Malcolm X In What Ways Was Malcolm

Malcolm X

In what ways was Malcolm X's individuality denied him because of his race? One important expression of his individuality was his desire to become a lawyer when he was young. When his teacher asked him what he wanted to be, and he told the teacher he wanted to be a lawyer, the teacher told him he needed to be "practical." It wasn't practical for a black young man to try to become a lawyer. Blacks couldn't get into law school and usually couldn't afford law school anyway. Blacks weren't considered smart enough to be lawyers.

What personal experiences made him open to accepting the teaching that "the white man is the devil?" What reading in history? In what way did his hajj change his attitude? When Malcolm Little was a young child, white supremacists came one night and burned down his house. The didn't like what his father was preaching. His father tried to protect the family's home by shooting at the men who were setting it on fire. When the police came afterwards, they were not concerned with catching the perpetrators, but only with the fact that Michael's father had a gun. Michael also grew up at a time when lynchings were common occurrences. Two years after they burned his house down, Michael's father was murdered by white racists who wanted to stop him from preaching the philosophy of Marcus Garvey and stirring up "good" [read subservient] black folks. When Michael was converted to Nation of Islam, he read an alternative history which explained how white people came to exist on earth. The story was that black people were originally the only people. A black scientist long ago had experimented with genes and gradually developed people who had light skins. The trouble was they were aggressive and violent and eventually turned on the black people in Africa, enslaved them, and deprived them of all their rights. After Michael left the Nation of Islam, he was at loose ends. He decided to visit Mecca, the Holy City of Muslims. As he traveled there, he met white people who were also Muslims, and he discovered that they were not racist, that they accepted him with brotherly love and treated him with respect. He saw that not all white people are devils or innately evil.

4 What message did Malcolm have for African-Americans? For white Americans? Why did human rights become his central idea, and not just civil rights? What were his final spiritual teachings? Malcolm X felt that black people had to take some responsibility for their predicament. They had accepted the idea that everything white was good and to be emulated. They needed to develop pride in their own racial identity. He urged them to become self-sufficient, to separate from the white establishment, and form their own political structures. He favored an independent black state, rather than integration or de-segregation. His message to white people was that blacks would fight back. He did not believe in a policy of non-violence. If violence was necessary for self-protection, he would endorse it. Human rights became a central issue because it wasn't just a matter of riding in the front of the bus and getting rid of separate drinking fountains. The white attitude toward blacks was that they weren't human beings with the same hopes and fears as any other human being. Blacks were not just denied their civil rights. They were beaten, abused, lynched, and wrongfully imprisoned, all violations of human rights. His final spiritual teachings had to do with the possibility of world brotherhood. After he left The Nation of Islam, he converted to orthodox Islam and learned to be a real Muslim. He renounced his previous hatred for whites and declared that all people are the children of Allah. He had developed a broader vision of the problem of race and called for international cooperation: "This is a world problem, a problem of humanity."

6. What can Malcolm tell us about the value of education? Malcolm was self-educated. He learned first from his life on the streets as a drug dealer, a numbers runner, a hustler, and a small-time burglar. After he went to prison, his sister was instrumental in getting him transferred to an experimental prison, where prisoners were treated more humanely, and where there was a library with a heavy concentration of history and religion books. His education in prison, combined with his conversion to the Nation of Islam transformed him. When he got out, he went to Detroit and met his spiritual leader, Elijah Muhammud. He began preaching, teaching, and giving speeches. He recruited black youth into the Nation. Education had given him a mission.