American Liturature
Professor Cho
1/3/13
The Role of Malcolm X The role of education is a significant part of how you are looked upon by members of society around you. A person who isn’t formally educated is looked down upon and a person with years of formal education is praised and looked upon as a leader and/or idol. During the early era of Malcolm X society thought of blacks as a waste of space. Blacks were rarely given the opportunity to be formally educated. They were put down not because they weren’t as intellectual but because their complexion was darker than the white man. The idea of associating black with stupidity and associating white with intellectuality gave the white man a sense of superiority over the black man.
Rarely Blacks would get the chance of undergoing what was known as a formal education. Sometimes black were lucky enough to graduate with a Master’s Degree or perhaps even a PHD. Even those intellectual black men were thought of as a waste of space, however they were given slightly more respect than those who were “Street Negros” (The Autobiography of Malcolm X). During this time it was surprising to see how education slightly altered how the black man was looked upon. The only formal education Malcolm got from society was middle school. During his “formal” education Malcolm was the top student in his class, he was the hardest working and he had the highest grades. We forget this is societies education and along with society the school is also a racist environment. Not only was Malcolm called upon by his fellow white students but the faculty also was very discouraging. Mr. Ostrowski was Malcolm’s teacher and the following text will show his crimes, “He told me, "Malcolm, you ought to be thinking about a career. Have you been giving it thought?" The truth is, I hadn't. I never have figured out why I told him, "Well, yes, sir, I've been thinking I'd like to be a lawyer." Lansing certainly had no Negro lawyers-or doctors either-in those days, to hold up an image I might have aspired to. All I really knew for certain was that a lawyer didn't wash dishes, as I was doing. Mr. Ostrowski looked surprised, I remember, and leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head. He kind of half-smiled and said, "Malcolm, one of life's first needs is for us to be realistic. Don't misunderstand me, now. We all here like you, you know that. But you've got to be realistic about being a nigger. A lawyer-that's no realistic goal for a nigger. You need to think about something you_can_ be. You're good with your hands-making things. Everybody admires your carpentry shop work. Why don't you plan on carpentry? People like you as a personyou'd get all kinds of work.” It’s understandable that the instructor didn’t encourage Malcolm but it’s very surprising to see the teacher discouraged him. Although being a carpenter was a huge title for a black man of the time Malcolm wanted to be what he felt like he wanted to be not what society expected him to be \, not what the white man told him to be. He simply wished to discover his potential. At this point it was clear the black man didn’t even have thr right to make decisions for himself. The society told the black man what his future was to be. The society had poisoned the black man. To escape the pain and the reality use of narcotics was fancied. Malcolm was a boy filled with potential but like all other Negros he too had a similar fate when he fell into the hole of society. Malcolm spent years stealing, thieving, mugging, selling and using narcotics. He wished to be a lawyer but instead he was guided by society to become a street pharmacist. He was well known in the ghettos but one day everything cracked when Malcolm was arrested, “I remember that his name was Detective
Slack. I raised my arm, and motioned to him, "Here, take my gun." I saw his face when he took it. He was shocked. Because of the sudden appearance of the other Negro, he had never thought about a gun. It really moved him that I hadn't tried to kill him.” (Page 106) It’s clear to see Malcolm still had some good in him when he surrendered and handed his gun to Detective Slack the moment he was caught. In the following text we will see the unjustified sentence hearing, “The cops found the apartment loaded with evidence-fur coats, some jewelry, other small stuff-plus the tools of our trade. A jimmy, a lockpick, glass cutters, screwdrivers, pencilbeam flashlights, false keys. . . and my small arsenal of guns. The girls got low bail. They were still white-burglars or not. Their worst crime was their involvement with Negroes. But Shorty and I had bail set at $10, 000 each, which they knew we were nowhere near able to raise” (Autobiography of Malcolm X as Told by Alex Haley Page:106) The last 4 sentences are quite moving because here we see yet another example of racism and segregation. The girls Malcolm was working with were given a low bail while Malcolm and Shorty had been given a bail of $10,000. According to Malcolm their worst crime was working with Negros. This begs to ask the question of whether or not they were held responsible for any of the field work that went on such as the burglaries. Since it was mentioned that their bail was quite low I imagine they were out of their prison cells very easily. Malcolm had a long time in prison, one day he decided to go to a class which the prison offered he met an intellectual man in prison a black man. Malcolm fancied him and decided to get cracking on the books himself. Malcolm was dedicated to reading but there was only one problem, he didn’t understand many of the words he read. The following text will prove Malcolm’s dedication to reading and learning,“I spent two days just riffling uncertainly through the dictionary's pages. I'd never realized so many words existed! I didn't know _which_ words I needed to learn. Finally, just to start some kind of action, I began copying. In my slow, painstaking, ragged handwriting, I copied into my tablet everything printed on that first page, down to the punctuation marks. I believe it took me a day. Then, aloud, I read back, to myself, everything I'd written on the tablet. Over and over, aloud, to myself, I read my own handwriting. I woke up the next morning, thinking about those words-immensely proud to realize that not only had I written so much at one time, but I'd written words that I never knew were in the world. Moreover, with a little effort, I also could remember what many of these words meant. I reviewed the words whose meanings I didn't remember. Funny thing, from the dictionary first page right now, that "aardvark" springs to my mind. The dictionary had a picture of it, a long-tailed, longeared, burrowing African mammal, which lives off termites caught by sticking out its tongue as an anteater does for ants. I was so fascinated that I went on-I copied the dictionary's next page. And the same experience came when I studied that. With every succeeding page, I also learned of people and places and events from history. Actually the dictionary is like a miniature encyclopedia. Finally the dictionary's A section had filled a whole tablet-and I went on into the B's. That was the way I started copying what eventually became the entire dictionary. (Autobiography of Malcolm X as Told by Alex Haley Page:118) Malcolm rewrote the entire dictionary, this did not only broaden his vocabulary it also made him what he is known as today. Malcolm was fascinated by that intellectual man but in persuit of becoming as intellectual as the man Malcolm went far beyond what his initial goal was. This enhancement was used during his preaching when he joined the nation of Islam, and perused the teachings of Elijah Muhammad which he later found to be wrong when he went on his pilgrimage. Malcolm’s perspective changed after his pilgrimage. When he was a part of the nation of Islam he believed that blacks and whites could never live together but after his experiences he learned he was wrong and that blacks and whites could live together As seen from Malcolm’s life it’s very clear to see the role of education shapes your life and the way members of society look upon you. Equality takes generations to undergo, one person might be able to make somewhat of a difference but no one person can create such a huge impact that will ultimately end racism.