The fact of the matter is that the way one perceives others and what type of thoughts are cultivated in one's mind relies greatly on what types of experiences you live through. Throughout his life, Malcolm X hated the white race and thought they were devils. BUT this was only because he grew up surrounded by racist whites who told him he couldn't achieve his goals in life. Naturally, if one is brought up around people who hate him, he will learn to hate them back.
For example, in the American society, we take for granted how much we are sheltered from the outside world. There is free speech and restrictions on how many "bad things", per say, one can say about a community or race or religion. Especially in the town we all live in, there is very little discrimination. Therefore, even though I was raised by Jews and surrounded by a very Jewish environment, I know that Christians or Indians or Muslims are not mean and do not have anything against me personally or, most of the time, my religion. Whenever I walk into a church, I am faced with a good first impression: there are food drives, there are social events welcoming all races and creeds, there are other community events. Obviously churches must be a place of selflessness and goodness! Take the church right by the middle school in our town for example; I went there for girl scouts and for parties. I was always welcome!
The bottom line is that the experiences I had (especially the ones I had in churches) made me realize that Christians are a friendly people and that I should not fear them or be angered by them.
Malcolm X finally realizes this. Even though he was brought up to think that the white people were a horrible people [because they mistreated him], he realizes later that not all whites are racist and that some are indeed very friendly.
He says when he was being led by a white man in Mecca and around Mecca **AND I QUOTE**: "That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men."
A new Malcolm X has awoken!
3 comments:
Hahaha, "a new malcom X has awoken"...nice way of putting it...haha...
Anyways, experiences definitely affect our outlook on life! That is one of the many lessons I took from reading this book (I actually learned some stuff!). I think that Malcom's transformation of thought is really inspiring. Views CAN change. People CAN change. Lives CAN change--and they change because of relationships with people. Meeting with diverse groups of people is essential to being openminded.
Yeah, good post.
Your pretty awesome. :)
I don't know, I was still angry with Malcolm. He spent his whole adult life preaching that whites shouldn't mistreat blacks and his entire book was talking about how angry he was that whites assumed blacks were like the stereotypes said, etc etc, but then he acted that way right back towards whites, and THEN, he goes to Mecca and GASP! NOT EVERY WHITE PERSON IS RACIST AND EVIL! And his eyes were opened to the world hallelujah.
Even though I was happy that he had finally found some sense, I still wanted to hit him because the whole time it was like, "NO DUH." But not because he had never had a chance to be exposed to whites on an equal level; because he never tried. He went from being discriminated against, to having whites (like that one girl) asking him to give them a chance, to let them show him that they were not all horrible, and he rejected it.
I don't know. I liked him in the beginning, but then he just got on my nerves and that never really went away. Even though I agree with Maja's comment ^ anyway. Because I've had instances in my life where... not that I was racist or hateful to another group of people, but I'd never known them and then meeting them was like, "Oh hey, they're like me!" :)
I agree, it is mainly one's surroundings that determine their outlook on the world. If you grew up around white supremacists, then you would probably become one. If you grow up in a multicultural (or even learning about other cultures), then you would probably be very understand and open to others and wouldn't discriminate.
I was glad that Malcolm finally realized that not all whites are racist, but I too feel like it was overdue. I mean, I can understand that he grew up in a time where they were many racists, and that he grew up to hate the racists. I actually can even understand his "blanket" anti-white racism, because it was exactly what white racists did to blacks. I just feel that he should have woken up long ago, like when that blond girl asked him what she could due to make up for her race's atrocities. By not doing so, Malcolm was just as bad as anyone else who refused to admit their racist belief were wrong. I really do not like that he only woke up when he saw they shared his religion. I can't stand how he acts like Islam is the only correct religion!
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