Malcolm X, Audre Lorde & Eldridge Cleaver: Black Protest

Introduction: Three Voices Against WASP Ideology

Malcolm X, Audre Lorde, and Eldridge Cleaver were all exemplars of activism against the mainstream culture of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) ideology. Each in their own way represented a voice of opposition to the aggression and oppression that the mainstream culture demonstrated in its various facets — whether it was in the crackdown of the Black population through the unjust use of law enforcement, as Cleaver witnessed, or in the violent threats and attacks by racist groups against the Black population, as Malcolm X witnessed and experienced, or in the cultural misdirection that Lorde identified. This paper examines how The Autobiography of Malcolm X, "Power" and "Poetry is Not a Luxury" by Lorde, and Soul on Ice by Cleaver represent distinct ways in which African Americans protested against the mainstream culture.

Malcolm X and Rational Counter-Narrative

The Autobiography of Malcolm X shows how African Americans protested against the mainstream culture by relating the stories of Malcolm X's own life — from the time when he was still in his mother's womb and the Ku Klux Klan showed up at their house to harass and destroy their property, to the time that Malcolm found Allah and began to develop a new Black Nationalism in opposition to the WASP nationalism that was set against the African American community. This opposition was not limited to the shores of America, either. As Malcolm X states directly, "Let us face reality. We can see in the United Nations a new world order being shaped, along color lines — an alliance among the non-white nations… A 'skin game' is being played… [but] who in the world's history ever has played a worse 'skin game' than the white man?" (580). Malcolm X was not afraid to voice his sense of the world order in no uncertain terms. The Autobiography thus represents a direct counter-attack on the mainstream culture that sought to marginalize and oppress African Americans.

Malcolm X often used a rhetorical and logical line in setting his stance against the mainstream culture. His approach was wholly centered on rational discourse, though he did not oppose violence in response to violence — he was not a pacifist. For instance, because of his love of reason, he states, "I know this is the reason I have come to really like, as individuals, some of the hosts of radio or television panel programs I have been on, and to respect their minds — because even if they have been almost steadily in disagreement with me on the race issue, they still have kept their minds open and objective about the truths of things happening in the world" (586). For Malcolm X, his opposition to the mainstream culture was rooted in his sense of truth, and this sense is presented rationally and logically throughout The Autobiography.

Audre Lorde's Symbolic Opposition

Lorde's poetry and essays were less direct in their rhetoric and more symbolic in their presentation of opposition. For instance, Lorde's poem "Power" states: "I am trapped on a desert of raw gunshot wounds / and a dead child dragging his shattered / black face off the edge of my sleep" — a symbolic representation of Lorde's sense of isolation in a WASP culture that seeks to destroy the African American presence. Likewise, in "Poetry is Not a Luxury," Lorde writes, "the quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live" (643). This means, in its use of symbolism, that the way in which one interprets one's life, actions, and meaning depends upon having access to an appropriate lens, framework, or theory that can illuminate the facts and help them make sense. The "light" that Lorde seeks is akin to the light of truth that Malcolm X advocates and promotes in The Autobiography. Rather than employing direct rational discourse to support truth in the face of a deceptive mainstream culture of hate, Lorde takes a symbolic and poetic approach to the issue.

Conclusion: Divergent Modes of Resistance

Malcolm X's autobiography, Lorde's poetry and essays, and Cleaver's Soul on Ice all manifest opposition to the mainstream culture of WASP ideology, though each does so in its own way. The Autobiography of Malcolm X tells the story of a man coming to reason his way to opposing the culture of the WASPs; Lorde's writings use symbolism to convey this opposition; and Cleaver's book employs visceral rhetoric and a hypnotic, almost sermon-like oration to convey an attitude of resistance. Taken together, these three works demonstrate the richness and diversity of African American protest literature and the multiple rhetorical strategies available to writers challenging racial oppression.