That Powerful Scene of Profound Resonance

“Malcolm X”, Spike Lee’s first ever biography picture depicting the tragic yet legendary life events as well as the long-lasting legacies of the historic black activist/leader with the same name, who is apparently being dubbed to be one of “the most influential figures” during the Civil Rights Movement Era alongside with Martin Luther King Jr., although oftentimes not as critically well-acclaimed in terms of political reputation compared to King, due to a lot of his controversial approaches and emphasis which were much different from King’s “endorsements of non-violence”, which he instead proposed the specific idea that “ways of violence would sometimes be needed as means of self-defense”, and because of this and many other seemingly radical statements that were being suggested out, was inevitably misinterpreted and misunderstood by not only white folks within the general public, but as well as by his own racial peers or racial group of people, and was indeed constantly deemed an out-cast throughout his political campaign career, as “someone who was promoting the ideas of hatred and violence towards white Caucasians”, or which was that of the case of one-sided depictions that was being repeatedly reported and carried out by many different media outlets out there, at the time/during the particular time period.

In this specific essay, I’m going to further discuss as well as talk about another exceptionally legendary and world-renown civil rights activist figure coming from yet another corner of the world, who happened to appear within one particular scene towards the near-end of this specific film, whose appearance during the entire movie, although only for a brief few minutes, makes everything that was being presented surely more interesting as well as memorable. South African activist Nelson Mandela, who seemed like he was acting in a school instructor/lecturer position within a local South African primary/elementary classroom setting that way, where the classroom was apparently filled with plenty of school-aged children, and, where none of those selected child actors were actually being white Caucasians (by possibly obeserving and telling from the looks, outward appearances and basic skin tone complexions of them), but rather all of African descent, hinting/suggesting it was probably from a time period still during the so-called “Apartheid” racial segregation era within the country itself. After the specific shot of several couple kids quickly standing up and shouting out loud the immediate catchphrase of “I am Malcolm X!”, Mandela, standing in front of all of his students, with his own voice firm and steady, loudly yet proudly stated out the following lines, and no doubt that they surely came from the very deep bottom of the particular civil rights leader’s heart, as he would find himself nodding his head to and aligning with these words once coming out of Malcolm X’s mouth there : “As Brother Malcolm said, we declare our right on this earth to be a man. To be a human being. To be given the rights of a human being. To be respected as a human being, in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intended to bring into existence”, and then the statement itself was rapidly followed after by the last ever line of the whole entire filmwork, which is - “by any means necessary”, while showing the actual historical footage of Malcolm X making the speech during one of his past advocacy gathering rallies, which by this point basically wraps up the entire ending of the whole movie there, with the general credit rollings coming right after that. It is indeed notable/note-worthy that, although being as black civil rights leaders/activists from two separately/individually different countries - South Africa and America, which both also happen to share the specific similarity of being nations with long past histories of facing/dealing with white colonization, the historical circumstances and situations which Mandela himself had to face within his own country, may not be that different from Malcolm X’s, after all. “Aparthied”, which is a Afrikaans (localized South African language/dialect) word/term meaning and standing for “apartness”, by literal definition in English equivalency/translation, is indeed in its very essence, simply yet another form of the political policy of “Racial Segregation” mainly focusing/aiming at the intentional separation of parting blacks from whites within the general societal environment of South Africa, which was by all means, in many ways undeniably similar to the general societal situations/cicumstances which continued on during Malcolm X’s generation back in time within the States. It would be safe to say that generally speaking, in a larger sense, similar societal environments would usually result in similar life experiences of human beings living/residing within the world themselves, no matter whether if these supposed experiences would be that of good or bad, negative or positive; Thus, in yet another sense, it would probably also be absolutely/totally true to conclude that, on this particular matter, Mandela and Malcolm X would also undoubtedly happen to share a deeply profound bound, common symphysis, empathy, and/or resonance, as well as extraordinary internal connections with each other (no matter if spiritually or mentally), since both men are driven by ultimately similar greater goals/aims/ambitions in nature throughout each of their seperate life paths.

The historical episode/chapter of the specific “Apartheid Era” within South Africa in almost any sort of way deeply connects to the “Racial Segregation Generation” within the United States, as it is obvious and no secret that as human beings, our fates as well as destinies are indeed oftentimes interwined as well as deeply connected with each other in subtle and covert manners, whether we would come to realize that or not. So, as a matter of fact, it would be an extra important mission here for us all to gradually learn to how to fight/combat alongside with each other’s shoulders and be able to support each other throughout the process that way, almost like war-time comrades in a sense, just like how Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X were each continuously keeping on doing, instead of fighting/combating against or turning our backs on each other, for this is the only possible way here in order to reach ultimate social justice as well as societal equality for all folks out there, as collective human beings living on this earth. After all, individual power/strength may be small and limited in potential influences or generalized impacts, but once combined altogether that way, the actual result from it could be something that is ever lastingly unignorable, and definitely not to be underestimated.