Outside of the Narrative by Maya

Outside of the Narrative by Maya - September 2021 Scholarship Essay

A time where a belief of understanding I had was challenged in the classroom has been through the culmination of assignments both required and sought out by myself on Malcolm X. In hindsight, through my early schooling curriculum the abstract understanding that was created of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X was MLK’s philosophy was positioned as “peaceful” to be synonymous with “good” while Malcolm’s is flattened to “violence” to be synonymous with “bad”. In both cases them nor their dreams are portrayed as full and multifaceted. Malcolm seemed used to juxtapose MLK and uphold his philosophies as “correct”. Through time and intention I’ve learned and unlearned more about these men in my last two years of high school than my entire high school career.
In my junior year we read The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told by Alex Haley and did various accompanying assignments including creating a soundtrack based on a certain section of the book. Through this reading I was able to create a more foundational understanding of Malcolm more as a person having learned about his childhood. As well I was more exposed to his ideas and actions in a more full picture rather than reduced to “violence” and found there were many that I agreed with. After that I became more interested in independently researching Malcolm and integrating him into future choice projects when given the chance such as an english assignment in which I defended the autobiographies' value and relevance to the school curriculum. I found I excelled in assignments like these because I had a wider, critical understanding of him and his work than before.
Concurrent to this unlearning of the narrative that has clouded Malcolm for much of my education, I learned more about one of his contemporaries of the Civil Rights Movement, MLK. I learned that much of his life and philosophies were taught with a revisionist depiction and static depiction. His life work in early school was taught at starting and stopping with nonviolence and integrationist politics in order to effectively contrast with Malcolms politic rooted in Black liberation by any means. While much of the curriculum has a heavy emphasis on MLK’s early ideas, there is less acknowledgement about his shift toward radicalization toward the end of his life. His ideas went beyond integration and included the importance of economic equality by rejecting racial capitalism but his full dreams I now understand were diluted to make white people feel better about their complicity in contributing to antiblackness. He has text on exposing the danger of the white moderate, text showing loss of optimism in democratic political institutions in relation to racial equality, yet it is not always apart of the curriculum
Through this learning journey I have learned so much, one lesson being that the curriculum in school at any level is not the end all be all. There is so much to learn and unlearn beyond a curriculum that ultimately is not impervious to bias and agenda. I learned that to get the most out of school one must be an active rather than passive learner. There was little to no nuance when discussing characters of the Civil Rights Movement and it was because of the initial limited educational materials that framed my narrow and outdated view of these historical figures in stages like middle school. When I was given more resources and educational freedom in high school I found I had a better understanding of both figures and where I personally aligned with their politics. After this journey, I feel so much more prepared to take full advantage of the intellectual experience college has to offer.