating a law that bans United States citizens from negotiating with foreign states.

Malcolm X, Chauncey Bailey and Police Involvement

New Malcolm X Bio Urges Feds to Reopen Murder Case

Date: Wednesday, April 06, 2011, 11:46 am

By: EURweb.com

On Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X was speaking at the Audubon Ballroom in upper Manhattan when he was killed.

(AP) A new biography of Malcolm X shines a new light on his murder and has sparked a new call for justice, reports CBS News.“Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” the new book by Columbia University professor Manning Marable, outlines why the investigation should be reopened. Marable died last week, just before publication.

Zaheer Ali, Marable’s chief researcher, said, “Professor Marable believed in justice. And his [Malcolm X] killers were never served justice.”On Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X was speaking to several hundred people at the Audubon Ballroom in upper Manhattan when three men suddenly stood up in the front rows and started shooting.Talmadge Hayer was caught at the scene and confessed to being one of the gunmen.

Twelve years later, he signed affidavits claiming two other men, who both served long sentences, had nothing to do with the shooting.David Garrow, historian and author, said, “As Marable’s quite powerful book details, four of the actual assassins never were pursued and at least one of them still lives openly in the metro New York area.”The book claims the New York Police Department knew Malcolm X’s life was in danger but turned the other way in the face of threats.By almost any standard, the investigation at the Audubon Ballroom was shoddy. Four hours after Malcolm X was shot, the Audubon was reopened for a church dance.

The crime scene was cleaned up before a full forensic analysis could be done.“There were still bullet holes in the wall when this dance party was taking place,” Ali said. “So these kinds of questions are the kinds of questions this book raises.”Police deny a cover-up. But in his last interview, Marable told CBS News he wanted the Justice Department to reopen the case. Now plenty of people will wait to see if this last wish will be granted.

Marvin X on Malcolm X, Chauncey and the Police

The murder of Malcolm X is strangely similar to the murder of Chauncey Bailey. James Baldwin said of Malcolm X, "The hand that pulled the trigger didn't buy the bullet." We say the same about the killers of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey. The Muslims on trial may be guilty but there are co-conspirators roaming the streets under the color of law but they are brute beasts in blue uniforms, to quote the Honorable Minister Farakhan.

When Chancey was killed the then Chief of Police visited Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb but urged him to have a conversation on the elevator. When they boarded the elevator, the Chief punched buttons to every floor so they could take a long ride down from the 12th floor.

According to an associate of Cobb's who also took the ride, the Chief begged for his life, urging Cobb not to pursue the possible role of the police in the murder of Chauncey Bailey. He suggested if Paul Cobb did pursue the police involvement, he should get himself a bullet proof vest.

It would be proper for the DA to expand the conspiracy to include the OPD. Anything less is less than justice and a mockery of the American justice system.

Former Mayor Jerry Brown was the subject of Chauncey's investigative reporting, along with corruption at the Police Department. Chauncey had been called to a meetinge at Allen Temple Baptist Church by mothers afraid for their drug dealing sons and daughters who were being shaken down by OPD officers then released after they were relieved of their drugs, jewelry and money, making them likely to be killed by drug dealers would not believe their stories of police shakedowns. There are brothers in prison willing to testify they were victims of OPD shakedowns.

When Ronald Dellums became mayor and Jerry Brown became State Attorney General, Dellums called for the AG to investigate the OPD investigation. Only problem was that GA Brown needed to be investigated as he is reported to have said, "I'm going to get that nigger (Bailey) from snooping around City Hall and the OPD." Yes, the investigator of the investigation needed to be investigated!

--Marvin X, the Black Chauncey Bailey Project

http://www.theblackchaunceybaileyproject.blogspot.com/