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Originally Posted by mixedmedia
Compare these quotes with the sentiment of our founding fathers under British colonial rule.
Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965.
Context is everything.
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Can you clarify this? I'm not entirely certain what your point is. Perhaps it's simply that I'm not sufficiently familiar with the writings of your founding fathers. If your point is that Malcolm X is somehow excused by having said these things in the time he said them, I would point out that the specific reason I chose to contrast him with Martin Luther King is because they were contemporaries who had completely opposite opinions on how best to achieve equal status for black Americans. Context is crucial, but holding up Malcolm X as an example of a man who promoted peace and understanding amongst all races is a bit flawed. Some people seem to be under the impression that when he left Islam he gave up his militant beliefs, but as far as I've ever been able to determine this is simply untrue.
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Originally Posted by roachboy
do you really think this thread is a good place to debate the relevance of martin luther king as over against malcolm x?
there is a potentially interesting debate to be had about that--but the chances of it happening in this thread are close to nil--and that because it reintroduces the problem of how one thinks about racism and its history and the relation of that history to the present in the united states.
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This is a valid point; really, my only intention here was to highlight what I view as a flawed argument. Malcolm X was many things, but peaceful was rarely one of them.