Ilyasa Shabazz, one of six daughters of Malcolm X, spoke virtually to Dallas College students about her work, the importance of history and her fathers movement in support of Black History Month, Feb. 23.
Shabazz started the conversation with a prayer of hope and forgiveness.
“While these past few years have made us aware of collective wounds we must do more to teach every American child that Black history is American history, and that American history is also Hispanic, Native American and Asian history.” said Shabazz.
“There’s no American history unless each and every voice is heard on the pages of our textbooks,” Shabazz said, who teaches perspectives on justice at John Jay College in New York. “I think that this is really the beauty of our
America.”
Shabazz said we are haunted by the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor.
“We will not be crippled by despair nor blind sided by decisive tactics that de
prive us of liberty and justice. Malcom X and Dr. King portrayed as polar opposites,” Shabazz said.
“People often come up to her and say they were on the side of Malcom X or side of King,” Shabazz said.
Shabazz told those people that we do not have to choose, one over the other.
“Both men challenged this unjust and immoral world. Even though they had differences, my father’s view human rights,” Shabazz said.
When Shabazz was little she said she was made to believe we had to choose between Tupac or Biggy Smalls. “Malcom X and Dr. King made the ultimate sacrifice for advancement for humanity,” Shabazz said.
“It is your turn to stand on their shoulders and take the baton further. Might be easier said than done,” Shabazz said.
After Malcolm X and Dr. King were assassinated Shabazzes mother and Mrs. King became best friends.
Shabazz was inspired by the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, known as the King Center. “We can either fight each other or fight for each other,” she said.
“When we fight for each other, our possibilities are limitless.”
In these challenging times Shabazz said we must become agents of hope creating a society that works for everyone and said to challenge systems that maintain disproportionate incarceration rates of young, black men.”
“What my father, Dr. King, Fredrick Douglas, Harriet Tubman and countless other activists knew is this: Even if you were not the officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck,” Shabazz said.
“Even if you were not a violent insurrectionist charging the capitol you may have been one of the officers who stood by as Mr. Floyd cried out to his mother with his last breath and turned a blind eye.”
Shabazz said we have allowed injustice to continue. She says it is the key to become woke to injustice.
“My mother, Dr. Betty Shabazz, taught me education is the most powerful tool to combat systemic racism,” Shabazz said. “I follow in her footsteps as an educator.
She then started writing memoirs about her family. One of her most notably is memoir called “Growing Up X.”
Shabazz told one student, “My advice for writers is to keep writing. I started writing when I was a child. I never knew I would publish books. I loved creating, writing. I think words are healing and powerful. I would encourage anyone to keep writing. What my books for me, they enabled me to heal from many things.
“The Awakening of Malcolm X” is a powerful narrative account of the activist’s adolescent years in jail, written by his daughter Ilyasah Shabazz along with 2019 Coretta Scott King John Steptoe award-winning author, Tiffany D. Jackson.
Her book can be found on Amazon.com or in any local bookstore.
