I've been revisiting Malcom X's autobiography today for his birthday & it's clear that part of why the book is so important to so many is bc it embodies the idea that we dont have to accept our lives as static & inevitable. That we can change both ourselves & the world around us.

For me, Malcolm's appeal does not simply come from his eloquence & obvious brilliance, it comes from the fact that over the course of his short life he exhibited a capacity to grow, evolve, & change as he learned more about the world. It's an under-appreciated part of his legacy.

Agency, Malcolm showed us, is not only the ability to go from being incarcerated to being a civil rights leader, or to go from being unable to read to being one of history's most remarkable thinkers, it's the humility to know when you've been wrong, to name it, and to change.