The purpose of a writing class is to develop a meaningful thesis, direct or implied, that will generate a compelling essay. Most importantly, a meaningful thesis will have a strong emotional connection between you and the material. In fact, if you don’t have a “fire in your belly” to write the paper, your essay will be nothing more than a limp document, a perfunctory exercise in futility. A successful thesis will also be intellectually challenging and afford a complexity worthy of college-level writing. Thirdly, the successful thesis will be demonstrable, which means it can be supported by examples and illustrations in a recognizable organizational design.
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Therefore, Malcolm X was not, contrary to what his critics said, violent or irrational. Rather, he is worthy of our admiration because he was uncompromising in his struggle to champion human rights, he was able to see the corruption of The Nation of Islam, he had the courage to denounce Elijah Muhammad, and he had the honesty to renounce his previous racist views based on skin color.
While Malcolm's critics point out Malcolm's extreme rhetoric, we cannot blame for Malcolm's extreme state of mind when we consider his extreme circumstances and the urgency of his message. In fact, what appears to be "extreme" in the life of Malcolm X was in fact an appropriate response to the racist country he found himself in. His transformation in prison, his civil rights mission to hold white America accountable for their sins, his exposing the corrupt Elijah Muhammad, and his passion for purging black Americans of their self-hatred do not define Malcolm X as "extreme" as much as they define him as virtuous evidenced by _________________, _____________, ___________________, and ________________________.
Although Malcolm X encouraged violence to champion African American rights which made him a diminished figure in the eyes of many, we must look at the totality of his mission. In fact, Malcolm X was a self-taught historian who encouraged literacy, he was a warrior against the evils of white supremacy, he was a champion for black pride, and he was a man willing to die for his courageous commitment to his convictions.
Although Malcolm X made some worthy contributions in the civil rights struggle, he was a failure as a leader because he spent too much time being devoted to the criminal Elijah Muhammad, he failed to make alliances with mainstream black leaders like Martin Luther King, and he was guilty of making racist, anti-Semitic, and misogynistic commentary.
Burrow concedes (or admits) that Malcolm was at one time a racist, but that over time, especially after he returned from Mecca, an epiphany made Malcolm renounce his racist views.
Review Major Events of Malcolm X's Life from Autobiography of X, Modern Classics edition from Penguin.
In the Introduction, Paul Gilroy writes that the book shows Malcolm’s “mythic significance that is not always accurate in small details. These lapses do not, however, invalidate the motivated approach taken by the authors to undermine the larger claims to which their collaboration gives such eloquent and troubling voice” (4).
Do you agree, or not, that minor inaccuracies detract from the bold voice that informs Malcolm’s critique of America.
We further read that the Malcolm myth followed a certain template. As Gilroy writes: “Malcolm’s disturbing and exciting tale was orchestrated so that it corresponded to old patterns of story-telling in which pilgrims and sinners triumphed over adversity and acquired eventual redemption from unlikely sources. From this perspective, all the petty humiliation and routine brutality of American racial politics could detract from or even undermine The Autobiography’s universal story of conversion, betrayal and transcendent personal development.” We further read that the book was inspired by slave narratives (5).
In Alex Haley’s Foreword, we read that the collaboration was shaky from the beginning, informed by mutual mistrust and that all Malcolm did was spew religious clichés making it impossible for Haley to write the book. Only after observing Malcolm’s nervous scribbles on napkins could Haley tap into Malcolm’s unconscious and raise his childhood memories and get the story going.
It becomes apparent that Malcolm feels free to let loose his memories and treasures the exhausting time he spends with Haley because his life as a minister is a rigid role that makes him bottle his emotions up regarding his past.
Malcolm was like an angry, petulant adolescent with Haley in the beginning but warmed up and began to evolve as a human being, even seeing that white people could be good and black people, like his mentor, could be evil.
In his angry adolescent phase, Malcolm predictably was a misogynist who didn’t trust women.
We read on page 38 that Malcolm states that after his trip to Mecca he no longer believes in the racism. He also realized that his mentor and demigod Elijah Muhammad was the evil leader of a cult who had backstabbed him. Certainly, that affected his views on race and no longer could he see black as pure and white as contaminated.
In Chapter One, Nightmare, we read that Malcolm as a boy felt and witnessed some “kind of psychological deterioration hit our family circle and began to eat away our pride.” The accumulation of poverty, welfare, the violent loss of his father, the attacks of his house from the KKK with no police intervention, the loss of his mother to a mental institution—all these things taxed Malcolm’s mind and spirit and sent him into a depression. The flip side of depression is anger, which will come out as he grows older.
This loss of pride, dignity, and honor and a sense of growing self-hatred that attacked the spirit like a cancer made Malcolm consider the idea of feeling disgraced and this bottled-up rage against the evil religion of white supremacy, which was used to justify slavery, Jim Crow, and continued racism, would eventually become articulated when Malcolm discovered language in prison.
In Chapter Two, Mascot, we see this theme of disgrace and dehumanization continued as Malcolm describes white people casually calling him racial epithets like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
There’s a key passage in which his teacher Mr. Ostrowski gave him “advice” in the form of racist condescension. On page 118 we read the infamous passage in which his advisor told Malcolm to not purse “white man” jobs like being a lawyer but should pursue demeaning “black man” jobs, those that are tedious, menial, and often mindless.
His teacher advised the average white kids to pursue high-ambition jobs while Malcolm, who was at the top of the class, was advised to lower his expectations. His teacher said, Malcolm “needs to be realistic” based on who he is and what is skin color is in the context of calling Malcolm a racial epithet. And he did this kindly as if it were a gentle fact of life.
Malcolm explained his response: “The more I thought afterwards about what he said, the more uneasy it made me. It just kept treading around in my mind.” After seeing his teacher encourage the less intelligent white kids, Malcolm explained a change inside of him: “It was then that I began to change—inside.” Now there was a palpable hostility Malcolm’s ruffled feathers. He began to withdraw from the others at school and racial epithets, which he used to tolerate kindly, now made him agitated him with hostility. He was no longer the fun-loving “mascot.” He was an angry young man who had been injured by his teacher’s personal denigration.
After his new angry persona, we read on page 119, he was looked at as a problem and whisked away from the detention home to live with a new family.
As we read in Chapter Three, Homeboy, he moves to Boston to live with his half-sister Ella. In Boston, there are more black professionals and there is a different dynamic between whites and blacks. The latter are not conditioned to be so obsequious or subservient to white people as Malcolm had learned to be in Michigan.
In Roxbury, Malcolm met Shorty who taught Malcolm how to hustle, gamble, and be a hipster.
It was there that we read Malcolm tried to straighten his hair, in the aspiration toward “white beauty,” known as a conk (136). We read this is something that had a profound impact on him:
“How ridiculous I was! Stupid enough to stand there simply lost in admiration of my hair now looking ‘white’, reflected in the mirror in Shorty’s room. . . . This was my first really big step toward self-degradation: when I endured all of that pain, literally burning my flesh with lye, in order to cook my natural hair until it was limp, to have it look just like a white man’s hair. I had joined that multitude of Negro men and women in America who are brainwashed into believing that the black people are ‘inferior’—and white people ‘superior’-that they will even violate and mutilate their God-created bodies to try to look ‘pretty’ by white standards.”
Malcolm’s overriding passion and purpose in life would be to purge black Americans of their self-hatred and bring dignity to their disgraced minds and souls.
In Chapter 5, Harlemite, we read that Malcolm’s half-sister kicked him out of Boston because she didn’t approve of his relationship with Sophia, his white girlfriend. He moves to Harlem where he still sees Sophia. It was 1942 and Malcolm was only 17, yet he was living the life of an adult.
Chapter 6, Detroit Red, is considered controversial because biographer Manning Marable asserts that Malcolm exaggerated his criminal life in this chapter to put heavier contours on his criminal-to-redeemed man narrative.
In this chapter, Malcolm accounted for his own moral depravity and observed even greater moral depravity in privileged white men who, bored, sought greater and greater sordid entertainments and debauchery.
This underbelly of white society provided Malcolm with a glaring contrast to the American Myth of Innocence informed by white supremacy, which painted whites as moral, God-fearing Christians who saved the African heathens.
In Chapter 7, Hustler, Malcolm described his growing criminality, including robberies, drug dealing, and burglaries.
Malcolm said, “Through all of this time of my life, I really was dead—mentally dead. I just didn’t know that I was” (216).
In Chapter 8, Trapped, Malcolm finally gets closer to getting arrested.
As the Chapter 9 title Caught indicates, Malcolm’s days as a free criminal are over. His half-sister is shocked at how nihilistic and demonic he has become. He is a professed atheist. He is full of rage and demons and he has no purpose to vent his passions. His brain is soaked with drugs.
His error is taking a stolen watch to a jewelry shop for repair.
In Chapter 10, Satan, we learn that Malcolm received a 10-year prison sentence.
Introduced to the Nation of Islam, a sect of Islam, Malcolm learned the doctrine: “The white man is of the devil.” This belief explained all his misery. He experienced what he believed was an epiphany.
Even if the narrative wasn’t literally true, the narrative about the white devil was metaphorically true. It was also undeniable.
We can understand why this doctrine would appeal to Malcolm and many men in his position.
Another powerful message from the Nation of Islam: “You don’t know who you are. The white man stripped you of your identity and gave you self-hatred in its place.”
We read on page 256 that the white man stole the black man’s culture, hid the black man’s history, his empires, his accomplishments, and told him he was a dumb animal.
There is an element of truth in this.
Of course there is no White Devil, a former black scientist, by the name of Mr. Yacub, but this cult resonates because the underpinnings of the belief system are largely true. See page 259 for more on this doctrine.
The Transforming Power of Literacy in Prison
On page 265, we read about Malcolm’s hunger for expressing himself, in particular to his mentor, Elijah Muhammad (who will later betray him). He started reading a dictionary from beginning to end.
In Chapter 12, Savior, Malcolm found a father figure in Elijah Muhammad who would betray Malcolm just as the white man did. This dual tragedy defines Malcolm’s life to this day.
Chapter 13, Minister Malcolm X, we read about Malcolm’s growing charisma as a religious and human rights leader under the umbrella of a religious sect or what some might call a cult.
In Chapter 14, Black Muslims, Malcolm explains how white America was terrified of this new religion, which was becoming more and more popular with black Americans.
In Chapter 15, Icarus, we read how Malcolm X addressed collective white guilt for the sins against black Americans.
In Chapter 16, we read how Malcolm’s growing popularity stirred jealousies with his mentor and worse his mentor’s scandals made Mr. Muhammad despise Malcolm who in his mentor’s compromised position would be the logical Alpha Leader of the group. Malcolm had to be expelled.
In Chapter 17, Mecca, Malcolm left the Nation of Islam sect to become a universal Muslim, now assessing people on their heart and soul, not their skin color. This caused a further rift with his old sect.
In Chapter 18, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Malcolm’s name change signified his new identity as a universal Muslim, no longer a “black Muslim.”
In Chapter 19, titled 1965, we read of Malcolm’s tragic assassination, by rival Black Muslims, which remains controversial to this day.
Two Counterargument and Rebuttal Examples
Malcolm X’s critics are eager to point out Malcolm’s infamous misogynistic quotes about women being vain nags who impede men from achieving their greatness. While this is a regrettable truth that captures Malcolm at an ignorant period of his life, we have to remember that Malcolm made these statements when he was beholden to the mind control of a misogynistic religious sect, a cult that Malcolm later renounced. While we can only speculate that Malcolm evolved beyond these misogynistic statements, we can offer concrete evidence that he offered black women a message of self-love, pride, and dignity to counteract the white supremacy fueled racism that would make them ashamed of their minds and bodies. Surely, we can mitigate charges of Malcolm’s misogyny when looked at the total evolution and message of his commitment to eradicating self-hating racism.
Detractors of Malcolm X point out that he was, contrary to his message of equal rights, a demagogic racist who spewed inflammatory remarks against whites for merely the color of their skin and Jews for unsubstantiated conspiratorial theories encouraged by Elijah Muhammad. However, we must again acknowledge that Malcolm had an anti-racist epiphany when he travelled to Mecca and Africa after which he renounced his racist views. Therefore, Malcolm’s detractors who fixate on one state of Malcolm’s psychological development show their ignorance of Malcolm’s evolution toward being a better person. As such, these critics lose much of their credibility.
While I concede that Malcolm X was a flawed man, vulnerable to the manipulations of Elijah Muhammad and prone to spewing misogynistic, anti-Semitic, and racist nonsense, when we examine the totality of Malcolm X’s evolution and human rights struggle, we are compelled to see him as an authentic voice for alleviating the nightmare of racism in America.
Conclusion Example as a Paraphrase of the Thesis That Includes the “So What Factor” (broader significance)
Of course Malcolm X was a flawed man. Of course Malcolm X put his foot in his mouth over and over. Of course Malcolm X delivered regrettable diatribes against people based on their gender, ethnicity, and skin color. However, no other black leader in the history of America addressed the internalized racism brought upon by 400 years of white supremacy. No other black leader boldly declared the crimes of white America against black Americans. No other black leader captured the hearts and minds of not only Americans but also people throughout the world to address the humanitarian nightmare of racism. We see this nightmare today as police are killing unarmed young black men and as entire black communities are being incarcerated in a form of segregation that that recalls the Jim Crow laws that oppressed Malcolm X in his time. We must therefore heed the warnings of Malcolm X’s speeches, which prove just as relevant today as they did during his time. We ignore his urgent message, and his greatness, at our own peril.
Work on one or more of the following for your partial draft due next meeting:
One. How important was the moral purity of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad?
He was the example and he created the organization’s credibility. When he feared exposure, he needed a scapegoat, Malcolm X.
Two. Why is Minister Malcolm vulnerable in a new way when Elijah Muhammad gets ill?
Jealousy, envy, and rumors circulate that Malcolm is trying to take over. He’s making “a pile of money.” See 399.
Even white people were crediting Malcolm for the prominence of the Nation of Islam.
This petty jealousy would no doubt challenge Malcolm’s assumptions about how white people were terrible in human relations while people of color were superior in this regard. Malcolm received a lesson in universal human nature. This lesson would cause him to change his views about the idea of race.
On page 402 Malcolm’s leader embraces him and proclaims Malcolm his greatest follower, but that will be their final public appearance.
Three. What shakes Malcolm’s faith in Elijah Muhammad?
Paternity suits from two women for four children evidence that Malcolm’s leader was a fornicator and a hypocrite. See 403. Here was a man who condemned others and ruined their lives for these sins and he was committing these same sins.
Thus Malcolm had to accept that his leader was a fraud and a devil, the very type of person he was presumably saving his black people from: the white phony devils who had created the evils of white supremacy.
Malcolm on page 416 talks about his leader’s cover-up and cowardice concerning his adultery.
He felt like a “fool,” which “unearthed emotions” he hadn’t felt since he was living in his hustler days.
Things get worse. On page 406, Malcolm discovers that Elijah Muhammad was backstabbing Malcolm, calling him “dangerous.”
The trauma was making Malcolm “look tired,” the words of reporters who knew him well. He was losing his moxie.
Then “chickens come home to roost” statement in the wake of the JFK assassination results in Malcolm’s 90-day censure in which he must remain silent (411).
When Malcolm returns to New York, he finds his assistants have already been informed of his censure.
“I knew I was being set up” (412).
There was an order to kill Malcolm. See page 415.
Four. Why do you think Elijah Muhammad wanted Malcolm X killed?
Could be a variety of reasons. But look at these possibilities:
Malcolm’s superior morality was an implicit condemnation of EM.
Malcolm wanted his leader to play the David card, claiming his sins were overshadowed by his good deeds, but EM didn’t want to play that card, which would make him confess his wrongs.
EM needed a scapegoat and a distraction, so why not throw Malcolm under the bus?
EM feared Malcolm was getting too powerful.
EM was jealous of Malcolm’s superior intelligence.
Five. How does Malcolm’s human rights activism evolve?
On page 427, we see he wants to embrace all black Americans, regardless of religious affiliation, to fight injustice.
He states on page 430, that it was time to broaden his understanding of Islam and not have the narrow definition from EM.
A white Muslim treats him with dignity, like a brother, in Germany (433).
Malcolm sees more of a race obsession in America than in Europe and other places. See page 453.
On page 454, Malcolm says he met white Muslims whose “white attitude had been erased by Islam.” In other words, these whites weren’t Kool-Aid drinkers for the false religion of white supremacy. See also page 455.
Also see page 479 in which Malcolm denounces his blanket condemnation of white people.
Six. What’s most painful and heartbreaking in Malcolm’s soul as we read the autobiography?
Malcolm was in many ways saved by EM’s philosophy, which helped Malcolm cleanse and purge himself from the self-hatred brought upon by the evil virus of white supremacy, and then to find that EM was a fake and a fraud and a betrayer who exacted the same kind of hateful behavior Malcolm suffered at the hands of “devil white man” really crushed Malcolm.
Seven. What definition of white supremacy does Malcolm give us on page 479?
“Why, here in America, the seeds of racism are so deeply rooted in the white people collectively, their belief that they are ‘superior’ in some ways is so deeply rooted, that these things are in the national white subconsciousness. Many whites are even actually unaware of their own racism, until they face some test, and their racism emerges in one form or another.”
McMahon adds: “This belief in white superiority had to be as strong as slavery is evil in order to assuage the guilt of those white who partook in the evils of slavery.”
Eight. How effective was Malcolm’s message?
By 1992, 84% of the black community considered Malcolm their hero (this on the heel’s of Spike Lee’s film Malcolm).
Nine. Do we have definitive knowledge of the guilty parties behind Malcolm’s assassination?
No, we read in Manning Marable’s biography Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention that we don’t have definitive knowledge, but we do know that the FBI and local police had knowledge beforehand that a hit was underway.
Review
Thesis That Defends Malcolm X with a Concession Clause
While Malcolm X was far from a perfect man, prone to hate-mongering demons, venomous demagoguery, and less than accurate details in his Autobiography, his overall force as a champion for human rights is undeniable when we consider ___________, ________________, _______________, __________________, and _________________.
Another Thesis That Defends Malcolm X with a Concession Clause
Even though we can ascribe major faults in Malcolm X’s character, including exaggerations in his Autobiography, an unsavory, blind commitment to the corrupt Elijah Muhammad, and an irrational castigation of the entire white race, his evolution, integrity, and power as a champion for restoring dignity to an oppressed people is evidenced by __________________, ___________________, ___________________, and _____________________.
Thesis That Refutes Malcolm X with a Concession Clause
While Malcolm X played an important role in America’s dialogue about racism and the country’s false history of freedom and innocence, Malcolm X cannot qualify as a great human rights leader, along the likes of Martin Luther King, because ___________________, _________________, ________________, and _____________________.
Although Malcolm X spoke an urgent truth to the condition of racism afflicting black people in America, his overall message collapses when we consider ___________________, ______________________, __________________, and _______________________.
In-class Exercise:
Work on a thesis with a concession clause. I recommend that you transition this thesis from your introduction.
Was Malcolm's "reinvention" the mark of a fraud or the mark of a man with integrity and greatness?
Some Points I Would Cover If I Were Writing the Essay
1. More than any black leader, Malcolm X exposed the psychology of white supremacy and its resulting learned self-hatred in the black community.
2. More than any black leader, Malcolm X instilled pride and a sense of real history in the black community.
3. More than any black leader, Malcolm X made white America accountable for the human rights nightmare that was embedded in their system of white privilege.
4. Malcolm X championed the value of education, language, history, discipline, and critical thinking as part of his personal transformation and his desire to transform others for a better world.
5. Malcolm X was a model of uncompromising courage and sacrifice in order to lift his people out of the degradation of racism.
Counterarguments
1. Malcolm X was a fan-boy or Kool-Aid drinker for Elijah Muhammad who proved to be a charlatan.
2. Malcolm X was a racist in that he hated people based on skin color, not their character and therefore he was guilty of the very thing he claimed to despise.
3. Malcolm was prejudiced against women; therefore, he was guilty of prejudice, the very thing he claimed to be against. We see his misogyny (hatred of women) discussed in the article "Did Malcolm X Hate Women?"
While opponents of my subject make some good points against my position, they are in the larger sense wrong when we consider that they fail to see and interpret correctly ____________, ______________, _______________, and _______________.
How to Set Up a Counterargument in Your Rebuttal Section (The Templates)
Some of my critics will dismiss my claim that . . . but they are in error when we look closely at . . .
Some readers will 0bject to my argument that . . . However, their disagreement is misguided when we consider that . . .
Some opponents will be hostile to my claim that . . . However, their hostility is unfounded when we examine . . .
While Author X is guilty of several weaknesses as described by her opponents, her agument holds up to close examination in the areas of _________________, ______________, _____________, and ______________.
Even though author X shows weakness in her agument, such as __________ and ____________, she is nevertheless convincing because . . .
While author X makes many compelling points, her overall argument collapses under the weight of __________, ___________, ___________, and ______________.
Work on in Class
Introduction
Thesis (make sure you have a concession clause)
Your last 2 paragraphs before your conclusion: counteraguments and rebuttals
Autobiography of Malcolm X, Lesson 4, Chapters 13-15
Study Questions
One. What begins Malcolm’s mission in Chapter 13?
To proselytize (preach to) his black Americans so they will “wake up” from the nightmare of white supremacy and find their identity, which was stolen by "white history."
Many have said that Malcolm was a “therapist” for black Americans, helping them purge the self-hatred resulting from the sick religion of white supremacy.
Part of Malcolm’s work was to enlighten black Americans on the horrors of slavery, for many blacks the white man taught that slavery was as a “beautiful, romantic” period in American history had taught slavery when everyone “knew their place” (312).
Educating black men and women on the details of slavery created an intense reaction that helped Malcolm’s cause.
He educated them about how the blond, blue-eyed Jesus was part of the "whiteness religion" in which white people took religion and history and “whitewashed” it for their own purposes (320).
During the Black Power Movement of the 1960s, many African Americans had black Jesus paintings in their homes.
Two. What kind of control did Elijah Muhammad have over his disciples, including Malcolm?
They could not drink alcohol, eat pork, fornicate, dance, go to movies, attend sporting events, gamble, or take long vacations (322). The quest for purity was a top priority, which made the leader's transgressions all the more dramatic.
Malcolm made his life even tougher, denying himself all women, since he believed he didn’t have the time to love one properly. Then everything changes when he met Sister Betty X, but he wanted Elijah Muhammad’s approval.
Three. McMahon says no one should be shocked that an organization like the Black Muslim Movement was born in America with the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and impassioned disciples like Malcolm X, that such a movement in America was inevitable. Explain.
We learn from Malcolm’s autobiography that whites terrorized his life physically, psychologically, and spiritually and that something that evil required a counter-reaction, of equal intensity, to combat the terror.
I would be shocked if such an organization never emerged in the American scene.
Malcolm says on page 340 that America was terrified of the truth about black Americans, that there was justified anger roiling underneath their façade of friendliness to the whites, that whites always had their “handpicked Negroes” who were treated better than the black masses because the whites could make these “handpicked Negroes” relatively happy and then the whites could say to themselves, “See, I’m not so bad. I make the blacks happy. No reason to feel guilty for slavery, Jim Crow, and the doctrines of white supremacy.”
Malcolm on page 345 said these “handpick Negroes” were the pacifying black professors and other prominent figures that criticized the Nation of Islam. He was a fan-boy for his leader.
On page 349 we read that Malcolm believed that white Christianity performed a huge miracle by keeping over 20 million black Americans from revolting in a violent insurrection because this white religion had pacified them.
He even debated Martin Luther King and accused MLK of making black people “defenseless.” So there was a schism between the two leaders though Malcolm's critics failed to point out the leaders' common purpose and reconciliation.
Four. In his vehemence and zeal to purge the white supremacy poison from his system, what area may have Malcolm been misguided in?
On page 348, he said no “sane white man” wanted integration with black people and also that no “sane black man” wanted integration with white people. A sane black person would know that any integration was “token,” not widespread and authentic.
He said he didn’t want segregation; he wanted complete separation from the white race.
But in fact, in today’s America people are so diverse in their mixture of background that “race” for many people, in cosmopolitan cities especially, is downplayed and in some ways we are becoming a more “colorblind” society.
In fact, Malcolm would later see skin color as less relevant during his final years of his life; he realized it was a person’s ideology that determined that person’s character.
Five. Malcolm argues that assimilation is a farce and a danger and explains how the Irish kicked out the British on pages 383 and 384. Explain.
In the process of assimilation, the oppressor always has his way and exterminates the culture and identity of the oppressed for his own purposes.
Brainstorming for Your Essay
Malcolm X was self-taught in prison.
He had to unlearn self-hating, internalized racism that was stuffed down his throat all his life.
He had to unlearn a fake US history that painted white people as innocent, God-loving, good people and blacks as subhumans who didn't deserve to be afforded dignity or their basic humanity.
He had to unlearn a false America described above.
He developed a love for his people, a disgraced people whose dignity needed to be restored.
He was committed to helping black Americans unlearn the lies white America told them and learn a new narrative.
Malcolm's new narrative from Elijah Muhammad was extreme but it purged Malcolm's self-hatred.
So in love with gratitude for Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm was deceived by a corrupt leader and again Malcolm had to unlearn a false doctrine. Malcolm went to Mecca and became a universal Muslim who saw evil, not as a skin color issue, but as a spiritual issue.
During this second evolution, Malcolm was a target from Elijah Muhammad and his people for at least two reasons: One, Malcolm knew about Elijah's affairs with his secretaries and this was a huge scandal from a man who said to follow him one must be pure.
Secondly, there was jealousy as Malcolm was becoming the world's greatest champion of black rights.
Malcolm X critics say his book has exaggerations that make Malcolm into a myth. Perhaps that is partly true.
Malcolm X critics say Malcolm was a hate-monger who didn't use peace the way Martin Luther King did. Others say, Malcolm's rage was justified. We see this controversy here.
Thesis That Defends Malcolm X with a Concession Clause
While Malcolm X was far from a perfect man, prone to hate-mongering demons, venomous demagoguery, and less than accurate details in his Autobiography, his overall force as a champion for human rights is undeniable when we consider ___________, ________________, _______________, __________________, and _________________.
Another Thesis That Defends Malcolm X with a Concession Clause
Even though we can ascribe major faults in Malcolm X’s character, including exaggerations in his Autobiography, an unsavory, blind commitment to the corrupt Elijah Muhammad, and an irrational castigation of the entire white race, his evolution, integrity, and power as a champion for restoring dignity to an oppressed people is evidenced by __________________, ___________________, ___________________, and _____________________.
Thesis That Refutes Malcolm X with a Concession Clause
While Malcolm X played an important role in America’s dialogue about racism and the country’s false history of freedom and innocence, Malcolm X cannot qualify as a great human rights leader, along the likes of Martin Luther King, because ___________________, _________________, ________________, and _____________________.
Although Malcolm X spoke an urgent truth to the condition of racism afflicting black people in America, his overall message collapses when we consider ___________________, ______________________, __________________, and _______________________.
In-class Exercise:
Work on a thesis with a concession clause. I recommend that you transition this thesis from your introduction.
Was Malcolm's "reinvention" the mark of a fraud or the mark of a man with integrity and greatness?
Some Points I Would Cover If I Were Writing the Essay
1. More than any black leader, Malcolm X exposed the psychology of white supremacy and its resulting learned self-hatred in the black community.
2. More than any black leader, Malcolm X instilled pride and a sense of real history in the black community.
3. More than any black leader, Malcolm X made white America accountable for the human rights nightmare that was embedded in their system of white privilege.
4. Malcolm X championed the value of education, language, history, discipline, and critical thinking as part of his personal transformation and his desire to transform others for a better world.
5. Malcolm X was a model of uncompromising courage and sacrifice in order to lift his people out of the degradation of racism.
Counterarguments
1. Malcolm X was a fan-boy or Kool-Aid drinker for Elijah Muhammad who proved to be a charlatan.
2. Malcolm X was a racist in that he hated people based on skin color, not their character and therefore he was guilty of the very thing he claimed to despise.
3. Malcolm was prejudiced against women; therefore, he was guilty of prejudice, the very thing he claimed to be against. We see his misogyny (hatred of women) discussed in the article "Did Malcolm X Hate Women?"
While opponents of my subject make some good points against my position, they are in the larger sense wrong when we consider that they fail to see and interpret correctly ____________, ______________, _______________, and _______________.
How to Set Up a Counterargument in Your Rebuttal Section (The Templates)
Some of my critics will dismiss my claim that . . . but they are in error when we look closely at . . .
Some readers will 0bject to my argument that . . . However, their disagreement is misguided when we consider that . . .
Some opponents will be hostile to my claim that . . . However, their hostility is unfounded when we examine . . .
While Author X is guilty of several weaknesses as described by her opponents, her agument holds up to close examination in the areas of _________________, ______________, _____________, and ______________.
Even though author X shows weakness in her agument, such as __________ and ____________, she is nevertheless convincing because . . .
While author X makes many compelling points, her overall argument collapses under the weight of __________, ___________, ___________, and ______________.
One. What defines the hell of Malcolm’s stay in prison?
The bars leave an indelible print, the “toilet buckets” are odious and can weaken any man (245). Beyond the physical imprisonment, is the demoralization of the spirit and the collapse into a provisionary existence (no meaning, just day-to-day survival) in which one becomes an animal, a creature without meaning and this nihilism infects the prisoner for a lifetime.
Getting high on drugs becomes the only way to bear the crushing torture of prison life.
He appears to be following Jeff Henderson's motif in which falling is rising. To suffer is to die to the old, diseased self, a necessary step toward transformation.
His main demon: self-hatred, which was taught by white culture: "You're black; therefore your existence is a curse."
Two. Why is Malcolm called “Satan” and what are the roots of his religious hatred?
White supremacy was tied up with Christianity and Malcolm saw this religious hybrid as the vehicle for slavery, Jim Crow, and general racism against black people. The sheer hypocrisy of “religion” brought out the madman and the demon.
In other words, Malcolm spent his life watching white people interpret the Bible in such a way that their God blessed white people for enslaving black people. This white supremacist narrative that dehumanized black people naturally infuriated Malcolm and made him “Satan” toward the white man’s religion.
He had been infected with the disease of self-hating racism, an invention of White Supremacy.
A lot of Malcolm's hate was a natural reaction to throwing out the poison anti-bodies from absorbing self-hating racism all his life.
Three. What important influence does Bimbi have on Malcolm’s life?
On page 246, we read that Bimbi is an intellectual with a command of the language and he commands respect from all people, guards and other prisoners alike.
A person in command of language can fight false narratives and replace them with truth. Therefore, Bimbi is someone of high appeal.
He has a power that is beyond Malcolm’s hustle and nihilism and Malcolm is intrigued by this power that he has never entertained until then.
We all need mentors and role models. It’s a natural hunger.
I think of my college years I was influenced by four people, Franz Kafka, a novelists and short story writer who taught me how to get in touch with my demons; Vladimir Nabokov, a novelist, who taught me how to be confident and authoritative with one’s writing and to have no patience for pretentiousness; Malcolm X, who taught me that anger could be channeled into intellectual self-improvement; and David Letterman, the comedian, who taught me deadpan irony (making jokes and sarcastic remarks with no smile, a “straight face”).
These four figures have left an imprint on me that remain to this day.
Malcolm's tragedy is that his mentor back-stabbed him.
Four. What does Malcolm learn about self-improvement with his new Muslim faith?
That God helps those who help themselves. As we read on page 250, “If you will take one step toward Allah—Allah will take two steps toward you.”
In other words, don’t sit around and wait for people to love you and help you; otherwise, you will die alone. He develops self-reliance.
Religious or not, when we help ourselves, we find that we create momentum so that it feels like we're getting outside help. We have to begin by breaking free from intertia or stagnation.
Shortly after, Malcolm, with the help of his family, moves to a more humane prison, Norfolk Prison Colony (251).
Five. Malcolm’s brother says “The white man is the devil.” Why would this be easy for Malcolm to believe?
He saw his whole race subjugated to the evil of white supremacy so that even decent white people were unwittingly racist and condescending to him and they were the exception. The rule was white people who behaved belligerently toward him and his people and white people wanted Malcolm to be apologetic about his existence and “know his place.” See page 253.
The worst thing the white devil did to Malcolm was deny him the knowledge of who he was, where he came from, what language he spoke, and what intellectual and cultural legacy he came from (255). In fact, Africa was the cradle of civilization, where blacks were the descendents of kings and princes (256).
White supremacy, the evil religion, taught black people that they were “savages” and “heathens” who needed to be enslaved by white people in order to be “tamed” (256).
White supremacy, the devil religion, taught black people to hate everything black, including themselves, and to love everything white, to aspire to the whiteness that would forever elude them (257).
There’s two kinds of white supremacy: White Supremacy Bold: In your face racist belligerence.
And White Supremacy “Lite”: no racist language is used, no brazen racism is unleashed, just an insidious and often unconscious racism that condescends to and belittles black people with the racism of diminished expectations.
Either way, Bold or Lite, white supremacy teaches blacks to hate themselves.
Seeing these truths in such a powerful manner for the first time, Malcolm says he “was in a daze” like St. Paul who converted in Damascus and was blown away by a blinding light (257).
Six. On page 262 what evidences that Malcolm didn’t believe everything taught by the Nation of Islam such as the story of Mr. Yacub?
Malcolm blames Muslims in the Eastern World that Western Muslims created these crazy stories because they were abandoned by the rest of the world.
Seven. What’s the first impulse that overcomes Malcolm as he achieves literacy?
He must write letters to his old friends and share his voice, his message, and a sense of urgency about the human condition, the American black person’s condition, to everyone in the world.
He begins by changing himself and then he wants to change America and the world. As a result, he becomes one of the most powerful voices against white supremacy in American history and remains a controversial icon today. See page 264.
Eight. How does McMahon defend, if at all, Malcolm’s charge that “the white man is the devil”?
It’s McMahon’s belief that Malcolm had so internalized the self-hatred of the sick white supremacy religion that he needed a strong antidote to cleanse his soul of this self-loathing and that the “white man is devil” doctrine was the medicine he craved and it worked to channel Malcolm’s anger outward, no longer inward and destroying himself.
In other words, he had to transfer the hatred, once directed toward himself, to another agent.
If we stand in Malcolm’s shoes, here’s his history with white people:
He’s the descendent of slavery.
KKK now terrorizes him in his own home.
The police ramshackle his own home as if it were theirs.
A KKK splinter group murders his father in a brutal fashion and there are no arrests and no police investigation.
The Welfare State breaks up his family and drives his mother into a state of madness.
His white teacher tells him to “know his place” and give up professional aspirations, instead vying for lowly servant work.
He’s denigrated by the N word everywhere he goes. White people spit the word with hostility or use it with complacent, languid contempt.
The white people steal his history, giving him “white” history and in essence steal his identity.
The white people are quick to steal black people’s music and culture and call it their own and then have the hubris to dismiss and deny all black achievement.
Therefore, the message that the white man is the devil isn’t that farfetched. If I were in his shoes, I’d come to similar conclusions. Who wouldn’t?
To Malcolm’s credit, as he evolved and developed his ideas, his views on skin color changed so that ascribing the qualities of a devil were not based on skin color but on false and racist ideology. Sadly, this evolution contributed to his assassination.
Nine. What does Malcolm say learning books did to change his life on page 274?
They made his “mind come alive” and “attacked his ignorance” and awakened a sleeping giant inside of him, helping articulate his rage and discontent with the world. They gave him a voice so he could articulate his passion in written and spoken form.
Without exaggeration, learning to read raised him from the dead and resurrected his life.
Ten. At the end of Chapter 12, Malcolm says he would someday face a “psychological and spiritual crisis” in regards to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Can you anticipate this crisis?
Any man who makes himself into a controlling god-like figure is inevitably going to be revealed as corrupt. Yes?
Research Paper Assignment
McMahon said in class that “Malcolm X was an autodidactic genius who showed us that literacy could be used as a vital tool for two essential undertakings: The first was to strip away the façade of a false America, replace the mythic America with a sobering reality, that of a country that relied on white supremacy as the foundation of its economy and identity and that this false religion, white supremacy, continues to metastasize across the country, in different forms, today; the second was to use literacy to reinvent the self, a self mired in ignorance, degradation, learned helplessness, victimization, and moral dissolution, into a person of knowledge, dignity, critical thinking, purpose, and effective action.”
But some people disagree with McMahon’s "exalted view" of Malcolm X and argue that Malcolm X was a hustler and a demagogue who reinvented himself through fabrication, contrivance, exaggeration of racism, and myth-making to reinvent his view of America, and himself, and that this view of America is unjustly skewed, pessimistic, and hellish in its rendering.
Which camp do you belong to, McMahon’s or McMahon’s critics? Defend your position in a thesis that generates a six-page research paper of about 1,500 words. Remember you don’t have to agree with McMahon to write a successful paper. However, you do need to devote a section of your essay to refuting your opponents if your essay is to be A-grade.
Your guidelines are as follows:
This research paper should present a thesis that is specific, manageable, provable, and contestable—in other words, the thesis should offer a clear position, stand, or opinion that will be proven with research.
You need to research and cite from at least five sources. You must use at least 3 different types of sources.
At least one source must be from an ECC library database.
At least one source must be a book, anthology or textbook.
At least one source must be from a credible website, appropriate for academic use.
The paper should not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.
This paper will be approximately 5-7 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required. This means at least 5 full pages of text. The Works Cited page does NOT count towards length requirement.
You must use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.
You must integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.
You must sustain your argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Your paper must be logically organized and focused.
Brainstorming for Your Essay
Malcolm X was self-taught in prison.
He had to unlearn self-hating, internalized racism that was stuffed down his throat all his life.
He had to unlearn a fake US history that painted white people as innocent, God-loving, good people and blacks as subhumans who didn't deserve to be afforded dignity or their basic humanity.
He had to unlearn a false America described above.
He developed a love for his people, a disgraced people whose dignity needed to be restored.
He was committed to helping black Americans unlearn the lies white America told them and learn a new narrative.
Malcolm's new narrative from Elijah Muhammad was extreme but it purged Malcolm's self-hatred.
So in love with gratitude for Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm was deceived by a corrupt leader and again Malcolm had to unlearn a false doctrine. Malcolm went to Mecca and became a universal Muslim who saw evil, not as a skin color issue, but as a spiritual issue.
During this second evolution, Malcolm was a target from Elijah Muhammad and his people for at least two reasons: One, Malcolm knew about Elijah's affairs with his secretaries and this was a huge scandal from a man who said to follow him one must be pure.
Secondly, there was jealousy as Malcolm was becoming the world's greatest champion of black rights.
Malcolm X critics say his book has exaggerations that make Malcolm into a myth. Perhaps that is partly true.
Malcolm X critics say Malcolm was a hate-monger who didn't use peace the way Martin Luther King did. Others say, Malcolm's rage was justified. We see this controversy here.
Thesis That Defends Malcolm X with a Concession Clause
While Malcolm X was far from a perfect man, prone to hate-mongering demons, venomous demagoguery, and less than accurate details in his Autobiography, his overall force as a champion for human rights is undeniable when we consider ___________, ________________, _______________, __________________, and _________________.
Another Thesis That Defends Malcolm X with a Concession Clause
Even though we can ascribe major faults in Malcolm X’s character, including exaggerations in his Autobiography, an unsavory, blind commitment to the corrupt Elijah Muhammad, and an irrational castigation of the entire white race, his evolution, integrity, and power as a champion for restoring dignity to an oppressed people is evidenced by __________________, ___________________, ___________________, and _____________________.
Thesis That Refutes Malcolm X with a Concession Clause
While Malcolm X played an important role in America’s dialogue about racism and the country’s false history of freedom and innocence, Malcolm X cannot qualify as a great human rights leader, along the likes of Martin Luther King, because ___________________, _________________, ________________, and _____________________.
Although Malcolm X spoke an urgent truth to the condition of racism afflicting black people in America, his overall message collapses when we consider ___________________, ______________________, __________________, and _______________________.
In-class Exercise:
Work on a thesis with a concession clause. I recommend that you transition this thesis from your introduction.
Was Malcolm's "reinvention" the mark of a fraud or the mark of a man with integrity and greatness?
Autobiography of Malcolm X Lesson 2, Chapters 4-9, 140-244
Introduction: Cornel West Argues for the Urgency and Importance of Malcolm X in His Book Black Prophetic Fire Published in 2014
One. “The fundamental shift from a we-consciousness to an I-consciousness”
West argues that Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were committed to serving an oppressed community and giving voice and justice to the vulnerable, the helpless, and the disgraced.
Sadly, West points out, we now live in a consumer society where the “I” has become more important than the “we.”
He writes that the “seductive myth of individualism in American culture” has taken black leadership, once committed to “empowering others,” to the trivial tasks of selfishness: the “pursuit of wealth, health, and status.”
American culture, West writes, is numb to ideas of justice and obsessed with money and self-aggrandizement.
West wrote his book “to reinvigorate the Black prophetic tradition and to keep alive the memory of Black prophetic figures and movements.” He devotes a chapter to Malcolm X.
Malcolm sacrificed personal comfort, riches, and popularity and suffered “painful loneliness,” persecution, and even his life to pursue justice for the voiceless and the disgraced.
Where Cornel West’s book really speaks to the heart of our research paper topic is in the Introduction in which he writes that the original intentions of the prophets, like Malcolm X, have been “shaped according to the cultural icon of the self-made man or the individual charismatic leader.” Emphasis of the self-made man, which many say Alex Haley, the co-writer of Malcolm’s Autobiography, dilutes the prophetic power of Malcolm X.
If Alex Haley, who shaped the Autobiography after Malcolm’s X death, emphasized the self-made man narrative, then one could argue that the book loses its original power for Alex Haley’s vision. However, I would state that both the real prophet for the voiceless and the self-made man narrative exist in the book and that it is the interpreter, rather than the book, that is responsible for what is emphasized.
Malcolm X’s greatness, West reminds us, was dependent on his connection to a movement, Black Nationalist and later human rights. He was not an individual movement, a cult of the self as so many now perceive him.
Cornel West warns us not to be lulled into the delusion of a post-race society in Barak Obama world. As he writes:
“If high status in American society and white points of reference are the measure of the Black freedom movement, then this moment in Black history is the ultimate success. But if the suffering of Black people—especially Black poor and working people—is the ultimate measure of the Black freedom movement, then this moment in Black history is catastrophic—sadly continuous with the past. With the Black working class devastated with stagnating wages and increasing prices, and the black poor ravaged by massive unemployment, decrepit schools, indecent housing, and hyperincarceration in the new Jim Crow, the age of Obama looks bleak through the lens of the Black prophetic tradition.”
West looks at President Obama through the critical lens of an America with a threatened and shrinking middle-class and an economy that gives more and more to the One Percent.
For Cornel West, Civil Rights and the fight to end racism is connected to economic injustice and West judges Obama in the context of the 2008 financial crisis, “primarily caused by the systemic greed of unregulated Wall Street oligarchs and their bailout by the Wall Street-dominated US government.” West then observes that no Wall Street criminals went to jail while hundreds of thousands of poor black people go to prison for lesser offenses. In 2009, over 840,000 black men were in prison.
In the Malcolm X chapter, West points out that Malcolm X is seen as a threat to white Americans. Specifically, he is seen “as a proponent of reversed racism, if not of hatred and violence.” Even the black community, West points out, is divided on their judgment of Malcolm X. In particular, middle-class blacks were “horrified” by Malcolm X’s “extreme” message.
Cornel West explains the controversy: A lot of Malcolm X’s “controversy is due to the continuous juxtaposition between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., a false opposition that is based on one-sided public images and that has led to a sanitized Martin and a demonized Malcolm, a gross mistake that overlooks what they share in common and how much they overlap.
West praises Malcolm X for thing primary things: His “profound commitment to affirm black humanity” when it was disgraced in a racist society and “his tremendous courage to accent the hypocrisy of American society . . .”
To emphasize Cornel West’s veneration of Malcolm X, we read that “Malcolm X is the greatest figure in the Black prophetic tradition.” West cites Malcolm as a great figure of the revolutionary parrhesia.
Parrhesia is a term from Plato’s Apology, “where Socrates says, the cause of my unpopularity was my parrhesia, my fearless speech, my frank speech, my plain speech, my unintimidated speech. Malcolm is unique among the figures in the prophetic tradition to the degree to which he was willing to engage in unintimidated speech in public about white supremacy.”
I personally love comedians and Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and John Oliver, to name a few examples, because they are so direct and frank of their criticism against stupidity, greed, injustice, and hypocrisy.
Ironically, in many ways these white comedians, who use fearless language to fight for the underdog, have a lot in common with Malcolm X. If I were a 1A student, that would be my thesis. A larger point is that at the time, Malcolm X’s blunt speech was considered threatening, but now mainstream comedians share is fearless speech, his parrhesia, and in this sense Malcolm X was forty years ahead of his time.
Malcolm X articulated that “being black is a crime,” West writes, and he intended to wipe that stigma and self-hatred from being black and teach the black community to take pride in who they are.
We further read that Malcolm X was able to explain the evil narrative white America told black people:
“White supremacy had told Black people that Black history is a curse, Black hope is a joke, and Black freedom is a pipe-dream, and you are locked in; you are trapped in a white-supremacist maze or labyrinth, and there is no way out.”
Malcolm X says it’s time to change the narrative, to first tell the truth of the white lie that it is a curse to be black and to do so fearlessly.
Cornel West says that Malcolm’s rage at the memory of rape, lynchings, enslavement, brutality, and disgrace is not a victimization mentality in Malcolm X. It’s a justice mentality. All oppressed people, West writes, should remember injustice done to them, not to be victims, but to free themselves from self-hatred and to fight for justice.
More than any black figure, Malcolm wanted to purge self-hatred from black consciousness. He did more to restore dignity to the black soul than any figure.
More than Martin Luther King, Malcolm X resented white people for their oppression of black Americans and he called whites “devils,” resulting in making him an inflammatory figure.
Another cause of Malcolm X’s controversy was that he was outspoken about America’s false gods. As Cornel West observes, Malcolm shot down American idolatry. Malcolm defined the idolatry, the love of money or human beings, and rebuked it and this made him an enemy to many.
Study Questions
One. Malcolm spends much of his autobiography on “the outside” as a misfit. What are the disadvantages to being a misfit and what are the advantages?
Malcolm has a chip on his shoulder and he hasn’t figured it out yet (not until he’s in prison and has an epiphany). He is also from the country, so he isn’t cool like city people.
Malcolm doesn’t fit with his “brainwashed” brothers who believe if they play by the rules and appease whites, they’ll get a crumb of cheese; he doesn’t quite fit with the hipsters because he’s in the middle zone between The Hill and cool cats (the latter group make him feel awkward and out of place); he doesn’t quite fit on The Hill, which is too uppity; he doesn’t fit with the white people who casually disdain him and casually use the “N word” in his presence as if he’s not there.
He finds himself hustling and the more he becomes visible on the police’s radar screen the more he has to go underground and re-energize his hustle until it gets more and more dangerous.
Are there any advantages? An outsider has a sharper point of view on what’s happening to others because he has the advantage of distance and he can learn from his alienation.
When we’re alienated, we’re uncomfortable and we never get complacent with the group. Apart from the others, we tend to think more about why things are the way they are.
We could call this a contribution to our metacognition or Third Eye.
Two. On page 201 we read about wealthy white patrons of black clubs who get drunk and come up to black people and slobber, “You’re just as good as I am—I want you to know that?”
What is Malcolm’s attitude toward these kinds of statements?
He sees these as pathetic and ineffectual statements of guilt for the destruction resulting from the religion of white supremacy. These expressions of guilt do not impress him because he believes that, even though these white people speak truth in the drunken moment, in a crisis these white people will revert back to their tribalistic ways. In other words, they will act in their self-interest and reflexively depend on their white power and privilege.
Additionally, Malcolm sees there is a spiritual bankruptcy in the world of white supremacy and these whites are desperate to parasite off (siphon) the soul and flavor of the black world and of black art and culture while at the same time maintain their white privilege. Over and over Malcolm saw white people trying to befriend blacks as tokens or symbols of soul and enchantment but Malcolm saw this for the canard that it was: Condescension and the using of other people.
We read on page 209 that Malcolm came into contact with a throng of rich white men who visited Harlem as their “sin-den” to seek out strange curiosities and debase themselves in all kinds of debauchery and perversions. They took off their “respectable masks” and became beasts, feeling free to do so in Harlem.
Malcolm says there was no respect for the mixed relationships; it was all about making the fetish of the other. Part of this fetish was status and another was the myth of the exotic from being with “The Other,” Los Otros.
Three. What hypocrisy did Malcolm see in the false religion of white superiority?
On page 212, we read about the white man criticizing the black man for his low morality when Malcolm, working as an intermediary for debauchery, saw white men seeking out all sorts of depravity, perversion, and debauchery.
This double standard has placed black Americans at a disadvantage at the beginning and forces blacks to work twice as hard to get one-fourth the credit.
Four. For Malcolm, the “hype,” to dupe someone, is part of America’s moral bankruptcy and it affects people of all colors (219). Explain.
We all hustle others, and ourselves, in one way or another, a theme masterfully developed in the film American Hustle.
America loves its myth of innocence and freedom when in fact it grew on the backs of slavery and exploitation. America believes in exceptionalism, that it is morally superior to all other countries. Malcolm X pointed out this farce.
Five. On page 225, Malcolm uses the word “atheist” to describe himself as a nihilist. Explain.
His cynicism at looking at a world based on hustle makes him reject all morality. Therefore, “anything goes” is his mentality.
Nihilism is in fact the restless abandonment of morality or an ethical code.
The nihilist is “too cool” for morals.
Humanity becomes reduced to a “predatory animal” (225).
The existential vacuum or emptiness of existence is so unbearable that drug-induced intoxication becomes the norm (225).
The nihilist sees himself in control of the world but as an addict he is a slave to his addiction.
Nihilism, however, is a hustle of its own because no one is a real nihilist since people claiming to be nihilists will become offended and feel violated when others treat them in a nihilistic fashion.
Six. What huge mistake does Malcolm make with Sophia?
On page 240, we see the beginning of the end for Malcolm. With all those drugs, he is “slipping,” losing his edge, his caution.
Then the stolen watch is in repair and the watch has been reported. “All the jewelers in Boston had been alerted.”
Being arrested most likely saved Malcolm’s life since Sophia’s husband was poised to hunt down Malcolm (241). In fact, Malcolm believes he escaped death twice that day.
Seven. What was the biggest scandal of Malcolm’s crime?
That “nice white girls” got mixed up with him and that there was a sex scandal involved. The actual crimes were of little interest (242). This feeds into the fear of those who embrace the white supremacist religion. This mixing with the white women would tack on many years to Malcolm’s prison sentence (243).
Eight. What doctrines and life lessons influenced Malcolm during his life up until the time he was sent to prison?
His father was a black separatist who taught, under the doctrine of Marcus Garvey, that America, founded on white supremacy, could never be a true home to black Americans. Only by returning to Africa, could black Americans enjoy dignity and be cleansed of the self-hatred that was stuffed down their throats every day while living in America.
White supremacy had created a Color Privilege Scale so that blacks treated light skinned blacks with more favor than darker skinned ones evidencing the insidious unconscious power of WS.
Malcolm’s aspiration to be an attorney was shot down by his white English teacher, who was another reminder that white America wanted “black people to know their place,” a lesson he learned with greater acuity when he was arrested and found to be mingling with high society white women.
Contrary to its rhetoric of being a Christian nation superior to all the other nations of the world (creating the term “American exceptionalism”), America is a façade of morality. Behind that façade is a cesspool of greedy perverts and hustlers, so we have a choice: Hustle or be hustled because there is no morality; there is only nihilism. The world is a brutal jungle and we need to be smarter than everyone else so we can be at the top of the food chain.
This doctrine proved to be so unbearable to Malcolm that he intoxicated himself on drugs and a life of debauchery until his reckless living resulted in his arrest.
Review of White Supremacy
White Supremacy was not an “unfortunate glitch” in American History, which is largely about the flourishing of freedom and democracy. To the contrary, White Supremacy, a false religion, was the foundation of the white American psyche used to fuel slavery and help white people feel good about themselves for enslaving, torturing, and terrorizing black people for whites’ own pleasures, profits, and whims, and caprices.
White Supremacy is a religion, an evil Kool-Aid, that doesn’t die easily. This religion states that whites are God’s chosen people, the superior race, who have the entitlement to exploit all other races for their profit and pleasure.
You will see these attitudes deeply engrained in white people today, including white people who don’t use racist language or even understand what “white supremacy” is because this religion has been brought down from generation to generation and often people aren’t even aware of their belief systems.
Malcolm X didn’t see America as a free country with this “tiny glitch” called White Supremacy; rather Malcolm saw White Supremacy as the world that ran the whole country from the economy, to culture, relationships, etc., and as such America was a hostile place for black Americans.
Today, racist images of black Americans are typically seen in the media, which portrays them as drug users and “thugs,” too lazy to work, even though there are no jobs in the inner cities. Nor are there any viable education institutions.
White Supremacy was the Mother of Slavery, Jim Crow (reverting blacks to brutal policies of segregation and built-in poverty), and Jim Crow 2.0, the prison system, which imprisons blacks disproportionately to whites and which incarcerates entire generations of black men so that most black children don’t have parents.
These injustices are chronicled in Michele Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, which shows that blacks are being enslaved into the prison system, which makes billions of dollars and which employs over 2.5 million people.
Based on the insidious power that Malcolm X saw in White Supremacy, he would not be surprised by Michelle Alexander’s findings.
WS was based on mutual ignorance. WP had to make BP ignorant by either depriving them of reading or giving them ineffective, underfunded “schools.” WP also had to make them ignorant of BP’s humanity by turning BP into racist stereotypes. Doing so bolstered their WS beliefs and assuaged (soothed) their conscience for subjugating BP to slavery and Jim Crow laws.
WS created an American façade built on the rhetoric of freedom and democracy.
WS violence was unfettered so that many whites committed acts of violence against BP with impunity. Zero arrests were made between Civil War and World War II during which time there were over 5,000 lynchings (murders).
Essay Assignment
McMahon said in class that “Malcolm X was an autodidactic genius who showed us that literacy could be used as a vital tool for two essential undertakings: The first was to strip away the façade of a false America, replace the mythic America with a sobering reality, that of a country that relied on white supremacy as the foundation of its economy and identity and that this false religion, white supremacy, continues to metastasize across the country, in different forms, today; the second was to use literacy to reinvent the self, one from ignorance, degradation, learned helplessness, victimization, and moral dissolution into a person of knowledge, dignity, critical thinking, purpose, and effective action.”
But some people disagree with McMahon’s “exalted view” of Malcolm X and argue that Malcolm X was a hustler and a demagogue who reinvented himself through fabrication, contrivance, exaggeration, and myth-making to reinvent his view of America, and himself, and that this view of America is unjustly skewed, pessimistic, and hellish in its rendering.
Which camp do you belong to, McMahon’s or McMahon’s critics? Defend your position in a thesis that generates a six-page research paper of about 1,500 words. Remember you don’t have to agree with McMahon to write a successful paper. However, you do need to devote a section of your essay to refuting your opponents if your essay is to be A-grade.
Your guidelines are as follows:
This research paper should present a thesis that is specific, manageable, provable, and contestable—in other words, the thesis should offer a clear position, stand, or opinion that will be proven with research.
You should analyze and prove your thesis using examples and quotes from a variety of sources.
You need to research and cite from at least five sources. You must use at least 3 different types of sources.
At least one source must be from an ECC library database.
At least one source must be a book, anthology or textbook.
At least one source must be from a credible website, appropriate for academic use.
The paper should not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.
This paper will be approximately 5-7 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required. This means at least 5 full pages of text. The Works Cited page does NOT count towards length requirement.
You must use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.
You must integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.
You must sustain your argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Your paper must be logically organized and focused.
Simplify the assignment by making the assignment a question:
Is Malcolm X a valuable prophet who inspires us to see the truth of America, racism, and universal dignity or is Malcolm X, as rendered in his Autobiography, a myth that exaggerates the Malcolm persona, racism, and “evil America”?
Perhaps the most popular book that Malcolm admirers don’t like is Manning Marable’s Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, which states that Malcolm X exaggerated his criminal past to conform to the heroic self-made man narrative and that this narrative was encouraged by the Autobiography’s co-writer Alex Haley.
However, leading black intellectuals have praised the book, including Henry Louis Gates, Cornel West, and Michael Eric Dyson.
But a group of black scholars have rejected Marable’s book as a fraud written in complicity with “en elite publishing” house. They claim Marable’s book taints Malcolm X in both spirit and fact. These views are contained in Jared A. Bell and Todd Steven Burroughs’collection of essays, A Life of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X.
My take is that the writers who contributed to A Lie of Reinvention are upset because Marable's book is not a hagiography, a gushing fanboy book that idealizes Malcolm X in the manner these writers want Malcolm to be idealized.
Malcolm doesn't have to be idealized to be seen as the important prophet that he was.
Furthermore, Marable doesn't denigrate Malcolm X the way the writers claim Marable treats Malcolm in his biography.
Generating Ideas for Your Essay
One. What are the confines or limitations of the essay topic?
You’re being asked to argue if Malcolm X was an authentic prophet who offered powerful, insightful insight into America’s myth of innocence and the effects of racism on the psyches of the exploited. Additionally, he is one of the most salient voices in American letters who championed the transforming power of literacy, which he acquired while he was in prison.
On the other hand, there are those who argue Malcolm was less than authentic, that in fact he was a hustler of sorts who re-invented himself as a form of self-promotion and myth making.
I reject the latter argument because I don’t see Malcolm benefiting from the role he assumed, both as a black leader and as a critic of American culture and politics. To the contrary, Malcolm was persecuted and eventually assassinated for holding to the integrity of his beliefs.
Additionally, I don’t hold any prophet to a standard of perfection. Malcolm X was a deeply human and flawed person who evolved his views over time.
I reject the either/or fallacy that says one is either a full-fledged prophet or a contrived persona or impostor. A prophet can be both great and imperfect.
Two. What sources of information are you responsible for using in your essay?
In your case, the sources are described in your writing prompt:
You need to research and cite from at least five sources. You must use at least 3 different types of sources.
At least one source must be from an ECC library database.
At least one source must be a book, anthology or textbook.
At least one source must be from a credible website, appropriate for academic use.
Three. What is the purpose of your essay and who is your audience?
Are you writing to inform your readers? To persuade them? To entertain them? To change their behavior? Some combination of these?
Clearly, you are asked in the writing prompt to write an argumentative essay that addressed your supports for about three-quarters of your essay. For the last quarter of your essay you should address your opponents’ counterarguments with rebuttals.
Your audience is the general reader, not a scholar. You’re language should be appropriate for an educated adult and you should make the subject compelling for the person who does not specialize in the subject your are writing about.
Four. What is the required length of your essay and what is required document design?
This paper will be approximately 5-7 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required. This means at least 5 full pages of text. The Works Cited page does NOT count towards length requirement.
The design is MLA with 12 font in Times New Roman.
What deadlines do you have regarding any drafts or partial completion of the manuscript?
By the end of Week 15, you should have your first draft to show your instructor. We’ll have an activity for everyone to do in class while they are waiting to speak to me.
Find ways to keep your brain active on the assignment even when you’re not writing your essay:
Talking and listening (and examining opponents’ views in particular)
Annotating texts and taking notes
Listing
Clustering
Freewriting
Asking the 6 journalist questions
1. Who is X? (Who is doing X?)
2. What is X? (What is the issue with X?) (What is the value of X?) (What parts make up X?)
3. When is X? (When was X?) (When will X be?) (When does X end?)
4. Where is X? (Where is X taking place?) (Where does X come from?)
5. How is X? (How is X done?) (How is X measured?) (How does X work?)(How did X happen?)
6. Why is X? (Why does X occur?) (Why did X happen?) (Why will X happen again?) (Why didn’t something else happen instead of X?) (Why was this method or procedure followed to produce X?)
Questions applied to Autobiography of Malcolm X
Who objects to Malcolm X?
What are the objections?
When were these criticisms made and how have they changed, if any, over the course of history?
Where are these objections to Malcolm X most prominent?
Why do Malcolm X’s critics find him so threatening?
How do Malcolm X’s critics make their case against him?
Keeping a journal
Students too often disdain these brain activity and prewriting exercises because they believe, erroneously, that these types of writing are “wimpy,” “lame,” and “touchy-feely.”
They couldn’t be more wrong. All professional writers engage in prewriting. People who work in the entertainment industry, advertising, and academia use prewriting. Novelists and short story writers use prewriting.
Experiment with several tentative thesis statements until you find one that you are confident about intellectually and passionate about.
While critics of Malcolm X make accurate assessments of Malcolm X’s and Alex Haley’s myth-making to express their views and biases in their interpretation of Malcolm X’s life, their criticisms do not diminish Malcolm X’s place as the greatest of all black American prophets evidenced by ______________, ______________, _______________, and ___________________.
While many of Malcolm X’s criticisms of American hypocrisy and racism are on target, the portrayal of him in the Autobiography does not capture his real life but fabricates his myth evidenced by __________________, _________________, _______________, and _______________________.
Work on introduction. I recommend you choose one of the following:
One. Since we read Jeff Henderson’s Cooked, you could summarize Jeff Henderson’s hitting rock bottom in prison and how this fall led to his epiphany and transformation and then transition to Malcolm X.
Three. Begin with a concise summary of Malcolm X’s life and death and explain how he remains controversial today.
Four. Show both sides of the Malcolm X controversy described in the essay assignment. Explain why one camp venerates Malcolm X as a vital voice for human rights. Then explain why another camp refutes Malcolm X as a fraud and a hate-monger whose fabricated Autobiography mostly negates his alleged humanitarian role.
Example of an Introduction That Begins with a Quote:
Controversial civil rights and black activist Malcolm X once said, "Concerning nonviolence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks." These words can be interpreted as either common sense advice for a people that have been under violent siege and oppression for three centuries or as the violent-provoking demagoguery of an angry young man. In fact, a close look at these remarks show that the truth is a bit of both. Malcolm X in fact did provide a more “by any means necessary” approach to civil rights for black people, but during his final years on Earth he became a wiser humanitarian who saw evil not as whiteness but as white supremacy. Therefore, we cannot take the above quotes out of context and label Malcolm as a violent demagogue but as a vital human rights leader evidenced by his ____________, ________________, ______________, and ___________________.
McMahon said in class that “Malcolm X was an autodidactic genius who showed us that literacy could be used as a vital tool for two essential undertakings: The first was to strip away the façade of a false America, replace the mythic America with a sobering reality, that of a country that relied on white supremacy as the foundation of its economy and identity and that this false religion, white supremacy, continues to metastasize across the country, in different forms, today; the second was to use literacy to reinvent the self, a self mired in ignorance, degradation, learned helplessness, victimization, and moral dissolution, into a person of knowledge, dignity, critical thinking, purpose, and effective action.”
But some people disagree with McMahon’s "exalted view" of Malcolm X and argue that Malcolm X was a hustler and a demagogue who reinvented himself through fabrication, contrivance, exaggeration of racism, and myth-making to reinvent his view of America, and himself, and that this view of America is unjustly skewed, pessimistic, and hellish in its rendering.
Which camp do you belong to, McMahon’s or McMahon’s critics? Defend your position in a thesis that generates a six-page research paper of about 1,500 words. Remember you don’t have to agree with McMahon to write a successful paper. However, you do need to devote a section of your essay to refuting your opponents if your essay is to be A-grade.
Your guidelines are as follows:
This research paper should present a thesis that is specific, manageable, provable, and contestable—in other words, the thesis should offer a clear position, stand, or opinion that will be proven with research.
You need to research and cite from at least five sources. You must use at least 3 different types of sources.
At least one source must be from an ECC library database.
At least one source must be a book, anthology or textbook.
At least one source must be from a credible website, appropriate for academic use.
The paper should not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.
This paper will be approximately 5-7 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required. This means at least 5 full pages of text. The Works Cited page does NOT count towards length requirement.
You must use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.
You must integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.
You must sustain your argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Your paper must be logically organized and focused.
English 1A Final Research Paper Schedule for The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Fall of 2014
Our Objective
By November 27th, you want 4 pages of your 5-7-page essay completed. The further you are along in your draft, the greater probability you will have success at making your research paper meet all the benchmarks for English 1A. Our goal is for you to be as successful as possible at meeting the Student Learning Outcomes for your Final Paper.
November 17
Work on introduction. I recommend you choose one of the following:
One. Since we read Jeff Henderson’s Cooked, you could summarize Jeff Henderson’s hitting rock bottom in prison and how this fall led to his epiphany and transformation and then transition to Malcolm X.
Three. Begin with a concise summary of Malcolm X’s life and death and explain how he remains controversial today.
Four. Show both sides of the Malcolm X controversy described in the essay assignment. Explain why one camp venerates Malcolm X as a vital voice for human rights. Then explain why another camp refutes Malcolm X as a fraud and a hate-monger whose fabricated Autobiography mostly negates his alleged humanitarian role.
November 19
Work on preliminary or tentative thesis. I recommend you use a thesis with a concession clause as we’ve seen in earlier templates such as these two:
While Writer X makes a strong case that __________________, the preponderance of evidence points to _________________, _________________, ________________, and _____________________.
Although Writer X makes some good points regarding _________________, those points fail to address __________________, ___________________, ___________________, and _______________________.
November 24
Write your conclusion.
Restate your thesis with different wording and show the general, far-reaching importance of your claim. You may also return to an image, quote, or anecdote to raised in your introduction to give your essay the “full circle” effect.
November 26
Write two paragraphs of counterarguments to your thesis followed by your rebuttals to those counterarguments. These paragraphs will be used before your essay’s conclusion.
December 3
Bring me the first three pages of your essay and include your counterarguments. You should have close to four pages of your essay typed on this day. I will go over your drafts in class and identify content and organization areas that can be improved. I will also look for patterns of diction and grammar errors. You must all be in class this day as we do our draft consult. I urge you to come to my office hours before class if you want to spend more time with me going over your draft.
What Does It Mean to Say Malcolm X's Autobiography Relies on Myth?
I refer you to Linda Seger's "Creating the Myth," from her book Making a Good Script Great (1987).
Linda Seger, "Creating the Myth"
One. What is a myth?
It’s a universal story that connects with all of us; it tells us something about ourselves, either our past struggles or our future aspirations; it is based on all cultures, folk myths, religions, and legends.
Rites of passage or initiation rites are common myths. How did we transition from child to adult? How did we gain acceptance from the tribe, the clique, the community?
Seger writes that “The hero myth has specific story beats that occur in all hero stories.
Two. What is the hero myth?
We must begin with our hero mired in a world of banality; our hero is overcome with ennui on one hand and wanderlust on the other. “If only I could get out of his boring, monotonous hellhole.”
Then there’s a trigger event, a visitor, a crisis, some kind of catalyst that sets things in motion.
Sometimes the hero’s talents are called upon but he says, “Screw this, I’m going to stay in my apartment, drink beer, eat apple pie, and watch cartoons.” He is the archetype of the reluctant hero. In this case, the crisis escalates until the hero is forced to take on effective and urgent action.
When the hero embarks upon his quest, be it self-discovery, the conquering of evil, or whatever the case may be, he or she is often accompanied by a companion, a helper, which can take the form of a wise man, a witch, an elf, a homunculus, a mysterious visage, a ghost, a shadow figure, an officemate, a long-lost friend, a former enemy, etc. This person becomes a sort of mentor, helping deliver the hero from his tangle of confusion and unreason.
Then the hero must transport into a special world where he undergoes a radical transformation from ordinary to unordinary. He may become Other Worldly, Super Human, or remarkable in some other way.
However, the hero cannot undergo this transformation without being subjected to a series of greater and greater hurdles and obstacles that test his character.
Along the hero’s journey, he must hit rock bottom, languishing in despair, self-doubt, and perhaps outright nihilism, concluding that he is a loser and that the world is too evil a place to attempt to impose any meaning or goodness on it.
During this “black moment,” however, the hero finds a spark that “gets him off his butt.” He somehow finds his special power, perhaps with the help of his mentor, that resurrects him from his spiritual death and with his rebirth and can now “seize the treasure,” whatever that treasure may be. (Before we go on, let us recognize that this hero motif informs every folk legend, myth, and religious fable known to the human race because the hero motif is universal.)
Once the hero acquires the treasure, whatever that might be, he must now return home, but not without a chase from his opposition. In movies, this is often the third-act chase scene.
At the conclusion of the hero story, we must see that our hero is a changed person, wiser, smarter, and stronger than before. Along with this transformation, we find our hero is now re-integrated into society.
Three. What is the healing myth?
We begin with our hero crushed by a broken spirit. He is a broken person. He may want to die or at least he has lost the will to live and the will to assert whatever talents cause him to flourish in this world.
Then the hero suffers some kind of outer or existential wound that incapacitates him and forces him to confront his brokenness in a radically different way. I once spoke to a student from the Caribbean who said they have a folk story that says this: We are going along in our life on auto pilot, not really examining what we are doing, but eventually we get a surprise visit from the bald muscle giant who ambushes us and forces us into a wrestling match. We come away from the wrestling match with some kind of limp or injury, but in nursing our injury we rebuild our life in a way that makes it superior to the life we had before we had our encounter with the giant. Only when we try to heal from our wound, which has become so life defining that we can no longer ignore it, do we begin the process of transformation and healing.
Two Book Reviews
What camp you belong to depends on what you want to emphasize more, Malcolm’s myth-making or Malcolm’s positive impact on society.
The book of record that argues that Malcolm X's biography is fabricated to conform to a vision of American myth of the hard-working individual who transforms his life through self-help and education is Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable.
He was a master of reinvention who had as many names as he did identities: Malcolm Little, Homeboy, Jack Carlton, Detroit Red, Big Red, Satan, Malachi Shabazz, Malik Shabazz, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and, most famously, Malcolm X. A country bumpkin who became a zoot-suited entertainer who became a petty criminal who became a self-taught intellectual who became a white-hating black nationalist who became a follower of orthodox Islam who became an international figure championing “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people.”
This volume does not provide much psychological insight into why Malcolm X became such a protean figure (or why he needed to distance “his inner self from the outside world”), and it lacks the urgency and fierce eloquence of Malcolm X’s own “Autobiography.” Still, Mr. Marable artfully strips away the layers and layers of myth that have been lacquered onto his subject’s life — first by Malcolm himself in that famous memoir, and later by both supporters and opponents after his assassination in 1965 at the age of 39.
Mr. Marable argues that Malcolm X was a gifted performer, adept at presenting himself to black audiences “as the embodiment of the two central figures of African-American folk culture, simultaneously the hustler/trickster and the preacher/minister.” He also suggests that Malcolm exaggerated his criminal youth in his “Autobiography” to create “an allegory documenting the destructive consequences of racism within the U.S. criminal justice and penal system,” and to underscore the transformative power that the Nation of Islam brought to his own life while in prison.
As Mr. Marable sees it, the “Autobiography,” which was written with Alex Haley (later of “Roots” fame), was in some respects “more Haley’s than its author’s.” Because Malcolm X died in February 1965, Mr. Marable writes, “he had no opportunity to revise major elements of what would become known as his political testament.” Haley, “a liberal Republican,” in Mr. Marable’s words, made the finished book read like a work in “the tradition of Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography” rather than “a manifesto for black insurrection” — which perhaps explains its widespread popularity and prominent place in high school and college curriculums.
One of the many achievements of this biography is that Mr. Marable manages to situate Malcolm X within the context of 20th-century racial politics in America without losing focus on his central character, as Taylor Branch sometimes did in his monumental, three-volume chronicle of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. At the same time Mr. Marable provides a compelling account of Malcolm X’s split with the Nation of Islam as he moved away from that sect’s black nationalism and radical separatist politics, and as personal tensions between him and the Nation leader Elijah Muhammad escalated further after Muhammad impregnated a woman who had had a longtime romantic relationship with Malcolm X.
Along the way Mr. Marable lays out a harrowing picture of Nation members’ determination to do away with the charismatic Malcolm X, who after being exiled from the sect had struck out on his own, forming a new group and alliances with orthodox Islamic groups abroad. When surveillance records become fully available, Mr. Marable asserts, “it would not be entirely surprising if an F.B.I. transcript surfaced documenting a telephone call from Elijah Muhammad to a subordinate, authorizing Malcolm’s murder,” but he does not come up with a smoking gun on that count in these pages.
It is Mr. Marable’s contention that while two of the three men convicted of the murder had alibis, the man who actually fired “the kill shot, the blow that executed Malcolm X” went free, only to serve prison time later for other crimes. He says this man is one Willie Bradley, who was later inducted into the Newark Athletic Hall of Fame for his high school baseball achievements and briefly appeared in a campaign video, promoting the re-election of Newark’s mayor, Cory A. Booker. (The Star-Ledger of Newark published an article about a man it says is Mr. Bradley, but his family denies any connection to the shooting.)
Mr. Marable speculates that Mr. Bradley “and possibly other Newark mosque members may have actively collaborated on the shooting with local law enforcement and/or the F.B.I.,” but fails to provide any hard evidence concerning this allegation either. In addition he argues that law enforcement agencies did not actively investigate threats on Malcolm X’s life, but instead “stood back, almost waiting for a crime to happen.”
In the course of this volume Mr. Marable corrects some popular assumptions: for instance, Malcolm X was introduced to the Nation of Islam not by a fellow prisoner — as depicted in Spike Lee’s 1992 movie “Malcolm X” — but by family members. Somewhat more enigmatic and sharper-elbowed than the man in the movie, Mr. Marable’s Malcolm is a passionate, conflicted and guarded man, filled with contradictions — charming and charismatic with audiences and the press but detached, even chilly with his wife, Betty, whom he frequently treated with misogynistic disdain. Some people quoted in this volume depict Malcolm X as being fatalistic in the last days of his life, telling one former associate that “the males in his family didn’t die a natural death.”
As a young man in prison Malcolm steeped himself not just in black history, Mr. Marable writes, but in “Herodotus, Kant, Nietzsche, and other historians and philosophers of Western civilization.” His hungry intellect and gift for oratory would make him a magnetic proselytizer for the Nation of Islam, and later, after his split from the Nation, for his own more pluralistic vision, which would align him more closely with the civil rights movement and Dr. King, whom he had once denounced as an Uncle Tom.
There is one ill-considered effort in these pages to rationalize Malcolm X’s violent rhetoric in his Nation of Islam days. “In retrospect,” Mr. Marable writes, “many of Malcolm’s most outrageous statements about the necessity of extremism in the achievement of political freedom and liberty were not unlike the views expressed by the 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, who declared that ‘extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.’ ”
This hardly seems an apt comparison given Malcolm X’s description of a 1962 airplane crash, killing more than a hundred well-to-do white residents of Atlanta, as “a very beautiful thing,” proof that God answers prayers. Or his description of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as an instance of “the chickens coming home to roost” — to which he added that “being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they’ve always made me glad.”
For the most part in this book, however, Mr. Marable takes a methodical approach to deconstructing Malcolm X’s complex legacy: his articulation of the “frustrations of the black poor and working class” and his message of “black pride, self-respect, and an awareness of one’s heritage.” As for the incendiary actions Malcolm X sometimes took as a member of the Nation of Islam, these are duly chronicled here as well.
After a 1962 police raid on a Nation of Islam mosque in Los Angeles (in which more than a half-dozen Muslims were shot), Mr. Marable asserts, Malcolm X began to recruit members for an assassination team to target officers from the Los Angeles Police Department. The year before, Mr. Marable says, Malcolm and another Nation leader met with representatives of the Ku Klux Klan, assuring those white racists, according to F.B.I. surveillance, that “his people wanted complete segregation from the white race.”
Spiritual and political growth was the one constant in Malcolm X’s restless and peripatetic life. During a 1964 trip to Mecca he was treated with kindness by white Muslims and was moved by the sight of thousands of people of different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds praying in unison to the same God. This would lead to his embrace of a kind of internationalist humanism, separating himself not just from Nation of Islam’s leadership but from its angry, separatist theology too. After Mecca, Malcolm began reaching out to the civil rights establishment and came to recognize, in Mr. Marable’s words, that “blacks indeed could achieve representation and even power under America’s constitutional system.”
Toward the end of his “Autobiography” Malcolm X wrote: “The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities — he is only reacting to 400 years of the conscious racism of the American whites. But as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the wall and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth — the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to.”
A key to understanding Malcolm X is at the end of the review in which Erin Aubrey Kaplan, the reviewer, writes:
Sara Mitchell of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, one of two groups Malcolm formed after he left the Nation of Islam, said that "underlying {his} efforts was his still unfulfilled and paramount ambition: the redemption of the 'disgraced' manhood of the African American male. That was the spur piercing him; it would not let him stop or even rest." To this day, he does not.
***
To understand Malcolm X's Autobiography, we must grasp its heart, which is the notion of a "disgraced manhood" and the redemption of that manhood.
Prewriting by Looking at Different Thesis Points of View
Thesis Against Malcolm X
While McMahon makes good points about the positive role Malcolm X had on changing black consciousness for the better in racist society that disgraced black humanity, Malcolm X cannot be an exalted figure when we look at the inexcusable lies, fabrications, half-truths, myth-making, and violence-causing demagoguery, all of which taint Malcolm X’s legacy.
Thesis Defending Malcolm X
While I concede that Malcolm relied on myth-making and exaggerated self-promotion, taking poetic license here and there to carve a dramatic narrative of redemption, the mythologies that festoon and embellish the facts of his existence do not diminish the enormous, positive impact he had on not only black America but all of America when we consider __________________, _______________________, _________________________, and ________________________.
Another Thesis That Calls the Book a Fraud:
We can acknowledge that Malcolm X was a great leader and psychological healer on the one hand while at the same time dissect his so-called "autobiography" for what it is, a fabrication, a myth, and, yes, ultimately a fraud.
A Thesis That Defends Malcolm X
While I concede that much of Malcolm X's autobiography is molded by mythical narratives of redemption and other fabrications, the essential character arc of his life is provided in the autobiography to make it a rewarding and authentic contribution to what I would call "redemption literature."
Whether you're just getting to know this giant and enigmatic figure of the civil rights "movement" - or in Malcolm's case revolution - or you were on the street in the day, Manning Marable's biography is worth your valuable time. In addition to being a wide and deep examination of how Malcolm Little became Malcolm X and how Malcom X became a universal advocate for the oppressed, especially of African heritage, Marable fills in gaps with his singular access to records and sources, as well as his sustained effort over a decade in producing this biography. But, perhaps most importantly, the voice that Malcolm X raised in defense of those being oppressed carries a message especially important in our time. We should listen.
Marable examines Malcolm's life from many angles, in many contexts, which are necessary given that he manifested himself in appearances that ranged from hustler and angry voice from the ghetto to social activist and pragmatist willing to work within the American "system." And this broad appeal largely defines Malcolm X's appeal according to Marable: "Malcolm's journey of reinvention was in many ways centered on his lifelong quest to discern the meaning and substance of faith. As a prisoner, he embraced an antiwhite quasi-Islamic sect that nevertheless validated his fragmented sense of humanity and ethnic identity. But as he traveled across the world...Malcolm came to adopt true Islam's universalism, and its belief that all could find Allah's grace regardless of race." (p.12)
To black audiences, "what made him truly original was that he presented himself as the embodiment of the two central figures of African-American folk culture, simultaneously the hustler/trickster and the preacher/minister...the trickster is unpredictable and capable of outrageous transgressions; the minister saves souls, redeems shattered lives, and promises a new world." I might add that I suspect this appeal is not limited to just black audiences.
This journey involves doing time for small time crime, developing his thoughts and voice while incarcerated, taking Elijah Muhammad as a mentor, but perhaps the greatest advancement came as a result of Malcolm's haj, after which his thinking and voice, while still strongly advocating for the oppressed, became more inclusive and more compassionate. As noted in at least one other review here, Marable's work is distinguished for understanding how the experience of the haj profoundly advanced Malcolm's thinking and his voice. It may not be too strong to say that this experience liberated him.
Marable's book also stands out for filling in gaps around Malcolm's assassination. Complicity on the part of federal and state authorities, as well as the Nation of Islam, from which Malcolm broke about a year before his death, is indicated. Ultimately, though, a conclusive picture can not be drawn from the records to which he had access.
An especially valuable context is Marable's view of Malcolm in a larger context that includes Martin Luther King. "one great gift of such remarkable individuals is the ability to seize their time, to speak to their unique moment in history. Both Martin and Malcolm were such leaders, but they expressed their pragmatic visions in different ways. King embodied the historic struggles waged by generations of African Americans for full equality...King never pitted blacks against whites, or used the atrocities committed by white extremists as a justification for condemning all whites. By contrast, throughout most of his public career Malcolm sought to place whites on the defensive in their relationship with African Americans...His constant message was black pride, self-respect, and an awareness of one's heritage."
Malcolm's influence over Eldridge Cleaver and Black Power advocates was obvious. And while it scared the hell out of many, Marable presents Malcolm as an important voice in the chorus against racial oppression. Advocating force on behalf of those slammed away in ghettos has its place.
Malcolm's voice, according to the actor Ossie Davis and quoted by Marable, was that of a "black shining prince," in his eulogy. Prince, because Malcolm's assassination did not allow him to achieve the maturity of becoming a king. Following his death, Malcolm "was pilloried and sterotyped for his racial extremism," especially in the white community. In the black community, Malcolm, in death, was seen as "an icon of black encouragement, who fearlessly challenged racism wherever he found it."
Marable notes that "Malcolm's revolutionary vision also challenged white America to think and talk differently about race...Malcolm challenged whites to examine the policies and practices of racial discrimination."
Beyond being a wonderful biography, I hope that Marable's effort here acts to amplify Malcolm's voice to make aware those too young to remember Malcolm, to reaffirm those who sympathized with his struggle, and to expand the understanding of those who were with Malcolm in the day.
***
The above review speaks to the complexity of the prophet who doubles as the trickster. Can we venerate prophets who have duality and complexity? Does this complexity inform the complete humanity of a prophet or diminish such a figure?
You should consider these questions as you develop your argument.
Research Links in Addition to the Two Above (read the first one in its entirety)
The Real Malcolm X? is a critical examination from a conservative magazine. In a key passage the article's author, commenting on Manning Marable's biography Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, writes:
According to Marable, the Malcolm X character was effective as “the embodiment of the two central figures of African-American folk culture, simultaneously the hustler/trickster and the preacher/minister.”
In the same passage, Marable writes that Malcolm exaggerated his criminal past as “Detroit Red” in order to present “an allegory documenting the destructive consequences of racism within the U.S. criminal justice and penal system. Self invention was an effective way for him to reach the most marginalized sectors of the black community, giving justification to their hopes.”
The problem with that lofty justification is that Malcolm Little exaggerated his criminal past while he was still openly a huckster in order to gain street cred in the lawless world he inhabited.
In a key passage by the article's author Michael Muhammed Knight we read:
In Betty & Coretta, however, King’s chief accusation of violence falls upon Malcolm X. King even blames Malcolm for Malcolm’s own assassination, as “Nothing good ever comes out of preaching violence.” The Lifetime movie preserves the image of Malcolm as a bloodthirsty radical while seeking to rehabilitate him of what it treats as his past fanaticism.
This strangely requires that Malcolm be depicted as both more and less “extreme” than he was, based on a division of the man into two distinct and diametrically opposed characters: Early Malcolm and Real Malcolm. Neither Early Malcolm nor Real Malcolm are “real.” They are both fabrications that serve to oversimplify a complex human being. Early Malcolm was the Nation of Islam minister who apparently made all kinds of irresponsible statements and espoused violence. Real Malcolm is the later version, having gone to Mecca and disavowed all the militant things that we are told he said. When Early Malcolm finally learned to love white people, he matured into Real Malcolm. Unfortunately, as Betty tells us, Real Malcolm did not live long enough to communicate his new ideas or escape the shadow of Early Malcolm. In the film, Betty complains of “radicals” who misappropriate Early Malcolm in the name of revolution, specifically mentioning the Black Panthers.
We further read that
It’s not that the film is exactly wrong in highlighting the importance of education in Malcolm’s public mission or his own biography. After all, Malcolm’s transformation from a convicted burglar into an international icon of the freedom struggle began with a transformation of consciousness, famously illustrated in his narrative of copying out an entire dictionary by hand and straining his eyes to read in poor prison lighting. The problem is that Betty & Coretta leaves out the political consequences of Malcolm’s self-education. Malcolm did have ideas, as we are told in the film, but the film has no interest in treating them as meaningful. We are only instructed to ignore Early Malcolm and look instead to Real Malcolm, the Malcolm of education and knowledge and empowerment and pride.
As Mr. Marable sees it, the “Autobiography,” which was written with Alex Haley (later of “Roots” fame), was in some respects “more Haley’s than its author’s.” Because Malcolm X died in February 1965, Mr. Marable writes, “he had no opportunity to revise major elements of what would become known as his political testament.” Haley, “a liberal Republican,” in Mr. Marable’s words, made the finished book read like a work in “the tradition of Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography” rather than “a manifesto for black insurrection” — which perhaps explains its widespread popularity and prominent place in high school and college curriculums.
Autobiography of Malcolm X Lesson One, 79-139: Chapters 1-3
Study Questions, Chapters 1-3
One. Who were the Klu Klux Klan and why were they threatening Malcolm’s family when he was a little boy?
They were white supremacists who formed after the Civil War to enforce the rules of white supremacy, a religion that said white people were God’s chosen, superior people born with the entitlement to use the other races for the white man’s pleasure, riches, conveniences, and whims.
White supremacy was an invention to prevent the formation of natural guilt and conscience for the evils of slavery.
A white sociopath didn’t need the false religion to enforce slavery; he did evil for its own pleasure, but only 4% of the population is sociopaths, according to Martha Stout, author of The Sociopath Next Door.
But the other 96% needed to assuage their conscience by drinking the Kool-Aid of white supremacy, which told them it was “God-approved” to enslave people of color. This “mass psychosis,” as it has been called, was the false religion that drove the slave trade and created America’s wealth.
When one talks about the foundation of America, one cannot separate it from the evil liquid that white Americans consumed and this evil potion is called white supremacy.
White supremacy was a religion that relied on several factors:
Quasi-religion, referring to gross interpretations of the Bible to justify slavery and see white people as “God’s children.”
Racist iconography: cartoons, toys, billboards, illustrations, figurines, minstrel shows all representations of black people were subhuman, grotesque, dumb, and “well suited” for slavery.
Conflating white supremacy with the “Great Frontier,” the idea that national expansion and success what a sign of piety, God-fearing white Christians obeying their God and achieving virtue.
Psychosis: To have slave blood’s on your clothes upon returning home and reading bedtime stories to your children and praising God for the bounty he has given you and your family shows a disconnect from reality and when the disconnect from reality (slaves’ blood on your clothes) is this extreme the only appropriate word for such a mental condition is psychosis. Historians of slavery have used the expression “mass psychosis” to characterize the white state of mind during this period.
What’s most compelling about The Autobiography of Malcolm X is that he saw the root of white psychosis and Malcolm devoted his whole life to destroying the false religion of white supremacy as a psychosis that not only affected white people but also was internalized in black people. For Malcolm X, black people could not be saved until they purged the poison of white supremacy from their minds, hearts, and souls. This poison dehumanized and degraded blacks in general and especially black men who were humiliated and prohibited from "being men." They suffered from "disgraced manhood" and Malcolm X wanted to redeem black men from the disgrace of being a black man in America.
After the Civil War, the US government tried to give some recompense to black people for all the suffering they went through during slavery but white supremacists, mostly poor white farmers, resented black people being “on the same plane as us” and they terrorized black people so that life could be restored to “the good old days.”
The KKK and their sympathizers lynched black men as part of their terror campaign. Between the Civil War and the 1930s, over five thousand black men were lynched (often hanged from trees) with no arrests, leading some black people to say, “It’s open season on us.”
The KKK was terrorizing Malcolm X’s family because Malcolm’s father, the Reverend Earl Little, was a disciple of Marcus Garvey who believed black people would never be treated fairly in America, that they too were brainwashed by white supremacy, believing they were inferior to white people (evidenced by favoring their lighter skinned brothers and sisters and emulating “white” hair styles) and that the only solution for black people was to return to Africa and find their “banner of black-race purity.”
Clearly, Marcus Garvey, Earl Little, and later Malcolm X, became impassioned about reversing the catastrophic effects of white supremacy on the psyche of black America, the self-hatred and sense of disgrace and humiliation.
To understand Malcolm X, we have to understand the sick, cancerous religion of white supremacy because Malcolm’s life and ideas were a reaction to white supremacy, an effort to kill this poison that resided in the psyches of black people.
Not until the end of his life did Malcolm believe there were decent white people who were free from the poison of white supremacy.
And this belief could have very well been the reason Malcolm was assassinated. He was no longer drinking the Kool-Aid of The Nation of Islam, which had its own supremacy doctrine.
Two. What painful irony does Malcolm witness in his father?
His father, dedicated to fighting white supremacy, was so brainwashed by it that he didn’t punish his son Malcolm as much as his other children because Malcolm was light-skinned, “nearer to white and therefore ‘better’” (83).
No doubt witnessing his father’s favoritism, made Malcolm see how insidious and far-reaching the effects of white supremacy.
His own father, who hated white racism, unconsciously favored his "white" skinned son over his darker skinned children.
Three. Why was Malcolm so hostile against whites and blacks integrating and living in harmony?
Because he believed that blacks would always be subjugated to white supremacy, that it would be blacks who’d compromise to accommodate white people, that white supremacy was so ubiquitous, so deeply engrained, and so insidious that it was a Faustian Bargain (deal with the devil) for black people who’d get the bad end of the bargain. Relations with whites were built on white supremacy, a religion that had brainwashed both white and black people.
It wasn’t until Malcolm visited Mecca during the latter stage of his life that he saw men of all skin colors connected through the same faith that he could separate an evil religion, white supremacy, from a human being and as a result Malcolm became open to the new vision that it was bad ideologies, not skin color, that determined if a person was good or bad.
Born in Jim Crow (pre-Civil Rights) America in 1925, Malcolm grew up around white people who had consumed the Kool-Aid of white supremacy so he had no hope for white people until much later in his life.
Four. On page 16 of the Foreword, Alex Haley reveals one of Malcolm X’s napkin scribbles in which he writes, “Only persons really changed history [were] those who changed men’s thinking about themselves.” He then lists historical figures attributed to both good and evil, Hitler, Jesus, Buddha, among others. Does Malcolm fit on this list?
The monumental change of black image by purging the disease of white supremacy makes Malcolm X one of the greatest figures in American history. Not having to go through life shackled to the internalization of white supremacy and its self-hatred and the compulsion to be apologetic about one’s existence is not something to be taken for granted when one considers the foundation of America, its economy, its power, its myth of greatness, was fueled by white supremacy.
Malcolm's genius was describing in ways no one had before the poison of white supremacy and the manner in which it disgraced black Americans.
White supremacy is so long-lasting that to this day it is argued to be the fuel of the America’s prison system as argued in Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, which I teach in my Critical Thinking class, English 1C.
Five. How does the American history we learn in The Autobiography of Malcolm X differ from the American history we learn in high school?
I can only speak about myself and the people I’ve talked to and my impression is that there are huge differences between public school American history and Malcolm X’s American history.
In public school, we learn that slavery and racism were “unfortunate” and a horrible glitch in America’s glorious history of freedom and democracy. Additionally, for the most part America has gotten over these terrible hurdles.
In contrast, Malcolm X teaches us a different, and I would say a far more accurate, American history in terms of slavery and racism’s root cause, slavery and racism’s massive scale, and slavery and racism’s pernicious influence that persists, sometimes explicitly, sometimes insidiously, to this day.
Because America’s economic foundation was slavery and slavery could only be fueled by the 96% of Americans through an ideology that would allow them to commit the cruelty of slavery with a clear conscience and this ideology had to be powerful, as powerful as the evil it supported. This ideology was the poison religion of white supremacy.
Malcolm X wants American to reckon with white supremacy, an ugly religion that has been swept under the carpet in fawning, flattering, mythical conceptions of American history. He wants white America to be accountable for it and he wants black Americans to see its self-hating effects inside themselves.
What’s impressive about Malcolm X’s account is that his history is imbued with his personal story of struggle against white supremacy.
He saw the effects of white supremacy on everyone, including white children who called him racist epithets every day at school and what’s remarkable is that the white kids didn’t see what they were doing as insulting; it seemed “natural” to them to call the black kids denigrating names, so powerful is white supremacy (87).
In addition to insults, he saw violence affect his family including the brutal murder of his father at the hands of white people, a KKK splinter group called The Black Legion (89).
Six. Why does Malcolm X show contempt for the black middle class?
See pages 83 and 84. He sees the black middle class as materialistic, faddish, trendy, superficial, and worst of all aspiring to emulate “whiteness,” the condition of being uppity, supercilious and vain.
During the 1960s, Malcolm X saw a black America that aspired to be middle class by emulating white lifestyles, a source that brought upon black self-hatred and black self-abnegation, black self-erasure. For Malcolm X, this was a horrible sin.
He also scoffed at the black middle class’ faith in integrating in white America. For Malcolm America was a poker game in which the white man knew how to cheat, owned the casino, and ruled all the cards and so of course he made up all the rules to serve him (96).
Seven. What was the humiliation of welfare and how did it influence Malcolm X’s belief in self-reliance?
On page 92 we read the Welfare agency people acted “as if they owned us.” This was an affront to Malcolm’s pride and his mother’s.
On 93, Malcolm says his family surrendered to the destitution of welfare and lost their dignity.
Malcolm felt that white handouts fed the white supremacist belief that whites were superior to blacks and this was a form of humiliation that for Malcolm was unacceptable.
Eight. What humiliation does Malcolm experience at the end of Chapter 1?
He and his siblings are given over to the white man (they become wards of the state) after his mother has a nervous breakdown and Malcolm writes this was “legal, modern slavery” (101).
The Welfare state destroyed Malcolm’s family and he saw this happen to hundreds of black families (102).
Nine. In Chapter 2, Malcolm writes about white people who use racial epithets, specifically the N Word, “innocently” (107). What does this say about white supremacy?
When one has consumed the Kool-Aid of white supremacy, one behaves out of habit, out of the unconscious, out of reflex with no thought, no reflection, and no free will. White supremacy is so ubiquitous (everywhere) that it absorbs into the consciousness and becomes a form of brainwashing, especially for those with less than exceptional intelligence. The white people “never did really see me” (107). Malcolm writes the white people may have “opened the door” to black people but the condescension, the unconscious belief in their superiority and their inability to see the humanity of black Americans spoke to the power of that evil religion, white supremacy.
So pernicious is white supremacy, Malcolm observes, that even well-intentioned whites cannot reach out to black Americans without this condescension, this patronizing, this self-congratulatory “see how good I am! I like black people!” vanity.
No matter how nice whites were to Malcolm, he believed that when a crisis occurred they could not be counted on because in that moment of crisis that would rally back to “their kind” and show their true colors, tribalists of the tribe white supremacy (108).
Tribalism is a primitive impulse, which says “Us Vs. Them.”
Tribalism is narcissistic. White history is 999 pages in a high school textbook; “black history,” Malcolm discovers, is only one paragraph (110). And it’s a horrendous paragraph: We were slaves; then we were freed; we’re lazy and dumb. The end. And to add to insult, the teacher laughed when he read the paragraph (110).
Ten. Why is racial tribalism weaker in much of America today, especially big cities like Los Angeles?
Malcolm didn’t see the mixing of races in his lifetime that exists today. Now there is so much mixing that it becomes absurd to identify people of a particular race. People today are a diverse blend that defies easy race categorization.
In contrast, during Malcolm’s time, mixing was prohibited and often considered a scandal. There was mixing, we read on page 112, but it was white men and black women; however, a black man going out with a white woman could result in that man’s death.
However, he does see in Boston white and black couples, so he does live at the beginning of the miscegenation age (116).
Eleven. How does social class in Boston, which affects both white and black people, affect Malcolm and how does he act upon returning to Lansing?
Malcolm gets a taste of dignity and of no longer playing the dumb mascot and his Lansing associates find him “different” and perhaps a bit supercilious and “uppity.” See page 117.
And this leads to a “turning point” in Malcolm’s life. His English teacher Mr. Ostrowski discusses Malcolm’s career and when Malcolm says he wants to be a lawyer, his teacher tries to put him in “his place” by telling him to lower his sights, something more “appropriate for someone in his station in life” like a labor job, a mule job, something that doesn’t require brain power. Malcolm knew he was smarter than the white kids, many of whom were encouraged to pursue high-minded professions and this injustice cut Malcolm and made him hate all the more the religion of white supremacy (119).
From being affectionately called the N Word (the word used to “slip off his back” whereas now it stiffens him into a hostile posture), now Malcolm is inquired, “What’s wrong?” And it was evident that he was no longer “happy,” that is willing to play their game.
He persuades his half-sister Ella to take him into her Boston home and he praises Allah for getting out of Lansing where he would have been a “brainwashed black Christian, “meaning a docile robot living a life of obedience to white supremacy (120).
Twelve. What class distinctions does Malcolm see in Boston?
On page 122, we see that Malcolm scorned the haughty, educated class of black people who thought they were better than the lower class blacks. For him, blacks had to be united in the fight against white supremacy and the “brainwashed” upper class blacks were still in the jaws of the white man’s game. Many of them wore “white hair,” a conk.
Defying Ella’s encouragement to hang out with the “nice people,” Malcolm is drawn to the ghetto and its “cool cats” and hipsters (125). He soon meets Shorty who explains that the hipster brothers can’t stand the uppity Hill brothers.
Malcolm learns the “hip code,” which is to not overtly show affection (135).
While white supremacy might be on the decline in many ways today (but not the prison system according to Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow), there is in America another supremacy game, that of social class, which affects people of all races. There is a stigma, for example, in not having a college degree unless the person is super rich.
Thirteen. What was Malcolm’s “first step in self-degradation”?
He got a white man’s hairdo, a conk, with the help of his friend and mentor Shorty. Being hip and cool couldn’t save a black man from the self-hatred that would make him aspire to have white hair and this left a lifelong impression on Malcolm.
And he hated the upper class blacks for having conks. They should have known better. Malcolm saw the conk as an emblem of shame and lost identity.