If your hand is in that position, a black power/socialist fist, you are not swearing to uphold the law.
ATHENS, Ga. – In a 1962 speech in Los Angeles, Malcolm X made perhaps his most powerful declaration about the state of black women.
“The most disrespected person in America is the black woman,” Malcolm X said in the Los Angeles speech. “The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.”
Beyoncé recently borrowed the line for her song “Don’t Hurt Yourself,”off her feminist manifesto, “Lemonade.”
Malcolm’s X’s quote came 29 years before Mariah Parker was born. But she still feels it.
On Monday, the 26-year-old University of Georgia doctoral student was sworn in as an Athens-Clarke County commissioner. When Probate Judge Susan Tate swore Parker in as the District 2 commissioner, she was didn’t use a bible.
On the steps of the Athens City Hall, Parker cocked her right fist in the air and before taking the oath of office, placed her left hand on a well-worn copy of “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” held by her mother, Mattie Parker.