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Liberation Ethics of Malcolm X

By Dr. Maulana Karenga


Malcolm's ethical project is essentially a project of liberation, a struggle wh
ich is both a process and promise of human freedom and fulfillment in history. A
s he related to Essien-Udom in his early days, in the Nation of Islam, "heaven a
nd hell are conditions reflecting one's moral and material conditions here on ea
rth". Islam for Malcolm, then, is preeminently a religion of social and historic
al practice directed toward human freedom and fulfillment on earth and in histor
y. "No one's mind should be in the sky," Malcolm states. "In Islam everyone work
s. Heaven demands hard work." Moreover, he continues, in Islam, "there is no roo
m for laziness and no room for ignorance." In the context of this earth-based an
d human-focused religion, Malcolm's ethical project has three basic dimensions t
o it, then: an intellectual, spiritual and practical one. The first dimension is
one of coming-into-consciousness which is a struggle against both ignorance and
illusion and an acquisition of self-knowledge which includes knowledge of God,
self and the oppressor. Secondly, there is the spiritual dimension of cleansing
oneself of vices which erodes and undermines one's claim to worthiness for membe
rship in the community of righteousness. And finally, Malcolm's ethical project
involves a demand and duty of liberational practice, a personal and social strug
gle to truly transform oneself and society. Again, these three thrusts are summe
d up in his call to the people to "wake up, clean up and stand up."
A. Coming-Into-Consciousness
The first step in Malcolm's ethical project is coming-into-consciousness, or as
he expresses it, waking up to knowledge of self, God and the devil or oppressor.
This waking up, Malcolm argues, precedes and makes possible the other two funda
mental emancipatory steps in his ethical project which are to clean up and then,
stand up. As Malcolm states, "When a man understands who he is, who God is, who
the devil is ... then he can pick himself up out of the gutter, he can clean hi
mself up and stand up like a man should before his God."
The centrality and priority of knowing truth, of coming-into-consciousness is de
eply rooted in the three major sources of Malcolm's philosophical grounding. It
is first of all deeply embedded in the nationalist tradition which has historica
lly held that the beginning of all knowledge is self-knowledge and that as Garve
y contended, a knowledge of one's enemy is a fundamental even an indispensable p
art of an emancipatory and effective education. Moreover, Muhammad, Malcolm's fo
rmer mentor, taught that lack of knowledge of self, leads to all sorts of evil,
including self-hatred, self-degradation and collaboration in one's own oppressio
n. "We are the mighty, the wise, the best, but do not know it," Muhammad states.
"Being without knowledge we disgrace ourselves, subjecting ourselves to sufferi
ng and shame." But when Blacks "are fully in knowledge of self," he teaches, "th
ey will do righteousness and live in peace among themselves." Furthermore, self-
knowledge also cultivates the desire and practice of unity and encourages one to
"take on the virtue of learning."
In addition to Marcus Garvey and the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, orthodox Islam teache
s the centrality of knowledge. In fact, Muhammad, in stressing the centrality of
knowledge to ethical and religious practice, reminds his readers that the Quran
emphasizes the need and value of learning and knowledge, stating that "whoever
is granted wisdom, he indeed is given a great good"(2:269). Moreover, Hadith (tr
adition) relates that the Prophet Muhammad taught the manifold benefits of knowl
edge. One should "acquire knowledge," he taught. For "it enables the possessor t
o distinguish right from wrong; it lights the way to heaven; it guides us to hap
piness; it sustains us in misery; (and) it is a weapon against enemies and an or
nament among friends."
B. Spiritual and Moral Recovery
Malcolm's ethical imperative of cleaning up is essentially one of making oneself
a worthy member in the community of righteousness, able to stand upright withou
t vice and shame before one's God. As he states, "the teaching of Islam seeks "t
o clean up our morals and (thus) qualify us to enter into this new righteous nat
ion of God." Again, his stress on spiritual and moral cleanliness not only repre
sents basic teachings of Islam, but also reflects a personal portrait of his pas
sage from what he defined as the depths of depravity to the heights of spiritual
awareness, discipline and commitment. Before hearing Islam, he recounts "I had
nothing, knew nothing and was nothing. I was addicted to and enslaved by the evi
ls and vices of this white civilization - dope, alcohol, adultery and even murde
r." Locked in at the bottom level of life, Malcolm saw himself as "buried up to
his neck in the mud of this filthy world with very little hope, desire, or inten
tion of amounting to anything." In fact, he was really at death's door "walking
on my own coffin."
But as he recounts in his autobiography, Islam raised him up, made him a man amo
ng men, a knower among the knowledgeable, a devoted teacher and dedicated studen
t, one respected and listened to, a fearless follower and a selfsacrificing sold
ier committed to liberation and a higher level of human life.
It is, Malcolm taught, evil and immoral thought and behavior that deform and des
troy the human person, limits or denies his spiritual and social development and
makes her unable to realize her full potential in both the divine and human sen
se. His concern with addictions: chemical, psychological or behavioral which des
troy the human person and undermine the necessary struggle for liberation is per
vasive and durable. Thus, he challenges the African to raise beyond her history
of oppression, his current conditions of domination and submission, to seek trut
h, to do right and struggle for freedom, justice and human equality. And he teac
hes that in spite of conditions, "the Black man in the ghetto ... has to start s
elf-correcting his own material, moral and spiritual defects and evils."
C. Personal and Social Struggle for Freedom
The moral challenge to stand up in Malcolm's liberation ethics can be critically
discussed in three basic ways: 1) bearing witness to truth; 2) living the truth
of a recovered and reconstructed self, and 3) struggling to achieve a context o
f human development which at a minimum is a context of freedom, justice and equa
lity in the full human sense of each of these categories. Malcolm's teaching on
standing up, like his other teachings, is both rooted in and reflective of his o
wn personal recovery and reconstruction. His experience teaches him that standin
g up is essentially offering one's life and death as a "testimony of some social
value", in a word, being willing to live and die as a mirror and martyr for lib
eration and a higher level of human life. He suggests at the end of his autobiog
raphy that in spite of the obvious threat to his life for teaching and standing
up for truth and justice, he is compelled to continue. Thus, he states, "if I ca
n die, having brought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that will h
elp...," end racism and bring freedom and justice, then, "all praise is due to A
llah, only the mistakes are mine." This morality of self-sacrifice in the cause
of a better society and world, deference and praise to God as the inspirer and s
ustainer in all good efforts and a humbleness about what one can do and has achi
eved, are at the core of Malcolm's ethical concept of standing up.
Image of Dr. Karenga To stand upright is first to wake up and to develop one's o
wn internal strength, thru self-knowledge. It is to learn to "see and hear" with
one's own eyes and ears, to speak with one's own mouth and think with one's own
mind. In a discussion with young civil rights workers from Mississippi, Malcolm
tells them that "one of the first things I think young people, especially nowad
ays, should learn how to do is see for yourself and listen for yourself and thin
k for yourself." He poses it as a special "burden" and challenge of history. But
the social and personal for Malcolm are interlocked and it thus becomes at the
same time a burden and challenge of personal development. This thinking for ones
elf cultivates a self-respect and courage indispensable to fulfilling one's miss
ion as a mirror and willing martyr for human liberation. To stand upright here,
then, is to stand in confidence and courage born of knowledge, knowledge of ones
elf in relationship to God and community and the possibilities inherent in these
. And secondly, to stand upright is to stand in spiritual cleanliness, free from
vices and rooted in virtues which elevate and strengthen. In a word, it is to h
old to high moral standards in spite of being in a corrupt and corruptive world.
And finally, it is to stand up in courage and cleanliness in practical struggle
.
This is an excerpt from Seba Maulana Karenga's forthcoming book, The Social Ethi
cal Thought of Malcolm X.

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