.jpg)
*Several days after the Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan announced his support of Barack Obama, a daughter of the late Malcolm X has announced that she is also backing the senator's run for the White House.
Malaak Shabazz was being interviewed on SIRIUS radio host Mark Thompson's "Make It Plain" program at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, where her father was fatally shot in 1965.
Below is a partial transcript:
MARK THOMPSON: The daughter of Malcolm X is endorsing Barack Obama.
MALAAK SHABAZZ: Since day one.
MARK THOMPSON: Have you talked to him? Does he know that?
MALAAK SHABAZZ: No I haven't, but we have mutual people who we know. I'm sure it won't be too long.
MARK THOMPSON: But now here's the thing. And I respect Barack too. And I understand what is going on. I understand what his purpose is in the context.
What you represent, what your parents represent now through you, to a large extent, would be something that Barack's constituency may not quite be able to handle.
MALAAK SHABAZZ: I think so. He has opened the gamut -- from white, black, Republicans, [and] Hispanic. He's got Native Americans voting, and they wouldn't even vote before because they didn't think anything was going to be done for them.
MARK THOMPSON: You all heard it here first. That Malaak Shabazz has just endorsed [Obama]. Are you speaking on behalf of your family or is this just you in terms of endorsing Barack?
MALAAK SHABAZZ: I'm speaking for myself. I know my sisters. There's six of us. At least four of them are for Barack, but it doesn't really matter [because] I'm for Barack and I promote Barack Obama.
MALAAK SHABAZZ: Actually, him and Michelle remind me of my parents, and what they have to face with children, and with the climate that we're dealing with politically. She's brilliant. My mother's brilliant. He's brilliant. My father was brilliant. And they're still sticking to the community. So, no, they are not Betty and Malcolm. But they are the present day Betty and Malcolm.