Students are told that they wont get credit for research on Malcolm X because he “supported change by any means necessary”

By John Vibes

QUEENS, NEW YORK (INTELLIHUB) — Dozens of parents are angry with a New York City school after a teacher banned Malcolm X from black history month lessons.  Malcolm X is often vilified in government sources because he was not in favor of using the political system to advance his goals for society.

Last week, a technology teacher told fourth-graders at P.S. 201 in Flushing to chose a prominent African-American figure to write about.

Initially, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Malcolm X were all considered acceptable options, but that changed after the teacher realized Malcolm X had a criminal history and supported change by any means necessary, CBS 2′s Elise Finch reported.

“My son came home one day and said, ‘We can write about a civil rights leader, but we can’t write about Malcolm X because he was bad,’” parent Frank Brown said.

“He couldn’t write about Malcolm X because he was deemed violent,” added another parent, Angel Minor.

“You need to educate yourself before you deny somebody the history because that’s the greatest form of oppression is to deny somebody the history,” Councilman Andy King, D-Bronx, said.

“It was a mistake to let kids leave school thinking that it was inappropriate to do a report on Malcolm X,” said Councilman Rory Lancman, D-Queens, said. “He’s an important figure, not only for the black community, but also in American history.”

Government schools love to promote the idea that societal change only comes through working the political system, so figures like Malcolm X don’t fit in with their narrative.

The problem with working through the political system was highlighted at the very march on Washington where Martin Luther King JR. made his most famous speech, “I have a dream”.  When the government learned that the oppressed people of the country were coming to Washington with revolution on their minds, they instantly switched up their approach and pretended to welcome the marching protesters with open arms.

After the march Malcolm X describes how the protest was hijacked and watered down by the establishment.  When speaking of President Kennedy he said:

“that old shrewd fox said “ill endorse it. Ill welcome it. Ill help it, ill join it! This is what they did with the march on Washington….They joined it, they became a part of it, took it over.  And as they took it over, it lost its militancy. It ceased to be angry, it ceased to be hot, it ceased to be uncompromising. Why, it even ceased to be a march. It became a picnic, a circus.  Nothing but a circus, with clowns and all… No, it was a sellout, it was a takeover. They controlled it so tight, they told those Negroes what time to hit town, where to stop, what signs to carry, what song to sing, what speech they could make, and what speech they couldn’t make, and they told them to get out of town by sundown.”

Malcolm X’s description was spot on, even Martin Luther King JR. was insulted by how the civil rights march was taken over by the establishment.  After the march on Washington was a letdown to the civil rights movement King began to call for a new wave of nonviolence that was “massive and militant”, and it wasn’t much after that when he was assassinated.  Towards the end of his life due to his outspokenness on poverty and the Vietnam War he became a hot target for the FBI in their COINTELPRO operation.  King and X both received many threats from the FBI and it is widely speculated that the establishment did have a hand in both of their assassinations.

Writer Bio:

(Photo: Intellihub.com)

John Vibes is an investigative journalist, staff writer and editor for Intellihub News where this article originally appeared. He is also the author of an 87 chapter e-book entitled “Alchemy of this Modern Renaissance” and is an artist with an established record label. You can find him on his Facebook.
For media inquires, interviews, questions or suggestions for this author, email: [email protected] or telephone: (347) 759-6075.
Read more articles by this author here.
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