Event Reflection: Annual Lecture 2024
On October 23, 2024, The Bahá’i Chair for World Peace hosted the 2024 Annual Lecture entitled “ The Level of Human Rights: Malcolm X and the Dilemmas of Black Internationalism, Then and Now”
The Lecture was given by Professor Brandon M. Terry, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University and the co-director of the Institute on Policing, Incarceration, and Public Safety at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.
In his lecture Professor Terry highlighted Malcolm X’s assertion that the struggle for civil rights must be expanded to a level of human rights. “When you are in a civil rights struggle you are confining yourself to the jurisdiction of uncle sam”-Malcolm X.
In the matter of civil rights the struggles and hardships that black people face are in the hands of the American government rendering them powerless. However, if civil rights are elevated to human rights, the inequalities can be taken to the United Nations and condemned by the UN’s charter of human rights.
Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights States “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” (UDHR).
Professor Terry continues and explains that Malcolm X anticipated that taking “Uncle Sam” to the world court would not only alter the balance of power in regards to racial injustice but also put those demands on a solid foundation to be upheld.
“ Our people used to look upon the American System as an American dream, but the black people, today are beginning to realize that its an American nightmare, what is a dream to you is a nightmare to us, what is hope to you has long since become hopeless to our people” Malcolm X
Professor Hoda Mahmoudi and Professor Brandon Terry
Malcolm believed civil rights was an act of submission and supplication. Having to ask “Uncle Sam” to be treated fairly where civil rights are concerned is degrading. He believed human rights are innate, recognized by all nations on earth, and can’t be given or taken away by man.
Professor Terry further asserted, Malcolm hoped the dignity of black people and their demands for fairness would appear self-evident, and speak to the self-interest of other groups once their concerns were taken to a world court and taken out of the degradation of American politics.
I found this speech extremely compelling and informative. It opened my eyes to the perspective that civil rights is inherently a double edged sword that doesn’t benefit the oppressed.
About the Author:
Nina-Abbie Temisan Omatsola is an undergraduate student working as a research intern with the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace. She is pursuing a dual major in Psychology and Theatre at the University of Maryland-College Park. Her interests include quality education for all.
