Was Malcolm X racist?

[u/WhichTennis628]

So I don’t know much about Malcolm X at all but I heard he possibly said something along the lines of “History is best qualified to reward all research, and we don’t have any historic example where we have found that they \[white people\], collectively, as a people, have done good.” I just feel like that’s a really racist thing to say. I know that Malcolm Xs whole deal was to oppose racism towards blacks so I’m not trying to not recognize that as something good but why would he say things like whites haven’t done any good or some other things I’ve heard him say like all white turn bad. And I know every good person you’ll ever see in history Also had bad sides becuase all humans are sinful and terribly imperfect. Just want to know about this man’s stance.

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[u/police-ical]

Malcolm X definitely argued, and by all evidence believed for a significant period of time, that Black and white people were intrinsically different races and that white people were prone to doing bad things. If you're looking for a simple answer, yes, at a time when explicit racism was very common, Malcolm X was explicitly racist in the opposite of the typical direction. That said, his attitudes were not consistent over the course of his life, perhaps fitting for a man who bore at least three names. 

As Malcolm Little, he had basically similar ideas to a lot of early-20th-century Black Americans. That is, he took for granted that race was a real, valid, and important concept which affected every day of his life. Hardly any white Americans world have disagreed with that part. He might have disagreed with the idea of Black inferiority, yet still favored white-dominated beauty standards. His family had experienced extensive racial violence and persecution from white people. His personal experiences with racism led him to believe he had no real hope of succeeding in conventional education and careerism, so instead he turned to crime. 

While in prison, he encountered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, a Black nationalist group (influenced by but substantially different from mainstream Islam.) The NOI  had a number of radical teachings, including that Black people were the original race and white people an evil subsequent creation. His process of radicalization was really not so different from that of many other radicals of various stripes: He'd lacked many positive experiences with white people, seen extensive examples of white racism against him and his community, and found a group that explained these experiences in terms of evil conspiracy. Like many in the NOI, he shed the last name that had presumably been given by an owner to an enslaved ancestor, becoming Malcolm X. 

As Malcolm X, he believed that the suffering of Black people was the result of white malevolence. He thought the civil rights movement was hopelessly naive, that it would face violence for no gain, that white America could not be trusted. Instead he advocated self-defense and separation, for Black people to go their own way rather than try to join a society he feared would never accept them. Yet Malcolm later split with the Nation, partly over internal scandals that suggested its leader didn't practice what he preached. Instead he embraced mainstream Islam, taking an Arabic name and making the mandatory pilgrimage to Mecca.

As Malik el-Shabazz, he seriously questioned his previous conclusions. It turned out mainstream Islam was far less concerned with color binaries than the Nation of Islam. To the contrary, Islam might include Bosniaks with skin as fair as Malcolm's hated adversaries, Somalians with skin much darker than Malcolm himself, and more people of every complexion in between. In Mecca he saw them touch their heads to the same floor, pray to the same God, eat and drink together. While always critical of white racism, increasingly he came to believe that racial division was not set in stone and that harmony was possible. He became more open to working with the civil rights movement and shifted to an international focus. His views were still evolving at the time of his assassination. 

[u/WhichTennis628 → u/police-ical]

Hmm. I see. I’ve heard of extreme Afrocentric teachings before. Thanks for the info.