MALCOLM II: I am a Jew.

IMPORTANT ANALYTICAL AND RELATION-TO-MY-LIFE INFORMATION IS AT THE BOTTOM.

In writing about the March at Washington D.C. led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X comments, "'Talk about integrated!' It was like salt and pepper. And, by now, there wasn't a single logistics aspect uncontrolled." 

Malcolm goes on to say that everything was organized; there were first aid stations, people were told when to march and where and what route to take. When they were instructed to leave early, they did...

HOWEVER. Malcolm says all of this in a very negative tone. He claims this was a perfect example of integration. He says integration is bad, which was a radically different--almost opposite--approach than the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

"Why is integration bad!?" the reader might ask, puzzled at even the suggestion of this. Well, Malcolm claims it is because the black man is doing exactly what the white man wants him to do: by integrating the blacks are bowing down to the whites.

Therefore, Malcolm believes that to remain steadfast in ones culture, even if it is not the black culture, rebellion and separation is necessary and that, in fact, the only right way to reverse assimilation. Although radical, this makes sense, correct?

On the contrary, most people who read chapter 15 think Malcolm is crazy. They think that him wanting nothing to do with the white race is a horrible thing. Or at least, that's what I first thought of when I read this chapter. 

But then, he goes on to explain the reasoning behind this...

Malcolm goes on to say that blacks deserve more than the white race because they have been slaves for the white race for over 400 years. He says that blacks have just as much of a right [he even goes one to say that blacks have MORE of a right] to the country they live in as whites do--more strong pro-black ideas.

Although whites who read the Autobiography of Malcolm X find this book offending, and sometimes believe Malcolm is blind to his very anti-any-other-race-but-black attitude and views, we have to remember to read as if we were in Malcolm thoughts--respectively. 

What I'm getting at here is that Malcolm was so pro-black that he was not only anti-white but also anti any other race even before the NOI members even contacted him. 

This means he was also anti-semitic. He claims he isn't and that the Jews are "hyper-sensitive"...

[I should mention that although I read books as if I did not have any culture, religion, race, or beliefs, and although I take one's opinion as non-offensively as I can, I felt I had to speak up for any Jew who has read this book.]

... this came up when he claimed that whenever he speaks about the Jews taking the black's money in the ghettos, he is accused of being anti-semitic. However, he had just said before that the Jew thinks of himself FIRST as a Jew and THEN as a German or a doctor or a husband or etc. He says this is a bad thing because he is always being accused of being an anti-semitic. BUT just before he had said that the Jews assimilated. This makes his arguments COMPLETELY CONTRADICTORY! And what is wrong with the Jews thinking of themselves as Jews first before anything else? This is called having pride for who you are and what your religion/culture/belief is! What is wrong about that? As I recall, Mr. X, YOU are the one who is the black activist here! So why are you so anti Jewish activism!? You should be proud of the Jewish activists who think of themselves as Jews first--I know I am proud to be a Jew and that I think of myself as having a strong Jewish identity. Why can't you accept other religions and races? Assimilation doesn't have to be bad.

Although I can respect his opinion and although I am reading this book, as I said before,  as if I am a "nobody", I felt this was appropriate material for a blog...

Comment if you'd like :]

MORE:

So this link just reinforces what I was just saying:

http://judaism.about.com/od/abcsofjudaism/a/beingjewish.htm

BEING JEWISH IS AN IDENTITY. IT IS A PART OF you.

MALCOLM I: The "Race Card"

There is a point where the presidential campaign crosses the line. In the 2008 presidential campaign, the "race line" was crossed many times. Although America is supposed to be a place of freedom and racial equality, most of the times, that façade is crushed by reality. The "race card" was played, according to McCain and his campaign manager, Rick Davis. 

I realize there is a place for free speech in this world and that everyone has the right to say what they want. But I believe there should be limits to what people can do or say--ESPECIALLY political figures. The fact that this language was even used by the McCain campaign is appalling to me. 

All of this relates to this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/us/politics/01campaign.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20race%20card&st=cse

GO THERE AND READ IT!

ANND, speaking of censoring:

When I was in third grade, I wrote an article about 9/11. I wrote about how another teacher came into my classroom and told us to turn on the television. My teacher did and all of us, as THIRD GRADERS watched the two towers fall. I wrote about how I remember everyone pulling their children out of school and general panic in the area. I remember not being too concerned with everything going on around me. I submitted it to the paper. A little while later, my mom was contacted and they told her that they would not print my article. I was devastated; I had worked so hard on it! 

Although it makes sense to me NOW why they did not print my article, I was upset that I had been censored. 

Well, what do you think? What are the limits of censoring?!

**PS: I know I have gone off the track of Malcolm X, but this article reminded me of censoring...

Malcolm X: vacation

So on the blog "rubric" thats on my Mrs. Mattessich's website, it says I should "share personal connections to class content and discussion" but we didn't quite have a discussion on any of the chapters we were supposed to read because there's no school [yay!]...

but anyways, I think I'll comment on the last part of chapter 10. (If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you stop reading this post here).

The last part of chapter 10 describes Malcolm's first "religious experience." And boy, did I learn a lot! (please ignore this outburst of enthusiasm). First, I had no idea where the "white folk" was said to have come from. According to the teachings of the Nation of Islam, the "Masons" are Satan and Mr. Yacub created the white man by genetically mutating the DNA of the blacks. This was interesting and also a bit contradictory because of the fact that scientists did not learn how to genetically mutate things (and they did not know how genes worked in general) until much later on in history, starting with the teachings of Mendel and Darwin and people like that (Darwin was more natural selection and stuff but w/e, you get the point)...hmm...

Also, the part about how Moses and the other white folk got into the desert was interesting. The fact that the blacks clothed the white people was eye-opening too; that's why the Nation of Islam followers used sheepskin...  

Also, they describe the white race on the island of Patmos as "blond, pale-skinned, cold-blue-eyed devils--savages, nude and shameless". Even though Malcolm goes on to describe them as "animals" who "walked on all fours" and who "lived in trees", apparently, concepts have changed a lot over the years! Now, blond-haired, blue-eyed whites are considered the purest Christians... go figure!

--and where is this island of Patmos anyway?!

Well, bottom line: religion is weird. SIGH. Well, this has been a very enlightening post--enjoy your break! 

:]

ETHNICITIES

NOW I will talk about ethnicities and how proposterous it was that the caricatures were actually accepted into society as societal norms...I'm going to focus on caricatures because this was something that struck me as completely unacceptable. The fact that people from the real north thought the pictures below were the way blacks actually looked and acted is prepostorous.

Also, I was amazed that, let alone the fact that some Americans had really never seen a black person, I was amazed that blacks weren't even accepted into theatre, where they where most people found refuge. Theatre is supposed to be a place where people can be someone else entirely and portray a rather ridiculous image (like the actors in blackface did, but, obviously, a less degrading image should be protrayed on the stage). I thought it was completely ridiculous that even black actors had to put soot on their faces to look more black and highlight their lips to make them look even more caricaturistic (if that's a word).

ALLLSSSOO, pickaninnies were also such sad, pathetic, figures that provoked pathos (to use a vocab word)--atleast for me, they did. For everyone else back then, the pickaninnies on postcards were just funny, animalistic caricatures that put a horrible pictures in white folk minds. It was so sad and degrading that the black children were made to seem like animals...

UGGH! It angered me so much that this wasn't just some phase that America went through for some people are STILL in this mindset today (although not many)...Why couldn't Americans just accept the blacks!?!? The war was fought, its over, there is no slavery, and there is absolutely nothing that separates races except appearance [and maybe culture; but even culture started to disappear over time]...what will the white brainwashing methods claim next time?

*sigh* I'm sorrry if my thoughts seemed jumbled...I'm tired. G'night.

Malcolm X: Part II

So I just finished chapters 5 and 6 cuz I'm a huge procrastinator. :/
BUT I found a lot of interesting things in the chapters...I think I'll write about them now:

First, I found it interesting how Malcolm's life sort of splits into two worlds between chapters two and three/four. The last paragraph in the Chapter entitled "Laura", aside from it being completely heartwrenching and disappointing, basically describes how he blames himself for getting Laura into drugs and the city life and the dangers of everything in Boston. It's interesting, however, how even though Malcolm feels sorry for Laura, he never feels sorry for himself. Although clearly outlining the dangers of Harlem and Boston and Roxbury and how different they are from Lansing (I'll get to that interesting shift a bit later), it is almost as if Malcolm feels those experiences were a key part of his learning and growing experience. 'Amazingly', he seems to tell the reader, 'I have overcome my petty childish ways and learned to grow into a new, better man...' Maybe I'm reading into this, but I find it interesting how he speaks about learning the "tricks of the trade", persay, as if he were proud of it...this could also just be because HE WAS proud of his cleverness when he was a younger man. ANYWAY...

About that shift thing I was talking about; when Malcolm is in Roxbury, he starts to get into the "wilder" life. This life was basically just crazier teen years--this was before he started to commit felonies and armed robberies. However, the momentous shift occurs when he meets Sophia. As quite a shocking move for one to read in his book, Malcolm describes how he meets and has relations with his first prostitute. Laura, who seemed like the girl who would (actually, let's say could) put him on the path to richeousness, didn't seem like a whole big deal to the reader after Malcolm meets Sophia. After Sophia, Malcolm gets involved in Harlem, a much rougher community and one of the most dangerous neighborhood--if one did not know how the city worked, that is. ***Although Harlem city life was so eye-opening to read about, I will not dwell on this matter for this blog would get too long*** I guess what I'm trying to say is that the life Roxbury with Laura is a symbol for the better life that Malcolm had, and better times with his guardian, Ella and that the life in Harlem with Shorty and Sammy is a symbol of tougher times and times where he thought Harlem was the only place he would fit in...All in all, the interesting relations he makes with various people give the reader good insight as to what it was like to "live on the edge", and escape the pressures of the real world because Malcolm, as a black American, did not feel like he could succeed in the real world.


PHEW!

Malcolm X

SOOOOOOO...we started reading Malcolm X (the autobiography) and its a great book, I must admit. So for all of you who actually read this blog, I just want to say that I thought it was all going to be like the very beginning of the book, where he sort of just narrates his life. In chapters 3 and 4, however, he really made it seem like he was the character, instead of just recounting what had happened...you'd have to read it to really know what I'm talking about, but it was much better than the first two chapters...stay tuned on more, the next post will have more info :)