Actor Laurence Fishburne reads The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

On October 10th, 1963 in Detroit, Michigan, Al Hajj Malik Shabazz/Malcolm X said, “We all agree tonight, all the speakers have agreed, that America has a very serious problem. Not only does America have a very serious problem, but our people have a very serious problem. America’s problem is us.” This 57-year-old speech, known as a Message to the Grassroots, still holds up today. The reality of Black and Brown people in this country remains the same: We have been and continue to be America’s problem. Over the last four years, this administration, through its support of white supremacists and their deeds, has made it clear that it does not want us here. It continues to use every tactic it can, including militarized police and ICE detention centers, to keep “law and order.”

When discussing Malcolm X, too many academics and the punditry class have sought to brand Malcolm as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, which he made clear he was not. The Civil Rights Movement was a movement that wanted integration not only in businesses or public service, but into the United States political system and government apparatus. Although the Civil Rights Movement engaged hundreds of thousands over a period of 13 years, the leaders of the movement excluded Black women and LGBTQ members of the Black community. The Civil Rights Movement was a movement that believed the problems facing Black and Brown people in America were to be solved by policy agendas, the passage of laws, and an overdependence on federal intervention and the Supreme Court to deal with De Jure segregation. Malcolm’s politic of Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism did not espouse an integration model but rather a model of self-determination.

Many cite Malcolm’s travels throughout Africa as a transformation of his core beliefs of self-determination, self-defense, and self-respect. Yes, he encountered white people who practiced Islam, but he also began to meet with leaders of the world, as Ahmed Shawki writes in his book, Black Liberation and Socialism. Both of Malcolm’s trips to Africa had a great impact on his political ideas and raised his consciousness to the conditions of Black people throughout the global Black diaspora. His meetings with Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt led him, upon his return to New York, to form the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), which he modeled after the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Through the OAAU he hoped to build organizations, create schools, support Black businesses, and lead voter registration efforts. Malcolm also sought to connect the struggles of Black people in America to the international struggle happening in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In these last years of his life, Malcom said that in order for Black people to be free, truly free, part of the agenda must be rooted in ending capitalism and imperialism. At the same time, he began to understand and talk about the racism that Black women faced in this country.

Throughout this current summer of resistance, as hundreds of thousands of young people were in the streets demanding justice for George Floyd, they were also demanding justice for Breonna Taylor. As I saw all these young people take their step into the wider movement for Black Liberation, I began to hear and see signs of Malcolm reminding us, “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.”

Last month on Saturday Night Live, Meghan Thee Stallion’s performances ended with an homage to Breonna Taylor with a background of Malcolm X’s words. That moment is not only culturally significant, but it is politically significant as it centers around Black women and reminds us that Black women are not only part of the larger freedom project, but leading this current struggle. I know the power of a performance that includes Malcolm X. Today, you can hear a powerful performance of The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Emmy and Tony-award-winning actor Laurence Fishburne on Audible. It’s available in full audio for the first time since its original 1965 publication. I myself had not heard of Malcolm X until I saw Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing in 1989. A year later I went off to college, and the first book I read as a freshwoman in my Introduction to Black studies class was this autobiography. In 1992, as a sophomore, I went with hundreds of my peers to see Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. The book had already changed my life and, after watching it, I was inspired to become President of the Albany State University Black Alliance (ASUBA). I wanted to be Malcolm. If not for his lessons, I would not have become the organizer, scholar-activist, and independent journalist I am today. I would have not had the audacity to run as the first Black Puerto Rican/Latina for Vice President of the United States on the Green Party ticket in 2008 if not for the guiding philosophy and the presence of Malcolm X in my life. When I graduated from Cornell University with my Masters in African Studies, I moved to Brooklyn, New York, and immediately joined the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and organization of New Afrikans in America, whose mission is to defend its people’s human rights and promote self-determination. In a 1965 interview with the Canadian Broadcast Corporation, Malcolm stated, “We are Black Americans and we have a problem that goes beyond religion, we have formed the group known as the Organization of Afro-American Unity and the objective of this organization is to bring about the condition that will guarantee respect and solve the problems of the Black man and woman in America. Our problems are beyond America’s ability to solve. It is a human problem not an American problem. As a human problem or a world problem we feel that it should be taken out of the jurisdiction of the United States government and the United States courts and taken into the United Nations. We believe that our problem is not a violation of civil rights but a violation of human rights.”

A month after this interview, Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965 in the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York. At the time, he was preparing to petition the United Nations to hold hearings on ongoing violations of African descendants in the United States.

Unlike myself, who was introduced to Malcolm X when I was 19, anyone at this moment can go to Audible to hear the great thespian Laurence Fishburne read The Autobiography of Malcom X on Audible. In the time of a pandemic, during which there is so much uncertainty about the future of humans and the planet, listening to Malcolm not only brings comfort but also shows us that we as a global Black diaspora are here because we resist. We exist because we resist. Take a day or two to listen to Malcom’s words, ideas, vision, and his deep unwavering love for our people. Almost 55 years after his assassination, the Black freedom struggle continues and we all have a part to play.