Malcolm X meets Maslow

Malcolm X meets Maslow:

Self-Actualization
Sanya Safi
William Rainey Harper College

Malcolm X meets Maslow

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little, was born on May 19th, 1925. He was Earl Little's, his father,
seventh son and Louise Little's, his mother, fourth son. Being lighter than his siblings, he gained the
favor of his father but not from his mother. As his life went on he would experience many racial attacks
and discrimination from care takers, teachers, and other officials. Being fed up with the discrimination t
he and other African American people faced, he would join the Nation of Islam, a radical Muslim group
that taught blacks were the Original People who had created the universe and ruled it for trillions of
years. It also taught that the white people were the creation of a lack scientist named Yacub, making the
white people inferior to the blacks (Terrill, 2010, p. 13). Malcolm X would get sucked into this society
and its teachings. Eventually, he would begin to see that the Nation was not what he had believed it to
be and would break away from the group. He would start his own Islamic group, which followed more
of the orthodox teachings of Islam, and make speeches against the teachings of the Nation of Islam and
their leader, Elijah Muhammad. Abraham Maslow would see Malcolm X's life as a perfect example of
someone going through all of the stages in his Hierarchy of needs, which when one need is gratified it
opens the door to a new need that would have to be satisfied ( Maslow,1968, p 163), and achieving
self-actualization and would have the characteristics of a self-actualized individual.
Being a Black citizen in the United States in the early and mid-1900's was not something that
was envied. During this time in American history, the blacks were discriminated against without
hesitation and without punishment. Also during this time, there were many civil rights movements
occurring all over the country, the most well-known movement was that of Martin Luther King Jr.
Another movement was that of the Nation of Islam, of which Malcolm X was a part of and was avid
follower, but this was not the point in his life that he had reached self-actualization. At this point in his
life, he was fulfilling the esteem need, by gaining recognition from others and having self-confidence
(Feist, Feist & Roberts, 2013, p 258). With his extraordinary talent of giving speeches and talks, he was
able to become the favorite of the Nation's leader and also a person that the FBI watched closely. Self-

Malcolm X meets Maslow

actualization, for him, was achieved on March 8, 1964, when Malcolm X declared that he was
independent of the Nation of Islam (Wainstock, 2009, p 88). This is when he, I think, achieved selfactualization because this when he realized that the Nation was not what he believed it to be. He found
out that the Elijah Muhammad was having affairs with his personal secretaries and having children
with them. Adultery was something that the followers of the Nation were told not to do ever because of
the severe consequences that it could result in and was something that Malcolm preached to the
followers in New York. When he found out that the leader was doing this, he felt that this was not what
he wanted to be a part of. After breaking off, he began to talk against the Nation of Islam, especially
after he had come back from Hajj, the Muslim's pilgrimage to Makkah, where he learned the orthodox
teachings of Islam. But one cannot say that a historical figure had achieved self-actualization without
considering the criteria that an individual must fulfill or at least have present in their personality.
The first criteria of being recognized as a self-actualized individual would be fulfilling all of the
lower needs before reaching the last, self-actualization (Feist, Feist, & Roberts, 2013, p. 265). The
lower needs but the more important ones are, respectively: physiological needs, safety needs, love and
belongingness needs, and esteem needs. Maslow (1968) said that the growth only occurs when the
dangers of the needs is minimized and the attraction of the need is enhanced for the individual to
actually want to reach it and fulfill the need completely (pp. 46-47). During his childhood, Malcolm X,
at the time Malcolm Little, had many issues with his physiological needs, especially when his father
died in 1931 due to either an accident or a murder made to look like an accident. Afterward, his family
almost never had food and their mother would have to boil dandelion greens so they would have
something to eat. Hunger would cause the young Malcolm to steal food to barely satisfy himself. In the
end, he was sent to live in a foster home and eventually a detention center, where he was fed and
clothed (Wainstock, 2009, pp. 7-9). We can see that young Malcolm was willing to do anything to be
able to have food, even steal, though his mother had warned him against it but when it was satisfied at

Malcolm X meets Maslow

the detention center, he no longer did reckless acts to gain the food. Malcolm was able to fulfill the
physiological need when it became easier for him to attain it, which was only at the detention center,
where they were required to feed the children that were attending.
After the physiological need was fulfilled, Malcolm was on an unconscious task to start on the
next need, the need for safety. The detention center's owners, taking a liking to him, decided to send
Malcolm to the local junior high to increase his education because of his potential. But he would never
feel welcomed, never feel safe, in that school, even though he was the class president, played sports,
and had the best grades. In 1941, he begged his half-sister, Ella Collins to take him into custody and
bring him into the all black neighborhood that she lived in (Wainstock, 2009, pp.8-9). One can see that
when Malcolm was in the all-white society, he felt that he was more endangered than safe, so that
means that since the dangers were magnified in the white society, it was more difficult for him to
achieve the need to feel and be safe. When he was transferred to his sister's neighborhood he was more
comfortable in his skin because there were people like him around him. This allowed him to fulfill the
need to be safe, which allowed him to move on to the next need, the need to feel loved.
The need of love and belongingness was the need that, I think, took the longest time for him to
achieve. Love, according to Maslow (1968), is a deficit need. By this he means that this need is like a
hole that needs to be filled with love and belongingness. If the hole is not filled at the right time in the
individual's life then it could cause serious pathology, but if the love and belongingness is found at the
right moment then the pathology is avoided (p. 41). In his late teenage years, Malcolm did a lot of
things that he would later regret when he reached adulthood, like drugs, procured woman for
prostitution and got into burglary rings. This would eventually land him jail in 1946 as an atheist and a
grudge against the white people (Terrill, 2010, p. 12). This would probably be the time when the hole,
which was mentioned before, would be the most vulnerable for the love that the Nation of Islam would
give to Malcolm. When Malcolm was brought into the folds of the Nation, he was greatly favored by

Malcolm X meets Maslow

the leader, Elijah Muhammad, whom to him was a fatherly figure. Also, the Nation reduced the
dangers of receiving love and belonging to the Nation, which allowed him to continue to the next
need of esteem.
The esteem need which included self-respect, confidence, competence, and the knowledge that
others hold them in high esteem and achieving the two levels of esteem reputation and self-esteem
(Feist, Feist, & Roberts, 2013, p. 258). This was not hard for Malcolm to achieve, while he was with
the Nation of Islam. While in the Nation, Malcolm Little became Malcolm X, making him a new
person and helping start with a clean slate. With his talent of public speaking, he attracted many new
followers to the Nation of Islam, like in the December of 1953 where he gained the Nation of Islam two
hundred followers (Wainstock, 2009, p. 36). Until the day he quit the Nation, he was known as the best
and greatest followers of Elijah Muhammad had, by the followers and the leader himself. For Malcolm,
using his great talent of giving speeches would have gone to waste if he did not join the Nation of
Islam. With the Nation, it was easier to speak about the issues that the Black Americans were facing
because he had a whole group behind him. If he had not joined the Nation, he would have probably
gone back to his old life of hustling in the ghettos of New York.
The next criteria is that the individual was free from any psychopathology, which means that
they did not have the tendency toward psychological disturbances (Feist, Feist, &Roberts, 2013, p 264265). A measurable way of knowing that an individual is free from psychopathology is to identify what
they exceed in and how use it in a creative way. Maslow (1968) felt that the creativity sprung much
more directly from the personality of the person (p.137). Malcolm X was a creative person in his own
way, and that one way would be his speeches. In his speeches, he would be less inhibited and was not
controlled in what he said and what he thought by others, including Elijah Muhammad, the one man
that he looked at as a father figure (Wainstock, 2009, p. 35). On June 4, 1964, Malcolm X broke to the
news of the infidelities of Elijah Muhammad and stated that the Nation of Islam would kill to keep the

Malcolm X meets Maslow

secret silent (Wainstock, 2009, p. 111). We can see that Malcolm X used his most powerful tool, his
ability to make great speeches, and used it in a way that would put his life in danger. He did not care
though of what could happen, all he cared about was getting the right and truthful information out into
the media to show the two facedness of the Nation of Islam. This act of creativity would be a reflection
of his personality and only stresses his personality rather than the achievements of the act of creativity.
Another way to measure if the person has not experienced psychopathology is to see if the figure has
had some sort of mystical experience, which could be religion, seeing God, etc. For Malcolm X, he had
become a Muslim in prison after his brother, Reginald, had visited him and introduced him to the
Nation of Islam and its ideas (Terrill, 2010, p. 14). But that was only to fulfill the third need of
Maslows hierarchy, the need for love and belongingness. Before that Malcolm had not belonged to
any group of people, so it would make sense that this need was fulfilled at that point of time. The
Nation of Islam would be considered by Maslow (1971) just a sat of habits and dogmas, which, at the
extreme, become entirely legalistic and bureaucratic, conventional, and empty. Organized Religion
become the major enemies of the religious experience and religious experiencer (p. 332). After
Malcolm X had left the Nation of Islam, the organized religion, he decided to go to the city of Makkah,
the Holy city for all Muslims. In the city he learned the true teachings of Islam of how all men were
created equally by God. He had felt enlightened and no longer believed the teaching of the Nation of
Islam because of what he had experienced with the white Muslims on his travels ( Wainstock, 2009,
pp.98-101). Malcolm X knew that he would have to fight for the justice and equality of all people in
the United States, not just for the Blacks.
Another criteria that Malcolm X would have to fulfill to become fully self-actualized would be
that he would have to be able to recognize the B (Being) values. These are the characteristics of a
being that are also valued by the being. These values are used by the self-actualized person when they
are perceiving the world and are apparent to others when they are at their peak experiences (Maslow,

Malcolm X meets Maslow

1971, p.128). There are a wide range of B- values that one can experience and there are certain levels at
which these values can be experienced. Maslow (1971) created a list of what kind of person is more
likely to prefer the B values. The individuals are more likely to be who are more healthy and mature,
older, stronger, more independent, more courageous, etc. (p. 142). Malcolm X can be put into most of
these categories with ease. First of all, Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam in 1964, which means that
he was 40 when he left the Nation (Terrill, 2010, p. 24). This is an age that B-values are most likely to
show up because he has seen enough of life to actually develop the B- values. Also Malcolm X was
seen as more independent than most. His wife, Betty X, disapproved of his non-stop schedule and the
fact that he had no time for relaxation and did not like how he was very critical of romantic talk
(Wainstock, 2009, p. 48). Malcolm X liked to do things by himself, to trust only himself, because of
his life before he had heard about the Nation of Islam, which flooded over to his marriage life. The
characteristic that is more prominent in Malcolm X that could Maslow's idea of the characteristics of a
self actualizer is him being very courageous. In 1964, after breaking from the Nation of Islam,
Malcolm X was a great threat to the Nation because he had known their secrets, like the leader having
extramarital affairs, the Chicago leadership corruption, and the Nation's dealing with the Klu Klux Klan
(Wainstock, 2009, p.90). Malcolm X knew that if he said too much then he would most definitely be
the target of the Nation but he continued to say what he thought should be put out into the light of the
media, without the fear of the Nation.
But what are the B- values that Malcolm X portrayed after he was self-actualized? Malcolm X
had a tendency to be the same in society as he was in his home, meaning he did not live a two face
life. Many people who were close to him would say that he had a strong sense of justice and order,
which both are two B-values that Maslow (1971) had identified (p. 129). When Malcolm had come
back from his trip to Makkah and the other Muslim countries, he saw that Islam taught that all men
were equal in the eyes of God, so he came back, fighting not only for the Blacks of the United States

Malcolm X meets Maslow

but for anybody who was being oppressed. A civil rights activist, Dick Gregory, said that before his trip
Malcolm preached only to the blacks but when he came back it was apparent that he preached to all
(Wainstock, 2009, p. 109). This shows that Malcolm knew that the blacks were not the only people who
were being oppressed and discriminated against, and knew these people, even though he did not know
them, he could relate to them and their situation. With this he became the inspiration for many young
people and helped many people get muster up enough strength to go against their oppressors. Another
B-value that was seen many of his friends and family was that he led a very simple way of life.
Malcolm X never really had an interest in living lavishly, before or after being with the Nation of
Islam. The only thing he would buy would be books and the basic necessities, otherwise he felt like he
did not need any other material things. I also feel that he should also be unique to the civil rights
movement. I think that because of how he thought that the Blacks should gain their civil rights.
Malcolm X felt that the Blacks should not use the nonviolence technique that Martin Luther King Jr.
was using in the south, he felt that the Blacks should be armed and ready to defend themselves against
the oppressors, whomever they may be, but did not advocate an armed rebellion ( Wainstock, 2009, p.
92). Maslow (1971) defined uniqueness as a person who is non-comparable, a novelty to the ideas and
the norms of the time that person is living in (p. 129). I feel that this is a term that describes Malcolm X
more than any other B- value that Maslow has put out in his literature. The example of armed blacks is
one way he differed from all of the civil right activists. I think another main difference between the
civil activists of the time and Malcolm X was that he was a Muslim. Most of the civil rights activists
during the time had a background of being devout Christians, like Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X
broadened the ideas of the people of America of not just the Blacks but also of different religions.
Malcolm X had used many of the B- values but these are the ones that were more prominent and
apparent during his life time.
The last, but not least, is when the individual has finally fulfilled their needs to grow, to develop

Malcolm X meets Maslow

and to increasingly become what they are capable of becoming (Feist, Feist & Roberts, 2013, p. 265).
Malcolm X by the end of his life had fully, I think, become he person that he was capable of being.
Even when he was being threatened by the Nation and other organizations, he continued to give
speeches that would condemn the Nation of Islam's ideologies and actions. He not only fought for the
civil rights of the black people but also fought for the human rights of the black Americans. When the
government passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Malcolm X felt that it would not do enough for the
black Americans because it did not do anything to help them economically and politically, like police
brutality, or to stop the discrimination in jobs, housing and education (Wainstock, 2009, pp. 121-122).
This idea of his, did not coincide with the other civil rights activists, for they were only looking to have
the government to make laws that would help the country become desegregated. He was looking to the
government to step in, if they actually felt that the blacks deserved rights, to help them economically
and politically. He continuously fought for these human rights that were so similar to civil rights.
Malcolm X was assassinated February 21, 1965, by two gunmen, who were later tried for his
murder (Wainstock, 2009, pp158 160). He would always remembered amongst his followers,
Muslims and non- Muslims alike, for his courage and acts of defiance against the Nation of Islam. He,
as a historical figure, would have to be said to have be a self-actualized individual, though he would not
know it. Many people still feel that he was far too extremist and was not proper in the way he carried
out his movements. But to many he will be a hero, which died doing not just what was the right thing to
do, but doing what he loved to do, helping his fellow Blacks to get what they deserved.

References

Malcolm X meets Maslow

10

Feist, J., Feist, G.J., & Roberts, T. (2013). Theories of Personality (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw
Hill.
Maslow, A.H. (1968). Toward Psychology of Being (2nd ed.). New York: Van Nostrand.
Maslow, A.H. (1971). The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. New York: Viking.
Terrill, R. E (Ed.). (2010). The Cambridge Companion to Malcolm X. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Wainstock, D.D. (2009). Malcolm X, African American Revolutionary. North Carolina: McFarland
and Company.