In the beginning of the week, we started off our discussion on Malcolm X thinking about a quote that he says towards the end of the book: "My whole life has been a chronology of changes." As a class, we talked about the word choice of "changes." Chronology means a timely sequence, so I wondered what mood Malcolm intended for "changes" to have. After reading the first chapter, it became clear that these changes seemed more like devestations. In the first few pages, Malcolm talks about the constant tension between his mother and father. He describes his father's death–a murder by a white hate clan–which occurred when Malcolm was just five years old. He describes his family's downhill spiral; his mother left a widow with no source of income, with multiple children to take of. His mother's unstability, anxiousness, and insanity. His family's separation, by white welfare state workers, his numerous foster homes and reform schools he gets shipped of to. So right of the bat, it's as if there's a soundtrack to the beginning of his life that just goes boom, boom, boom–each boom a shattering, huge, painful "change." I didn't realize the full force of this until I read it the second time, and I really understood the jagged childhood he was raised with.
I tried to connect this to Malcolm's personality, drive, and actions that he reveals later in the book. I saw how everything he fought for was backed up by a truly personal event. His entire childhood, at least how he sees it, was destroyed by the white man. Although I don't agree with every claim, idea, and belief Malcolm has, I see his motivation and connections, and I have compassion for him.
That being said, I noticed when Malcolm really started paying attention to racism. After going to Boston to visit his half-sister Ella–a proud black women, as he describes her–for the first time in his life, he sees true black pride and spirit. And when he comes back home, he begins to notice little things that he never noticed before–comments from peers, elders, and teachers that, although not intentionally, were insults to black people. Instead of treating like every day talk–as it was for most of the whites where he lived–he begins to turn and look back whenever someone calls him "nigger." And when his teacher, Mr. Ostrowski, shuns him from his dream of being a lawyer, saying that Malcolm must be practical and strive for a carpenter or so, he really shuts Malcolm down. This is the turning point in Malcolm's views on racism–not when his father dies from white extremists. That is a trouble that I hope to further explore in the days ahead.
