Book Review – “Growing Up X”

Caption: “Growing Up X” by Ilyasah Shabazz with Kim McLarin, c.2002, One World / Ballantine Books, 235 pages.By Terri Schlichenmeyer Sometimes, you have to wonder if the children of famous or influential people feel an incredible sense of pressure to be as imposing as their parents were. Was Josephine Baker’s Rainbow Tribe ever compelled to follow in their brave mother’s footsteps? Did the sons of Abraham Lincoln feel as if they’d never fill their father’s shoes?Or, like author Ilyasah Shabazz, did they become the kind of people their parents would be proud to know? What’s it like to grow up with a legacy? In the book “Growing Up X”, you’ll find out what it was like to be the daughter of a controversial, charismatic man whose teachings are still discussed and debated. Although she was just two years old when her father, Malcolm X, was assassinated, Ilyasah Shabazz says that she has distant memories of him. She remembers waiting for him to come home, and she recalls that he caught her and swung her over his head when he arrived. Cookies remind her of her father, she says. Blessedly, she has no memory of February 21, 1965. That was the day that Malcolm X was killed in front of his wife, Betty, and three of his six daughters at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. Shabazz says that, in the years after her father’s death, her mother made sure that her daughters were raised the way Malcolm X would’ve wanted them to be raised. Shabazz recalls innocently wearing shorts around the house one day, and she remembers her mother’s rebukes for it. Modesty, kindness, compassion, and good deeds were important in the Shabazz household. Ilyasah Shabazz says that, despite all outward appearances, her mother was a devout – but private – Muslim and she wanted her daughters to keep that in mind, always. Betty Shabazz also wanted her daughters to remember their heritage. Ilyasah Shabazz says that she and her sisters were tutored in Arabic and other languages, as well as extensive African history and Muslim history. Betty Shabazz made sure her girls went to camp, joined Jack & Jill, and were never singled out for who they were. Shabazz was an anchor for her daughters, up until the day she died of injuries sustained in a fire that was set by her own grandson. This year would have marked Malcolm X’s 81st birthday, but “Growing Up X” is more love story to Ilyasah Shabazz’s late mother, Betty, than it is to the father she barely remembers. While Shabazz gives her father credit for the basis of her life and the belief system that her mother instilled in her, she is also quick to point out that Betty Shabazz was an incredible role model and repeatedly sacrificed for the sake of her family. Partly because of her obvious love for her mother and partly because of her willingness to give her mother tribute, I loved Shabazz’s humble voice. If you’ve always wondered what it must be like to be the child of someone famous, read this book. Ilyasah Shabazz filled some X-sized shoes, and she did it with grace.