Redemption for Malcolm: A young man’s struggle with identity and the burden of supreme legacy

In February 2008, Giant Magazine journalist Aliya S. King conducted an interview with Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of assassinated Civil Rights leader, Malcolm X. Malcolm Shabazz is known for two things in his life: he’s Malcolm X’s first grandchild and he is responsible for the house fire that killed his grandmother, Dr. Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X’s widow.

In 1997, I was sitting in Delight Barbershop, a small two manned shop just north of Trade Street in downtown Winston-Salem, North Carolina, when I learned of Dr. Betty Shabazz’s death. The shop was scarce that day, a few men waiting for cuts and my barber, Yami, a Jehovah’s Witness, who would often argue with his fellow barber, Mack, a devout Muslim, about religion and everything under the sun. But today they were in complete agreement. “They outta lock that kid up for life,” Mack said, holding up a newspaper featuring an article about Dr. Shabazz’s death. Yami nodded his head in accordance and added: “Something has got to be wrong with him [Malcolm].”

I was young, fifteen to be exact, and I was angry. Malcolm Shabazz was only three years younger than me and at age 12, he had poured gasoline throughout his grandmother’s home in Yonkers, New York, lit a match while she slept and caused her to burn eighty percent of her body, as she frantically searched the home for him. Malcolm Shabazz was horrified, yet surprised his grandmother would fight through flames to reach him and secure their safety - a testament of her love.

Left : Malcolm Shabazz
Photo Courtesy: giant.blackplanet.com

Anger and hurt was thick in the air as patrons soon poured into the shop, some not there for haircuts, but simply to talk it out. Malcolm Shabazz was troubled, that was for sure, but Betty Shabazz was dead. It was a moral dilemma, we longed for justice, but we didn’t really want to see a young black boy locked in a jail cell for the rest of his life. I remember feeling hopelessly frustrated, unsure where my anger should be directed. I was sickened by the irony of her death. Betty Shabazz had survived a fire bombing, virtually unscathed, at she and Malcolm X’s home located in Queens, New York in 1965. Months later, she and her children would witness him gunned down on February 21st at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. She was the last soul connection to him, the lone witness to his legacy, and she inevitably died suffering the results of 3rd degree burns, despite several agonizing surgeries. Her death seemed to echo that of her husband’s, both their bodies destroyed in violent acts. Hadn’t Betty Shabazz been through enough? Sure, her death was inevitable, as everyone’s is, but couldn’t it have been a peaceful transition, something that transpired in her sleep?

When I read the article in Giant Magazine a month ago, it seemed to stir up all the emotions I had felt that day: the anger, the sadness and feeling as if something had been stripped away from me. Malcolm X was part of my cultural identity. His story spoke to me and many African American males. He was a shinning example of what it was to be a man, a husband and a father. He came from nothing, and early in his life he was certifiably lost in the world of sex, drugs and crime, but he achieved redemption. It was in prison he found a calling: The Nation of Islam. Through his faith and with the strength of his conviction he was able to achieve greatness in the service of his community. It was a narrative that would become common amongst black male revolutionaries, such as: Eldridge Cleaver, who served time for rape in Northern California’s historic Folsom Prison and upon release helped form the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.

The love I felt for Malcolm X was equal to that of Dr. Betty Shabazz, and her legacy commanded respect. After Malcolm X’s assassination she was left with nothing. She vehemently denied rumors that The Nation of Islam was providing for her and her children. Despite hardships, she went on to obtain advanced degrees, first a M.A. in public heath education and later a Ph.D. in education administration, all while raising her six daughters. Dr. Shabazz epitomized the meaning of the word: survival.



When director Spike Lee’s: “Malcolm X” an autobiographical film based on Alex Haley’s book was released in November 1992, my cousins and I watched it at the only theater with showings in the area, a small Cineplex in Montclair, California. That day my love affair began with cinema and Malcolm X was further solidified as my hero. Later that year, my father gave me the Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley, as a Christmas gift. He inscribed it: Aaron—this is the story of one black man who all of us black men can identify with—in time you may find inspiration, motivation or yourself in his story. A week later I took the book with me to school, during our leisure period, after I had completed my school work; I took the book from my book bag and read. A friend of mine, Mehran, a native of Iran, begged me to let him read a little of the book when I was finished. We bonded over Malcolm X’s story, it was inspirational and it sparked a cultural exchange between us. We were both interested in each others’ religious and cultural backgrounds. During lunch, Mehran would educate me about Islam and I’d pass on to him what I learned about the Civil Rights Movement, mostly lessons from family members, the stuff they didn’t teach us in school. After I finished reading the Giant Magazine article, when the remnants of sadness and anger passed, I was left with something equally as potent: empathy. I had never even wondered what life was like for Malcolm Shabazz, what could have tormented him so, that he would set fire to his grandmother’s home. I now understood the world he came from: displacement, self-hatred, mental instability and poor parenting. In his own words Malcolm Shabazz described being shuttled from various states with his mother, being uprooted and withdrawn from schools, month long stints in mental hospitals and his inability to socially adapt because of it all. Malcolm Shabazz’s mother, Qubilah Muhammad, Malcolm X’s daughter was plagued by alcoholism and mental illness. In January 1995 she was arrested by the F.B.I. and implicated in a plot to murder Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan for his supposed involvement in her father’s assassination. Malcolm Shabazz’s father was a Francophone Algerian he never met, but his mother repeatedly told him his father was Malcolm X.

I couldn’t help but feel pain and sorrow for the now, 23-year-old man, who doesn’t remotely favor his grandfather, but instead has a rather meek and mousy demeanor. I thought about the great love and admiration the African American, Muslim and world community felt and continue to feel for Malcolm X and then I tried to place myself in his grandson’s shoes. How does one exist within the shadow of such a monumental legacy? He doesn’t. It’s impossible to exist there, he would have to make a new path for himself, be his own man, but how? His name alone seems to evoke certain nostalgia, a time of revolution, when freedom was the only thing worth dying for.

I thought about every Black bookstore I had been to that had a framed picture of Malcolm X hanging from the wall, and how every May 19th, his birthday, at least one channel televised Spike Lee’s biopic, and I realized that if Malcolm X’s legacy is this pronounced within our society today, than it must be even greater in the life of young Malcolm Shabazz. I understood how a legacy could haunt a man; causing him to combat everything that progressive society, Black America, or even his mother would have him become, when all Malcolm Shabazz craved was stability and a father.

Left : Malcolm X
Photo Courtesy: malcolmXonline.com

After he plead guilty to charges of attempted manslaughter and arson, he was sentenced to a detention facility that offered him treatment for his mental illness. Later, at the age of 21, he was charged with reckless endangerment, assault and criminal mischief, after smashing the window of a donut shop. But his grandfather’s beginnings were similar. Born Malcolm Little and later known as Detroit Red, a respected gangster, Malcolm X converted to Islam in prison and while Malcolm Shabazz was serving time for robbery, the same crime his grandfather was sentenced for, he converted to Islam as well. This was the beginning of Malcolm X’s redemptive course, and one can only pray Malcolm Shabazz is on the same path.

In the past few months he’s begun to speak about the circumstances surrounding the fire that killed Dr. Betty Shabazz. He continues to affirm that the fire was accidental and he didn’t intend on his grandmother getting hurt, but one can’t help but wonder what his grandfather, Malcolm X would say if he could? Would he forgive the young man, his grandson, his own flesh and blood, the boy who bears his name? I’d like to believe he would. Not only because they’re family, but as a testament to Malcolm X’s faith, that no man is beyond redemption. At age 23, it’s impossible to speculate what Malcolm Shabazz will become. Will he spend his life fighting to escape the weight of his name? Will he continue to battle the demons that seem to have overwhelmed him for much of his life? Or will he take up the mantle of leader, fighting injustice and evoking the power of his grandfather’s crest for the betterment of his people? Who knows? And in many ways it’s unfair to ask these types of questions of Malcolm Shabazz, nor expect him to immolate his grandfather in any way. Because like so many black males today, he’s simply trying to survive and carrying the regrets of his past may be enough burden for a lifetime.

Comments

i love what malcolm x has done for us and how he has fought for my rights.

clearly everyone is the same as you, sasha.

Subhanallah it is a real shame that this young man slipped through the cracks. That sister Shabazz had to fight so hard after her husband's death with no real help is also appalling. Malcolm X was a martyr Insha Allah. Muslims should of helped them I mean real Muslims not the NOI. So the American government was able to destroy Malcolm's family by not giving justice when his father was murdered, by separating he and his siblings from their mother after his fathers death, and by looking the other way when he was assassinated. May Allah have Mercy on Brother Malcolm and Betty ameen. May Allah guide his family to Islam for which their father died for ameen.

Subhanallah it is a real shame that this young man slipped through the cracks. That sister Shabazz had to fight so hard after her husband's death with no real help is also appalling. Malcolm X was a martyr Insha Allah. Muslims should of helped them I mean real Muslims not the NOI. So the American government was able to destroy Malcolm's family by not giving justice when his father was murdered, by separating he and his siblings from their mother after his fathers death, and by looking the other way when he was assassinated. May Allah have Mercy on Brother Malcolm and Betty ameen. May Allah guide his family to Islam for which their father died for ameen.

What's up with his photograph??? Is he trying to look like his grandfather who was photographed with the same pose? Don't care what you say, I think he is trying to capitalize on Malcolm X's fame.

You're all fools for thinking that he did it. That's how fucking brainwashed White America has got you. They pulled the same shit with Fred Hampton Jr. tried to frame him for arson. They pulled the same shit on Qubilah Shabazz, Malcolm's mother, trying to frame her for the attempted assassination of Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan refused to press charges and said they were just trying to drive stakes into the black community. And they framed this 12 year old kid as well.

If you read his interview he alludes to the fact he didn't do it, he says the usual story then says to paraphrase "That's not how it really happened... That's what I was been told to say or they said they would lock me up for a long time". If you're so quick to condemn this 12-year old, because of what the media tells you, you have learned nothing from Malcolm.

Does anyone have that kind of pity or empathy for his grandmother who he planned the murder of in return for giving him love, stability and a home? He went through a lot-so did my half brothers and I, who are the products of a prostitution stable and the pimp. Still, my half brothers (also young black men)
for the most part went into the military, are getting an education off military benefits, and are practicing Sunni muslims like myself now. None of us used a hard childhood as an excuse for murder, nor depression, nor anything else. If he weren't brother Malik Al Haji Shabazz's grandson, he'd have been put on death row and nobody would have cared. Please call it what it is- not only that; many so-called schizophenics and manic depressives have been great people in the world such as Abraham Lincoln and Ernest Hemingway and many others instead of murders and wanna be ganstas!

Frankly, i find it offensive that you all thought it was OK to pose him in the image of his grandfather. How disrespectful to the memories of both Malcolm X and Sis. Betty Shabazz.
I understand mental illness as i am bipolar. One of the biggest problems he currently has is his denial of his illness. Until he accepts that fact, he cannot be properly treated for it, and begin the recovery process.
I will include him in my prayers.

I find it very strange that the female that was speaking in the video (she never identified herself) , tries to make the young malcolm Shabazz seem like the "average young black man" with the usual troubles, when this could not be further from the truth. The burden that this man will have to overcome is not living with the name of his "sainted" Grandfather, but the fact that he, at the age of twelve years old, intentionally set the fire that ultimately took the life of his "sainted" Grandmother, Sis. Betty Shabazz! This was a tragic , and fatal act that broke as many hearts, as the death of Malcolm X. He mentions that mental illness has been passed down from his Great Grandmother, to his mother , but left himself out. His story reminded me of the 1950's movie about a psychotic child , who also used arson to kill a man. The movie was "The Bad Seed". So far, there seems to be very little remorse about the horrific act from this man. He has had many years to consider the gravity of his actions, yet there is little said about it. Even the interviewer avoided the opportunity to delve into the subject. What does this say about the current mores of our current culture? I guess it's no big deal, no big deal that we have lost our beloved Betty in such a shameful, and despicable manner. What a legacy, for such a great woman. I only hope that this boy does not REPRODUCE himself, lest he become a victim of the same fate. Remember this , psychopaths are born , and not made, lest any blame be cast upon the mother. He seems to feel that the actions of the people in his life towards him, could cause him to commit such a horrible act, but it was in him all along. I do not thing that he will ever be able to redeem himself, as long as avoids the truth about himself, and who he really is.

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