On Fri, 13 Nov 1998, Ken Follett wrote:

> I tried wearing a brightly colored "X" for Malcom hat for a while until
> I decided that the blacks I was encountering had no idea what Malcom
> meant to racial harmony. I got to worry how many had actually read the
> autobiography -- or possibly how many had got past the first 20 pages in
> life style. I think they suspected I was either patronizing, dumb, or
> daft. A little bit of cultural conflict there. The hat did not work for
> me in Harlem, and did worse on the Upper East Side. It now hangs on a
> peg in the back room and awaits the next ultraconservative challenge.

I still haven't gotten around to seeing the Spike Lee movie about his
life, but I grew up in East Lansing, where (30 years earlier), the then
Malcolm Little also spent some of his boyhood years.  He also lived in the
nearby cities of Lansing (where supposedly his father was murdered) and
Mason (where he went to high school).

Back before the advent of Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Malcolm X was without
question the most world-famous person ever to come out of the Lansing
area.  But the community has always been more eager to forget him than to
remember.

Whenever I or any of my mischievous political compatriots would propose
that the time had come to name, say, the new federal building or
something, for Lansing's most famous -- the hostile glares would be
switched on before we even got to say his name.

There is a historical marker at one of the Malcolm X homesites, at an
apartment complex on a major street on the far south side of Lansing (it
was rural when he lived there).  The street, ironically enough, has been
renamed Martin Luther King Boulevard, though King never even visited
Lansing.

Yet another irony.  Those of you who waded through my lengthy disquisition
on multistory parking facilities the other day may remember my description
of East Lansing's newest entry into the field, with its brightly-colored
(aqua, orange, red) convex steel "tubing" which led many to dub it the
Habitrail or the Gerbil Cage.  The city intended this to be "festive" and
"unique", and it surely is.

This unusual building sits either on or very near the site where Malcolm X
lived in East Lansing.

There was a contest to suggest names for the structure, but no acceptable
entries were received.  The notion of naming it for MX was rejected out of
hand.

So, while it is informally known as the Gerbil Cage, the official city
designation, as the tenth parking facility to be added to the city system,
is simply Lot/Ramp Number 10.

Think of what that would be in Roman numerals.

                             Larry Kestenbaum