May 19
marks the 101st birthday of Malcolm X, the man
who articulated a message of racial
justice that made him far ahead of his
time. He believed the black struggle for
civil rights must be expanded to the level
of human rights, a message which the Black
Lives Matter and related movements should
incorporate into the current public
discussion on race in order to move it
forward.
As the nation grapples with the
seemingly intractable nature of
institutional racism and inequities in the
justice system, the slain leader resonates
with a twenty-first century Black Lives
Matter movement born decades after his
death. Yet, the present-day movement fights
the same hopelessly persistent problem of
American racism and fascism, one born of the
badge of slavery.
Malcolm
had much to say regarding the precarious,
if not ephemeral or even illusory nature
of civil rights for
African-Americans, who
were originally noncitizens, regarded as
property and not human, and therefore
excluded from the protections of the
Constitution. “They don’t need additional
legislation to make anyone who comes to
this country a citizen, but when it comes
to the rights of the black people who are
the descendants of slaves, then new
legislation is necessary,” he said.
Making a
clear distinction between
civil rights and human rights, Malcolm
X framed the former as a domestic affairs
issue. “Whenever you are in a civil-rights
struggle, whether you know it or not, you
are confining yourself to the jurisdiction
of Uncle Sam. No one from the outside
world can speak out in your behalf as long
as your struggle is a civil-rights
struggle,” he argued. “Civil rights means
you’re asking Uncle Sam to treat you
right. Human rights are something you were
born with.”
And pleading to America for equal,
just and fair treatment has been an elusive
proposition for African-Americans. “There is
something about civil rights that makes it
almost impossible for us to get,” Malcolm X
argued. After all, in a nation that often
stands in blissful denial over the very
existence of racial inequities, the benefits
conferred by white skin privilege have been
so ingrained as to become normalized. Any
suggestion that the playing field should be
leveled, that inclusivity should reign and
the wrongs should be eradicated, is met with
white backlash, false claims of “reverse
racism” and a form of self-righteous
grievance also known as “white tears.”
Further, the way in which the
victims of racism are treated in the U.S.
reflects a refusal to come to terms with it.
While institutional racism is hardwired into
the fiber of America, the victims of racial
injustice are left to prove that someone
intended to discriminate against them. A
stumbling block to justice, the civil rights
mindset assumes that the ability to read the
mind or heart of an accused perpetrator of
racism is of greater consequence than the
existence of systemic, multigenerational
barriers to equality - of systems of
oppression that steal lives, livelihoods and
spirits in broad daylight and on a daily
basis.
Meanwhile, the human rights
approach to racism focuses on the end
result, the damage that has been done. “When
we begin to get in this area, we need new
friends, we need new allies,” Malcolm noted,
as the civil rights struggle is elevated to
one of human rights. When African-Americans
begin to view their plight with a human
rights lens, they are able to link their
predicament with that of people of African
descent in Latin America, Europe and
throughout the diaspora. And in the process,
they establish connections with groups such
as the Roma in Europe, the Dalits in India,
and the Palestinians in Gaza and the West
Bank.
“They keep
you wrapped up in civil rights. And you
spend so much time barking up the
civil-rights tree, you don’t even know
there’s a human-rights tree on the same
floor,” Malcolm said. The leader’s words
provide guidance on how to address today’s
reality of racism.
