“Dream" or "Nightmare" - 马丁路德金节，我们当记住他 ...... Malcom X
有感于太多中国人只知道Martin Luther King. Jr. 而没听到过Malcolm X。。。。。。
"Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it." -- Malcolm X
[评注] 先引两段famous quotes.
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed..."-Matin Luther King.Jr,Washington D.C.'63
"...I see America through the eye of the victim.I don't see any American Dream; I see an American Nightmare!"-Malcom X,Cleveland,OH '64
[评注] 下面第一段总结了黑人有今天的德与行，主要有两个渊源: Martin Luther King的和平路线 (Integrationism)和Malcolm X的暴力路线 (Nationalism). Malcolm X就60年代黑人Civil Rights运动的影响力和对社会的推动力不小于King. 之所以今天King会更出名是因为他获得了诺贝尔和平奖, 而诺贝尔不颁发非和平奖. 建议大家看一下 "Eyes on the Prize". 接下来考虑介绍一下Martin Luther King, Jr. (An Integrationist's Dream) 和 Malcolm X (A Nationalist's Nightmare) 的关系。
[1] Integrationism and nationalism represent the two broad streams of black thought in response to the problem of slavery and segregation in America. Integrationist thinkers maybe defined as those who will give a positive answers to the question, "Can I be both -- American and African?" They believe it is possible to achieve in the United States and to create wholesome relations with the white community. The integrationist optimism which, I believe, has been based upon thee "American creed," the tradition of freedom and democracy as articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. On the other hand, nationalist thinkers have rejected the American side of their identity and affirmed the African side, saying "No, we can't be both." On the other hand, nationalist thinkers have rejected the American side of their identity and affirmed the African side, saying "No, we can't be both." The nationalists have contended that two hundred years of slavery, followed by "legal segregation", "social degradation", "political disfranchisement" and "economic exploitation" means blacks will never be recognized as human beings in white society. Of course, I don't think any black thinker has been a pure Integrationist or a pure nationalist, but rather all black intellectuals have represented aspects of each, with emphasis moving in one direction or the other, usually at different periods of their lives. What emphasis any black thinker made was usually determined by his or her perspective on America, that is, whether he or she believed that blacks would soon be included in the mainstream of American life on a par with whites. When blacks have been optimistic about America -- believing that they could achieve full equality through moral politeness and legal argument -- they have been integrationists and have minimized their nationalist tendencies. On the other hand, despair about America -- believing that genuine equality is impossible because whites have no moral conscience or an intention to apply the laws fairly -- has always been the seabed of the nationalism.
[评注] 第二段，讲了Martin 和 Malcolm事实上是挺好的朋友，并不对立。为什么没有联合起来形成“黑人新势力”? 下段写两股黑人势力的相似点；再下段写两股黑人势力的差异。
[2] The documentary "Eyes on the Prize" shows the meeting of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Although the media portrayed them as adversaries, Martin and Malcolm were actually fond of each other. The documentary "Eyes on the Prize" shows the meeting of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Although the media portrayed them as adversaries, Martin and Malcolm were actually fond of each other. The meeting of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X has profound, symbolic meaning for the black freedom movement. It was more than a meeting of two prominent leaders in the African American community. It was a meeting of two great resistance traditions in African-American history -- Integrationism and Nationalism. Together Martin, a Christian integrationist, and Malcolm, a Muslim nationalist, would have been a powerful force against racial justice. When they were separated, their enemies were successful in pitting them against each other and thereby diluting the effectiveness of the black freedom movement. They themselves actually seldom spoke out against each other. Why then did Martin and Malcolm not set an example of joining their forces together into a black united front against racism? It is probably due to the interrelationship of Integrationism and nationalism in African-American history.
[评注] 第三段总结Martin和Malcolm的类似点，黑人的Civil Rights运动为什么这么重要？IMHO, 因为它是美国仅有的两个文化之一。美国建国200年还来不及有足够的*文化*沉淀,除了仅有的俩:1.美国白人/基督教文化, 从最早宪法里基督立国开始. 但非本土而生,且就其本身比较平淡 2.美国黑人民权运动, 同时引发的女权运动等等. 相对比较激烈, 同时带动白人文化1使之更有看头, 也最终导致当今美国社会黑人嬉皮(Hippie)白人伪善(hypocrite)的局面。这段总结Martin和Malcolm的类似点。
[3] The most *similarity* between Martin and Malcolm was the goal for which they fought. They both sought the liberation of African-American from the bonds of segregation and discrimination to self-determination as a people, from a feeling of inferiority and "nobodyness" to an affirmation of themselves as human beings. To be sure, Martin and Malcolm's great differences and histrorical and social origins led them to choose different paths to the goal, yet the method of each *complemented* that of the other. According to Malcolm, the concepts of "integration" and separation" were merely different methods which blacks employed in their struggle for freedom. Whites often used these terms to divide blacks, labeling the ones they disapproved of, like Malcolm, as separatists or segregationists and the ones, like Martin, as Integrationist and moderates. The use of these words actually clouds the real picture.The 20 million Afro-Americans real goal is neither separation nor integration.They seek recognition and respect as human beings! "Respect as human beings" was the central theme of both Martin and Malcolm in the black freedom struggle. From Malcolm's autobiography we can see that initially Malcolm believed that "respect" was found primarily in religious and cultural identity -- affirming blackness (African) and rejecting whiteness (American). By contrast Martin, though he believed black people's cultural identification with Africa was important, contended that blacks could achieve "respect" only by acquiring social and political power in America, as Americans.
[评注] 第四段讲了Martin和Malcolm的区别。 Let me put it in this way --- as Martin *exposed the brutality* of white southern bigots to the world, Malcolm *revealed the hypocrisy* of the northern white liberals, identifying them as the worst enemies of black freedom: Martin披露了南方白人的野蛮与偏执，而Malcolm是揭示了北部所谓标榜自由的白人的伪善。
[4] The *differences* between Martin's and Malcolm's approaches were partly due to geography. Each developed a strategy for freedom that was appropriate for the region in which he worked. They complemented each other in that they spoke to different groups of people in their community. Martin addressed his message primarily to southern black Christians; Malcolm to northern blacks who were either indifferent to or alienated from Christianity. The nonviolent approach strongly oriented to Christianity was ideal for challenging legal segregation in the South. It enabled politically powerless blacks to resist virulent racism and thereby let the world know that they would no longer tolerate the daily violation of their humanity by the dominant white society. Their religious faith bestowed upon them the feeling that there were "children of God," and thus precious in God's sight as anybody else including whites. The belief that they were created by God for freedom instilled a rebellious spirit in black Christians, empowering them to fight nonviolently and risk death for their right to be treated as human beings. *While on the other hand*, Harlem blacks loved Malcolm for his courage to speak the truth --- bluntly and without compromise Malcolm's power was derived from the African heritage of blacks and not the faith of Christianity. He believed that the self-confidence to live as a free human beings could bee achieved only through a people's knowledge of its past. As Martin contributed to the development of the "New" Negro in the South, Malcolm helped to resurrect the "Dead" Negro in the North, creating a proud, angry black --- one ready to die in defense of black humanity. Northern blacks already possessed the political rights that their southern brothers and sisters were fighting to achieve. But they were not any better off. Malcolm even suggested that their plight was worse, because the tricky white liberals, who claimed to be the friends of the Negro, supporting the civil rights movement, were in fact the ones most responsible for the ghettos in the North. Malcolm said himself in his autobiography that he knows nothing about the South and he is a creation of the Northern white man of his hypocritical attitude toward the Negro!
[评注] 第五段讲了Malcolm和Martin的优点.
[5] Malcolm X is the best medicine against genocide. He showed us by example and prophetic preaching that one does not have to stay in the mud. We can wake up; we can stand up; and we can take that long walk toward freedom. Freedom is first and foremost an inner recognition of self-respect, a knowledge that one was not put on this earth to be a nobody. African-Americans can fight for their dignity and self-respect.To be proud to be black does not mean being against white people, unless whites are against respecting the humanity of white people. Malcolm was not against whites;he was for blacks and against their exploitation. Martin was also right. The cycle of violence in America must be broken around the world. Human beings are meant for life and death. Yes, human beings are meant for freedom and not slavery. They were created for each other and not against each other. The barriers that separate people from one another must be broken down.
[评注] 对付美国主流文化, 当时的黑人是煞费苦心的. Martin是拿了诺贝尔和平奖的. Malcolm更应该拿, 他是我尊敬的英雄, 只不过诺贝尔奖因政治因素是不适合颁给走暴力路线的. 黑人前辈们为了得到应有的*自尊*得来的经验是我们华人的要借鉴的.
[6] Martin *and* Malcolm knew their own limitations and knew also that the limitations of one were the strengths of the other. There is no reason to pit them against each other debating which of their methods was the most appropriate for the achievement of black dignity -- integration or separation, non violence or self-defense. Up to a point, both methods were effective in regions in which they were employed. As we can see, gradually both Malcolm and Martin moved away from the extremes of their original positions and began to embrace aspects of each other's viewpoints, without denying the validity of their own central claims. Malcolm's later dispute with the Nation of Islam is partly because he wanted to link its religious and cultural philosophy with the politics of the civil rights movement.
[评注] 第七段结尾总结：Malcolm and Martin needed each other, for they represented --- and continue to represent --- the "yin" (阴) and "yang"(阳) deep in the soul of black America!
[7] Martin and Malcolm represented two sides of W.E.B DuBois's concept of double identity--they represented, respectively,the American and African,the two waring ideas struggling to make sense out of the involuntary presence of African in North America. During the early part of their participation in the black freedom movement,their answers to Du Bois' question,"What am I?"were clear,emphatic & opposite:"American" was Martin's answer and "African" was Malcolm's. The battle between them, to a large extent, was fought in the white media, which portrayed them as adversaries. But they were NOT! On the contrary, they were like two soldiers fighting their enemies from different angles of vision, each pointing out the other's blind spots and correcting the other's errors. Both of them are needed and both of them are needed TOGETHER! Malcolm keeps Martin from being turned into a harmless American hero. Martin keeps Malcolm from being an ostracized black hero. Both leaders make important contributions to the IDENTITY of the African-Americans and also, JUST AS IMPORTANTLY, to white American and Americans in general. Malcolm and Martin needed each other, for they represented --- and continue to represent --- the "yin" (阴) and "yang"(阳) deep in the soul of black America!
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