Summary: Looking Past The Iconic Malcolm X

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University of st. thomas | Looking Past the Iconic Malcolm X | Mid-Stakes Exercise 2 | | Eyo Ekpo | 12/19/2012 | Prof. Ceric – History 114 | Biographical Entry: Marable, Manning. “A Historian’s Adventures In Living History.” Rediscovering Malcolm’s Life. (2005). December 10th, 2012. 1-16, Page 6. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/pdfs/marable_souls_mx.pdf Looking Past the Iconic Malcolm X In his journal article, “Rediscovering Malcolm’s Life: A Historian’s Adventures in Living History”, Manning Marable reflects on the iconic civil rights leader commonly known as Malcolm X. Marable’s key interest is in discover exactly who Malcolm X truly was. To Marable, the real identity of Malcolm X, what he stood for and how he carried…show more content…
Everything from his physical features to his words was portrayed through the arts in a way that would insinuate Malcolm X as “forever young”. The cultural and artistic iconic reputation of Malcolm X witnessed a brief hiatus over the period of 1970s to 1980s until the pop explosion of the hip-hop generation. Numerous artists began to incorporate samples from X’s speech over hip-hop beats into their music. Apart from his words, images of Malcolm X also began to become more visible whether in murals or in paintings. In a way, in a generation and time of newfound Afro-centricism and the Black Power movement, Malcolm X was the perfect fit for being able to speak whatever uncomfortable truths that no other individual could muster to bring forth. To many young Black males of the time, everything about Malcolm X personified the ideal image of everything they hoped to become. He was a strong masculine figure with authority and the ability to showcase bravery in the face of severe hatred and…show more content…
As the shift in hip-hop turned more and more towards the “Gangster Rap” of the West Coast, Malcolm X continued to symbolize upcoming artist’s cultural identity. However, this new cultural identity was often that of misogynistic and homophobic violence. Commercially, Malcolm X began a staple of success. A 1992 biofilm entitled, “X” was released and Malcolm X continued to be incorporated in increasing proportions as part of the hip-hop generation. He now was on the same pedestal of other civil rights legends such as Frederick Douglass, W.E.B Du Bois, and of course, his counterpart Martin Luther King. Although this new “Malcolmology” spread across all groups, there were various interpretations of “Saint Malcolm”. As expressed, the hip-hop community typically associated with the younger generation, were drawn to the most attractive and against the grain characteristics of Malcolm X which were mainly the incendiary and militant elements. In sharp contrast to this, the formerly young African Americans that grew up and lived in the times of Malcolm X thought of him as an “inextricable trajectory of intellectual and political maturation” and his yearning for interracial

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