Respect the architect: Malcolm X, the elections and the politics of empire

To be black in America is enough to be deemed "un-American", but to be black and Muslim is to be "anti-American". An opinion piece by Sohail Daulatzai, author of BLACK STAR, CRESCENT MOON.

daulatzai_black coverWith Guantanamo still open, drones still killing and anti-Muslim sentiment forming the rumbling bass line of empire, the upcoming US presidential elections have once again raised the spectre and threat of Islam and the Muslim third world to US national security and its interests. And with Obama as one of the two major candidates, the issue of Blackness is the elephant in the room.

While many want to further stigmatise Obama as a "closet Muslim" and the "Arabian Candidate" of the 21st century, others see his blackness as rebranding the image of America and helping to further US interests in the Muslim third world through a new "post-racial" and benevolent veneer.

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Published in: Al Jazeera English
By: Sohail Daulatzai