Many reports will continue to refer to Malcolm Shabazz as “troubled.” That same chorus will insist on attaching the heavily-weighted moniker – grandson of Malcolm X – to any and all mentions of Malcolm Shabazz, his life, and now, his sad and tragic death.
But as these mentions and legacy monikers pile up, we should also pause to reflect upon the unbearable weight of revolutionary expectations confounded by the inescapable scrutiny of state surveillance, aided and abetted by an unforgiving media machine. Malcolm Shabazz lived this life.
He endured constant surveillance and was confronted with the meaning of legacy in the context of black revolutionary movements, those movements’ anti-climactic aftermaths and the singular impact of his grandfather’s life.
In 1997, at the age of 12, Malcolm Shabazz pleaded guilty to charges of arson, for a fire set in the home of Betty Shabazz, his grandmother, who dedicated her life to black revolutionary activism and the rearing of her six daughters: Attallah, Qubilah, Ilyasah, Gamilah, Malikah, and Malaak.
Malcolm was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile detention center but ended up serving four years for alleged behavioral issues and various successful escapes. After his release, Malcolm had intermittent “run-ins” with the law and was in and out of trouble for drug dealing and attempted robbery.
The following should read more as an explanation than as an excuse.
Malcolm came of age during the explosion of what is now commonly referred to as the ‘prison industrial complex.’ One awful byproduct of our ultra-aggressive criminal justice system is that many young men who are incarcerated early in life will return to prison for different and often worse crimes. (Forty percent of the entire prison population to be exact)
Malcolm’s gang affiliations, as well as his connections to the underground economy of the drug trade, were cultivated over the course of his time in and out of the criminal justice system.
His “trouble” did not begin in the fire that consumed his grandmother’s life. Two years before the fire, Malcolm’s mother, Qubilah, was charged with conspiring with her boyfriend to assassinate Minister Louis Farrakhan. As it turned out, Qubilah’s boyfriend was an FBI informant and ultimately the charges were dropped. But the damage was done; Malcolm went to New York to live with his grandmother and aunts.
He loved his family, but very much wanted to be with his mother. Malcolm has refuted some of the psychiatric diagnoses applied to him during the arson case, but it is very likely that his “troubles” were directly connected to his desire to live with his mother – a natural desire for a child – that was effectively taken away from him by the FBI and unresolved tensions surrounding the assassination of his grandfather.
In her poignant memoir, Growing Up X, Malcolm’s aunt, Ilyasah, recounts the fire that killed her mother:
“It was a very small fire at first, set in the hallway just outside of Malcolm’s room. Later, devastated and full of remorse, Malcolm told me he did not intend to hurt anyone, least of all Mommy Betty. He thought she would telephone for help and the fire would be easily extinguished and everyone would see how much he needed to be back in Texas with his mom.”
More recently, Malcolm’s confrontations with the law were becoming increasingly political and/or politicized. According to Shabazz’s website, his travels abroad, especially to the Middle East region (including Syria and Libya, with more recent plans to travel to Iran for a conference) had peaked the interest of the FBI’s Counter-Terrorism Task Force Unit in Goshen, New York, who worked with local law enforcement to harass and question Malcolm, as well as his friends and family.
In this post, dated March 10, 2013, Malcolm speaks. “Given the storm of lies and half-truths that come with being associated with being the descendant of El Hajj Malik el Shabazz, also known as Minister Malcolm X, any and everything that I do; great or small, good or not so good, real or imagined is subject to controversy.” If there is any controversy surrounding the recent death of Malcolm Shabazz, we should remember these words.
All we know at this moment is that Malcolm traveled to Mexico as a part of his efforts to work with Rumec, a labor rights organization – continuing the revolutionary work that was his legacy. Unfortunately he lost his life in this effort and we pray that he rests in peace and power and that his family will find some solace in the “controversy”-laden days ahead.
James Braxton Peterson is the Director of Africana Studies and Associate Professor of English at Lehigh University. He is also the founder of Hip Hop Scholars LLC, an association of hip-hop generation scholars dedicated to researching and developing the cultural and educational potential of hip-hop, urban and youth cultures. You can follow him on Twitter @DrJamesPeterson