Malcolm X, Freedom, and COVID-19

Malcolm X at the peak of his influence

Happy birthday to Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, born this day in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. He would’ve been 95 years old today. Malcolm (dare I address him by his first name?) has been a polarizing influence in my life. Raised in a suburban White family, I grew up believing a wide range of myths about this powerful figure. I was well into my thirties before I realized how little I actually knew about him.

While researching his life, and the influence he had on all subsequent American culture, I encountered this quote: “You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” These words have resonated strongly with me over recent weeks, as we’ve witnessed protests demanding the American economy, shuttered by the COVID-19 pandemic, reopen, even though science assures us that’s premature. These protestors use the same word again: “freedom.”

This gets me thinking about what two different groups mean by one word. “Freedom,” a word quintessentially tied to American values, gets thrown around generously, but often isn’t anchored to context. What does anyone mean when they say “freedom”? Can one word have two contradictory meanings? Considering what Malcolm meant, versus what these protestors mean, clearly their definitions of freedom are incompatible and opposed. I’m still struggling to grasp what that means for America overall.

One cannot evaluate Malcolm X without understanding his religious beliefs. A grifter and street hustler in his youth, he converted to Islam in prison. I’ve heard White people dismiss Malcolm’s influence owing to his ex-con status: anybody, they say, can claim faith, but consider the awful things he did in childhood. I disagree. Religions are founded by and for the desperate: Moses was a fugitive. Mohammed fled Mecca, fearing death. Jesus was convicted of treason.

Like Mohammed, Malcolm heard God’s voice amidst the darkness, then carried it back into the light. Malcolm’s definition of freedom meant freedom both from literal prison, where then as now, Black men were more likely than other groups to spend part of their lives; and also the figurative prison of societies where people police themselves to avoid saying or doing anything that would offend the power structure. Racialized power is always arbitrary, and always murderous.

The former Malcolm Little's first mugshot

These anti-shutdown protestors, by contrast, want something we could generously call “economic freedom,” the freedom to buy and sell without restriction. This sounds great, hypothetically. Indeed, freedom to participate in market transactions without prior restraint has been a recurrent demand of civil rights activists. But consider the voiced demands today’s protestors make: they want to play golf, get haircuts, and eat fast food. Fundamentally, they aren’t demanding to sell, only to buy. And that’s different.

Amid the COVID economy, people with highly regarded jobs, including financiers, CEOs, and tech providers, are working from home. The part of the economy that’s been shuttered is mostly the service industry. Those hurt hardest, currently, are those least able to afford even temporary setbacks. By demanding the economy reopen while COVID cases remain near the peak plateau, these mostly-White protestors are forcing the poor to choose between dying in harness, or starving and homeless.

Malcolm understood freedom differently. His father was likely murdered for speaking against injustice; later, Malcolm himself was denied lawful work, then arrested for paying bills through his wits. His demand was that he, and others like him, not be restricted from living and working for arbitrary reasons. He didn’t consider himself oppressed because he couldn’t make others cook dinner and barber his hair. He didn’t evaluate freedom by compelling others to work; that isn’t freedom.

Today we’re witnessing a generation of Americans, again mostly White, who have never been told “no,” and consider themselves heirs to Rosa Parks because the putting green shut down. White Christians have insisted that Jesus will protect them from COVID, while churches from Calgary to Georgia have discovered He won’t. Malcolm wanted freedom for his people to work, engage in commerce, and not die. These protestors want the freedom to make others service their desires.

I’ve come to admire Malcolm, despite my relatively privileged White upbringing. He overcame long odds and, rather than resting on his own accomplishments, wanted to change the unfair landscape for others suffering like he did. His demands were reasonable, and his definition of freedom was modest. Watching these White people falsely wrap themselves in the mythology of Civil Rights, it’s clear that those who most needed to hear Malcolm’s message, still have much to learn.