Remembering Malcolm X: Why The Internet Matters
I found this striking mural a few months back while knee deep in my late night Flickr ritual of browsing imagery by contextual navigation of topical tags. As the night wore on I drifted from tags like art to street art to graffiti, eventually resting on Malcolm X.
After staring at the shot for a few minutes, I realized why this particular image struck me — on two distinct levels:
- The mere existence of such a powerful representation of Malcolm X and his words embedded in the public square for all to see
- The absence of his complete representation, both physical and philosophical, due to elemental deterioration over time
In the real world — before the internet created another dimension for the documentation of expression and our collective histories — all atom based elements had a shelf life.
Street art, by it’s very nature, had even a shorter life span.
But here I was, stumbling across this deteriorating, real world representation, frozen in time (at what point in time I have no idea) by someone who made an explicit decision to digitize the real for the sake of posterity.
Without the internet, this work — this message — might have already drifted away from our consciousness.
Speaking of the message, only a few lines of Malcolm X’s quote remained legible in it’s original format. It seemed familiar to me, so I took a few moments to run a Google search of the words I could decipher.
Thanks to the collective participation of people publishing to the internet, within a matter of moments, I was able to piece together the original context of the quote from the mural:
“With every succeeding page, I also learned of people and places and events from history. Actually the dictionary is like a miniature encyclopedia. Finally the dictionary’s A section had filled a whole tablet — and I went on into the B’s. That was the way I started copying what eventually became the entire dictionary.”
Context is knowledge, so I circled back to the image and added the text that would have surrounded the original quote on the wall if the wall were 50 feet high.
The Internet On This Day
Eighty-two years ago today, Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little to Earl Little and Louise Helen in Omaha, Nebraska.
Depending on your company, Malcolm X is often remembered as either an inspiration — an educated, revolutionary, evolutionary force — or an extremist that preached hate.
Without the internet, the latter of these two descriptions could easily edify his legacy for future generations to come.
With the internet, we have context of evolution and truth:
The Early Years In The Nation Of Islam
Debating At Oxford University
Returning From Mecca
A New Direction, Seeing Death In The Distance
The Assassination Of Malcolm X
Paying Tribute
Living In His Footsteps
Our Collective Responsibility
Prior to the internet, the reality of our lives drifted into the annals of time and both the discrete and general narratives of history were crafted by those with the power to publish and distribute knowledge.
Today, we must recognize the importance and responsibilities of living in a digital age.
It is our responsibility that we be vigilant in documenting our knowledge for the serendipitous discovery of our fellow man, both today and years into the future — no matter our focus or industry.
Because if it’s not us taking advantage of this platform, the traditional owners of history will be more than happy to seep into play and stake their claim.
And that would be a wasted opportunity to make his-tory, our-story.
Tags: activism, AfricanAmerican, America, change, civil rights, Dr. Abdul Alkalimat, graffiti, Hip hop, information, internet, Katrina, knowledge, leadership, Malcolm X, Mos Def, remembering, revolution, video.
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Hey man, good job. Many thanks for sharing the videos. Very little commemoration of a very important man! Thanks again.
i instantly recognized your handle from all those youtube videos. thanks for posting them in the first place!
Read the book. Saw the movie. Yet still, his image and transformation fades. We as a nation are afraid to confront him because he makes us uncomfortable. Thanks for sharing.
Saw the movie some time ago. Great videos. I will view them soon, as my net connection enters a go-slow school zone.
The freedom fighters are indeed trail blazers for us all.
Frederick Douglass (used English texts from his master’s children school bag while they slept), Nelson Mandela (four hour speech before his imprisonment), Phyllis Wheatley (first African-American to be published, wrote to George Washington, praised by Voltaire), Martin Luther King (wrote inspring sermons and speeches in the 1960s that are masterpieces), Malcolm X (self-taught activist who grasped onto the power of words), and many many more taught themselves English, mastered it well, and became agents of change.
Literacy in a common second language (be it English or Esperanto or Iroquois Confederacy Sign Language or Earth Language or) is as essential requirement for world peace as is the laying down of weapons. From swords to words we have to remove just one letter.
The gift of literacy is a life-long gift. We would do well to insure that the next generation has the tools and resources they need to be able to communicate effectively with each other on the pressing issues and problems of the day.
well said, stedawa. indeed.
it sounds like a very idealistic view of the internet. in reality the internet, or more accurately the people on the internet are prone to distortion, inaccuracies and display a surprising lack of intelligence.
the internet, since ruled by the mass populace, should never be considered of forum for storing information and should not be confused with the digitization of text and media to extend their shelf life. the internet is a distribution medium that like tv has been overwhelmed by entertainment and pop rather then literature, education or information.
and lastly, Malcolm x was a Muslim and despite your love or hate for him he had extreme views and most likely would condone suicide bombings (if that means anything).
oh, i’m very idealistic when it comes to the web, because no one needs a permit or capital to build here. sure, there’s a bunch of crap out here — a lot of exaggerations or straight up false information — but that’s what follow up research is for.
as for the internet being ruled by “the mass populace” you’re just wrong.
the internet is *nothing* like tv. for every thousand mainstream or business domains online, there are millions of individual domains, popping up left, right and in-between. there’s no “programming” on our internet — we don’t sit through content just to be served an ad and back again. we are consumers and creators. we digest information and generate information. we explore photographs and produce photographs. etc.
tv is a one-way feeding tube with limited channels. while tv viewers race down establish lanes, we swim across those channels.
regarding your perspective of malcolm x and suicide bombings: malcolm x was about uplifting his people, speaking truth to power and challenging social constructs.
if you want to take “by any means necessary” add the muslim faith and end up with the stance that malcolm x would approve suicide bombing — men walking into squares full of innocent men, women and children and murdering them indiscriminately — well, my friend, it seems like you’ve been watching way too much tv yourself.
you might want to unplug and do some reading.