Moving right along, Stanley Crouch thinks the most important thing about Al'Qaeda employing Malcolm X's house slave/field slave analogy, is that shows Obama has crushed Malcolm:
Malcolm X was one of the naysayers to American possibility whose vision was permanently crushed beneath the heel of Obama's victory on Nov. 4. Though his ideas had nothing to do with the ultimate form of nonviolence - voting - those desperate to praise him will pretend now that he was actually a civil rights leader! This has been going on for an unforgivably long time, especially among black academics.
Malcolm X had nothing to do with Obama's accomplishment as did none of the other militants who preached their own version of separatism and gleefully attacked the civil rights movement as offering no more than pie in the sky and misleading black people.
Unforgivably long!!! Misleading black people!! Other Militants!!! Meddling kids!!!!
It may be true that "other militants" had nothing to do with Obama's win. It is certainly true that people who said Obama wasn't black (Stanley Crouch) had even less to do with Obama's win. But as Adam points out, what is literally and demonstrably false is Crouch's claim that Malcom X "had nothing to do with Obama's accomplishment. How do we know this? Because Barack Obama said it in his memoir:
In every page of every book, in Bigger Thomas and invisible men, I kept finding the same anguish, the same doubt; a self-contempt that neither irony nor intellect seemed able to deflect. Even Du Bois' learning and Baldwin's love and Langston's humor eventually succumbed to its corrosive force, each man finally forced to doubt art's redemptive power, each man finally forced to withdraw, one to Africa, one to Europe, one deeper into the bowels of Harlem, but all of them in the same weary flight, all of them exhausted, bitter men, the devil at their heels. Only Malcolm X's autobiography seemed to offer something different. His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me.
If you are writing columns on the president-elect of the greatest power in world history, who happens to be black and you can't even bother to crack his memoir, than you are more than Leeroy Jenkins. You do not simply fail in epic manner, but more like Palin, Couric and "all of them," like M.C. Hammer hounded by creditors. You are Plaxico at the bar, shooting yourself with your own gun. And in so doing, you ascend to the 37th chamber--the chamber of intergalactic fail. All bow before the master.
UPDATE: Put the link back to Crouch's article in there.
UPDATE 2: Tessa makes an even better point. Crouch's contention that Malcolm's "ideas had nothing to do with the ultimate form of nonviolence-voting" is also factually wrong. Given Crouch's knowledge of that era, I'm tempted to call it a blatant lie. But we'll leave it that. Look there's a lot to criticize Malcolm for, especially in his early days with the Nation. Just like there's a lot to criticize MLK for--his womanizing repeatedly endangered the movement he was leading. All that I ask is that you stick to facts. As Tessa notes, in arguably his most famous speech, The Ballot or The Bullet, Malcolm very specifically addresses the black people and voting:
They're becoming politically mature. They are realizing that there are new political trends from coast to coast. As they see these new political trends, it's possible for them to see that every time there's an election the races are so close that they have to have a recount. They had to recount in Massachusetts to see who was going to be governor, it was so close. It was the same way in Rhode Island, in Minnesota, and in many other parts of the country. And the same with Kennedy and Nixon when they ran for president. It was so close they had to count all over again. Well, what does this mean? It means that when white people are evenly divided, and black people have a bloc of votes of their own, it is left up to them to determine who's going to sit in the White House and who's going to be in the dog house.Come on man. Be honest with the people.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
I'm very interested in finding out exactly what transpired with Mr. Burress at that nightclub.
Hey, be careful, TNC. You know how Crouch is prone to gettin violent with his critics. He might jump on your ass if you keep talking about him.
Exactly. Crouch's late attempt to some how have ownership of Obama. He continues to embarass himself. Frustrating thing is, he's no dummy. He's willfully deploying distorted Superfriends logic.
Well done T-N.
So glad you pointed that out, Ta-Nehisi. The whole time I was reading Crouch, I kept thinking -- didn't the autobiography have an important effect on Obama? Didn't he say so in his own memoir?
Not to mention Plaxico shot himself with his own illegal gun. That makes the metaphor even more apt.
Stanley Crouch = fail
One thing i like about a guy like Tavis Smiley, is that he always talks about Obama as a "kingian". A person, who is forgiving, understanding, but still intelligent...even in politics. What i like even more about Obama is that he is in my eyes also a student of Malcolm. He talked in length about responsibility and honor..this might sound bad, but his speech adressing absent black males was in my eyes in line with malcolmian principles. I see malcolm as he was when he came back from his Hajj. Some might think that's "over-simplifying" his complex persona, but i tend to think of him as a man who constantly developed his world view, who knows what more he would have accomplished. My thing with people's aversion towards Malcolm X is that, they only want to recognize his radical days in NOI (al-qaida for some reason also), an organization that is blasphemious according to islam. But then again, tell that to Al-Zawahiri.
People like Stanley Crouch, Bob Johnson kill me. Don't get me wrong, I was never one to think that all people had to be supporters of Barack Obama and I thought that it was important for the sake of debate and public discourse to discuss some of his shortcomings. But, Crouch, Johnson, and many others made such outlandish criticisms that were so dirty and divisive. But now that Obama has won they are all of a sudden such ardent supporters! They have jumped on the bandwagon and are now talking about what an Obama presidency means to black America and the Black image, etc....these guys really need to fall back. They have lost a lot of credibility.
Maybe its heresy to say so, but I have always seen the more militant groups as an essential element to civil rights or any liberation movement. Kennedy and Johnson werent acting just in response to MLK: they were also acting in response to the alternatives on offer.
At that time, US treatment of minorities was handing the USSR a major propaganda coup. This only fed the Socialist or Communist elements already dominant in most liberation movements. Back in the USA, militant black empowerment was an attractive alternative to the nonviolence of MLK.
Given the options, Machievelli would have chosen the MLK approach from purely selfish reasons. Without the pressure of alternatives, I wonder how far Kennedy/Johnson etc would have moved.
WTF. I can't believe this article. Fuming. First of fall, Crouch deserves a giant F--- Y-- for using the Zawahiri tapes to write this scathing, demented article.
Secondly, it's obvious Crouch didn't take the time to revisit Malcolm's Ballot or Bullet speech:
"I was in Washington, D.C., a week ago Thursday, when they were debating whether or not they should let the bill come onto the floor. And in the back of the room where the Senate meets, there's a huge map of the United States, and on that map it shows the location of Negroes throughout the country. And it shows that the Southern section of the country, the states that are most heavily concentrated with Negroes, are the ones that have senators and congressmen standing up filibustering and doing all other kinds of trickery to keep the Negro from being able to vote. This is pitiful. But it's not pitiful for us any longer; it's actually pitiful for the white man, because soon now, as the Negro awakens a little more and sees the vise that he's in, sees the bag that he's in, sees the real game that he's in, then the Negro's going to develop a new tactic."
Crouch thinks thinks those kinds of sentiments are simply "hot air"? Excuse me, but what a f'ing asshole. And what's this about "if it weren't for Spike Lee, Malcolm would be forgotten"? Puhlease. Crouch may think there's no place in the history books for a black man that spoke this kind of truth of power, but obviously hundreds (thousands?) of authors disagree. Other artists too, including Spike Lee, you d.i.c.k.
"Intergalactic Fail"
Careful TNC, I think you just coined a meme. "Epic" was getting played out anyway...
What's up with Crouch and Malcolm X? It's very bizarre, and yes, Stanley was a 'hater' until very late in the game.
Man, I am looking forward to several years of you practicing ice burns on the latest Stanley Crouch idiocy.
Could we have a monthly official review of this incompetent ass-holes articles? what say thee TNC?
Speaking as a professional jazz musician, Crouch is full of shit about that too.
I really don't think Mr. Crouch here is interested at all in Malcolm's actual words, actions, or complex intellect. He's playing off a popular image of Malcolm X as a beyond the pale radical and trying to tie that image to beyond the pale radical islamic terrorists....damn that is sick. what an asshole
Barack Obama want pants too!
(Alright, I think that's given this thread a Cliched Meme Quotient of 76%. That'll do.)
Man, what a train wreck Crouch is
He's like the Black Bill Kristol - been wrong about everything, but just keeps digging.
Unfortunately Stanley Crouch, who's capable of being interesting occasionally, is a major blowhard with no qualms about dishonesty. I'd love to see The O'Reilly & Crouch Show on FOX, since they'll need a duo with little alan colmes leaving Hannity's side. Stanley and Bill would be just about the perfect pairing. Eventually they'd beat each other to death.
@ brucds
Stanley has a face for radio.
You can kill the human Malcolm but you cannot crush him. I believe that the technical term for what Mr Stanley Crouch is practicing in front of our eyes is called projection. Malcolm has crushed... us all. Especially Mr Crouch. Barack Hussain Obama.
"but all of them in the same weary flight, all of them exhausted, bitter men, the devil at their heels. Only Malcolm X's autobiography seemed to offer something different. His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me."
Beautiful, beautiful words.
I think when we are children we are all determined to "not be" something, to not do that thing your parents did that was so nuts. But its a dead-end. It leads you nowhere. Anybody who's played a driving video game knows that if you look at the other cars, you'll hit them. You have to look at the holes instead.
"Bigger than LeRoy" is my new favorite insult.
"You do not simply fail in epic manner, but more like Palin, Couric and "all of them," like M.C. Hammer hounded by creditors. You are Plaxico at the bar, shooting yourself with your own gun. And in so doing, you ascend to the 37th chamber--the chamber of intergalactic fail. All bow before the master."
Hee hee hee. This has to be one of your best phrases ever, TNC. Keep it up!
Good post-
The 37th chamber, huh? That's pretty bananas. I'm reminded of the kung-fu movie- and I gotta say, until the dude is knocking people over with force waves of stupidity, I wouldn't say he's made it out of the 35th chamber. It's more hapless, like failing to make it running across the logs to the dining hall. Which was that one? chamber 7? 10?
As far as people attacking Malcolm X in general, it reminds me of the people who hate Che Guevara, or rather, hate the people who admire him. As an admirer, I'd like to say this- It doesn't mean that we think either Malcolm or Che is/was a saint, but that there are things to admire despite that. Guevara may have done bad things (shot deserters in the army, imprisoned people), but a lot of what his image represents is a belief that an economic system directed exclusively for the benefit of the few is inadequate for the world. The case Malcolm X made for empowering the black community and demanding change unrelentingly in the here and now is still really compelling. And the impatience he had for non-violent, incremental progress is perfectly understandable, though easy to mock in hindsight. As Obama notes, his story of reinvention from a past of criminality and prison, and then again post-Hajj, is also worth admiring. And the fact that black nationalism doesn't seem a viable approach to race problems today doesn't repudiate that legacy.
I guess basically, my point is that people can have a symbolic value greater than their shortcomings, and that it's possible to admire them in spite of those things (and in spite of your disagreements with them), not in ignorance of them. And it's as true when speaking about Malcolm X as it is for MLK or Obama. So it annoys me to see people use Malcolm X exclusively as a symbol of futile black anger, like he is used in the excerpt.
"He's like the Black Bill Kristol - been wrong about everything, but just keeps digging."
Meh. Kristol's wrongness is so epic and so consistent that no one can be the Black Bill Kristol, or the Hispanic Bill Kristol, or the gay Bill Kristol or the anything Bill Kristol. Kristol stands alone atop his mountain of hackery and wrongness.
Have I mentioned that I hate Bill Kristol yet? Because I do. And yet I can't stop reading him. It's like an addiction.
Alright, you dropped a 'Leeroy Jenkins' reference. You have now surpassed Sullivan as my favorite Atlantic blogger.