Malcolm X. The Muslim. The Black. The American. The Dissident. The Prisoner. These were some of the faces of an enigmatic man. The Black Students Association and the Muslim Students Association joined forces at Hart House last Thursday to discuss and consider a man who takes on an iconic role in both their communities.
The night opened with the reading of a poem about Malcolm X by Malik i.m, a poet and high school teacher. Norman Richmond, a radio host and producer, began the formal discussion. In his speech, Richmond noted Spike Lee did not feature some portions of Malcolm X’s life in the 1992 film about the activist. Richmond went on to speak about how Malcolm X had taken the time to meet both Muslim and secular political leaders late in his short life. Dudley Laws, an activist, followed Richmond. He spoke of Malcolm X’s period of incarceration and his subsequent education and conversion to the Nation of Islam. Laws also touched on the racism he feels still exists against the Black community in Toronto and Canada.
The third panelist of the evening was Minister Haleem Muhammad, a member of the Nation of Islam. During his effusive speech, Muhammad spoke about the need to re-evaluate history and recognize the contribution of Black slaves in American history. His discourse regarding Malcolm X was highly personal. He said his introduction to Malcolm X included reading about him, and discussing him with Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, and that this introduction “opened my eyes to a man I never knew existed.”
Yahya Giarey was the fourth panelist to speak. The president of the Muslim Mosque Students Federation at York, he spoke about the difficulty in classifying such a diverse personality such a Malcolm X. “A man who took sixteen bullets for his people can’t be classified by anyone,” he noted. Giarey also spoke about what he feels is the pervasive racism toward minorities and immigrants in Canadian society.
Salman Rana, a U of T law student and musician, followed in a similar vein as Giarey, and spoke about his personal experiences with racism in Canada. He went on to talk more about Malcolm X, and how he saw the man as a humanist who “introduced the world to global struggle.”
The second-last speaker of the evening was Rizwan Mohammad. Currently an undergrad at U of T, Mohammad spoke of Malcolm X as “a person with the heart of a revolutionary,” and stressed that his teaching be placed in context and interpreted using the Koran as a guide. Mohammad also spoke more generally about what he feels are some of the problems with the Western media, and what he referred to as the “culture of watching.”
Shawn Knights was the final panelist of the evening. Also a U of T undergrad, Knights gave an incisive history of the activism of Black students at U of T, noting that the first Valedictorian at U of T was Black. He traced the history of the Black students and organizations that have forced political change at U of T, including the University’s divestment in South Africa.
After the speakers concluded, the moderators, Huda Mohamed and Runako Gregg, opened up the floor for questions. A female audience member asked the moderators asked why the panel was all male. Runako responded that several female panelists were booked but that they were unable to attend. Another audience member asked why there were no images of Malcolm X on the wall during the presentation. An organizer assuaged his concerns by placing a series of Power Point slides featuring Malcolm X on the overhead screen for the remainder of the presentation.
