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Malcom X Thesis

563 Words3 Pages

Through Malcolm X’s life, the idea of the “promised land” in the North was effortlessly debunked. Upon moving northward, Malcom X immediately felt the boundaries of the color line, a concept introduced by W.E.B. DuBois, imposed on the African American community. From the way hate groups treat his family, to the way the police treated him differently, to what people believe African Americans could accomplish, his experience with the color line is undoubtable visible. When Malcom X’s mother was still pregnant, Ku Klux Klan members had come to their house looking for Malcom X’s father – they were angry because they thought his father was teaching the incorrect message to African Americans. Although his father wasn’t there, they continued to …show more content…

For example, as a child, “[white kids] called [Malcom X] ‘nigger’ … so much that [he] thought [it was his] natural names” (12). There is a problem when a single word is used to describe someone’s race, which occurred in the north, where race relations were expected to be better. It’s even worse when it is used so often they believe it is their name, their identity. For another example, although Malcolm X was one of the top students in his class, and the class president, his teacher still told him “A lawyer – that’s no realistic goal for a nigger” (43). His teacher directly, without hesitation, told him he couldn’t become a lawyer. What African Americans were expected to accomplish in their lifetime was the polar opposite of whites. If someone was told they cannot become something they want to be, and to pick something more suitable for them, it would profoundly influence what that individual believes they can accomplish. It would make them feel they are the inferior race, however incorrect that could be. From the way people viewed African Americans, to where society believed African Americans proper place was, the promised land was nonexistent in the north, and the color was solidified. Malcolm X undoubtedly led a life that was common among African Americans, and not as common among whites – while his experience with racism confirms

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This journal article belabours the point that is also a common theme in “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”: Malcolm’s changing views on civil rights. Again as a result of his tumultuous childhood because of the “white man”, Malcolm generalizes all white people as essentially haters of blacks because of the negative experiences he’s had with them and the tragic ways they treated him. But, as he grows older and matures, Malcolm has the eye-opening experience of seeing people of all colors worship next to each other. This is an interaction between blacks and whites that creates a positive environment as an outcome.

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Imagine living in a world of segregation - constantly judged by color of one’s skin and not being permitted to associate with the “superior” race. From slavery to discrimination, African-Americans experienced this horror in daily life since the beginning of their existence. Due to the fear of severe punishment, blacks were scared to fight for equality; however, on April 3, 1964 in Cleveland, Ohio, one brave soul finally did. His name was Malcolm Little (known as Malcolm X), a widely acknowledged human rights activist. Although he supported black equality, he attacked the problem unlike others such as Martin Luther King Jr. did.

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In the Malcom X Biography, by People Magazine, it describes the life and thoughts of Malcom X. Malcom was born in May of 1925 and from then on, he faced harassment from many. He married Betty Sander, in 1958 and had six girls together. Malcom grew up with a activist father and a caring mother. When he was four, their house was put on fire and was left to burn. After his father was attacked, his mother was sent to a mental hospital.

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841 Words | 4 Pages

As Barack Obama said, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” In the biography, “Malcolm X” by Walter Dean Myers shows what made Malcolm what he is known for. Initially, Malcolm went through several events in his life that made him what he is known for including the fact that of course African-Americans were segregated.

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Malcolm Little, an african american baby, born to Earl Little and Louise Helen Norton Little in Nebraska, more specifically, Omaha, on May 19th, 1925 would become one of the most influential powers of the 1960’s and history as a whole. He was raised in a house of 8 children, his mother a homemaker, and his father who was a preacher who took regular part in the local branch of the Universal Negro Improvement Association(UNIA). His family was under constant harassment from the local white supremacist groups such as the KKK because of his father’s involvement with the UNIA, so much so that their hands were forced to move elsewhere. That elsewhere came in the form of Lansing, MI, about 1.5 hours west of Detroit, MI, wherein Klan-like members of

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1168 Words | 5 Pages

Martin Luther King Jr. believed that change would come slowly with peaceful protest and resistance while Malcolm X believed that African Americans should take care of themselves and attack whites when they were attacked. Many believe that Malcolm X’s philosophy

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Organized into six topical groups, the author did an excellent job in comparing and contrasting King and Malcolm’s views on subjects including integration, the American dream, means of struggle, and opposing racial philosophies that needless any improvement. An interpretive introductory essay, chronology, bibliography, document headnotes, and questions for consideration provide further pedagogical support for students. The author explains how Malcolm X came closer than any social reformer in history to embodying and articulating the totality of the African experience in America while Martin Luther King was not only the most important figure in American religious history in the 20th century, he was arguably its most brilliant

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Throughout Malcolm X’s speech “The Ballot or the Bullet,” he empowers the black community to fight the suppression of the “white man.” Malcolm X urges his followers to spread Black Nationalism and to bring awareness to problems that are affecting blacks. By using strategies such as repetition, objectification and shame, X creates an effective argument that persuades the audience to join his movement. Malcolm X evokes emotion with the use of objectification, by specifying particular instances of exploitation, degradation, and oppression that the black community has faced.

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MLK and Malcolm X both wanted equality but in different ways. Martin Luther King believed in nonviolence to end segregation. However, Malcolm X believed in segregation; where African Americans would govern themselves without bothering the whites. But which idea was better for society? Malcolm X’s philosophy offers a variety of solutions for

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1974 Words | 8 Pages

Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were two influential men who served as important figures for the Civil Rights Movement. The two men came from diverse backgrounds and had contrasting views in life about religion and African American’s stance in society. Malcolm X was born in Nebraska and had great amounts of exposure to racism. Martin Luther King was born in an educated family in Atlanta, where he experienced racism, but to a lower extreme than Malcolm X. Although they passed away long time ago, they continue to live on today in a world independent of segregation. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X used opposing principles to achieve equality for blacks; King utilized integration of both races and nonviolence as opposed to Malcolm X who separated the same races and employed non violence so as to achieve the same goal.

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433 Words | 2 Pages

Malcolm X ’s childhood growing up in Michigan shows the most compelling examples of racial injustice through the extreme prejudice that he experiences while attending middle school. One afternoon in class, Malcolm is asked by his teacher, Mr .Ostrowski, about what career he might want to go into as he gets older. “Mr. Ostrowski looked surprised... that’s no realistic goal for a nigger” (Page 38).

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1287 Words | 6 Pages

In the United States today, there is what W. E. B. DuBois called a “color line”. This line represents the lack of equality that many people today experience due to their race. This “line” should have been erased from American history in 1865, at the end of the Civil War. During the Civil War and Civil Right movement, abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln stood on a national stage to speak against slavery and for the equality of all races in America. Somehow, however, the “color line” has remained just as heavily imprinted into American society today as it was earlier in history, just not as radically.

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1305 Words | 6 Pages

He expresses to me how important gaining an education was for him. If Malcolm had not gone to college, he believes that his life would have been filled with crime and neglect, much like his childhood. Both Douglass and Malcolm realized that education was vital to moving on in a positive direction life. Despite being in different time periods, the narrative still connects with the present almost exactly as many minorities seek education as their stepping stone to creating a life of

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1318 Words | 6 Pages

Malcolm X and his ideals are arguably a representation of the transition from the early 1950 's non-violent movement for integration to a more aggressive black power movement. Evidence of this is shown through powerful strands of his novel “The Ballot or the Bullet” including when he writes, “I don 't mean go out and get violent, but at the same time you should never be non-violent unless you run into some non-violence.” (Malcolm 439). In writing that members of the civil rights movement should never be non-violent he does so facetiously. This excerpt indicates a call for violence as a more powerful method for achieving the equality he feels they deserve.

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717 Words | 3 Pages

Introduction: Malcom X urges the Negro community to fight to gain the equal rights they deserve by taking action against their white oppressors. He emphasizes that blacks will gain their rights either thorough voting, with the ballot, or else through the inevitable violence with the bullet. Thesis [part a] Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., also fighting for the civil rights of black Americans in the 1960s, but in a more peaceful manner, Malcom X takes a different approach.

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