Random Today I Learned
Malcolm X spent his youth in Lansing, Michigan, and he attended Mason High School for a short while. Both Lansing and Mason are less than two hours from me. My high school lost to Mason in the first round of the high school playoffs about seven years ago. Malcolm X's grandfather was white, making him a "griffe" or a "sambo," according to Wikipedia. "Sambo" is considered a racial slur, so you didn't see that Wikipedia reference from me.
And why am I blogging about Malcolm X? Because I have started reading his autobiography, spurred by that splendid new TV series, The Godfather of Harlem (rated R . . . borderline X, in my opinion . . . you've been warned). I've also long been interested in black intellectual movements. I've read Frederick Douglas, some WEB Dubois and Booker T. Washington, and much of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. Black theology's intellectual ties with Catholic liberation theology interests me, though I'm inclined to believe both are ridiculous, and the idea that radical black movements spurred by Christian beliefs are now being replaced by atheistic black movements disturbs me.
