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Malcolm X's Daughter Rebukes Al Qaeda Leader
MB: If you father were alive today, do you think he would be as supportive as you are of Barack Obama, a mainstream Democrat?
MS: Well, we’re Democrats. So, of course he would. Absolutely. He and Michelle, in my heart, this is my personal feeling, epitomize what my mother and my father were. They are community organizers on a global level.
MB: Do you think your father would have been surprised by the level of white support for a black candidate like Obama, especially in the South?
MS: No, not at all. He had equivalent support as well.
MB: He had equivalent support from white people?
MS: Yeah. Not all white people are bad. He was not a racist, unlike what the white racist media would say. He had a global outlook just like Barack and Michelle.
MB: Would he have ever been able to imagine that at some point in the not-too-distant future white voters would propel a black candidate into the White House?
MS: It’s not about white people; it’s about human beings. My father wasn’t a militant racist. He was a human rights activist—he was about human beings, so let’s just get away from going way back then.
MB: Do you think Barack Obama has been influenced in any way by your father?
MS: We’re all African-American, so we’re all influenced by each other.
MB: I attended Georgetown Day School in Washington DC. It’s a private school where many prominent Washington people send their children, so not surprisingly, it’s at the top of the list for the Obama girls, Sasha and Malia. I wonder what advice you, as the daughter of an internationally famous political icon, would offer Sasha and Malia as they enter what will essentially be a new life.
MS: To me, it’s normal. We summered in Vermont, and me and my sister Ilyasah went to one of the top ten schools in the country [the Hackley School]. I think Malcolm Forbes got kicked out of our school and [Ethiopian Emperor] Hallie Selassie’s grandkids went there, too. Because of security reasons you have to go to those schools. We had a privileged life, fine, but also very secure. So I think it’s great where the Obama daughters are going to school. We went through the same thing so I think they’re gonna have a lot of fun. I’m telling you, they’re gonna have a hootenanny.
Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for The Daily Beast and writing fellow at The Nation Institute, whose book, Republican Gomorrah (Basic/Nation Books), is forthcoming in Spring 2009. Contact him at maxblumenthal3000@yahoo.com.
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This is a picture of his daughter Attallah Shabbaz, his oldest daughter. Not Maalak.
Ahhhh, I hate to be the stickler here for detailed Historical recounting, but wasn't Malcolm X frightfully brilliant in the cast of ...say... a Black Bill Buckley? It certainly seemed like it every time I saw him speak. Of course I was a child at the time, but the frost that would appear above the intellectual brow was only present because the idea of bigotry was being repelled by the presence of a Brilliant Mind in a Black Body. Simply because Malcolm was brilliant, and read books, doesn't that make Malcolm X a 'House Negro' too? Catholics can be proud of the Code Noire, instituted in places like New Orleans, simply based on the Fruit that was born. Malcolm may have been the fully actualized manifestation of that dream, as is Obama also, albeit by differing routes along the same design. Ayman al-Zawahiri had better get his facts straight, a recurring problem with him, lest he be met with Malcolm X's fist in his face. Yeah Malcolm X, "House Negro AND enforcer". Colin Powell in as Secy. of Defense would be the logical retort to this insult ... and he is from the 'hood'. I hope he takes the job.
"Malcolm X's daughter tells The Daily Beast why she rejects Zawahiri." And why was that, again? She said she ignores him. Where's the substance?
"...and how she became a "diehard" Obama fan." And how was that, again? She listened to his speech? And his build is similar to her father's?
I'm sorry, but how does this interview constitute a story? There is nothing here. As a "torchbearer of her parents' legacy," I hoped Ms Shabazz would offer more insight than she did in this interview.
rell220 - I wouldn't blame Ms. Shabazz for how the interview has been edited and presented. These kind of talks are always lensed in such a way as to suit the media format (ie, short form journalism).
But also, for me, her comparisons between the Obamas and the Shabazzes is obvious. In the Black community, where images of strong Black folk have been pathologically lacking in the mainstream media, the importance of a visible symbol of Black strength, beauty and grace is in itself a politically charged moment.
The story is really contained in the contrast between those who hold Malcom X to be a divisive and racist demogogue vs those who know his later and final views to be inclusive, global and (from a contemporary standpoint) essentially mainstream. It is an internal conversation within the Black community about what having a Black president represents in terms of our evolving status in the American mainstream.
Well said ghettosavant.
Thanks, gettosavant. Maybe you should have conducted and edited the interview. Those sentiments certainly didn't come through, and if your version of the story is the one Ms Shabazz wants to get across to a wider audience, she should be very disappointed in what ended up here.
I am also a fan of Malcolm X and President Elect Obama, and I am choosing to ignore the comments made by Ayman al-Zawahiri. However, I just wish there was more passion and intensity in the article.
I hope she's right about Malia and Sasha having a blast at school. I can just see them, along with the Biden grandchildren, taking Sidwell Friends by storm.
Finnegan and Sasha seems like a hoot!
OT, but as to the DC churches courting the Obamas, I would love to see the Barack and Michelle homechurch. As a child my father would take us out on the beach at sunrise or up to the treehouse for a Sunday picnic, and he would read a small selection from the Bible and tell us a story about it. I have fond memories of that.
Isn't it more important that Malcolm would have disassociated himself from al-Zawahiri. (All Quilla) has indiscriminately killed civilians of every race and religion. Malcolm's spiritual evolution is even more important than his "political". He would have rejected such use of violence.
honor is due -- ghettosavant has it dead solid perfect...
Thank you.
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