"Malcolm X"
                Reviewed by Linda Lopez McAlister
                  On "The Women's Show" WMNF-FM
                       November 21, 1992

Never has it been clearer to me than it is this week how much
one's reception of a film is colored by other things that are going
on it one's life.  In the last few days--in this order--I heard a
talk by the white radical lesbian separatist philosopher Mary Daly,
saw "Malcolm X" and heard a talk by black feminist theorist and
cultural critic bell hooks.  "Malcolm X," as you must certainly
know from all the media hype that has preceded it, is Spike Lee's
new film of epic proportions (it's three and a half hours long)
about the Black Nationalist leader slain in 1964, played so
superbly by Denzel Washington that at the end when documentary
footage of Malcolm is interspersed with pseudodocumentary sequences
of Washington, it's almost impossible to tell anymore which are
which.  What I am thinking about "Malcolm X" today is enormously
influenced by the fact that for me the film was sandwiched between
Daly and hooks, though neither of them had seen or specifically
addressed the film.

One thought that kept occurring to me as I was watching Malcolm
X give his speeches was how much his separatist rhetoric and Mary
Daly's separatist rhetoric had in common.  It seemed to me that
with judicious additions or subtractions of the adjective "white"
in the phrase "white man" long stretches of what Malcolm said in
denunciation of what has been done to Blacks in American could have
been said by Mary Daly about the oppression of women by men and
likewise much of Daly's devastating critique of the treatment of
women under patriarchy Malcolm could have articulated himself
though he would have fingered the white man, not just man as the
perpetrator.

And, good radical feminist that I am, I thought to myself that
this shouldn't be surprising, since the same heteropatriarchal,
hierarchical structures of dominance and subordination are at work
in both instances.  The interlocking oppressions of sexism, racism,
heterosexism and the like do not exist in a vacuum and as a
feminist I need to support all efforts to liberate those who have
been victimized by what Karen Thompson calls simply "the white male
system."  And maybe, if I hadn't heard bell hooks yesterday, I
would have come in here today and given a review of "Malcolm X"
that focused more on the cinematic elements of the film and what
Black liberation struggles and women's liberation struggles have in
common than on the troubling overt misogyny of the film.

However, bell hooks came to town and talked about the violence
done to Black women by the misogny of black males in popular
culture and the media--an industry owned and controlled by white
male corporate America.  And that set me thinking again about the
misogyny in "Malcolm X."   Not just the blatant misogyny of the
young Malcolm treating both Black and white women with contempt,
nor just the misogyny of the Black muslim religion that sees woman
as having to be kept subordinate, obediant, and chaste (to
paraphrase hooks "Black islamic fundamentalism is no more
attractive than white Christian fundamentalism"), but particularly
the misogyny of the filmmakers who tack on at the end an
apotheosis, a paeaen to black manhood worldwide, with a dozen or so
little black boys from around the world but not a single little
black girl standing up and proclaiming "I am Malcolm X" and Nelson
Mandela giving his blessing.  One has to ask, and what of Black
women in this scenario?  Where are they?

Given the transformations in thinking that Malcolm X went
through after his break with the Nation of Islam and his pilgrimage
to Mecca and his capacity for change, one wonders how far he might
have come in understanding the interconnectedness between sexism
and racism had he lived--there are suggestions that he could have.
(Hooks started her speech with a quote from Malcom X that suggested
he had some awareness of the situation of Black women).  But I am
far less sanguine about the capacity of Spike Lee to overcome his
sexism and heterosexism.  He has made a truly admirable film in
cinematic terms in "Malcolm X" and I definitely think it should be
seen, but his misogyny shines through.  I agree with hooks that we
need to ask why white corporate America is so supportive of black
misogynist cultural products be they films, records, videos, etc.
and why white males often emulate this black misogyny as cool and
hip.  It looks like white misogynists using black misogynists to
help carry on the time honored task of putting women down.  As Mary
Daly says, patriarchy is still the global religion.

For the WMNF Women's Show this is Linda Lopez McAlister on women
and film.