On indiscretions

Biographers oblige by noting indiscretions. Reading about the young women who bore Elijah Muhammad’s many children in Manning Marable’s Malcom X: A Life of Reinvention was expected. The illicit conveys something about the man. But the actual consequences of Muhammad’s personal tastes remains unclear. The Nation of Islam remained intact. Malcolm X didn’t immediate shun his teacher. If it wrecked the women’s future, we don’t learn much about it.