The daughter of Civil rights activist, Malcolm X has said she believes President Donald Trump's reaction to the Black Lives Matter pro...
The daughter of Civil rights activist, Malcolm X has said she believes President Donald Trump's reaction to the Black Lives Matter protests has helped to shine a light on the racism that black people have had to endure for centuries.
Ilyasah Shabazz, 57, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City said she feels Trump's response to the to the protest was good in the sense that it 'awakened' people to the 'kinds of people that actually exist out there'.
'To have him spewing some of the things that he says and then to see an officer steal someone's life the way he did and that continuing, people are understanding the challenges that blacks have experienced for the last 500 years,' she said in an interview with Sky News.
Ilyasah Shabazz, 57, says she believes the president's reaction has helped people see the kind of racism that they have been subjected to for hundreds of years
Shabazzsaid she feels Trump's response to the to the protest was good in the sense that it 'awakened' people to the 'kinds of people that actually exist out there'.
The president was criticized for his response to George Floyd's death including this tweet which was widely perceived to have racist connotations in its phrasing
'I think he most certainly helped people to become more aware of what exists and people [may] understand when we say "that's racist" when you see the injustices that blacks, people of color, indigenous people, women, but primarily that blacks have experienced.'
During the interview which was broadcast on Monday she revealed how she thought the current generation are of a similar mindset to her father and 'sick and tired' of racism.
She likened those participating in Black Lives Matter protests similar to those who called for change in the 1960s.
'[We must] make sure we are accomplishing these goals so that when the marching, demonstrating and protests are over, it doesn't just fall to the wayside and we don't just find ourselves 50 years from now in the same space where Malcolm was 50 years ago,' she said.
Malcolm X with young daughter Shabazz at John F Kennedy airport in New York. He was assassinated in February of 1965 at the age of 39
Malcolm X carries his daughter, Ilyasah, as he enters car at John F. Kennedy International Airport here , following his tour of the Middle East in May 1964
'My father said that it would be this generation that would get sick and tired, that they would recognize the people in power have misused it.
'And that they will no longer sit by idly and allow these injustices to continue. I saw many people's protesting signs and they said 'we are not our ancestors'.'
'I think that this generation of young people are much like my father. They're not going to be distracted by the things that don't matter and they're really thinking,' she continued.
Malcolm X was the main spokesperson for radical black Muslim group Nation of Islam.
He eventually renounced the group and aligned himself with oppressed people around the world.
He was assassinated in New York on 21 February 1965.
Malcolm X was one of the most outspoken leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1960s
Shabazz says she believed the civil rights movement is still fighting for many of the same things her father was fighting for.
'The only way we're going to get rid of this awful cancer is by getting involved and ending it,' she said.
'We should not have to spend our lives from the time we can walk to the time we perish fighting injustice.'
Speaking on the death of George Floyd she noted his death came at a 'sensitive' time due to the coronavirus pandemic.
'It was just so awful. It was absolutely horrendous that someone could just rather matter-of-factly steal his life with his neck.
'That is what you call the most wicked death ever.'
She said that she believes because many people are self-isolating and spending more time at home, they had more time to think about Floyd's death which perhaps saw it have greater impact.
'Life and death. Am I going to live or am I going to survive? Is this how I'm going to say goodbye to the world?' she said.
'And while we're even questioning who's going to live and who's not, here is someone taking someone else's life.'
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