Esoteric vs Pragmatic
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Marcus Garvey's Black American Islam emphasized black empowerment through entrepreneurship and "amassing earthly power" (Curtis 49). Perhaps recognizing the capitalist system that prevailed in America, his idea of achieving black freedom involved amassing capital within the black community and it follows that he was staunchly anti-communist. Meanwhile, Malcolm X's enlightenment post-conversion to Nation of Islam involved an understanding of the ravages of imperialism and capitalism worldwide (he describes Western imperialism in Africa, India, China, etc.), offering a more critical and politically-backed distaste for the white world than Garvey or Noble Drew Ali were able to (so far as the reading details). In general, Malcolm X's faith in the NOI was more pragmatic than mystical as with Noble Drew Ali's earlier NOI predecessor, and I wonder how much of this owes to the difference in educational material available to them as a result of generational circumstances. Malcolm X had the benefit of an experimental rehabilitation center stocked with a wealthy man's library of history and religion, whereas Noble Drew Ali's texts and theology/ideology seem only to reference (read: plagiarize) largely esoteric religious interpretations and derivations.