Summary Of My First Conk

Malcolm X writes about his experience as a young boy, wanting to be like the people around him. During the time period this short story, My First Conk was written, racism was very much alive. There is a short paragraph written about the author before the actual short story. This section reveals some of the background of Malcolm X. His entire family was targeted for the color of their skin. Back then, the ‘normal’ people were people with white skin. People with white skin had straight and smooth hair, therefore, people with black skin wanted straight and smooth hair as well. When Malcolm X took the step to have his hair ‘conked’ (straightened), he “joined that multitude of Negro men and woman who are brainwashed into believing that the lack
people are ‘inferior’ –and white people ‘superior’ –that they will even violate and mutilate their God-created bodies to try to look ‘pretty’ by white standards” (WP Malcolm X 156). This excerpt perfectly describes the need to conform to the standards of society. Black people were made to feel inferior to white people. Humans naturally want to fit in. Malcolm shows the extent to which people will attempt to fit in. In order to attempt to fit the accepted white standards, people would degrade themselves and “burn [their] flesh to have it look like a white man’s hair” (WP Malcolm X 156). This particular situation shows that conformity plays such a huge role in human life, that people sometimes value it over their own health