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Malcolm X Hero Essay

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Malcolm X was a widely known Civil Rights activist who was assassinated in 1965. He was a morally conflicted man who is criticised heavily to this day by academics for his misogynistic commentary, anti-integration beliefs and crude statements about sensitive topics. Despite this, he was widely regarded as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, and a hero in the eyes of many members of the movement. After his sudden and tragic death, his autobiography was released, and cemented his legacy as a hero of the American movement towards civil rights for African Americans.

There are certain qualities that contribute to a person’s heroism, and others that are found in effective (or ineffective) leaders. Stereotypically, a hero displays leadership …show more content…

Whilst from the genesis of his political career the activist has made unmistakeable his ambitions for equal rights, his racial tolerance initially lacked the intersectionality necessary to bring about productive, purposeful and permanent equality. This was due to his involvement with the Nation of Islam (Robinson, 1990, Tatchell, 2009). In his final years his transition to mainstream Islam aligned with his political gravitation towards the left (Tatchell, 2009) Malcolm is on record for having said “Whatever else a woman is, I don’t care who the woman is, it starts with her being vain” (Haley, 1964). However, he appeared to have revised his view of black women, telling a group of women in December 1964 that they were ‘the real educators… the setters of fires that would burn until our people set themselves free’ (Robinson,1990). In the final years of his life many feminists of colour believed that after his distancing from the Nation of Islam, he began to listen to black women and treat them as intellectual equals (Robinson, 1990), and had he not been killed, he would have more publicly put his support behind black women and retracted previous sexist comments (Davis, 1994). But he never had the chance, and therefore his leadership is still flawed with a lack of acceptance of all African Americans and an acknowledgement of their different

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