Growing up most of us learn about the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We learned that he fought for equal rights, and risked his life so that this generation can have the life that we have now. I also remember learning briefly about Malcolm X; the main difference my teachers pointed out was that Martin was peaceful and Malcolm was violent. It took my parents to teach me that our history is sometimes skewed to make other people comfortable. In reality, Malcolm X was not a violent activist, in simple terms, he said ‘if they hurt us, we have the right to hurt them, but we will never make the first attempt at violence.’
I feel that most Black teenagers go through a phase of figuring out what type of activism they want to take part in. I was confused about who I wanted to be, especially after uncovering the false information I was learning about in school.
I saw myself go through both phases, turning the other cheek, as well as a phase of not letting people off the hook for racist remarks or microaggressions. I was truly torn between two types of activism. In short, I thought I had to choose one. When in fact, the beauty of having such a great historical activist is that you can take things from everyone and form your own unique form of activism. I think everyone can learn from the greatness of these figures as well as many others.
I believe it is not our duty to imitate them, but rather emulate their values and form a unity that they did. Sometimes we think that we can never live up to the legacy that they left behind. We forget that they were just like us, young adults eager for change. I have no doubt in my mind that our generation will be able to produce figures like Martin and Malcolm and we won’t do it by choosing one and neglecting the other, but rather by embracing all they gave us to start our own movement.