From: HF.GTD@forsythe.stanford.edu (Gabrielle Daniels)
Subject: Re: Lee: Skip work to attend Malcolm X
Organization: Stanford University, California, USA
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 00:57:34 GMT

In article <stovall.715454332@ficus.cs.ucla.edu>,
stovall@ficus.cs.ucla.edu (Steven Stovall) writes back to
>heath@athena.cs.uga.edu (Terrance Heath)'s comments
about my article <1992Sep2.000607.15860@morrow.stanford.edu>
HF.GTD@forsythe.stanford.edu (Gabrielle Daniels) regarding Malcolm:
>>>.
>>>There is a new book out, which was reviewed in this past Sunday's
>>>S.F. Chronicle which may knock some teeth out. Tomorrow I'll bring
>>>it over and put said information on line.  This new book about
>>>Malcolm says, among other things, that while Malcolm was in his pimp
>>>period, he also hired himself to some well-to-do to rich white guys
>>>as a male prostitute.  A couple of names are named.

Steve says:

>I would like to know who this writer is. The guy would have to have a
>lot of credibility for me to buy into this, although people in the life
>can and will do anything to survive in their insular and peculiarly
>nihilistic world and many of them are in fact pansexual.

I say:

So why can't El Hajj Malik El Shabazz be pansexual as well as the
other folk interviewed for the book?

Terrance says:

>>Gee. I wonder if Lee would have the balls to put THAT in his movie.  I
>>mean Malcom has been adopted by young black men as a sort of positive
>>image of black male machismo.  I'm sure the thought of his hero ever
>>having a moment of tenderness with another man, beyond the sporting
>>bunch in the arm or the awkward hug, would almost kill Lee, not to
>>mention a lot of other young men who idolize Malcolm.
.
I say:

Spike would have a hernia if he knew this information and if he did,
I wouldn't put it past him to suppress it.
.
I've seen a lot of disclosures during the past ten years or so:
Laurence Olivier and Danny Kaye; Langston Hughes and most of the
Harlem Renaissance; even Clark Gable having a fling (just to see
what it was like).  Looking at Malcolm's childhood, I could see that
the man was probably starved for any affection from any corner.  And
that is not wrong.

Steve says:

>Whatever the truth of this allegation, by the time he entered public life
>as a minister of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm *was* the seminal blackman
>and was *not* the depraved Detroit Red.

I say:

Was he also depraved for being a male prostitute?  Receiving or
giving the smallest affection or pleasure as a young adult?  The
fine line ain't always so fine...and ain't even a line at times.
.
By the time he was Minister Malcolm he was certified "straight."  So
is this necessarily good? And the Nation of Islam is a very
"straight," conservative institution. Malcolm went from one extreme
to another.  Perhaps he was trying to reach for the center.  We'lll
never know for sure.

Terrance says:

>>As for me, well...if its true then OK.  I'm willing to bet that even
>>those experiences didn't do much for Malcolm's views of gays after his
>>conversion. Conversion has a wonderful way of wiping the slate clean,
>>doesn't it?

I say:

See above. You are correct.

Steve concludes:

>Understand that homosexuality is explicitly prohibited by the Quran.
>Al Hajj Malik Shabazz was a Muslim who believed la ilaha il Allah
>(there is no God but Allah) and Muhammedan Rasullulah (Muhammed is
>the Messenger of Allah), not to mention the Angels, the Prophets,
>the Quran, the Last Day...and that trangressors will be roasted
>at hellfire.

I say:

Jeez, Steve.  Calm down.  Pull up the stakes and send those wagons
of wood home.  Ain nobody burning anyone tonight, or any other
night.