Ricky Jones: Montgomery brawl isn’t just about memes, and Malcolm X predicted it.

If you think the recent so-called Montgomery brawl, when a group of Black people rushed to the aid of a dock worker who was attacked by a white mob, was a singular incident and is only good for the comedic memes and videos that have followed, think again. Maybe it’s an indication of something more substantive. And maybe the legendary Malcolm X anticipated it 60 years ago in a now famous 1963 interview with University of California-Berkley Professor John Leggett and graduate student Herman Blake.

At one point, Leggett and Blake chided Malcolm about Black Muslims not retaliating when Black people outside of their organization were attacked. Brother Malcolm coolly responded, “I think you’ll find sir, that there will come a time when Black people wake up and become intellectually independent enough to think for themselves as other humans are intellectually independent enough to think for themselves. Then the Black man will think like a Black man, and he will feel for other Black people. This new thinking and feeling will cause Black people to stick together. And then, at that point, you’ll have a situation where when you attack one Black man you are attacking all Black men. And this type of Black thinking will cause all Black people to stick together. And this type of thinking also will bring an end to the brutality inflicted upon Black people by white people. And it is the only thing that will bring an end to it. No federal court, state court or city court will bring an end to it. It’s something that the Black man has to bring an end to himself.”

Overt oppression has a shorter shelf life

It was a powerful, and maybe prescient, observation. Those who are currently hellbent on persecuting Black people should learn from it. Unfortunately for them, their ongoing attempts to skew and hide American history from Black people also hamper their own edification. If they truly understood history and the nature of hegemony, they would know that overt oppression has a much shorter shelf life than that of the veiled, more sophisticated sort.

For example, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision of 1857 was so brutally clear in its belief that white dominance over Black people should be complete and absolute that it accelerated the country towards the Civil War. The murder of Emmett Till in 1955 and refusal to even consider a more lenient form of segregation were among the factors that prompted Black people to forge stronger bonds of unification and birth another phase of the Black civil rights movement.

Breonna Taylor's murder and brutality against Black people nationwide

In 2020, Louisville, Kentucky, a sleepy city that usually offers little in the form of forceful racial resistance, erupted in protest over the ongoing mistreatment of Black people after the murder of Breonna Taylor by agents of the state. Other cities followed. Blatant and unapologetic brutality against Black people nationwide had simply become too much to stomach. Many white-controlled American organizations, institutions, universities and politicians released statements of support saying they didn’t know things were so bad. “We must do better. We will do better,” they proclaimed.

They lied.

White America is not doing better by its Black citizens

The reality is, white America is not doing better by its Black citizens. In many ways, it’s doing worse. Things have gotten so bad from the U.S. Supreme Court on down, that many politicians, pundits and men and women on the streets feel it’s open season on Black folks. They may have miscalculated.

Contrary to popular belief, Black people don’t really want to fight, physically or politically. They’ve been doing that for a very long time and are exhausted. They just want to live in peace, enjoy the American promise of truth, justice, freedom and equality, and ensure a more just society where their children have unlimited possibilities just as their white counterparts do. But as political, physical and psychological attacks on Black people ramp up in America, the perpetrators of this violence will eviscerate any excuses denying what sits at the heart of it all – white supremacy. As Minister Malcolm predicted, Black people will eventually have no choice but to pull together and fight back on every level.

It bears repeating – if you think Montgomery is just about memes, you might want to think again. Maybe those who mean Black people harm are overplaying their hand. That level of clumsiness carries consequences. If you want to oppress, get better at hiding it. Otherwise, people eventually realize they have “nothing to lose but their chains” by resisting you.

Dr. Ricky L. Jones is the Baldwin-King Scholar-in-Residence at the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute and Professor of Pan-African Studies, University of Louisville. His column appears bi-weekly in the Courier-Journal. Follow him on Threads at @TheEmperorJones. 

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Montgomery brawl isn’t just about memes and Malcolm X predicted it.