I have been reading the controversial new biography of Malcolm X, by Manning Marable, the 60 year old author who died the week before the book came out. He had spent 10 years writing and researching it.

One of the reasons the book is controversial is that it appears that Malcolm Little reinvented himself repeatedly. That's the subtitle of the book- A Life of Reinvention. Much of the controversy revolves around the allegation that Malcolm made up his past to suit the occasion, or, covered his past to suit the occasion.

There seems to be no doubt that he was a hustler as a youth in all senses of the word. He had a sugar daddy in Boston whom he used to help him get out of prison. He was a a cocaine addict, and a thief as well.

History shows that he grew to be a charismatic preacher, well-spoken and intelligent. Once he found religion, he educated himself admirably and did his best to cover up or minimize his past misdeeds.

But the gay part is controversial because, at least as I read it, Malcolm X was gay. The author all but says it. The proof, granted, is limited, as he didn't talk about it. In those times people didn't, especially if they were Islamic preachers.

But Malcolm X did not marry until he was 32, and even then it seemed to come more out of his belief that a preacher must be married. One night he called Betty Shabazz from a gas station in Michigan and asked her to marry him. She accepted. Their "honeymoon" lasted one night and Malcolm was back on the road. Apparently in the Spike Lee movie it is made to appear as though the marriage stemmed from a strong sexual desire, but that was a lie. Betty complained constantly that he did not satisfy her. Malcolm even wrote Elijah Muhammad to complain of her constant sexual neediness. (Muhammad would later be revealed to be quite the pervert himself, causing a break with Malcolm X).

So, absent some lost love letters, we will never know for sure if Malcolm X was gay, but one thing we know for sure from one of his close confidants: Malcolm "didn't have no feelings for a woman."

Closeted gay men are often attracted to religions that "force" them not to act on their desires, so this wouldn't be all that shocking.

I can't understand why anyone would even care if he was gay, bi, tri, or multi sexual.

I can't understand why anyone would even care if he was gay, bi, tri, or multi sexual.

I think a lot of African American men would care. One of the reasons they put Prop 8 on the ballot in 2008 was because they knew a lot of black men would come out to vote, and that voting block historically is the most homophobic of any other.

The reason to care is that the Nation Of Islam advocates death to homosexuals.

If one of their most charismatic members was homosexual it matters.

It may also help further the idea that no matter what the religion is, they need gay men to keep it going!

Well, I have read another 100 pages. Malcolm becomes friends with Bayard Rustin, a gay intellectual, and gay author James Baldwin. But the subject of his sex life is no longer paramount to the discussion. He now comes across as more asexual than anything. But then he meets Cassius Clay, and the two become great friends. Clay's trainer is heard to remark: "Malcolm X and Ali were like very close brothers. It was almost like they were in love with each other."

Thanks for the heads up on the book. Malcom X has always been a fascination to me and I purchased this on Amazon Kindle for 12.00. It will make for an easy plane trip whenever I am able to leave my family and start traveling the world again.

Not to leave Jesse Jackson out of it!

"From that gay teacher, I got a good grade, I got to use his car, I got 10 dollars and I got my dick sucked. That's not gay, that is surviving." -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson, "regaling" a former Rainbow PUSH Coalition employee with details of a male teacher who took him under his wings in high school and told him that he needed an education to go along with with beloved football. The former employee, Tommy Bennett, alleges Jackson targeted him for taunts and "humiliating tasks" and asked him for oral sex -- and is seeking $450,000 in back pay and damages.(from kennethinthe212.com)

A short piece in the New Yorker.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2011/04/25/110425crbo_books_remnick

A short piece in the New Yorker.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2011/04/25/110425crbo_books_remnick

A short piece? It's 4 pages long! Short for the New yorker, I guess. What it did, though, was remind me why many don't like David Remnick. His sense of intellectual superiority reigns here, as he purports to review Manning Marable's book but essentially proselytizes for Alex Haley's earlier "autobiography" which Marable has now reduced to a pack of lies*. Apparently Remnick wants the Malcolm X that he remembers, not the Malcolm X that existed.

*Not in total, of course, but in many of its essential parts.

Not to leave Jesse Jackson out of it!

"From that gay teacher, I got a good grade, I got to use his car, I got 10 dollars and I got my dick sucked. That's not gay, that is surviving." -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson, "regaling" a former Rainbow PUSH Coalition employee with details of a male teacher who took him under his wings in high school and told him that he needed an education to go along with with beloved football. The former employee, Tommy Bennett, alleges Jackson targeted him for taunts and "humiliating tasks" and asked him for oral sex -- and is seeking $450,000 in back pay and damages.(from kennethinthe212.com)

WHAT??? This is the most bizarre thing I've read in a long time. Is this a known thing??