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A review by kevin_shepherd
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne, Tamara Payne
5.0
“The French people have placed the negro soldier in France on an equality with the white man, and it has gone to their heads.” ~Woodrow Wilson, 1919
Malcolm X was a brilliant, courageous badass who saw American Christianity as an obstacle to equality and justice...
“[Malcolm] launched a frontal assault upon the New Testament promise of the “hereafter” so widely accepted by Negroes, religious or not. Malcolm flatly dismissed all chances of human postmortem reward, proclaiming that there would be “no Heaven beyond the grave.” A few in the audience gasped. American Negroes, “the lost sheep,” Malcolm thundered, would progress only when they forsook the Christian yearning for the hereafter and devote themselves to Muslim concerns for the right-down here and now.” (pg 314)
And why not rebel against the same articles of faith that were cited time and time again to justify slavery? Why not rebel against the same scripture that was interpreted as “proof” of white supremacy? Why not throw off the yoke that helped maintain an unjust status quo?
“...Malcolm flogged Christianity up hill and down dale... he dismissed organized church enterprises as an insidious confidence game with a sad history of duping poor people the world over. He blistered high-living clergy for dressing in splendor while their parishioners struggled to put pork chops and collard greens on the table.” (pg 399)
Malcolm saw clearly that the Bible had become a tool of oppression, an instrument of hardship, used to elevate one race and subjugate another. What he couldn’t see, at least not until the twilight of his very short life, was that false prophets are everywhere...
“The spartan Malcolm could no longer suppress the realization that, like the Christian ministers he attacked, [Elijah] Muhammad and his Royal Family engaged in conspicuous consumption while presiding over a struggling, low-income, working-class flock.” (pg 399)
Let’s face it, we all know how this story ends. Malcolm, like Abraham, like John, like Martin, like Bobby, didn’t get to write the ending of his own story. Somebody else wrote it for him.
Authors Les and Tamara Payne document the evolution of an extraordinary life, and they do it beautifully and without undue reverence. Five stars.
Personal Note: My high regard for Malcolm always feels a little like cultural appropriation. I tread lightly out of respect and because I am aware that I will never know what it is like to grow up as a black man in America. All I can say is that I am striving to better understand that experience. -Kevin
Malcolm X was a brilliant, courageous badass who saw American Christianity as an obstacle to equality and justice...
“[Malcolm] launched a frontal assault upon the New Testament promise of the “hereafter” so widely accepted by Negroes, religious or not. Malcolm flatly dismissed all chances of human postmortem reward, proclaiming that there would be “no Heaven beyond the grave.” A few in the audience gasped. American Negroes, “the lost sheep,” Malcolm thundered, would progress only when they forsook the Christian yearning for the hereafter and devote themselves to Muslim concerns for the right-down here and now.” (pg 314)
And why not rebel against the same articles of faith that were cited time and time again to justify slavery? Why not rebel against the same scripture that was interpreted as “proof” of white supremacy? Why not throw off the yoke that helped maintain an unjust status quo?
“...Malcolm flogged Christianity up hill and down dale... he dismissed organized church enterprises as an insidious confidence game with a sad history of duping poor people the world over. He blistered high-living clergy for dressing in splendor while their parishioners struggled to put pork chops and collard greens on the table.” (pg 399)
Malcolm saw clearly that the Bible had become a tool of oppression, an instrument of hardship, used to elevate one race and subjugate another. What he couldn’t see, at least not until the twilight of his very short life, was that false prophets are everywhere...
“The spartan Malcolm could no longer suppress the realization that, like the Christian ministers he attacked, [Elijah] Muhammad and his Royal Family engaged in conspicuous consumption while presiding over a struggling, low-income, working-class flock.” (pg 399)
Let’s face it, we all know how this story ends. Malcolm, like Abraham, like John, like Martin, like Bobby, didn’t get to write the ending of his own story. Somebody else wrote it for him.
Authors Les and Tamara Payne document the evolution of an extraordinary life, and they do it beautifully and without undue reverence. Five stars.
Personal Note: My high regard for Malcolm always feels a little like cultural appropriation. I tread lightly out of respect and because I am aware that I will never know what it is like to grow up as a black man in America. All I can say is that I am striving to better understand that experience. -Kevin