A Phenomenological Hermeneutic of Antiblack Racism in The Autobiography of Malcolm X

(Hardback)

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This text provides a phenomenological account of the experience of anti-black racism as described by Malcolm X. Central to this analysis is the phenomenology that emerges over the course of Malcolms life, which emerges through the various personal transformations that the autobiography introduces and explores. As this process unfolds, a variety of different aspects of lived-experience can be witnessed that becomes situated within the process of naming that Malcolm employs to situate the specifics of his experience. For example, the phenomenology of Malcolms early childhood experience, is defined by two very different competing definitions for blackness. Though Malcolm Little and his family exist or find themselves thrown within a social structure that employs a narrative of anti-black racism, his parents are able to provide a powerful alternative meaning for blackness that is informed by the perspective taken from the Marcus Garvey Movement of the early 1900s.When that narrative is effectively silenced given Malcolms separation from his family, the positive meanings for black-being-in-the-world disappear and leave Malcolm with few alternatives to this new reality. As the Autobiography moves forward, Malcolms experience becomes defined by the phenomenology that these overlapping narratives construct. During certain moments of this phenomenology, the negative aspects of anti-black racism seem to impose very specific challenges to Malcolms lived-experience that become difficult to overcome and in others, powerful alternative meanings for black-being-in-the-world are taken-up and successfully employed to address the consequences of this type of racism. Though the fact of anti-black racism is never actually defeated, Malcolms relationship to this process is drastically transformed over the course of his reflection.

Reviews

Polizzi provides a deep philosophical analysis of Malcolm X, perhaps the greatest and best-known proponent of Islam and black nationalism in 20th century America. -- Samory Rashid, Indiana State University
Based on a phenomenological conceptualization of the intertwined relationship between social context and individual experience, Polizzi masterfully traces the trajectory of the Autobiographys names from Malcom Little to Malik El-Shabazz in terms of an ongoing struggle to claim an identity liberated from the discrimination and oppression that continues to plague America. Situating his research within the context of Black autobiography and making a significant contribution to the wealth of existing scholarship on the Autobiography, the author offers a complex, insightful analysis of a black man's search for being in an antiblack society. Polizzi has produced a work which is both theoretically innovative and of contemporary social relevance. -- Michael Sipiora, Pacifica Graduate Institute
Polizzi delivers a compelling assessment and first-rate critique of anti-Black racism based on a detailed accounting of the life and times of Malcolm X. This book is a must read for any student or scholar interested in race in America understood through the continental tradition of philosophy. -- Bruce A. Arrigo, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Author Bio

David Polizzi is professor of criminology & criminal justice at Indiana State University.