M&M: The Conversation That Wasn't

The fraternal love between Black Men in the United States is something that is not acknowledged because it must not be acknowledged. It will not be acknowledged, unless I stay in my place. So I shall.

Staying In My Place Disclaimer and Disclosure

What you are about to experience is vicarious in nature; fictitious, even. It depicts a conversation that did not take place. The United States, the “US” government, made damned sure it did not take place but it was going to take place. It is taking place in a myriad of places and spaces. You are about to read an imagined conversation between Malcolm X and Dr. Martin King.

The one thing that the European fears more than anything is Black Men in the United States showing love and respect to one another because that results in unity. The words “united,” “union,” and “unity” are virtually the sole purview of the European. From the United Kingdom to the United States, and from airlines to the United Nations, the white boy makes sure that he employs the term, or one of its derivations, whenever possible. And that is no united accident.

The Narrator:

Dr. King had become disillusioned with the “US” and, as exhibited in his speech “Beyond Vietnam” had begun to realize that perhaps “non-violence” was not as effective as he may have formerly thought. While Malcolm X never “advocated violence,” as the European in yet another of his false monopolistic narratives often suggests, he did advocate common sense. He advocated self-defense, that’s common sense.

Father X had become disillusioned with the Nation of Islam subsequent to completing The Hajj; the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Hajj profoundly changed Malcolm. Seeing Muslims of all hues, nationalities and ethnicities inspired a worldview less strident than it had been prior to this spiritual awakening. But, he politically remained intact and only the most curious of minds will comprehend the distinction and the difference dare they think in tactical terms.

Dr. King and Malcolm X officially met once. Apparently there was one other clandestine meeting that took place in an undisclosed location just before Father X’s assassination. They had agreed to meet again soon, but it was not to be. What is imagined here is that proposed meeting were it to occur today.

Time, Space and Place: The Scene

This meeting takes place on a very cold and rainy night at a well known Black-owned restaurant (Broussard’s) that catered to a cadre of black businessman, artists, writers and intellectuals. The men had not seen each other for quite a long time. Both vehicles and the security teams that accompanied them arrived at the canopied portico the exact same time. The meeting takes place long after closing in the wee hours of the night as the owner was a Black Man in the United States of significance familiar with both Malcolm and Dr. King. It was a prearranged private meeting.

As their respective drivers open the doors the two men, at the exact same time, raise their trench coat collars, brave the pounding rain of the tempest and embrace. They hug each other for what seems an inordinate amount of time. Eventually they begin to walk into the restaurant.

With numerous security personnel lurking in the background (yet invisible) accompanied by incessant thunder, the dining room was dimly lit. As the two men were seated, there was a singular white light from above that highlighted the two men at the table. Mr. Broussard, the restaurant’s owner, knew the dietary requirements of each man therefore they had no need to order. Their conversation begins now, and though there are moments when the conversation does get testy, it never becomes disrespectful nor acrimonious. It was, and remains, quite the opposite.

It is respectfully harmonious.

Dr. King: Malcolm you look great brother. In fact you seem to get more youthful each time I see you (both men laugh). How are Betty and the children?

Malcolm X: I am still trying to recover from that youthful thing (laughingly with a broad smile on his face). I am happy to tell you reverend that all is well at home and, just like yours, the children are growing way too fast. Pursuantly, how is Coretta and your children?

Dr. King: As much of my foundation as ever. By the way, Coretta has a message for me to give you before we go our ways.

Malcom X: Uh, oh.

Dr. King: Well, you know how she is about dining with those she loves and she never fails to remind me that we have invited you for dinner on more than a few occasions, brother. I know you don’t want to put me in peril with my wife…or do you? (both men laugh heartily). Anyways, she told me to make sure it is the last thing I say to you. Now, let us discuss a few things that we must.

Malcolm X: The floor is yours reverend and my focus is upon thee. Where do we begin?

Dr. King: As I look at the United States, one half-century after the Voting Rights Act, The Civil Rights Bill, and our assassinations, I am saddened at the regressiveness that prevails not only in all three branches of the government, but in the society as a whole. It seems our people, despite the former brown faced president meant to symbolize “progress,” are in worse straits as they ever have been when the societal metrics are considered. Donald Trump has been a codification of the worst things about America.

Malcolm X: With respect reverend, you are saddened while I am expectant. You and I both know the murderous and duplicitous nature of the European. Whomever finds that upsetting must not get angry with me, but angry at their own history and the accompanying facts: past and present. Not even you might argue with that. As for the “US” government it has been our enemy since it came into being. It has never been our friend because for it to do that it would no longer be the “US” government. Those “brilliant founding fathers” of the white man that created this beacon of government that has killed millions around the world for rejecting it, weren’t smart enough to realize that their “checks and balances” might result in a bounced check. Or as you put it pertinent to its betrayal of our people “given the Black man a check marked insufficient funds.” Now, as long as we were getting that bad check there was no problem, but now the white man is getting his own bad check. Donald Trump is a true reflection of what this is! He was not placed into the presidency as a result of some military coup; he was elected and he was elected by white folks. Then, what is the first thing they do after he wins for a second (if not third time) they blame Black Men in the United States for his election.

Dr. King: One thing I knew is that you would provide me with an honest, and just, response. I cannot disagree with anything you state as it is factual in nature and facts are stubborn things. However, Malcolm, does not the white man have a heart? Does his heart, were one to tear it from his chest, look different than the heart torn from the chest of a Black Man? All men are capable of evil from what I can see and I know many good, kind and caring white people…as I know you do. Just as I know of some rather contemptable brothers and sisters…as I know you do.

Malcom X: You rightfully state that all men are capable of evil, but not all men are created equal despite proselytization and then there are some men that have no equal. My point being that even evil is relative; the same acts by two different people are not necessarily the same and this is particularly the case in dealing with the European. Even evil is subject to apartheid in these United States. As far as the white man’s heart, I know he anatomically has one but it seems to engage with a great deal of selectivity and moral bankruptcy.

Dr. King: Explain to me what you mean by that. Knowing you as I do, there is certainly more behind your statement and I have to take the bait as much as I need to eat some of these crawfish Mr. Broussard just put on this table.

Malcom X: (laughs) I thought crawfish were bait, reverend doctor. But, uh, what I am saying is that you and I both know the myriad of issues that create obstacles and disenfranchisement for the Black Man and Woman in the United States. We have no differences there and are in lock step. However, my brother, you have pursued a strategy of appealing to the white man’s…as you put it…”heart.” That is a dangerous assumption. I am not interested in either the white man or his heart, I am interested in the Black man’s mind. You know, like the white boy says every time he goes on one of his murderous geopolitical rampages: “hearts and minds.” We have to develop the minds of our people because this is where they remain enslaved. Those chains are very much intact and require expeditious removal.

Dr. King: And I thought I had a way with words. Frankly, I have never heard it put that way but I tend to agree. I suppose if the white man could be appealed to at a human level we would not have ended up here on the…what’s that you call it? Oh yeah, the “island” in the first place. On the other hand, in order to liberate the minds of our people there will have to be a rethinking of inculcated propaganda and mythology that we still have been unable to jettison after four centuries. From the education system itself to various other government policies, and I believe that integration is the best way to mitigate much of this inequality.

Malcolm X: Are you kidding? You don’t go around asking the kid breaking your things to fix them. If he wanted them whole he would not have broken them in the first place. Look at the Civil Rights Bill that you fought so hard for. The man who signed it, Lyndon Baines Johnson, jocularly called it The Nigger Bill. You used the term regressiveness earlier. Here we are half a century later and not only are so-called civil rights virtually dead; especially for our people who they were supposedly meant for, this new orange tinged racist ofay and his supreme court jesters have all but eliminated voting rights. If anything we are in worse shape and integration has only made fools of us.

Dr. King: I realize some of what you present and it is why I wrote Beyond Vietnam. Our system is a government of…

Malcolm X: (interrupts) This is hardly “our” system reverend doctor.

Dr. King: Touche.’ How is your halibut?

MalcomX: You know Mr. Broussard can do no wrong back there in that kitchen brother.

Dr. King: Amen. So, Malcolm, where do we go from here?

Malcolm X: Well you know how our people always talk about “take me home, Jesus?” I wonder how many of them, or anyone else, know that they aren’t speaking of some winged white man in the sky, they are speaking of going home to Alkebulan because one of the first slave ships was called The Jesus of Lübeck. They would cry out for Jesus looking for the boat that took them to a strange place to take them back where they came from. That boat has not shown up yet, nor has the winged white man in the sky. I need not inform you that I do not make this statement in a blasphemous way. So, like Marcus Garvey I think we should return to Alkebulan. Further, the United States should pay for our return just like it paid to kidnap and enslave us. Those brothers and sisters that want to stay on the plantation and have their children, women and men continually shot in the back can have at it.

Dr. King: Malcolm you know that is unlikely to happen.

Malcolm X: Why not! They are sending this one and that one back home. There is even a program in which they give money to those that self-deport. Why is no such option afforded us? So, you are admitting that we are exiles reverend doctor. The fact that the European refuses to apologize for slavery tells us where his nonexistent “heart” is. On the other hand they did give you a “holiday.”

Dr. King: (chuckles) Well, for one all those prison guards and corrections officers that jail millions of our people would have to obtain legitimate employment were we to disappear from here. They would also have to find creative ways of entertaining themselves (both men laugh raucously and even a few of the security men were silently amused). But the worst thing they would have to do is sit quietly alone in a room with themselves (a pregnant silence ensued).

Malcolm X: I am serious though, reverend doctor. Why doesn’t this man rid himself of the problem he created for himself? Absent that, I believe we must live in our own communities and, most importantly, run our own schools. Schools where our children learn their history and that it did not begin on some slave ship or at the back of some bus. They need to be taught that a thousand years ago the European was living in caves and our people had indoor plumbing. They need to have the pride of knowing that the world’s very first university was in Alkebulan. It will take time but as generations pass they will see themselves with a pride that they are denied due to the white man’s false narratives.

Dr. King: Are you suggesting that the Civil Rights Act was political folly?

Malcolm X: I am not suggesting brother, I am stating a fact. The notorious “Nigger Bill” duped us. Remember we had our own butcher shops? Now we have food deserts. We had our own banks, now we have hedge fund controlled institutional financial apartheid. We had nice neighborhoods, now we have gentrification. We had our own car dealerships, mechanics, carpenters and teachers. What did so-called civil rights accomplish as we remain at the bottom rung of every single positive societal metric? Besides that, I am not that crazy about sitting on a toilet after a white man or any other man and besides that I don’t see where it helped us in any substantive way. In fact, it did more harm, if that is humanly possible.

Dr. King: It is irrefutable that the nation is going backwards and this causes me deep sorrow. The state of the country is not only a moral disappointment domestically, it has also become so geopolitically. But the reality is that we must navigate the waters we find ourselves in. Our perspectives compliment each other, and will be pivotal in uniting our people. You are a brilliant man Malcom, and I want us to explore some concrete ways we can begin a curriculum for our people, both young and old including a rollout of schools across the country exclusively for our children given the unique historical challenges they face in academia. We also need to discuss the banking and policing issues…hard to believe we have been here two hours already and I can see the men getting antsy. They tend to get that way when we are stationary for too long. I worry about them worrying about me.

Malcolm X: Same here reverend doctor, my dearest brother. We will move forward for our people because we must. It is odd that I feel like even though I am here with you, I am not really here. My admiration for you is surreal.

Dr. King: Well Malcolm, you know what they say: “no matter where you go, there you are.”

The Narrator: Both men rise from the table and motion for their security teams. Several of the men go to retrieve the vehicles while half a dozen or so stay behind. The men’s hats and coats are retrieved as Mr. Broussard comes out to say goodbye and ask how their meal was. There is a fleeting silence and sadness between the three men. The cars pull up at the front of the establishment. As the men step out the wind is howling, there is heavy rain and much lightening.

Dr. King: I don’t recall seeing such inclement weather in quite some time. Travel safely, Malcolm. I love you.

Malcolm X: I love you more reverend doctor, and look forward to our next meeting. I will have Betty contact Coretta immediately to set up that dinner. God knows I don’t want Mrs. King on my bumper (laughter). By the way, you said Coretta had a message for me?

Dr. King: Oh yeah, she told me to tell you she promises that she won’t cook pork chops.

Malcolm X: All praise is due to Allah.

Narrator: The vehicles pull up. The two men hug as their security men open the doors and escort them respectively. Suddenly there was a blinding lightening bolt and a clap of thunder so loud that it was deafening.

And then, the two men were gone.