The name Shabazz still carries powerful connotations. It was the chosen name of one of the principal figures of the civil rights movement, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, better known to the world as Malcolm X. A commanding public persona, Shabazz was an eloquent speaker and inspirational leader whose philosophy still resonates worldwide today. His daughter Ilyasah now spreads his message, a responsibility she reflected upon during a speech Monday night at OISE.

“Education was one of the fundamental values my parents emphasized and instilled in my sisters and me,” said Shabazz, one of the civil rights leader’s six children.

“Both my parents understood the value of education and its critical importance to the advancement of our nation. Both understood the importance of education to the movement, and the ongoing struggle for human rights.” Speaking at Canada’s largest university, Shabazz’s discussion of universities’ responsibility called to mind images of her father’s infamous debate at Oxford prior to his death.

Her speech was part of Expression Against Oppression week, a series of campus events organized by UTSU’s equity commission to raise awareness of injustices at home and abroad. From Feb. 4 to 8, U of T will stage for a series of demonstrations, film screenings, art exhibits, and lectures.

On Monday night, 46-year-old Shabazz spoke about the need for an “eternal vigilance.”

“The worldwide struggle for equality and justice cannot be over when racial inequities still exist,” Shabazz told the near-capacity crowd. “In Toronto, there exists a socio-economic polarization between people of European descent and people of the [African] Diaspora, which is really shocking.”

While Shabazz’s discussion centered mainly on marginalized black Americans and Canadians, UTSU VP equity Sandy Hudson, who helped organize Shabazz’s talk, said that oppression crosses all social boundaries. “I think that even though the discussion of oppression was framed in a mostly African-American context, a lot of people can still take something from it, and make it personal for themselves,” said Hudson.

At a Q&A period at the end of the evening, a woman took the microphone to discuss parallels between injustices faced by Canadian First Nations people and African-Canadians, but was shouted down by the audience. Shabazz tried to calm the crowd, telling them she was only there to discuss her own experiences and could not speak to the experiences of First Nations people. Nevertheless, the woman was silenced.

Feb. 21 marked the 43rd anniversary of Malcolm X’s murder, and this month has historically been busy for Shabazz, author of Growing up X. With this year’s festivities coinciding with Black History Month, it proved challenging to fit the XAO event into Shabazz’s busy schedule: “Ilyasah announced the day she would be arriving almost at the last minute, and we only had four days to really promote that she would be speaking,” said Hudson. “I was very worried that there would not be a large turn out in the room for 500 people, but it was almost full, so I was shocked surprised and excited by the response.”