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England,ecausehectualng-

landwas quitedifferentmdeed,yet,

he says, we maypardon thosewho

domake hemistake, it s a desir-

able mistake to make.

In ma ny ways, Trdlings majo r

pointmaybesaid to b e that acul-

ltureo which we may ommlt our-

selves, which ha s n order and a

conceptlon of manners--m short,

rataonale-is a szne

qu

non and

that t s he task of education t

least to pu t the osslbility o f one

with in reach of &e studentsminds.

But he 1s equally engaged by the no -

tion of w hat he calls our adversary

cultureWhathe apparentlycannot

stand, .or understand,shat

i t

is

possilble (perhaps evennecessary) to

know therrationalomponents of

our culture without giving in to them,

he has gone too fa r

in

assuming that

the teachers rostrummight ead to

dlrecl ction, to the toning of em-

bassiesand heburn ing of libraries ,

unlessndeedhe dignities re re-

served an d he Austen idyll is at

leastwithin he each of themag-

ination.

I am, of course, also a eacher of

moderniterature, nd

I

happen to

believe that It cannd should be

taught . $But do not believe it should

be taught in such , a manner as Tril-

ling seems to think

J t

wopld be taught,

were

i t

b u t , aught well.[ .It i s quite

possible to teach Naked Lunch1 and

Corydon and Death. in Venice-that

is, to commanlcateithtudents

with espect ,t o them, beyodd the

merelynewrihcal. technicditles,

withoutbelngtainted by whatever

infec hons they may ontain

In

the

satme line of thinking; the full est sig-

nificance of our great classics 1s jus t

asexploswe, fmdeed not more

so,

andheullestommunicatlon of

their explosive nature 1s our privilege

and our duty, T? commumcatehe

greathumanan d social igmficance

ofsour lit era ture is a seyious, a neces-

sary, an d, a possible circumstance.

Neither our privilege nor ourobliga-

tio ns n this espect are imited by

a ma tte r of past or present.Trilllng

too ,often ppears to wa nt to save

himself n ot fro m he obligations but

from the ultimate commitment which

thehumanistlcengagement involves

His

position has become

all

too simi-

la r to th e ones takenby

persons

in

theacademewho eel tha tan emo-

tion, because i t f s strong, must there-

forebe rude, an,d cann ot therefore

be tolerated.

Delinquents

Progiess

THE A UT OB IOGR A P HY

OF MAL-

COLM

X. Withhe ssistance of

Alex Haley ntroduct ion by M. S

Handler. Grove Press. 455 pp.

$7 50. ~

Truman Nelson

Thisshe story of a man struck

down onis way to becommg

revolutionary nd a liberator of hls

people. It 1s th e, rea l American rag-

edy: a fallromreateights of

promise,notfrom nner weakness

or

self-betrayal, butecausessassins

stood up in plainsight, ike a firing

squad, and put thirteen shotgun slugs

in lo his chest and bullets in his legs

and hlghsashe aydying

Malcolm hadnownhe white

man s violence from Infancy Fwe of

his athers sixbrothers died by vio-

lence;onewas ynched,another kill-

cdby white police. His abher, very

strong, very black,un-carrying

Baptist mlnlsterand a Garveyite or-

Trumalr N e l s o n

i s

the author of The

Surveyor, a lzfe of John

rown

(Dou-

b l e d a y .

936

ganlzer,

was

killed by havingis

head bashed

in

and he then was laid

on a car rack to be cut

in

half The

whitensuranceompany called it

sulclde When Malcolm, hisathers

seventhhild,led in Harlemn

February 21, 1965, hewas accused

by thewhitepress of hav ing , ini-

tiatedviolence.

His mobher was nearly white, look-

ed white, but she could not keep a

Job

when any of her black children

showed up,

or

her, small-townm-

ployers f,oundout whose widow she

was Keeping food onheable nd

some dlgnrty around i t for a famdy of

eight was a n insoluble roblem in

the 1930s. It drove her nto nsanity

The family wasbroken up, and Mal-

colmeg5n

a

delinquentsrogress

throughhe ghettos of Boston and

NewEork, with conked redhair, a

sky-blue zoot suit ndorange knob-

toed shoes, ll

so

grotesque on his

6-foot-5 gangling fram e ,tha t hewould

stop traffic crossinghe street . He

became a hustler, a pimp, a narcotics

addict and peddler,apetty thief and

armed robber.

Thetupendousransforination

came whde he was serving a ten-year

sentence

for

armed robbery 111 Mas-

sachusettsHehad become the proto-

type

of

the hustler, by his own defini-

taon: The hustler out there

in,

the

ghetto Jungle has less respect for the

white power st ructu re than any other

Negro

m

America.He 1s internally

restrained by nothing.

To

survive he

is ut thereonstantlyreying

011

others, probing for any human weak-

ness ike a felrret .

.

. forever frus-

trated, restless andanxious or some

actzon. Whatever he ndertakes, he

commitsimself

to

i t fully,b-

solutely.

A

man who calls himself EhJah

Muhammad knew how to get through

to the Malcolms, theustlers, the

wretched of the earth. He is the lead-

er of a n m&ge,nous Muslim group

He has

a

touch of genius. He knows,

likeLutherbeforehim,

how

to ook

in the+mud for the fallen and redeem

them. Hewrote to every Negro he

knew of in prison,senteach a llttle

money and

a

lot of message. Hls

contactwith Malcolm brou ghthat

unregeneratehustler to

an

instanta-

neous onversion qual to those de-

scribed m the pages of Wilham

Jamessarieties o Relzgious Ex

perience. James would have nder-

stood MT. Muhammad better than his

critics: James alwaysargued that the

significance of a belief should not

be Judged by it s source, but Its fruits .

Regardless

of

Ell~ah Muhammads

historical nd theological eccentncl-

ties-all religions have heirabsurdi-

ties-he has transformedmany

of

theworst of men nto some of the

best

Malcolm began to write to Mr

Muhammad every day. He had t o

study so he would have something

to say to him He had to study be-

cause he had virtually forgotten how

to write In theprisonhbrary there

happened to be a rare,collectlon o

old anti-slavery tracts. Malcolm there

honed his new revolutionaryedgeon

thebrasivehetoric of thereat

abolltlonlsts, on Garrison nd Phil-

lipswbosevolcaniceruptions on the

shame nd gullt

of

the laveholdcr,

and a nation hat uffered them to

hve,have never been qualed.This

became his asic vocabulary of as-

sault.

When he was released he had m-

pacted in h im

two

explosive elements;

the blessed assurance of the con-

verted man;and

a

place in a com-

munitywhichwas believed to be

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destined

to r&xm a n Dpprcssed peo

ple In threemagnificenthapters

titled Saved, Savior and Minister

Malcolm X, themaking of anew

Malcolm is revealed. (Thereader

must putaslde any prejudice he may

have abou t a book as told to some-

one.

You

can hea r and feel Malcolm

in

this book, it is

a

superb job of

transcription. (The apes seem to ru n

conto thepaperwith heclackingef-

ficiency of a wire-service machine. )

Malcolm was satred because Mr

Mu-

hammad convmced himhat

no

Negro has to fearhemtellectnal

power

of

any ma n who ries to de-

fend

or

justifywhathasbeen done

to

the black m a n by the white man

in

,thiscountry: saved because he

was aught hathehad innedand

fallen

in

a world hehadnotmade,

andhadno power to shape

or

cor-

rect

in

any way whatsoever.

So Malcolm wentfrom he anony-

mousbruta lity of prison life ohis

brothers #Muslim household in De-

troit, withtseautiful disciplines

and dignities. where the fath er

is

,the

first to rlse in themorningnd

preparehe way fo r the family. to

live out theirday i n cleanliness,

or-

der and love, andwithassionate

loyalty toward one another. He began

to funct ion n he Detroitghetto as

amissionary. His message was sim-

ple

but overpowering:The Honor-

able ElqahMuhammadeaches us

that sinceWesternociety is de-

teriorating,

it

has become overrun

wlth mmorality and God is going to

judget,nd destroy it. And the

only way the black people, caught up

in this society, canbe saved is not

to integrate nto acorruption, bu t to

separate rom t, to a land of their

.own where we canreform ourselves,

lift u

our

moral tandardsand

t r y

to

be godly.

IMr. Muhammad was reviving

rev-

olutionary separatism,

which he be-

lieves to be the only way a persecuted

minorityaniberate themselves.

Along wlth t, Mr. Muhamm adhad

to w r i t e his new estament.

A

people

who have ad theiristoryt,olen

from hem

usually

embrace an apoc-

ryphal one until they aretrong

enough to wrest he ruth rom ts

suppressors. And to achieve thx

strength they have to be made -to -be-

lieve, somehow, that they are the

chosen people of God The

more

one

questions Mr. Muliamrnads history,

the more o ne , is forced to admit,Mal-

colms ge~iius in defending it and

building on

i t

amovement of such

regeneratink

dynamism.

November 8 965

Fishing Por- men

in hc

ghettos

o l

Detroit, Boston, New York, Phlla-

delphla and elsewhere, ~Malcolm

changeda ittle tore-frontcult nto

a powerful rehglon wiBh more han

a hund red places ,of worship pread

over the fifty states.

,Mr.

,Muhammad

was he Messenger; he gave him

the

WORD; lbut Malcolm was pre-eminemt-

ly the Missionary.

\He

knew the streets

as a hustler does, how to work the

shifting, indeterinmate fringes of pub-

lic Black Nationalist

or

civil rlglits

gatherings.eaughthe people

coming ut,with nanswered ques-

tions,

demands, earnings

from

the

Chrisflan.hurches The. Muslims

grew from

400

to 40,000.

Their suddenly visible strength

attracted thewhite mass media, look-

i n g fornew ensabons to merchan-

dise. nabon-wide TV program call-

ed The

Hate

That Hate Produced

startedareaction that hegan

to

por-

trayhe Muslims as a potential

source of violence, the shock troops

of black racism. Malcolm, rushing

to

theirdefense,becamedisastrouslydi-

verted

fkom

the necessary organizing

(of hi s own people. He became a vic-

tim of thegreatAmerican Emage

psychosis iHe began to hustle again,

but

this .time among hewhites.He

thoughthewas explainingand

de-

fend ing th e Honorable EliJah Muham-

mad,buthewai only playing the

oppressors game, Qn battlefie lds hey

werehoosing:With his conscious-

nesshat theiristory,heiru-

manibes;heironstitutions

and

ahurches were

all

part

of

n ideology

of lies, easily exposed when examined

in prachce , he wonPyrrhicvictories

befme miczophones, TV cameras and

forums, buthishad veryittle to

do with uildingiberationorce

amonghis

own

people. Theexpand-

ing nation of Islam he only genuine

movementof; by and or he black

people since the deportation of Marcus

Garvey, came to a halt.The Musllm

ministers, hcluding Mr. Muhammad,

were too busyexplaining hemselves

to people who di ds t give a damn

about them, but only wante d to assess

how deeply they should be feared

Doubts egan to creep in to Mal-

colms own mind.

He

heard that Mr.

1Muhammad

was

beginning to disap-

prove of his many public appearances

before whites. He thought i t was

jealousy. Theoutsidepressureupon

the Muslim movement, the mixed

adulationandhorror,began to disin-

tegrate it For hisstatement

on Ken-

nedys assagsination, Malcolm was

silenced, then r expelled. Again lhe7-e

were the white reporters at his elbow,

urging hlm, daring him to talk, ex-

plain, ustify

Malcolm

never ost his

real power of presence an d person-

allty, but expelled f rom the Muslims,

he

lost

his base. Mr. Muhammad

taunted lurn brilliantly: Who 1s

Malcolm leading?Who is

he

teach-

ing? He has no truth.

I am

not go

ing to l et the rackpotsdestroy the

goad things Allah sent to you and

me.

Malcolm became convinced that the

Muslimswere going to kill him He_

felthehad to ra se acounter orce

strongenough t o protecthimself.He

tried to recruit

in Harlem mong

thispotentml of a million followers.

Butagamhewasdrawn

off

into a

tragic diversion: a pilgrimage to Mec-

ca

to prove thate,

n o t

EhJah

Muhammad,washeealMuslim.

This

had

no relevance to

the

streets

of

Harlem.There,heyhought he

wasunn ing away. Malcolm was

notaware of thedisintegration that

had taken place in him after 1us god

had cast him out He ,was

so

dynamic

that ragments of him- seemed mpre

powerful than thewhole. In fact, he

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337

7/21/2019 May 19, 1925

3/4

was hke some exploding piece

of

fire-

works, with ts ieryparticlesdying

in the sky.

Hewasalkingntegration now,

under he banner of the True Islam

Whites again took uphis imewith

interminablediscussions of religious

and ethzcal abstractions And always

he felt stalked by killers hired by h i s

chosen atheronearthandhis own

beloved brothers and sisters.

The complexities of hisituation

were unbearable. He would hav e had

to leave Muham mad anyway, h e had

outgrownhim. He ha d international-

ized himself. Always he traveled, back

and for th acro ss the continent, abroad

for

eighteen weeks again , nd hen

back

to

Harlerh for some pathetic

efforts at organizing by a handful of

his faithful. And

to

write this marvel-

ous

book that is

not

a

book

but

a

man, a hagic, agonizing,alpable

1n

an .

He

ended it

in

ahapteralled

1965. It is unresolved. He is ad-

mll hng he needs much more tim e to

reflect,

to

clariy . .

f

he could only

study, rest

a

while fromhisn-

termninable expla ining , this mania for

Justification.

Heknewhehadnot

gathered a n adequate protective force.

Almost hhe la st senfence of the book

is: . .

.

societies often: have killed ;the

people who have helped change them.

But

the great revelation comes

in the Epilogue by hls perceptive and

enormouslyskillfulamanuensis, Alex

Haley. Maloom was nvited to speak

in France by a group of African stu-

dents. He ha d been alking, in at e

64, of ,thegreat power

of

the black

and yellow races when seen interna-

~tronally.

I

heardhim in Harlem, on

a platform with Babu, heZanzibar

revolutionary, say the problem i s pow

simply %he oppressedagainst the

op-

pressor. He had begun to renew him-

self, and his regenerated purpose be-

gan to take

form,

a pohticd orm.

Hewas alking now likeamember

of a revolufionary majority. When he

auivedn rance,he government

bannedhim as anundesirableper-

son. Hewaswrathfuland puzzled

,when he cam e back

to

New York

On Saturday, February 20, he made

a most significaxt phone call to Alex

Haley. Im gmng to tell you some-

thing, brother. The more 1 think about

what s happe ning lately, Im not at

all ure its the Muslims. , I know

what they can do andwhat they

,cant

do,

and they can? do some of

the stuff thats happening to me late-

ly. Themore think o whathap-

338

b

pened to me illFranc& I think Im

gomg to quit saying its the Muslims.

. . . Jm glad th at Ive been the fir st

to estab hsh official ties between Afro-

Americans and bur blood brothers in

Afrlca. The n he hun g up.

Twenty-four hoursater,nhe

dressing oom of theAudubon, Ball-

room, he said he was ,going to ,an-

nounce hathe had been too hasty

in

accusing

Ithe

MGslims because,

things are hapyening, that are bigger

than they can

do .

.

n

fact, Im

going to ease ome of this ension

by telling

the 9bIack man

not

to fight

himself

.

that its all part of the

white mans.

M g

maneuver, to keep

I

us Tighling against ourselves. But

before he could get this noble resolve

on

the record, th e executioners ose

111 the first row and the sentence was

carried out.

Viewed in its complete historical

context, is indeed a great book.

Its dead-level honesty, its passmn, Its

exaltedurpose,ventsmanlfold

unsolved amblguitie?

will

make

i t

stand s

a

monument

t o

themost

painf ul of truths. hat hiscountry,

thls people, thisWestern world ha s

practicedunspeakablecrueltyagainst

a race, an individual, who mlgh have

made Fts fraudulentumanism a

reallty.

Berkeley: Free Speech and

Free

onaldWesling

The crackle o em A. system carry-

ing or blocks

as

a

fewhundred

people stand outsideSproul Hal l t

noonbeingaddressed by wtty Free

Speech Movement leaders on the stat e

of

Californias revenge at he tres-

passing trial; a couple in he library,

thei r feet blackened by barefoot walk-

ing,she takks a rubber tamp

from

the reserve desk, sits on the floor an d

stamps

HOLD

on hernklesnd

calves; in a lecture Allen Ginsberg

describing how he was deported fro m

Hava na or advocatingpot and ped-

erasty, ater elected Kmg of the May

by the stu den ts of Prague,before he

was expelled by tNe ir government;

Charles Olson stripping off his jacket

whileecturing,

&&-smoking,

con-

,fessi ng he has been visited .by spirits.

A t , Berkeley, such observations ex-

plode the accepted notions of ca mpus

hfe; theyontradict Hearsts domi-

nating clock tower with its evening

carillon, thertificial brook and

wooden bridges, f ra t boys a nd coeds

on therimmedawns,he aulted

reading room

of a

s e a t ibrary, the

radiation abon heheights clicking

and shiningallnight.Perhaps rom

such Observations and the political

realities hey mply there

will

emerge

a new

form of

college myt h, an un-

critical romanticizing of the New Left

whlch his brief report does no t en-

tirely avoid.

For now, t this volatile university,

the ssuds of freedomand

authority

are clearer because of the harde ning,

the exaggeration;

of

both sides

n

the

free-speech debate. On a first visit

D o d d

Weding teaches Eng l i sh at

t he Univers i t y of Cali fornia, La JoZla.

I

of

only a few days,

I

saw at Berkeley

more

of

the university ascrihcand

corrector of outside society th an

I

had seen over aperiod of years at

privateuniversities in bhe East.And

having gone to hear the second week

of readings and lectures in the Berke:

ley Poetry Conference,

I

wasunex-

pectedly and deeply impressed by the

seeminglyrogrammaticongruence

of free speechwith fre e verse as

written by suchmenas Olson, Gms-

berg, Robert Duncan,EdwardDorn

and Robert Creeley. Most of thes e

poets rehalf eluctantly becoming

politicalhetoricians and prophets,

developing an epic ense of thedc-

basement of American anguageand

landscape.ertainlyhe Berkeley

studentudience received the ms

genuine xperimenters, ven eroes,

because in lives and oemswhere

every successive mo me m is conceived

as polemicalheywere making u-

thentic-and bhus,

in

the bestsense,

unconventional-choices.

Ending his introduction o Ginsbergs

massive reading, Professor ofEnglish

Thomas Parkinson said th at it didnl

bother hi m a bit, he was glad to ~ Q

Allen as a riend.The defensiveness

of that, he forced olloquialism of

the whole. introduction,werelear

symptoms of thedifficultposltion of

llberal acultymembersat ;Berkeley.

Free peech for students, poets, and

themselves

s

teqchers isnr;ideal

most Berkeley professorswould e-

fend. Nevertheless- the faqulty- wants

settled conditions Tor dhe proces;es of

teaching an d research, and ofteil

enough,wrongly or

no?

it identifies

the privilege to do thest+t?&gs; with

the alleged right

of

the dniversiiy to

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