Everyday we teach children who they can possibly become. With every lesson we share, we have the ability to empower children to believe that there are no boundaries.
We also have the power to discourage children in ways that can leave them feeling so defeated that they are unable to accomplish anything.
As we celebrate the life of Malcolm X, I am centered in these thoughts. Malcolm X is one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th Century. He is often unjustly compared to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. yet we should really be remembering his intelligence, his courage and his selflessness.
But, we might not have ever found. When X was about 11, a teacher told him that a negro couldn't become an attorney. A negro could be a carpenter. X admitted in The Autobiography of Malcolm X that this teacher's statement cut deep. He would hear this teacher's voice for years to come when he dropped out of high school and became a thief.
What remained inside of X?
The lessons he'd learned from his parents. Both of X's parents were followers of Pan African leader Marcus Garvey. As Garveyites, Earl and Louise Little held meetings for the UNIA in their small Michigan town. They subscribed to newspapers that promoted black liberation, an end to racial injustice and even, a return to Africa. Early in X's life, he heard his father preach not just about the love of Jesus, but also Pan Africanism and Black History.
And when X was in prison, at his lowest, what remained? The teachings of his parents. X was able to connect those early lessons with all that he would learn from the Nation of Islam. Then he was able to rise above being a petty criminal to become a man who would teach those willing to listen that we (African-Americans) were not inferior to anyone.
The rest is history.
Teach your children. Anything can happen to you...but if you teach your children empowering lessons, they will never forget. Even if they stray for a moment. And you never know who they will become.
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