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    The Malcolm X Story Retold: In Search of the Blessed Community
    The Malcolm X Story Retold: In Search of the Blessed Community
    The Malcolm X Story Retold: In Search of the Blessed Community
    Ebook110 pages1 hour

    The Malcolm X Story Retold: In Search of the Blessed Community

    By Irvin Brown

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    About this ebook

    This small book is a poetic retelling of the Malcolm X story, in which his life is reframed as a spiritual quest. The book provides a contrast to almost fifty years of writings that focus primarily on unraveling the complexities of his political beliefs and sorting out the details of his intense life and his tragic death by assassination. While these are of obvious importance, Malcolm’s life is also a story of the universal human search for a place to call home. It is wrought, however, from the distinctive fabric of the African American experience and Malcolm’s unique and towering personality. Near the end of the book the narrator unreservedly declares, “Malcolm X lived a life of mythological proportions/That will always elude men’s intellectual notions.”
    Malcolm’s life began in the embrace of a proud and closely knit Black family. He had older siblings to watch over him and younger ones to which he could return the favor. This was all torn away from him during his childhood by forces of racial hatred-----a racism that was stirred to ferocious levels by the Black Pride teachings of Malcolm’s father to his congregation and neighbors. The assaults included terrorizing threats from the Ku Klux Klan, the burning of the family’s home when Malcolm was four years old, the brutal death of his father under the wheels of a street car, his mother driven by the stress to a home for the insane, and eventually the children being separated by state agencies. From here our hero’s journey begins, leading through three successive communities with which he passionately identified. These included the underworld of hustlers and hipsters, the Black separatist Nation of Islam, and eventually a more inclusive and orthodox Islam. In each of these he rejoiced greatly at finding a community that felt like home. ..

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIrvin Brown
    Release dateNov 17, 2016
    ISBN9781370213290
    The Malcolm X Story Retold: In Search of the Blessed Community
    Author

    Irvin Brown

    Dr. Irvin Brown is a psychologist and poet who completed his undergraduate studies at Indiana University in 1971. He went on to receive his PhD at Stanford University in 1975. Afterwards, he joined the Stanford psychology faculty, where he remained for six years. His early research publications were focused on social learning, including language learning, self-efficacy, and learned helplessness through modeling. Later, his interests expanded beyond academic psychology, as his attention turned toward spiritual and artistic pursuits. This aspect of his work is best reflected in his recorded poetry recitals, entitled "Fields of Serenity: Rastafari Poetic Meditations and Visions." Most of the poems on the "Fields" CD were written while he lived in Jamaica among the Rastafari bretheren and sistren of the Nyabinghi Order. Dr. Brown (A.K.A Jah Irvin) returned to teaching and integrating his varied interests at the College of Central Florida in 1990. The courses he has taught include: General Psychology, Human Growth and Development (Throughout the Life Cycle), Introduction to Marriage and Family Therapy, Counseling the Culturally Diverse, and The Psychology of Religion. During his tenure at CF, Dr. Brown also became a licensed psychotherapist, a role in which his varied interests find relevance and expression. He now resides in Gainesville Florida, where he welcomes his new found status as Professor Emeritus. His hope is that retirement will afford the opportunity to focus on his writings, including scholarly work on the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.

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      Book preview

      The Malcolm X Story Retold - Irvin Brown

      The Malcolm X Story Retold:

      In Search of the Blessed Community

      An Epic Poem by JAH Irvin

      A.k.a. Irvin Brown, Jr., PhD

      Copyright © 2016 Dr. Irvin Brown, Jr. AKA Jah Irvin

      All rights reserved.

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Thanks to Mary Ann Due for her assistance with the manuscript.

      Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com

      Table of Contents

      Prologue

      Part I

      Part II

      Part III

      Part IV

      Part V

      Part VI

      Part VII

      Part VIII

      Part IX

      Part X

      Epilogue

      "In heroism, we feel, life’s supreme mystery is hidden. We tolerate no one who has no capacity for it in any direction. On the other hand, no matter what a man’s frailties otherwise may be, if he is willing to risk death, and still more if he suffers it heroically, in the service he has chosen, the fact consecrates him forever. Inferior to ourselves in this or that way, if we cling to life, and he is able ‘to fling it away like a flower’ as caring nothing for it, we count him in the deepest way our born superior."

      ~William James, 1902

      Prologue

      MOST agree that Malcolm X personified

      two opposing cultural prototypes:

      The hustler who exploited his people

      and the minister who defended their rights.

      He was indeed the trickster and preacher

      embodied in one man,

      But once he became the latter,

      the former was never seen again.

      He refused to justify the unseemly deeds of his past

      All praise was given to Allah

      that his waywardness did not last.

      IT is now said that he was selective

      in composing his autobiography

      And that he glossed over the complexity

      of his true identity,

      Contrasting his respectable present

      with a less becoming past

      To yield a simplified storyline

      that still holds fast.

      But we are reminded that his earlier life

      was not one of vice alone

      And that his conversion did not mean

      all his shortcomings were gone.

      While the before and after contrasts

      are easy enough to perceive,

      They may not be as stark as he led us to believe.

      SO did he exaggerate the extent

      of his personal transformation

      By contrasting his new life with a past

      of utter defiance and degradation?

      Did he give undue attention to his earlier criminal life

      While covering up his more recent marital strife,

      All because virtue had to triumph over vice

      in his narrative of redemption,

      Yielding a host of before and after contrasts,

      befitting a saga of self-reinvention?

      We do well to address these and other claims

      Without forgetting the courage that brought him such fame.

      If he exaggerated anything it was not his virtues,

      but the folly of his youth.

      Crediting Allah for his achievements is the more telling truth.

      WE should quibble only so much

      about the details of Malcolm’s background.

      What he wanted us to understand

      is that a man once lost can be found.

      He did keep in reserve

      some of his hustler outlook and skills,

      But as a minister he directed them toward

      exposing social ills.

      He painted a picture of Uncle Sam as the real pimp,

      hustler, and con man

      Skillfully using his experiences to help others understand.

      Also as a devoted minister within the Nation’s fold,

      Street tactics were sometimes used

      to maintain the leadership’s hold

      Creating a culture of obedience

      he would later regret,

      Which came home to roost on that painful day

      Black history will never forget.

      STREET smarts also served him well

      in out gaming his detractors and foes.

      While memory of them has waned

      Malcolm’s relevance grows.

      No, he was neither the saint

      nor the biggest sinner;

      Both journeys were cut short

      while he was just a beginner.

      His arrest halted his rise in the world of crime.

      He was assassinated while seeking the will of the Divine.

      The certainty is that he held our attention

      and captured our imagination.

      We continue to

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