Malcolm X- Part 2 and Wrap-up

Wow, the last week has been VERY BUSY with instructional technology and collaborative media work. I'm going to try to do short posts about a few of my recent activities including:

"Malcolm X" film by Spike Lee, Study part 2

Intro.: Excerpts from "Malcolm X: the facts, the fictions, the film" (NY Times article by Sheila Rule)

"...Director Spike Lee traces the black leader's dramatic evolution, from impoverished child, hustler and thief to convict to angry spokesman of the Nation of Islam contemptuous of "blue-eyed white devils" and, finally, after a pilgrimage to Mecca, to the powerful humanist who used his rhetorical gift to repudiate racial exclusivity before being gunned down at the age of 39."

"Mr. Lee says that his film does not glorify any one phase of the black leader's development but rather looks at "all the different Malcolms as making up one Malcolm."

"I know he was constantly evolving; I like the total evolution, the many transformations he made, because all of those together made Malcolm," Spike Lee said, adding that he realized that "there is a specific Malcolm some hold dear more than the other parts of Malcolm. Baraka and nationalists want their own Malcolm; the Nation of Islam definitely don't want you to push the Malcolm after he left the Nation of Islam. People just pick and choose what Malcolm fits their own personal agenda or own political beliefs."

Betty Shabazz, his widow said: "He said freedom by whatever means necessary to bring about a situation where members of the African diaspora were respected and treated as human beings wherever they reside," she said recently. "A lot of people didn't like that and said 'freedom by whatever means necessary' is violence.

Questions Part 2:

8. What did Elijah Muhammad and his Nation of Islam believe and teach about white men/white people? (That some were evil/"white devils" or that all were "white devils"?)


9. What else did Elijah Muhammad teach: regarding sex, marriage, drugs, alcohol and eating pork?


10. Why did Malcolm X start to question Elijah Muhammad and question Elijah Muhammad's beliefs/viewpoints? Why did Malcolm start to see him as hypocritical and dishonest? What are some of the things he discovered about Elijah Muhammad?


11. What was Malcolm's decision about the Nation of Islam? What was the Nation of Islam's reaction to Malcolm's actions? What did the Nation of Islam do? (towards Malcolm and his family)


12. After returning from his trip/pilgrimage to Mecca, what did Malcolm say about skin color? (and good human beings vs. bad/evil human beings?)


13. The film implies that other people may have been involved with killing Malcolm X in addition to, or instead of, the Nation of Islam. What do you think is suggested?


14. What do you think about the ending of the film? (with Nelson Mandela and the African and African American school kids shouting "I am Malcolm") Why do you think Spike Lee ends the film this way?


15. Do you have any other comments about Malcolm X, the man or the movie? Do you think this was worth studying?