LJ Idol Season 9- Week 4: "Nobody can ride your back if your back's not bent"

[zaichikarky]

"Hey daddy, guess what?" I approached my dad as he was frowning over some papers.

"You managed to finally clean your room?" He asked, immediately smirking at me.

"Not yet..." I replied. "Something better!"

"How about the backyard then?"

"Wh..." I started, puzzled for a second before I realized he meant raking those leaves he'd been nagging my brother about for several days.

I sighed. "No, dad! I read your first book finally! About Malcolm X."

"I see... Yeah, I think the leaves would have been better. You disappoint me, daughter!"

"Oh complain to George about that, I cleaned the bathroom the other day! He don't do nothing but play basketball every day."

He grimaced. "You've been hanging out with those girls too much..."

I sighed. "Sorry, dad. He does not do anything but play games all day and never does any chores."

He smiled again. "Yeah well... I'll make sure he does it this weekend then. Anyway, the book, yes. What did you think about it?"

"Malcolm X seems like a really cool guy!" I smiled, happy that he did in fact seem interested that I finally read what was probably his most famous book.

"A cool guy? I guess that would be a decent way to describe him..."

"So how did you meet him?" I asked, realizing dad had never spoken about Malcolm X to us.

"I was a poor journalist at the time." He replied. "We met in 1959 when I got commissioned to write an article about the Nation of Islam for Reader's Digest. Then in 1962, another article, this time more of a biographical one for Playboy.

"Playboy?!" I exclaimed. "I didn't know they even have writing. Well maybe some captions..."

He laughed. "Yeah, they actually have serious articles that are in no way related to naked women. It's weird, I know..."

I giggled for about a minute then continued my line of questioning. "So after that you asked to write his autobiography?"

"Yes. And he was very reluctant at first. This was in 1962, when he had become the very prominent spokesperson for the Nation of Islam. I think maybe... he didn't understand why the publisher wanted his autobiography rather than Muhammad's, but he went along with it."

"You mean Elijah Muhammad?"

"Yes, his biggest mentor. Back then, Malcolm and Muhammad were very close and Malcolm thought of him as a father figure."

"Yeah that was in the book, about how they drifted apart from that sex scandal and such."

"Well you know how that went down now, yes, but in the beginning, Malcolm practically worshiped Muhammad. As a matter of fact, I couldn't get him to talk about anything else for the first several meetings."

"All he wanted to talk about was the life of Elijah Muhammad rather than his own?"

"Yes, and I tolerated this at first. But after the 5th hour of the glorious life of Elijah Muhammad, I put a stop to it."

"Was he mad?"

"Yes, at first. Maybe he thought I was being disrespectful to his saint... or whatever term they use in Islam."

"How did you get him to start talking about his own life?"

"That one is an interesting story." He smiled. "I simply cut him off and told him this wasn't working. I was trying to write the autobiography of Malcolm X, not the biography of Elijah Muhammad. We needed to tell his story."

"Did he start talking about his own life then?"

"No. He blankly stared... more like grimaced at me. I then just asked him a simple question to get him going."

"What was it?"

"I asked him to tell me about his mother."

"Well, that's a loaded question!"

"Yes, it definitely was. He froze in place... I told some reporters later that he basically acted like a marionette for several seconds. Then he said that he remembered the gray, drab dresses she always wore. He then stood up, and began telling me about his childhood while pacing, and didn't stop pacing until dawn."

"Wow..." I whispered, somewhat shocked.

"How many interviews did you do?"

"Oh... something like 60? We met a few times a year and would spend hours during these meetings. It was incredibly amazing to see Malcolm grow during these years from the right hand man of Muhammad to a world-leading spokesperson for civil rights, Islam, and just an incredibly politically adroit, generally media-savvy man of fame."

I nodded, absorbing this. "Towards the end, did he confide in you that he was worried his life was at stake?"

His face fell ashen. "Yes, of course he did... and there wasn't really anything anyone could do to talk him out of... being 'Malcolm'."

"What do you mean?"

"When he first told me the extent of his jeopardy, I told him to halt his public speaking immediately, leave the city and go into hiding. He told me that a man who won't die for something isn't fit to live. This made me very angry and I told him that this wasn't the time to spew Reverend King rhetoric."

"So he continued his public speaking until he was shot..."

"Yes, and that's Malcolm. I'm not sure we left on the best of terms. I ended up throwing his daughters into my argument and asked him to consider his family. He was very protective of his family and loved all 6 of his daughters very much. Part of the reason he left the Nation of Islam is because he would not condone Elijah's adultery. His family's lives were at stake too, but he refused to stop being in the public eye. The last thing he told me was that he refused to bend his back, which I then learned was another quote from Revered King." He smiled. "Malcolm didn't always believe in King's approach to the civil rights movement, but I think he respected him a great deal."

"What was the quote?"

He stared at the ceiling for several seconds. "I believe that it was something like 'You can't ride a man's back if it isn't bent.'"

I nodded. I didn't quite understand the significance, but I could tell that retelling this story saddened my father.

He smiled. "Lydia, it's nice that you're old enough now to appreciate Malcolm X and his contributions to the world. I'm very happy, but I'm meeting with the lawyers later today and need to figure out this legal mumbo jumbo."

"Ok, sorry dad, I'll stop bothering you then." I smiled. "I think I'm gunna take a walk now."

"Ok dear, be safe."

I went in search of George, I knew he'd be at the basketball court. While I wouldn't let him ride my back, sisters could employ certain powers of persuasion to inflict on their lazy brothers in an attempt to get them to do their chores.

---

The only meeting between Malcolm X and Dr. King. This was at the senate debate of the civil rights bill. Malcolm X was assassinated about 11 months later.

Comments

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

This is really incredible - well done!

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Thank you ^_^. I'm really into American history and Malcolm X has always been my favorite civil rights activist. I really love to share his story with others.

[catwomon.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[penpusher.livejournal.com]

Great. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just a bit envious!

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

In many ways, I'm amazed that MLK stuck to the nonviolent approach so firmly. It was incredibly successful (and violence might not have succeeded), but when you look at Malcolm X... he was really, really intelligent and knew it. How, in his position, could you tolerate even for a second someone trying to tell you that you're inferior? In his time, with his intellect, it would have been hard for him to do anything other than he did. I know I wouldn't have the patience for it.

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

Really interesting - one of my friends was the voice for the Malcolm X autobiography in the audiobook, which is where I first started learning about him.

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

You know, it's interesting to look around and see how many American blacks are still experiencing "just stay calm and eventually people will be nice" and I don't know how well that's going. On the other hand, I'm having a hard time thinking of a violent uprising that shifted the social order other than Rwanda, and I don't know I'd advocate that way of doing it. But it worked.

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

This was an interesting read...well written..Got to know Malcolm X and too without getting bored...:)..Kudos!

[i-will-not-say.livejournal.com]

This was really interesting! Thank you for sharing. :)

[jem0000000.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to hear more of who Malcolm X was as a person -- in the history classes, they tend to focus on public events rather than on the people behind the public image.

[cheshire23.livejournal.com]

That is, when they're willing to talk about someone like Malcolm X at all.

[cheshire23.livejournal.com]

I think even though we went about things differently, some of my own frustration at how much admiration Martin Luther King gets in comparison to Malcolm X was driving what I wrote. I think Malcolm X was better at recognizing systemic problems (which led him to be more confrontational and thus more frightening to those who want to believe that a nice nonthreatening black guy said some pretty words and suddenly white people decided it was time to give black people rights).

All so complicated. I really liked your entry though.

[kagomeshuko.livejournal.com]

I was just so disappointed in the dad's reaction that to the daughter having read the book. What father wouldn't be happy about that?

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Aw is that how I made it seem? In the dad's first reaction, I tried to make it sound like a joke, it was a joke. He in fact was very pleased. He said so at the end when he ended the discussion about Malcolm X because he had to worry about his lawsuit.

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Yeah I know, heh. I don't think he was even discussed in my history classes. We didn't study civil rights much. Sometime in my freshmen year of college I read the Malcolm X autobiography and I've been a "fan" ever since.

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Yeah and it's interesting to me how both of them went through their fights for civil rights, Malcolm X was much more of a "black supremacist" ( I think actually I remember the proper term as 'black separatist') and did not like white people for most of his life. What I was going to mention in the piece, but forgot to because of time restraints since I nearly slept through the deadline, is that Malcolm was essentially assassinated by his own community he abandoned. I find that so much sadder, in many ways, than King's assassination by a white supremacist.

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed!

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Heh, yeah history can bore people. While I can sit there and read through his autobiography on top of long documentary upon long documentary, I understand a lot of people aren't into that : ).

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's really cool! I listen to most of my reading through audio books these days.

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Yeah, for most of his life, Malcolm X didn't even like white people and thought of himself as a black separatist. There are many reasons why he couldn't have really worked out as the leader of the civil rights movement. He was assassinated somewhat early into the movement so I wonder what his role would have been had he lived. I'm sure he would have been a key ally and worked with King, even though they had some differences, I think Malcolm X supported his efforts overall.

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Envious? Of Alex Haley writing Malcom X's autobiography?? I'm not sure if he feels he was lucky to be able to write it... especially with how close they got and his assassination. That must have been very difficult, even though Haley shot to fame after the autobiography was released.

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Yeah me too :D. Thanks!

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed : ).

[kajel.livejournal.com]

Nicely done!

[kagomeshuko.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when I read it, it seemed like the dad was upset . . .

[jem0000000.livejournal.com]

I'm from the Southeast -- we always at least touched on him, even if we didn't have time to go in-depth. And the class that had a full civil rights unit (as opposed to a civil rights chapter, which is how it usually happened if they were trying to cover all of US History in an entire year) gave him a chapter. But, as I said, they focused on public events and his relationship to the movement as a whole, and compare and contrast with MLK, that sort of thing -- there was really not a lot of effort to show that historical figures were real people until I hit college.

[basric.livejournal.com]

An excellent story, a shame that a brouhaha in the green room had people not reading it. Its an interesting story,.

[favoritebean.livejournal.com]

This is my favorite entry this week. I really like this piece, and now I totally want to read biographies of Malcolm X

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

thank you that's very nice to know! lol, especially since I'm fairly certain I'm getting voted out :3. I'm ok with that though. I wanted to make it to ~week 10 like I usually do, but guess not. Oh well.

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yeah, bummer I'm getting out because I support piracy and not, you know because my entry sucked. lol this competition never fails to amuse me.

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

thanks!

[penpusher.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I meant with the direction you went with this prompt. I think it turned out very well.