Malcolm X

Black History Month ends today, so I watched Malcolm X on campus. Yes, I know the movie is from 1992. I haven't seen it in about 10 years I think. Denzel Washington really had a phenomenal performance.

When you watch the movies again after a long time, you forget the little parts, and one of those little parts I had forgotten in this movie was when young Malcolm is with a foster mother. The local school he goes to is nearly all-white. When the teacher asks Malcolm what he wants to do, he replies that he wants to be a lawyer. "I have the highest grades in class," pleads Malcolm. He's discouraged from doing this because being a lawyer is not a good profession for a "colored" he is told.

I believe the greatest loss of 20th century racial discrimination may be the brain power of those who were deprived the opportunity to be great. How many young boys and girls were told to "become carpenters" simply because they were Afro-Americans? How many of the same boys and girls could have gone on to become doctors, teachers, lawyers or engineers...successful professionals that can uplift an entire community.

By letting our schools fall into disrepair, not paying teachers what they deserve, and not equipping our schools with the latest and best in books and other technology, we're not giving our future leaders the tools they need to become successful. Racial discrimination of the 1900's aside, the current state of our education system is depriving us of great doctors, teachers, lawyers or engineers of the future, no matter if they're white, black, yellow, green or blue. Because now it's not a teacher telling them "you're not good enough," it's society telling them "you don't have enough money for college" or "we rather give ourselves tax breaks on dividends."

Another thing that Malcolm X made me think about was the number of leaders we never hear about. Malcolm X was controversial, so there were efforts on all sides to not really remember him for his leadership...let history just kind of forget about him. Since history is written by those who can approve or disapprove what goes in, I wonder how many other important but slightly controversial leaders are never read about. There are probably countless people in history who had a smaller stage, but were instrumental in bringing great change to people. But we never hear about them.