Malcolm X’s legacy has pervaded the American culture, often in a very superficial manner, and that has often left people dissatisfied. After his death, Malcolm X’s daughters saw their father’s legacy become a caricature utilized to sell anything from T-shirts to hip-hop records leaving them angry about the wide scale exploitation of their father’s idealism (Chappel 110). Even so, the importance of a positive African American role model in a white centered culture cannot be understated, and Malcolm X’s impact on youth continues into the twenty-first century. In his song “Black to the Future,” Def Jef raps “Black to the future, what a funky concept/A poet with soul, brothers and sisters, let's step/Together in sync, just think about the outcome/We know where we're goin, because we know where we came from.” Because of Malcolm X’s contributions to Civil Rights as well as important contributions to the analysis of institutional racism he continues to influence the future, reminding African American’s where they came from and where they hope to be.
