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Black Book, The: The True Political Philosophy of Malcolm X

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I reiterate a point I made in a previous update on this book. It is intensely academic almost to its detriment. It is so academic and incisive that I am disappointed that they did not footnote each section with the sourced material so that we can determine how they drew their conclusions as to what Malcolm would do or say. I also state again that it must be read in the context of Malcolm's other works lest one fail to understand how nuanced and critical Malcolm was and readily capable of integrating new information to craft a new assessment of the problem and necessary solution.

This is the primary problem with this text. Malcolm was constantly shifting his strategy. Muslim Mosque Inc. I need an irreligious context. OAAU. I need to broaden my capacity to organize against all manner of oppression. UN. Oppression in a world context. This book takes a snapshot of that Malcolm and creates opinions on post-mortem events based upon his pre-mortem positions. It still makes for a good read. The appendix is a useful dialogue on autocratic and authoritarian leadership amongst African American organizations and how this loss of democratic context creates a similar dissatisfaction to irresponsible authoritarian leadership in Africa and causes the people to eventually gravitate away from these organizations. There is a large section at the beginning of the book on the Islamic concept of jihad and whether or not Malcolm's revolutionary stance constituted such a thing. I found it largely unnecessary towards comprehending the broader concept of Malcolm's philosophy throughout the rest of the text. I skipped over it entirely.

If you want to know the real Malcolm X don't read this book. This is mostly based on interpretations based on what Malcolm X said. If you really want to get to know the man, read his autobiography > The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Penguin Modern Classics). Radical? I don't think so, the man was enlightened at the end of his live.