4 page thesis paper on malcolm x. why he had become a racist

Malcolm X

Malcolm X was an inspirational public speaker and leader. He was also a distinguished campaigner for racial equality and African American rights. Although, amongst some people, he was considered a nurtured racist. Growing up in a world with racism directed at him all the time, Malcolm X began to direct his own racism at the white man. He decided to change the attitudes of people, making them think it was time for things to change. There are many reasons why Malcolm had these feeling towards whites.

One major reason why Malcolm had begun to think the way he did, started back when he was just a child. His family lived on a farm in Nebraska, and was happily living together. He grew up around the time that racism was execrable. Malcolm's father was a kind person that wouldn't hurt anybody. He was a man that just wanted to make the life for his family as best as he could. He worked many hours to keep food on the table of the home, cloth his children's backs and to keep up with the bills. His father had to do all this by himself, since the mother had to stay home and look after the kids. His father had some conflicts with members of the Klu Klux Klan. These men didn't want any colored people living in what they claimed as their town. Malcolm's father was a strong man and didn't care how they felt. He didn't leave his home for any reason at all. The men would come to there house at night time and scare them by braking all the windows in the house and telling them to get out. These despicable acts didn't seem to phase his father one bit at all. The men where starting to get fed up with his strong ways and bravery towards the white man. Then one night they decided to scare the family a lot worse than they have tried before. It was awfully late and the whole family were asleep. The men doused the house with gasoline and broke the windows with a firebomb. The house burst into flames and the father woke up to save his family. He managed to escape with everyone unharmed except for the house. The members where outside waiting for them to come out and Malcolm's father had his shot gun with him. He fired it into the air to give the men a scare and it sure worked as they all fled to their truck and escaped. The men where furious by this act, especially by a colored person, and so they sought to seek out revenge. A couple of nights later they came back to the house and kidnapped the father. They took him to the train tracks and smashed him in the head with a crow bar. He was now helpless and had no way to defend himself. They dragged him onto the tracks just before the train came. It ran over the poor man, and he was killed. This incident screwed up the whole family. They where all separated from their mother after this because the social worker didn't think that she was able to take care of all of them, now that her husband was dead.

Malcolm was sent away to a boarding school in Boston. Here he lived for a while and this place was another reason why he had become a racist. Malcolm was the only colored child in the whole school. Everyone would make fun of him because his skin was a different color. Everyone there called him nigger, not Malcolm. He was so young that after a while he started to think that this was his real name. Even the teachers and other adults would call him by this name. You would think that an adult would have some sympathy for a young child, although they didn't. He was the smartest child in the school and always received the highest grades on the tests. Then one day after class he had a talk with his teacher. Malcolm told the white man that he wanted to be a lawyer. The teacher totally shut down Malcolm's dreams by saying that he could never be one. The man specifically told him that colored people work well with their hands not their minds. He told him that he should be a carpenter like his father was. It seemed like the whole school was against Malcolm just because he was a colored child. This type of treatment is definitely not right especially for a young child.

After he had left the school and had grown up, he went to New York City to find a job. He went where most of the African Americans where, Harlem. Malcolm finds a job working on a train serving the white folks and working for the white man. He hated doing this type of work but he had to do something for money. As some time went buy he started to get into drugs and hung out with the wrong people. Malcolm had met up with some gangsters and stared to work for them. He loved his new job at the time. He was making great money, selling drugs and doing them for free, and no one would mess with him because of who he worked with. Malcolm felt like he was untouchable and decided to be greedy and go for more. He and a couple of close friends decided to loot the whole town and leave without a trace of where they had gone. Everything seemed like it was going smooth until the cops bust down his apartment door and arrested him. Malcolm's big life of rich and famous had come to an abrupt end resulting in jail.

This is where the true feeling of racism is put into his head. While he was first in jail, Malcolm still thought he was the untouchable man. He would mouth off to the correction officers and have no care as to what they would do to him. He was tourched for trying to be a tough guy. They placed him in a cell that was called the hole. In here there is not lights, beds or toilets. He had to stay in here until he thought he wasn't a thug any more. Malcolm stood it out for a while, although he gave in after he had suffered too much. After this he met up with a man who worked for Elijah Mohammad a Muslim preacher. The man completely brain washed Malcolm into thinking that the white man was the devil. The man preached to him about how the white man takes over the world and leaves nothing for the colored people to work with. Malcolm starts to believe that this man is true because he looks back at his past and realized that the white man has only caused him pain and problem. No white man has ever done anything good for him during his whole life. He now starts to have the strongest feelings against the white man. He had never felt so much anger against anyone before the man preached to him.

These where specific reasons why Malcolm had become a racist against the white man. If he had been treated differently as a child maybe he would not have turned into a racist. If Malcolm found his life and not started to live the crime life, then he would have never went to jail. He would never have met the man who placed the evil thoughts against the white man into his head. Nobody deserves to be treated the way Malcolm was as a young child. This still doesn't give him the right to become a racist.. This was a hypercritical event that happened to him. People were racist towards him, and then he was racist towards them. Two wrongs don't make a right. He knew how it felt and shouldn't have made people feel the same way that he did.