Malcolm X Research Paper

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X

The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley.

Malcolm X had a hard life. He struggled with coexitsting with whites all of his life. He had many trials and tribulations during his time which formed his opinions of races and equality between races. He was taught his earlier opinions by his learning experiences and what he experienced growing up. As he got older he developed a different sense of what racism was and began to form his own leadership with many followers. While a great deal of whites thought he was too outspoken and racist imself, he just wanted to show the world through his own experiences what equality is and he hoped to help the nation overcome the boundaries that separated the whites from the blacks. He came to realize at the end of his time that not all whites were racist and that there were many who were set out to accomplish the same goal as he was, equality for all regaurdless of race.

Malcolm X who was born Malcolm Little was raised in a home with his mother and father and siblings. His father was a Babtist inister and was also involved with the UNIA. He was a outspoken man who was proud of his race. His willingness to stand up for his rights as a black man contributed to his murder. Malcolm believes his father had been brainwashed by the whites because he favored Malcolm more than the other children because he was light skinned. His mother felt differently about him. She believed that her grandfather who was a white man had raped her grandmother and she was ashamed of the white blood running through her, she was also light skinned but favored her children who were darker and aught them to be proud of their black heritage, even moreso than her husband. Malcolm and his family were the victims of the Klu Klux Klan, they attacked the Little home because they perceived his father to be a troublemaker because he was so outspoken and involved with the UNIA. After Malcolm was born the family moved in hopes of a better start and the trouble followed them. Their home was set on fire because his father wanted to own his own business and live outside the boundaries set for blacks to live.

The “Black Legionnaires” elt like they were being disrespected and tried to run the family off. The family did move and that move was economically advantageous for the family. Malcolms father built a 4 bedroom home and they were able to grow their own food as well. Malcolms home life was quite unstable, his parents often fought and life was unstable. Social workers were involved with the family and eventually they took the children out of the home and put them in temporary homes. At this point in his life, he had already been witnessed to the cruel and unusual punishment factored y race and he developed strong opinions of his outlook on whites and blacks. He felt like whites treated him as a mascott of sorts and that just because he was black that he was not human. He struggled with stability in his life and his ideas of separatism and inequalities drove him to a lifestyle of crime and troublemaking. His sister tried to help him but to no avail. He got in with the wrong crowd and began hustling to make money. He got involved with dangerous criminals who eventually were out to get him. During his crime spree of robbing he got busted and ound up in jail where he learned of the Muslim religion. During his life he didnt have any real religious backround, even though his dad was a minister, religion was not the focus in the house, the focus was more on militant issues.

Malcolm had deep hatred for whites because of the struggles his family went through with the whites interfering in his life and how they dehumanized his mother growing up. This group offered him the support of people of his own race who felt the same injustices had been done to them. They seemed to understand his truggle and reason for his hatred of white people. The thing Malcolm didnt understand about the group was its nonchalant efforts to unite more people to its cause. He failed to see the group actively engaging in recruitment. He believed the more people of his race on his side would help in the fight to combat the white race into acknowledging the balck race as human beings and that they should have the same rights as whites. It wasnt until he took his first pilgrimage trip, paid for by his sister in hopes of getting him on the right track, that he started to see hat not all white people were racist. He began to see that there were whites that welcomed him and treated him as a human being and had ultimately the same goal as he did. He started to change his focus on not separation but equality to all no matter what the race. He saw that these problems were not just from the US but also worldwide and he began to start groups for such cause.

He wanted the world to hear him and he used his own life experiences as the basis for his findings. He egan to understand that the hatred he had to all whites was unjust and that it wasnt the whites persay but the attitudes and mindsets of whites that he didnt agree with. He found white Muslims who were not racist, who had not been brainwashed into thinking that just because you are black you are inequal. That gave him hope and a newfound look on what he was trying to accomplish. He left the Black Muslim organization and became a Islam follower. He wanted to have a huge following of blacks and create a unity worlwide with blacks unfortunately a lot of blacks did ot understand, were scared, or were already too set in their ways to follow him. He wanted to take the issue up with the united nations to create a global solution to the problem. His outspokenness and perserverance for his cause created the circumstances of his demise. He was going against his previous faiths ways and the Black Muslims didn’t agree with the messages he was preaching about. He was eventually murdered after coming back from France supposedly by the Black Muslim group. Though he may be gone, his message does live on.