• Graduate Students & New Professionals

  Who was Malcolm X?

  Posted by Stacey Givens on February 4, 2023 at 6:16 pm

  For today’s Black History Month historical spotlight, meet Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. 
  
  Malcolm X is arguably one of the most polarizing social justice activists of the Civil Rights movement. Perhaps because many compared his style and approach to Dr. King, as if social justice activism follows only one framework. Much of the commentary I heard about Malcolm X and his approach was negative and incomplete; when I investigated for myself, I found something quite different. Isn’t that often the case? When we dig into a topic, we uncover information that was not presented before.

  In the early 90s, another decade in our history when tumult was rising, I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X.  As I turned the pages I was struck by his transformation, not only religiously, but also in his thinking. By actively choosing a new experience, a pilgrimage to Mecca, his paradigm shifted. 

  From the autobiography,
  “But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in American had led me to believe never could exist between the white and the on-white…But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to re-arrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions.” 

  Has an experience caused you to shift your perspective on a long-held belief?  

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  Stacey Givens
  Director of Strategic Initiatives and Senior Diversity Officer
  ACUI
  Bloomington IN
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  Stacey Givens replied 3 years, 4 months ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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