Misconceptions

By: Kyle Jackson

AHTC Summer Institute 2010

 

 

As people grow older, they are able to learn more about the world around them, and hopefully gain some insight or wisdom pertaining to that world.  As a child, you grow up with certain beliefs about adults and other parts of society.  As a child I believed, as most children do, that all adults are inherently good, tell the truth, and are generally well informed about society.  Likewise, I always believed that what you see on the news and hear in the media is always the verbatim truth; after all what could media outlets possibly have to gain from manipulating stories or even directly lying to the public?  As I get older, and gain more knowledge and wisdom regarding the world we live in and the history of how this world came to be,  I realize more and more how unfortunately far from the truth those beliefs are.  This is a lesson that I strive to teach my students.  I constantly stress the idea of consulting multiple media outlets and news sources, especially when conducting historical research.  I spend a considerable amount of time teaching students about historical perspective and how to detect bias and political spin.  I will often try to find articles about the same subject from sources that have different political ideologies in an effort to show students how political spin, and misinformation for that matter, are used to shape a story to fit the beliefs or ideals of certain groups or interests.  Political spin and misinformation have resulted in the development of many stereotypes and misconceptions throughout the history of the world.  Two speakers during the week really brought this issue to light for me.  As a history teacher, I consider myself to be generally knowledgeable on a wide variety of historical subjects.  Ilyasah Shabazz and Bobby Seale showed me how I too, had fallen victim to media bias and misinformation, and reminded me of the same lesson I try so hard to convey to my students. 

Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party were two different but equally influential entities within the American Civil Rights movement.  Despite their influence, both are often seen as the darker, more provocative, and more sinister side of the civil rights movement.  These names for many Americans, including myself until this week, are equated with violence, guerilla tactics, racism, and extremism. Unfortunately this is the only way that Malcolm X or the Black Panthers ever seem to be portrayed in the media, thus resulting in the very misconceptions and stereotypes that I realized I held.  People like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Julian Bond are often revered as the heroes of the Civil Rights movement due to their nonviolent tactics.  Because of their portrayal in the media, Malcolm X and the Black Panthers are often condemned for accepting and even condoning violence in some cases.  The fact of the matter is it is in our nature as humans to do one of two things when confronted with opposition.  It is our nature to either fight back against the opposition, or take flight, and run away from it.  Either way, it is very difficult for most humans to simply stand in the face of violent oppression and do nothing in response.  Malcolm X and the Black Panthers both accepted this fact of human nature, and if and when they condoned violence, it was simply as a last defensive resort against violently oppressive, institutional racism.  Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, however, were far more than the violent extremists they are often depicted as, and both were as integral in the civil rights movement as Martin Luther King Jr., Julian Bond, or any other “heroes” of the civil rights movement.      

Bobby Seale and Ilyasah Shabazz both commented on how Malcolm X and the Black Panthers were portrayed by the media during and after the civil rights movement in their speeches.  They also both spoke about it in their interviews that were put in our binders.  In his interview with Kam Williams for News Blaze, Bobby Seale said

So, here is the Counter-Intelligence Program of the FBI (COINTELPRO) doing everything it can to distort and stereotype us.  They don’t tell you that I was an engineer on the Gemini missile program, and an architect, and a stand-up comedian.  All they said was that I was a hoodlum and a thug.  They never said that Huey Newton had finished two years of law school by the time that we created the Black Panthers.  They don’t say that I was actually employed by the City of Oakland when we created the Black Panther Party. 

 

Ilyasah Shabazz made a comment about the similar portrayal of her father in her interview from MSNBC.com.   

Well, I think my father would avoid the pitfall of monolithic generalities and simplistic assessments of complex movements or genres.  Remember, my father was a complex man and some people wanted to reduce him to, as you suggested earlier, a “fire-breathing public figure” who, as such, had no credibility…I’m certain he would encourage everyone to live lives of service to God, and commitment to family and community, and to learn historical facts. 

 

It was very interesting to hear a side of the story for both Malcolm X and the Black Panthers that is not often told.  In his speech, Bobby Seale also mentioned how the media never talks about how he and the Black Panthers gathered and organized 10,000 bags of groceries for poor African Americans living in Oakland, while simultaneously registering African American voters and giving free sickle cell anemia tests.  At the urging of the government, the positive accomplishments of the Black Panthers and Malcolm X were often not reported; only negative actions and in many cases bold faced lies were told about both parties. While it was extremely interesting and refreshing to hear these things, it was also somewhat disheartening to come to the conclusion that, for many years, had fallen victim to misinformation and political spin and had a completely false impression of the Black Panthers and Malcolm X.  Ilyasa Shabazz devoted a large portion of her speech to this very problem, and encouraging accurate historical education as a means to defeat stereotypes and political media spin.   

            In terms of using this information in class, it goes right along with my ongoing lesson of detecting media bias and understanding historical perspective.  I could do a lesson in which I have the students brainstorm what comes to mind when they hear the names Malcolm X and the Black Panthers.  I would follow that up with the two interviews from the AHTC binder and use those interviews in conjunction with media articles from the civil rights movement which portray Malcolm X and the Black Panthers negatively.  Finally, I would also use Ilyasah Shabazz’s book Growing up X, or Bobby Seale’s book Seize the Time to further illustrate the difference between what the media was reporting and what they were actually doing at the time for their respective communities and the civil rights movement in general. For an upper level class, I would probably have them read one or both of the entire books, for a lower level class, I would pick excerpts from both books.  In terms of my own understanding of the broader context and the role of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers in the civil rights movement, it was certainly an enlightening week.  Understanding historical perspective is imperative for studying history and developing an accurate concept of historical facts and ideas.  This week helped me continue to realize that research and constant individual learning are vital to teaching history if you want to do it accurately and use it, as Ilyasah Shabazz suggested, as a weapon to fight injustice and oppression.