Malcolm X

After reading the chapters about Malcolm's life in Harlem, I was amazed on how much he had changed since the beginning of the book. I had practically forgotten and could hardly recall most of what I read about him prior to all the drugs and robberies. I can't say that I wasn't expecting most of it to happen, but it still surprised me. He used to be an innocent unfortunate kid, but as his jobs became more and more illegal, his lifestyle not only changed but his personality too. When he put the gun at his head declaring that he's not afraid to die, he had changed so much that he even Shorty, Rudy, Sophia and her sister looked at him with fear, thinking he was crazy. Then, when he was sent to prison, it was like he changed again, just asquick as before, but towards a more religious lifestyle.

Race privileges

I feel like even though many white people are against racism and prejudice, their minds subconsciously make that distinction whether they meant to or not. Those thoughts are built down into people's minds, because the man's first instinct is to act upon what they see. What they see are people who look different to them, and that is the first thought they come across of when they see someone of a different race. Because the white population of the world was technically the first race to advance much more than others, it came natural to them to look at others and see inferiority. If it is all massively broken down to the simple basics of human behavior, every action they make against people of other races are simply and driven by some sort of fear and the need to protect one's self. Back then when the oppression came forth, it makes sense that it originated from the sense of the white race to push down any others who were potentially a threat to their stature. When I think about it, it seems like the idea that racism is originated from fear might be hard from some people to grasp. But by ignoring for a second their side of the argument, it should be clear to them that fear is a reasonable explanation. Now I understand and there are a lot more massive and obvious reasons to shutting people from other races out, and that's what people probably see the clearest, but I think that that primitive sense of fear has evolved into a much more complex idea of racism. That idea has been knocked into everyone's head naturally, because that has become instinct. The privileges that come to white people are also mostly left into the subconscious until an outside source forces that person to actually think about it. No one really notices it because it has become the norm for so many people, who can't help but take it for granted. Even people who are aware of it and are fighting against it can't help but see black people as black people. Then that primitive urge to distinguish yourself from them kicks in, but ultimately your actions are left up to your moral values and what you believe in. People subconsciously act in reaction to what they sense with their senses, but if they care to look beyond that with their mind, that's when they can be sure they have supassed that racist attitude.

Malcolm X

At the beginning of the book, it was obvious how Malcolm was treated as if he was an empty shell of a person. He wasn't appreciated as a fellow human being although people didn't openly degrade him like they did other African Americans. But as he lived his early life around those people, I felt like underneath it all, all the feelings of unappreciation were being bottled up inside him. Even from his childhood, the effects of racism were beating down on him, leading him to let feelings of resentment, frustration, irritation and unsatisfaction build up inside. I think those feelings all exploded when he started drinking, doing drugs, and going out with women, especially when he met Sophia. His behavior with Sophia seemed exactly like how white people were treating him. She wasn't really an actual person to him, just a tool he used to burst out all the emotions that had built up in him because of white people like her. It's like he was being a hypocrite, but not exactly. Being a hypocrite is playing two opposite roles, usually one in a certain situation, the other in a different one. But what Malcolm was wasn't exactly a hypocrite, it was rather his way of getting back at the white race by lashing out on them the pain they caused him. It was his method of rebellion towards them, and also himself. The pressure from the whites led him to selfdislike and shame, causing him to act like his bullies.