Introducing The Tenth Lieutenant

The autobiography of Malcolm X is recommended reading in academic circles  from grade school to college, and it is sure to feature in the reading lists of Black  Studies Departments across the country. It is a gripping expose of how religion  can bring about radical change in an individual’s life, and how the cruel realities  of racism in America and harsh racial rhetoric it engendered in response can be  transcended to encourage tolerance for differences that exist within the human  community. This, without sacrificing the fight for equality and justice was  Malcolm X’s terminal position.  Malcolm X was known for calling a spade a spade. In so doing, he  established a public platform constantly at odds with a system that perpetuated  many of the flagrant as well as the more subtle wrong doings of a white racist  society. Even now, racism is so engrained that the need for the struggle Malcolm  and others fought more than half a century ago is just as dire today. Thus, the  continued activism of the Civil Rights movement, the Black Lives Matter  movement, and any other movements intent on addressing the plight of the  oppressed in American society.  

After Malcolm X’s assassination, the Black Power Party (BPP) tried to  fill the void but itself experienced systematic targeting by the white power  structure with little attempt to address the conditions that were the predicates  for BPP’s emergence in the first place. The Black Lives Matter movement of our  time is the reemergence of response of the black and brown communities to the  continued victimization of people of color across the United States. These  movements are fueled by the black experience and empowered by concerned  people of all races who see the need for the kind of social change Malcolm X  sought. Why is the situation much the same more than 55 years later? Injustice,  racial prejudice, and adherence by many to white supremacists’ views to  strengthen their hold on the power structures of government persists allowing  implementation of only minimized change. Despite Civil Rights advances since  emancipation and continued piecemeal satisfaction of demands of the struggle,  political and judicial conditions seem impermeable to the meaningful systemic  radical change required.