The Suppression and Liberation of Malcolm's Personal Agency: Malcolm X and His Religio-Racial Understanding of White People.

This article challenges the prevailing scholarly interpretation that Malcolm X underwent a major transformation in his views on the white race following his 1964 Hajj pilgrimage. Instead, it argues that Malcolm’s post-Hajj statements about white people reflected beliefs he held privately throughout his life but had suppressed publicly while a member of the Nation of Islam (NOI). Drawing on postcolonial theory and Judith Weisenfeld’s religio-racial theory—which links religious and racial identities as forms of resistance—the article contends that Malcolm strategically conformed to the NOI’s orthodox doctrine that white people were inherently evil, despite personally rejecting this view. His Hajj experience allowed him to reconcile and openly express his true beliefs, which emphasized judging individuals by their actions rather than race, highlighting a continuity rather than a rupture in his racial ideology. This reinterpretation invites further scholarly inquiry into Malcolm X’s religious philosophy and the complex interplay between personal conviction and organizational allegiance in his activism.