In the year 2025 in the United States, we are witnessing increasingly blatant and violent repression. With racist and brutal language coming from politicians and right-wing media, students being arrested and threatened with deportation, and undocumented people being rounded up and shipped off to foreign nations, it may seem that the United States is experiencing something completely new, and totally without precedent.
But the life and death of Malcolm X remind us that the U.S. state has always relied on slanderous propaganda, repression and violence to crush dissent and silence opposition. He and many other Black freedom fighters through U.S. history have been killed either directly or indirectly by the government for speaking out, criticizing the state, and trying to organize to oppose it. His murder in 1965 reminds us that what we are experiencing today in the U.S. is not completely new, but in fact is a new wave of repressive violence that has been with this nation since its founding.
This May 19, on his 100th birthday, we remember Malcolm X and the lessons that we take from his short life.
Malcolm was born in Nebraska in 1925. When he was very young, his father was assassinated by white supremacists because of his radical speeches advocating for liberation. Malcolm’s mother had to support and raise the entire family of eight children — an experience which deeply impacted Malcolm as, throughout his childhood, he faced the double hardship of being both Black and poor in America. As he grew up, he struggled between making the choice of following the rules of the system, by getting good grades in school and becoming the class president, or refusing to fit in and follow the role that had been assigned for him. As he writes in his autobiography, “Early in life I learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.”
When he reached his teenage years and he was confronted by his teacher who said that “Black people couldn’t be lawyers,” he gave up the hope of fitting into a racist society that gave him no opportunities. He dropped out of high school and moved to New York City where he became known as “Detroit Red.” He felt deeply connected with the daily life of the Black communities in the Bronx and Boston, and he adopted the lifestyle he saw around him. His experiences together with his rebellious nature led him to become a hustler and a small-time thief, and eventually earned him a jail sentence.
His years in jail proved to be transformational. He adopted the version of Islam preached by Elijah Muhammad, and through that started to read avidly, deeply questioning society around him and the racism he faced in his own life. The words of Elijah Muhammad and his Nation of Islam spoke deeply to Malcolm’s experiences growing up in a racist society. Once he came out of jail, he officially became a part of the Nation of Islam and moved around the country making speeches about the need for Black militancy and self-determination. But he started to desire even larger changes, and became more outspoken about his radicalism, which eventually led to a break with the Nation of Islam.
Malcolm spoke about what many Black people in the urban areas of the U.S. felt. They were tired of the racism that framed their lives day in and day out, and they were tired of compromise. His change of ideas correlated with others who participated in the Civil Rights Movement but didn’t see non-violence as effective in all circumstances in order to bring about the changes they desired. As historian and activist Howard Zinn wrote, Malcolm X was not afraid of condemning the government for trying to co-opt the movement, especially after the March on Washington and the erasing of the most radical speeches.
Malcolm X spoke clearly of the oppression of poor Black people and the need to defend themselves against their exploitation, no matter the cost. Over time, he came to see that it needed to be an international struggle for Black liberation, and even later in his life he began to make the connection between capitalism and the oppression of Black people around the world. His determination and unwillingness to compromise until racism was fully addressed inspired people who also were fed up with the system.
Today Malcolm’s fight for Black liberation continues to be relevant, as capitalism still depends on racism and the divisions it causes between Black and white workers. The relevance of his ideas for today come through in many of his later speeches:
I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don’t think that it will be based upon the color of the skin, as Elijah Muhammad had taught it … It is incorrect to classify the revolt of the Negro as simply a racial conflict of black against white, or as a purely American problem. Rather, we are today seeing a global rebellion of the oppressed against the oppressor, the exploited against the exploiter. (December, 1964)
It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck … it’s more like a vulture and can only suck the blood of the helpless. As the nations of the world free themselves, then capitalism has less and less victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and weaker… You show me a capitalist, I’ll show you a bloodsucker… It’s only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely. (December, 1964)
Most of the countries that were colonial powers were capitalist countries and the last bulwark of capitalism today is America and it’s impossible for a white person today to believe in capitalism and not believe in racism. You can’t have capitalism without racism. And if you find a person without racism and you happen to get that person into conversation and they have a philosophy that makes you sure they don’t have this racism in their outlook, usually they’re socialists or their political Philosophy is socialism. (January, 1965)
Malcolm X had not given up the struggle against racism, but recognized that it will not be resolved as long as the capitalist system exists. On his 100th birthday, we celebrate his life.
