Everyday I walk to the subway to go to school or to a friends place or to run errands. And everyday, I pass the Audobon Ballroom -- now the X Cafe. It's the place where Malcolm X was assassinated. There's no museum there like there is at the spot where Dr. King was taken down. No, in this place there is only a statue in the lobby and an X on the window... the window of a cafe'. X marks the spot -- I guess.
I got to the point in the movie where Mr. X is ambushed. He lays there bleeding and slightly shaking in his wife's arms. Another woman sits nearby. She's shaking. In the background we hear another woman sobbing deep sobs... they come from a place too deep to see with an X-ray machine.
I hear the sobs and I think of all the killing. I think of all the sorrow. I think of what evil -- what craziness man is capable of. "They killed Malcolm!", someone shouts on screen! They did kill Malcolm-- at the very point in his life when he began to embrace Shalom ... they killed Malcolm.
Next they killed Martin. They killed Martin too...
My mind goes to up to 160,000 killed in Darfur... 200,000 ethnically "cleansed" in Bosnia... up to 27,000 civilians reported killed by military intervention in Iraq... racial oppression in Soweto... ethnic and religious oppression in Ireland. I think of the drug trade in South America that fans the flames of heinous violence south of our border and the enslavement of women and children around the world for affluent men on business trips who want sex far from home. I think of this violence that crawls like spiders over the face of our world.
It's the tragedy of The Fall. Sin so deep we can't wash ourselves clean. Left to our own devices we will either commit violence against our fellow human being... or we will stand by and watch in silence.
So, Malcolm X lay there in a pool of blood on a stage down the street from my apartment 40 years ago. And another one who spoke of joining together to fight the cause of injustice ... another one who called a spade a spade ... another one who spoke truth to power lay crushed under the weight of The Fall.
So, I sit weeping with the woman on the screen. I weep and I pray.
Jesus!
Help us.
posted by Lisa Sharon Harper @ 12:00 AM
3 Comments:
Wow, Emily! Thanks so much for that introduction to Yuri Kochiyama. I think there's a great dirth of information regarding Asian Americans who were actively involved in the Civil Rights movement. I'm so privileged to be introduced to Ms. Kochiyama. She sounds like an amazing woman. If you know the names and stories of other Asian Americans who were involved in the US Civil Rights movement, I'd love it if you could pass them on. Thanks and blessings.
Hi Emily,
How are things going for you? I hope they're well. I just thought I'd =
send this quick note to let you know I thought about you tonight when I =
put two and two together. I recently signed up to go to lecture at =
Columbia on the life of Yuri Kochiyama. Then tonight I was reviewing =
the invitation and thought - "Hey, that name sounds familiar." So, I =
searched for your previously sent email (below) and realized it's the =
woman you told me about. This makes me want to go all the more. =20
Just thought you'd appreciate God's touch of serendipity. Here's the =
invitation. If you know any other people in NYC who might want to come, =
feel free to invite them.
Wednesday, November 9, 2005.
Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race Presents
"Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama"
Talk by Diane C. Fujino, Associate Professor of Asian American studies, =
University of California-Santa Barbara. She is the author of "Heartbeat =
of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama," the first =
biography of this veteran Japanese activist, courageous and inspiring =
champion of freedom and equality.
Location: 419 Hamilton Hall, 116th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.
Time: 1:10 - 2:00 pm.
For information: ag614@columbia.edu or 212-854-=20
Sponsored by: CSER.
Peace & Joy,
Lisa
Hi, do you know why they made that site into a cafe and not a musem or why did they dishonor malcom x in that way it seems as though that there isnt a for real malcom x musem anywhere its really disappointing if you can find out please e-mail me back.my e-mail address is tkmb9@yahoo.com
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