Ilyasha Shabazz, daughter of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz Cyber-Essay
Today is Malcolm X's birthday. He was a contemporary of Martin Luther King Jr. and also was assasinated at 39 years old. Though shown as advesaries, the two men shared a lot and had a lot in common. Malcolm X appreciated Martin King's work and went to Atlanta to support him, yet King was away, so Shabazz met with Coretta Scott King instead. If you don't know anything about Malcolm X, you might want to read a short bio on him first, before responding to this essay. http://www.cmgww.com/historic/malcolm/about/bio.htm
The topic of this paper takes as a theme, nature vs. nurture, fate vs. destiny. Think about this interview with another child of an icon, Ilyasha Shabazz, daughter of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz. Her life shares some of the same challenges that Martin Luther King III spoke about: the expectations of greatness neither could live up to as children and young adults. King wanted to shoot hoops and Shabazz wanted to be a fashion model. Now both are carrying on their parents' legacy of civil leadership and civic involvement.
Was Ilyasah given a choice or did she take it? Was she a victim of circumstances or did she have certain privileges because of her parents?
How much of who she is based on her will rather than the family she inherited? If you like, you can talk about yourself and whether or not you choose your life, or if it was given to you, or perhaps it is a little of both. You could also bring in Martin Luther King III and talk about what the two children of icons share and how their lives differed.
The question is in here somewhere :-) Respond in 500 words minimally today and post it here.
Today is Malcolm X's birthday. He was a contemporary of Martin Luther King Jr. and also was assasinated at 39 years old. Though shown as advesaries, the two men shared a lot and had a lot in common. Malcolm X appreciated Martin King's work and went to Atlanta to support him, yet King was away, so Shabazz met with Coretta Scott King instead. If you don't know anything about Malcolm X, you might want to read a short bio on him first, before responding to this essay. http://www.cmgww.com/historic/malcolm/about/bio.htm
The topic of this paper takes as a theme, nature vs. nurture, fate vs. destiny. Think about this interview with another child of an icon, Ilyasha Shabazz, daughter of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz. Her life shares some of the same challenges that Martin Luther King III spoke about: the expectations of greatness neither could live up to as children and young adults. King wanted to shoot hoops and Shabazz wanted to be a fashion model. Now both are carrying on their parents' legacy of civil leadership and civic involvement.
Was Ilyasah given a choice or did she take it? Was she a victim of circumstances or did she have certain privileges because of her parents?
How much of who she is based on her will rather than the family she inherited? If you like, you can talk about yourself and whether or not you choose your life, or if it was given to you, or perhaps it is a little of both. You could also bring in Martin Luther King III and talk about what the two children of icons share and how their lives differed.
The question is in here somewhere :-) Respond in 500 words minimally today and post it here.
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 11:26 AM
4 Comments:
Faraj Fayad
English 1a
9-10am
Ilyasah Shabazz
At the age thirty-nine, civil rights martyr El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz also known as Malcolm X was shot and killed leaving behind his wife Betty Shabazz and their six daughters. The third of his daughters is Ilyasah Shabazz and she was interviewed by John Blake, in the article “Children Of The Icons”. The article talks about the differences and similarities between Ilyasah and her father. Like the child of every honored civil rights activist, Ilyasah was looked at as if she was supposed to inherent her father’s knowledge and carry on in what he once was, instead of looking at her in a normal way. Ilyasah Shabazz was mistaken for her father and had to live with a choice given to her by those around her.
Starting off as a freshman in the State University of New Patts, Ilyasah received a lot of attention because of carrying on her father’s last name. She was elected as an officer of the black student union, and moved to the colleges black dormitory. “ Class mates expected Ilyasah to be a Black Muslim who would light up the campus with fiery speeches and regale them with tales of her legendary father.” (Blake). What they didn’t realize is that they might know about her father more than she might have. After all he died when she was only two years old.
Growing up, Ilyasah attended private schools with white students, so she wasn’t around people who talked about him much. Only through her mother did she did she know that her father was a martyred civil rights activist leader. She doesn’t have any memories of him before he died. Although the family hung pictures of him on the walls of their house. “She had no rage, no fount of wisdom to draw from only her last name.” Blake writes. Later on in life Ilyasah was invited to speak at various political rallies, she accepted but felt like she didn’t know what to say, she quote, “They’re expecting a Malcolm X to just come walking across the stage….” People were disappointed by her but “ She knew so little about her father , she had to buy his auto biography to learn more.” (Blake)
Betty Shabazz raised Ilyasah and her sisters in an integrated community in Vermont, New York. Becoming a widow at the age of twenty-eight she had to take care and provide shelter for her daughters all by her self-while managing to earn a doctorate and becoming a college professor. She made sure her daughters went to the mosque every Sunday and were taught black history and Arabic. Like her mother Ilyasah worked her way through her loses and earned an MS in education and human resource development from Fordham University.
Ilyasah wrote a book called “Growing up X.” It was published in 2002, and based on a quote from it, she was deeply affected by a photo of her father being wheeled on a stretcher after he was shot to death in the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. Due to the pain of growing up without a father, she wrote, “from these experiences I carry only a dislike of ending uneasiness with goodbyes .” shes not the only person in life who lost someone that might have changed her life. She shared the same misunderstanding of who she is with the son of Martin Luther King Jr., Martin King III. Martin was expected to take his father’s place and become another legend carrying on the family name, but Martin was a whole different man than his father was. A man who had his own destiny and the same for Ilyasa. Fortunately the two weren’t too different from their parents. Martin’s siblings and Malcolm X’s daughters soon befriended and met at civil rights events and kept in touch after that.
Now around the age forty-one, Ilyasah believes the reality of losing her father put a bigger affect on her than it did when she was younger. “Later on in life it hits you .”she says. She grew up being pushed towards the same road her father took by the people whom admired him most, not knowing she wanted to follow her heart. “Even though she really wanted to be a model or songwriter.” Blake wrote. “Today, she is the public affair’s director for the city of Yonkers.” Through fate Ilyasah became some one her father would have been proud of.
Ali Hasan
Coment for essay:
Hey Faraj this essay was nicely put together. I sort of felt like i learned more about her in this essay than i did in the article. Keep up the good writing...
Christina Thoss
English 1A 9-10 AM
Ilyasah Shabazz Essay Response
Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, or more commonly known as Malcolm X, grew up in an integrated community in Mount Vernon, New York with her widowed mother and five other sisters. She was only two years of age when her father was morbidly murdered during his speech at the Audubon Ballroom. Three members of the Nation of Islam shot him to death 15 times right in front of young Ilyasah’s eyes. For the remainder of her youth, Ilyasah grew up knowing very little about her father, and when entering college for the first time her peers had very high expectations of her to be very much like her outspoken father. As stated in the essay “Ilyasah’s classmates expected a Black Muslim who would light up the campus with fiery speeches and regale them with tales of her legendary father…” (108) But she was in fact the very opposite, for she was a shy middle class woman who grew up sheltered with very little knowledge of the great man her father was, since her mother never spoke much of him except for the fact that he was an important martyred civil rights leader.
Feeling somewhat obligated, Ilyasah accepted the invitations she received to come speak at various political rallies and to be the inspirational speaker that everyone assumed she was just because she was the spawn of the prestigious Malcolm X. Everyone seemed to expect the voice and passion of Malcolm X in the body of Ilyasah who felt that if she didn’t get up on stage and speak to her eager audience that it would be dishonoring her father’s memory. In the essay Ilyasah states, “I didn’t want to take away from what my father represented. And I felt if I didn’t give the speech, it would take away from my father. I didn’t have a choice.” (114) Representing her father and speaking about him so much caused Ilyasah to become more and more curious about who her father truly was and how he thought and felt, which led her to further educate her self on him. She decided to purchase her father’s autobiography “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and even enrolled in a college course so she could learn more about the mysterious man her father was to her.
The Nation of Islam murdered Malcolm X for revealing to the public that the organizations founder, Elijah Muhammad had extramarital affairs, impregnating several women. He predicted his fate in his autobiography, for revealing such a secret would surely result in dire consequences. But putting the Nation of Islam to justice just goes to show how selfless and brave he was, preventing anyone else from being lied to by Muhammad. This to Ilyasah was the most emotionally impacting part of her father’s autobiography that she’d read. She felt that it was completely unfair that he was so giving and selfless and then to be betrayed like that with no there to help him. “I don’t really think about them [The Nation of Islam] often but when I do see programs and they start acknowledging individuals, I always wonder, when are they going to acknowledge my father who really sacrificed his life and lived by their teachings?” Stated by Ilyasah Shabazz (115)
Ilyasah Shabazz obviously did not choose her life as being the daughter of a well remembered civil rights hero and has no desire to take her father’s image and become the next Malcolm X, but in her life she did however choose to keep her father’s spirit and memories alive by speaking at rallies and writing a book called “Growing Up X” dedicated to him and what life was like growing up without him. Although she often felt pressured to get up and speak in front of an audience Ilyasah chose to do it anyways for her father and the people who admired him, which soon made her realize that her peers knew Malcolm X better than she even did as his daughter. So in a way she was greatly influenced by the people around her to get to know her long lost father whose legacy she continues to carry on. As quoted from the essay, “Now she [Ilyasah] knows who her father was, but she also knows who she is. And despite the hardships that have come with her name, she remains grateful.” (118) Ilyasah Shabazz seems to greatly appreciate and respect her father and who he was, and appears to be proud to be his daughter, stating that she “would never trade parents with anyone.” (118)
Nadia Hassan
8-9
english 1a
IIyash Shabazz( Daughter Of Malcolm X)
IIyasah Shabazz is the daughter of Malcolm X a Black Muslim who was known as a symbol of Black Separation of the Civil Right Movement. She didn’t really know her father because her father was shot to death in front of her eyes when she was only two years old. She didn’t grow up with him to remember him. People expected her to be a different person but she ended up being a normal person.
IIyasah was given a choice to become who she wanted and she took it. She went to college and she earned a MS in Education and Human Resources from Fordham Univeristy. Today she is the public affairs director for the city of Yonkers. She could have followed her fathers footsteps being a civil rights leader or could have been in the Nation Of Islam following their rules.
I thought IIyasah was a victim of circumstance because people expected her to be like her father and she wasn’t and she wasn’t afraid to show it. Even though she respected her father, she wasn’t him, she was her own person. Over time IIyasah has grown more comfortable with herself despite other people expectation. “I realized that I didn’t have to re-create the amazing lives of my mother or my father, all I had to do was be my own best self” (pg116).
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