But, once Malcolm started preaching his anti-white, Islamic ideals, I was turned off completely. I no longer felt sympathetic for him, but angry at his ignorance and stubbornness. Was his anger and confusion understandable? Yes, without a doubt. But here is a brilliant man with the opportunity to help bring the black community equal rights and respect. Instead, he gets spiteful and chooses to work to build up hate for whites; hate that only gave his own race a bad name. It was so stupid. Like, trying to persuade blacks to hate whites would only give whites a reason to say, "Well, they can't cooperate so neither can we." Look, I'm not trying to deny that times were hard for African American during Malcolm's time. But I feel like he had all the wrong methods of dealing with the hard times.
And, to be honest, even his turn-around at the end didn't really satisfy me. It seemed like, in the last two or three chapters, he came to realize that whites weren't inherently evil oh my gosh wrap this wonderful news up with a ribbon and send it over the rainbow! Then he predicts a violent death for himself, and I can't help but think, "Well, you did spend a huge portion of your life promoting violent ideas." Obviously, Malcolm was capable of clear-thinking and intellectual improvement of the racial struggles in America. But he spent too much time obsessing over the notion that all whites were racist and out to get him, and was so blind sighted by his own desire for revenge that he took it to the next level and dedicated his life to getting all other blacks to share his hate. How can one expect to accomplish anything with that kind of negativity and irrationality? I know that I don't get anywhere when I bitch and moan; no one does
See what I mean? It's infuriating. Martin Luther King Jr. was trying to influence peace, respect, and equality. Those are perfectly noble goals! He never wanted to succumb to whites; he wanted respect from them. Malcolm X seems to want them to hate blacks more.
HE JUST SOUNDS SO MUCH SMARTER.
His last statement was what he should have been promoting all along. But it still pisses me off that he says, "I was speaking for Elijah Muhammad." Malcolm has said throughout the book that those were his beliefs. The comment after JFK's assassination was discouraged and frowned upon by Elijah Muhammad. You certainly weren't speaking for him then! I feel like Malcolm simultaneously a) knows he was, at one point, guilty of being a "bad person," and b) cannot truly see his responsibility in the things he said in the past.
I have a lot of mixed feelings about Malcolm. I liked him early on, couldn't stand him for the majority of the rest of the book, and then felt disappointed after seeing the reasonable, in-depth, and mature side of him, because of the potential behind it.
Also, I'll end with a Malcolm X blog, if anyone is interested.
1 comment:
I understand your point-of-view. Although I didn't feel strong insult when Malcolm called whites devils, I did observe that he was being radical and overly generalizing. But then again, back in his times, whites probably were extremely racist unlike today. Also, I was very amazed at how influential he became as a Muslim leader when he used to live a life where getting watched by police was normal. The fact people still accepted Islam even after Malcolm's extreme teachings just proves that this man was very persuasive and passionate. So, in that way, I really do respect him no matter how he viewed this world.
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