Opinion
Malcolm X 50th Anniversary Events
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The Skanner Newspaper, established
in October 1975, is a weekly publica-
tion, published each Wednesday by
IMM Publications Inc.,
415 N. Killingsworth St.,
T
he 50th Anniversary of
Bloody Sunday, the Selma
to Montgomery March, and
the passage of the historic Voting
Rights Act of 1965 and Dr. Martin
Luther King’s role in these events
is correctly capturing the imagina-
tion of Black America. However,
there is another set of events that
should also receive attention of
our people. This year also marks
the 50th memorial of the assassi-
nation of Malcolm X; it is also the
year of his 90th birthday.
It seems odd that very little
attention is being devoted to the
anniversary dates of the life and
legacy of such an extraordinary
leader. It is as if Black America is
gripped by a case of historical
amnesia. But this is not the first
time we’ve suffered from the dis-
order.
On Feb. 21, 1990, more than
3,000 people jammed into the
Abyssinian Baptist Church in
Harlem for the 25th memorial of
the assassination of El-Hajj Malik
El-Shabazz, Malcolm X. Another
1,000 or more gathered in the
street to watch the program on a
television monitor, hastily posi-
tioned in a church window. Inside,
C-SPAN broadcast live ringing
tributes to the life and legacy of
our “Black Shining Prince.”
The audience rose for a pro-
longed rousing ovation as Turner
proclaimed, “Malcolm, we will
never forget you!” Betty Shabazz,
who had never attended a memori-
al on the anniversary of the
assassination of her husband, was
visibly moved by the tremendous
outpouring of admiration, love
and affection for one of the great-
NNPA
C OLUMNIST
Ron
Daniels
est leaders in the history of
Africans in America.
The commemoration was hosted
by Rev. Calvin O. Butts, senior
pastor of Abyssinian, and I had the
honor of serving as moderator of
this memorable occasion. Fortu-
nately, the process of uplifting
tifiably so, as a seminal leader.
But, Malcolm was not seen on par
with Martin in the popular con-
sciousness. His legacy languished
on the margins of memory of a
young generation of Africans in
America, progressive youth/young
people and much of Black Ameri-
ca.
It was against this backdrop that
a formation called the African
American Progressive Action Net-
work (AAPAN) resolved that 1990
should be declared “The Year of
Malcolm X.” AAPAN created a
National Malcolm X Commemo-
ration Commission with James
Turner as co-chairman, to coordi-
nate
the
campaign.
It is as if Black America is gripped by a
case of historical amnesia
Malcolm did not end there. On
May 19 of that year hundreds of
people from around the country
gathered in Omaha, Neb., Mal-
colm’s birthplace, for a national
ceremony to celebrate his 65th
birthday.
This magnificent season of cele-
brating Malcolm did not occur by
accident; it was the outcome of a
conscious strategy, a calculated
plan devised by a group of leaders
determined not to let the legacy of
Malcolm be the victim of “histori-
cal amnesia.”
As the 25th anniversary of the
assassination of Malcolm X
approached in 1990, King was
ascendant and celebrated, and jus-
The goal was not to denigrate
Martin Luther King but to seize
upon the 25th anniversary of the
assassination of Malcolm to wage
a campaign to elevate his profile
beyond the true believers to a new
generation of young activists and
to remind folks of the unique con-
tribution of Malcolm X to the
liberation of Black people around
the world.
Dr. Martin Luther King and
Malcolm X are unquestionably the
seminal leaders of the civil
rights/human rights, Black Power,
Nationalist/Pan-Africanist era that
transformed the status of Africans
in America. In a choice between
Martin and Malcolm, it is clear
that the power elite preferred Mar-
tin. Hence, Martin has been sani-
tized and elevated while Malcolm
has largely been ignored, except in
those periods when his devotees
have refused to allow his contribu-
tion to be relegated to irrelevance.
Celebrating Malcolm X was not
about diminishing Martin but
enhancing the understanding of
the life and legacy of Malcolm
among the masses of Black folks.
The campaign was highly success-
ful. For years, the symbol X
signified young people’s identifi-
cation with Malcolm. Indeed, in
2005, on the occasion of the 40th
memorial of Malcolm’s assassina-
tion,
another
massive
commemoration was held at
Abyssinian Baptist Church.
The current lack of major
national recognition of the 50th
memorial suggests the need for yet
another campaign to prevent Mal-
colm’s memory from being
relegated to relative obscurity. It is
not that programs are not being
planned. As is the case every year,
there will be commemorations in
New York and cities across the
country. In fact, I’m told that
young activists/leaders are con-
ducting an “X Speaks” online. My
concern is that the various com-
memorations are largely among
the true believers and taken
together they lack the public/visi-
ble scope and scale commensurate
to the occasion of the 50th memo-
rial of the assassination of
Malcolm and the year of his 90th
birthday. I simply believe that
Malcolm deserves better.
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A Different Standard for Black Girls
N
early 40 years ago, a
metaphor or fable, if you
will, about “upstream-
downstream” was created by
healthcare practitioners to better
explain and argue for the value of
preventative health care measures.
The fable describes a group of
community members standing
near a river who witness someone
drowning. Some of the communi-
ty members jump into the water
and pull the person to the shore.
As soon as they do so, they try to
resuscitate her.
Then, another drowning person
floats down the river; and as the
community recruits more life-
savers, still more drowning people
float past them. Eventually, some-
one thinks to go upstream to find
out what was causing so many
people to be pulled into the river.
More recently this fable has been
used as a metaphor for those lost
in the midst of a failing education-
al system in an effort to get
Americans to look upstream to see
the sources of the problem; and to
query why so many of the failing
students are people of color.
If we think of those upstream
determinants as structural barriers,
what happens when girls of color
are pushed out of educational sys-
tems that are supposed to support
them? How can a path be cleared
for them that serves as a bridge to
economic stability, and optimal
life outcomes? In a new report,
Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out,
NNPA G UEST
C OLUMNIST
LeConté J.
Dill
Over-policed and Underprotected
the African American Policy
Forum examines these concerns in
New York City and Boston. The
report breaks down data by race
and gender, and its findings are
disturbing. In New York, for
girls did have this sense of frus-
tration, that there is a different
standard for girls’ behavior ver-
sus boys. So boys seem to just get
more looking the other way, or
more tolerance of even the exact
same behavior.”
Girls of color are also experi-
encing multiple forms of violence
before they even walk through
the school doors. They are ingest-
ing trauma for breakfast. Its
embedded in the pressures of serv-
ing as quasi-mothers for younger
family members, enduring physi-
cal, sexual, mental, and emotional
abuse at home, and leaving their
Black girls were found to face a
greater racialized risk of unjust
punishment than Black boys
instance, in the 2011-2012 school
year, Black girls were disciplined
10 times more often than White
girls. In fact, in some settings
Black girls were found to face a
greater racialized risk of unjust
punishment than Black boys.
Girls of color are often more
harshly punished for non-violent
offenses that educators have coded
as “disruptive” and “disrespect-
ful.” They are sometimes punished
for behavior that would be viewed
as innocuous for boys. For
instance, one girl interviewed for
the report explained: “Some of the
Page 2 The Portland and Seattle Skanner February 18, 2015
homes with no safe route to school
in neighborhoods that have literal-
ly been disinvested in by city and
corporate officials.
Once they reach their schools,
they often find the buildings and
classrooms to be unsafe. Many
schools that serve low-income
youth and students of color have
permanent metal detectors. These
schools are coded as “dropout fac-
tories,” known for graduating less
than 60 percent of the 9th graders
who attend them. In Black Girls
Matter, the authors found that girls
of color reported facing discrimi-
natory and abusive comments
from school security officers, and
intrusive body searches as they
entered the school and in the hall-
ways. Rather than fostering a safe
space these conditions at times
made some girls avoid school alto-
gether. Simply put, school
push-out for girls of color can
result in a kind of slow-death, and
the absence of a genuine opportu-
nity to succeed. Rather than
serving to prevent failure down
the road it is more likely to pro-
duce failure.
So, as we travel back upstream
to see what is going on in our pub-
lic schools, let’s do so armed with
more data – both qualitative and
quantitative – so that we can gain
a better understanding of the roots
of the problems that girls of color
face. Let’s call for public policies
and innovative programs tailored
to their needs; and let’s acknowl-
edge that when girls are pushed
out of school lasting effects spill
over into every aspect of their
lives. Let’s lend a hand before the
girls are forced to fend for them-
selves in treacherous waters.
LeConte Dill.is an Assistant
Professor at the State University
of New York (SUNY) Downstate
School of Public Health, teaching
and conducting community-
engaged research related to urban
health, positive youth develop-
ment, and qualitative methods.