“Learning to Read” excerpt from The Autobiography of Malcolm X

http://www.smccd.net/accounts/bellr/readerlearningtoread.htm

by kcovia • 12 years ago

282 154 12 years ago

smccd.net

dwolfson208• 12 years ago

Everyone should really just read the entire Autobiography.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Autobiography-Malcolm-Told-Haley/d...

Also, they should spell "Malcolm" correctly. :)

streptomycin2• 12 years ago

Agreed, Malcolm X is one of the most fascinating individuals in recent history. The movie based on his autobiography is also quite good: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104797/

cheez• 12 years ago

That's the understatement of the year! I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it but I don't remember ever feeling as attached to a character except maybe in Shawshank.

brickmort• 12 years ago

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. Despite being 3+ hours, There isn't a single boring moment and Spike Lee and Denzel do a superb job at showing the transformation of Malcolm X. Now I have to go check out the autobiography.

yincrash• 12 years ago

Surprisingly, this book was one of the options I had for required summer reading growing up in Georgia public schools. Definitely a good read.

nether• 12 years ago

same here growing up in rural virginia

tomjen35• 12 years ago

Is it still worth reading for somebody who despise the man? Both what he was (a robber) and what he became?

streptomycin2• 12 years ago

Yes.

tesq2• 12 years ago

Why do you despise the man?

guelo• 12 years ago

Typical white devil.

dwolfson208• 12 years ago

If you haven't read the book, how can you even begin to have formed a judgment of him?

beloch• 12 years ago

Malcolm X was one of the very rare individuals who charted his own course through life. Most deviate only the tiniest fraction from what is dictated by their background and mentors. Not Malcolm X. At the same time, he seemed to tragically lurch from one master to the next, although always seeking a more benign one. I like to think he would have rebelled against organized religion next, if he'd had time to do so. Many would disagree with me on that last point though, with good cause.

As an agnostic "white devil", I doubt Malcolm X and I would have been able to tolerate each other, even very late in his life. However, I'm still fascinated by the story of a man who continually and successfully struggled to grow beyond his influences. He had a great mind. It's interesting to ponder what he could have done had he come from a different background.

Even if you have no patience for reading his autobiography, at least watch the Spike Lee flick based on it. It's a great watch.

justizin• 12 years ago

Seems to me there isn't anyone for whom it would be more worth reading.

poppysan2• 12 years ago

It seems to me, in many cases, hate for Malcolm X is usually centered around his view of militancy as a viable option and his connection to the Nation of Islam.

America was established through violent militancy, so I don't understand the first point. Many great conflicts have proven that as a viable solution.

The second point makes many people uncomfortable because of the NOI's vocal opinions of the white race as a whole. While the "white devil" philosophy can be supported with case studies of deplorable acts against blacks, such as slavery, Jim Crow laws, segregation, lynchings, to name a few, it was and is a gross exaggeration that is becoming less and less supportable. Malcolm X, later in life, experienced a different side of whites and race, that later led him to shun those negative beliefs.

I admire him for his zest for learning, and his courage to have a militant position in a time of great injustice. I was born in a much better America, and have still faced racism that made me feel worthless, defenseless, and angry -- but I still hesitate to even call out racism for fear of negative reprisal.

While I don't think you or any contemporary "non-racist" white person is responsible for those acts, denial of the past and its lingering effects, and hatred for those who fought to end it doesn't help. Without the fear of violent revolution, I question if we would have progressed as far as we have.

bane• 12 years ago

Yes. And it will probably be one of the most instructive exercises you can engage in with walking a mile in another person's shoes.

cfreeman• 12 years ago

It's a fascinating story, and a really well-written book (co-authored by Alex Haley). I don't think you have to like the man at all to get something out of the book, although it may change your opinion of him slightly. He changed his stance on a great many things over the course of his life and popular views on him often disregard this.

_nullandnull_2• 12 years ago

Yes, it is worth reading. You hinted at change or transformation. I personally think this subject is what makes the book such a classic. The books shows his transformation from a "mascot", "Homeboy", "Harelemnite", "Minister Malcolm X" to "El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz". Those are the titles of a couple of the chapters. The voice of each chapter is almost written from that view. It's fascinating because you can see the transformation of his life and views. It's probably one of my favorite books because it shows how a man can change.

theOnliest• 12 years ago

Also worth reading is Manning Marable's excellent biography Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.

http://www.amazon.com/Malcolm-X-A-Life-Reinvention/dp/014312...

Bulkington• 12 years ago

Agreed, mainly because the period is so alien to many sub-40s Americans today. Also resonant: Islam, race, ugly American politics. It's an easy read, written by Alex Haley, who also wrote Roots. (Don't read the book (Roots) if you can find the more culturally significant mini-series. LeVar Burton was an icon in the US in the late 70s, well before he boarded the Enterprise.) The Spike Lee movie on Maclolm X is interesting, but a significantly different experience than reading the book.

dwolfson208• 12 years ago

I actually disagree that you shouldn't read "Roots." I just finished it myself, and it's about as close as you can get to experiencing what it would be like to be taken away from your home in chains.

lclarkmichalek• 12 years ago

At one-hour intervals the night guards paced past every room. Each time I heard the approaching footsteps, I jumped into bed and feigned sleep. And as soon as the guard passed, I got back out of bed onto the floor area of that light-glow, where I would read for another fifty-eight minutes—until the guard approached again. That went on until three or four every morning.

I did something similar as a child, with my guards being my parents (oh what a metaphor). Looking back, as someone who does not read a vast amount any more, I was privileged with both the means, and the inclination, to have such a habit. God knows it made me who I am.

tomjen35• 12 years ago

Good parents will learn not to listen too closely to whether their children are asleep or reading - great parents will make sure the flashlight batteries are periodically replaced.

CDRdude• 12 years ago

Not necessarily. Getting enough sleep is incredibly important.

davidgerard2• 12 years ago

One of my recent proud moments as a parent was catching my 7yo up at midnight reading her favourite book of Greek myths.* I can verify it's not actually possible to tell a child off for doing precisely what you both did as kids and deeply approve of. I actually convinced her she did need to sleep by pointing out how tired she'd been that morning, and she did have school in the morning ...

* http://www.amazon.com/Atticus-Storytellers-100-Greek-Myths/d... - simplified and bowdlerised versions for kids, but a really good start on cultural literacy.

oldmanjay4• 12 years ago

what a shame that his intellect ended up wasted on reactionary racism. understandable in a sense, given time and place, but still... a waste.

dwolfson208• 12 years ago

Actually, his views were rapidly evolving at the time of his death. Read the whole book.

oldmanjay4• 12 years ago

I do know that, but most of his public output was spent on vitriol that damaged race relations further. hence the part where I felt it was a shame.

kingkawn2• 12 years ago

The waste was the generations of people lost to a racist society. His work to directly address it was an attempt to cure a tragedy that had been unfolding uninterrupted for hundreds of years.

oldmanjay4• 12 years ago

a misguided attempt that had the opposite effect. it's almost as if you are of the belief that racism can fix racism.

yiggydyang2• 12 years ago

His father was murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan. I would say he had justification in reacting.

His intellect allowed him to get his message out to millions of people around the world from the streets of Harlem to the lecture halls at Oxford University.

Hardly wasted. Hardly shameful. The real shame is referenced in the original article.

oldmanjay4• 12 years ago

ah, eye for an eye. well, that philosophy has certainly never worked before but maybe this time!

stuart78• 12 years ago

We are fairly quick to erase, forget or forgive the racism of white leaders, but seem to have a harder time doing so for those who oppose the majority's cultural status quo. I fear this has been used historically as a way to marginalize certain voices.

Certainly X is a complicated, difficult and contradictory figure, but also one who, through the autobiography, is able to capture a particular time and experience amazingly well.

I haven't read the book since high school, but the segment on conking stays vividly in my mind. It is a great example of one of those seemingly small details that X manages to use as mule to talk about larger issues of identity and assimilation.

dwolfson208• 12 years ago

Another way to put it: Malcolm X was authentic in everything he did, and that was something this country needed.

He was able to articulate more clearly than anyone else the implications of being black in America: that the only way to succeed in any way was by trying to act white.

Thanks in large part to his activism, that is far less true today.

phaus8• 12 years ago

We are fairly quick to erase, forget or forgive the racism of white leaders

You are in no position to assume what oldmanjay has forgotten and forgiven. You are basically implying that all white people think and act the same. Either that or you are simply saying that oldmanjay is personally responsible for what other people think.

Personally, I despise racism no matter who the perpetrator may be. However, even racist people are capable of having a significant and positive impact on the world. Malcolm X was a racist at one point in time. I have no idea if he actually changed his mind or if he simply chose to keep his views to himself. What I do know is that through his efforts America became a better place.

jessedhillon• 12 years ago

Here is a very relevant and well-articulated dissection of the phenomenon you're describing: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/08/beware-...

danielrhodes• 12 years ago

What is telling was how his experiences actually led him to reconsider his racism. After he returned from the Hajj he changed his viewpoints, and that change ultimately got him killed.

That ability to question your own assumptions is a powerful tool.

dannypgh2• 12 years ago

Would love to see a citation for what you mean by "reactionary racism" - especially from the period in Malcolm's life after he split with the NOI in favor of Sunni Islam.

It is true that there are many reactionary elements of NOI ideology and I'm sure you can find all sorts of snippets of quotes from when Malcolm was with them, but not only did he walk away from them, he ultimately gave his life in part because of his split to the NOI (and the FBI stoking tensions around that split via COINTELPRO)

Generally more troubling here is the trend of white people to think that they are victims more than perpetrators of racism[1]; you're just backporting it to history here. Something is wrong with you if you can think about the 1960s or anyone from that period, and end up blaming Malcolm X for "racism" with no mention of the racist police, Klansmen, etc. that openly proclaimed and demonstrated their racist power in that era.

[1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1390205/Whites-suffe...

serf2• 12 years ago

Klansmen and corrupt police from the 60s were racist.

So was Malcolm X.

"Usually the black racist has been produced by the white racist. In most cases where you see it, it is the reaction to white racism, and if you analyze it closely, it's not really black racism... If we react to white racism with a violent reaction, to me that's not black racism. If you come to put a rope around my neck and I hang you for it, to me that's not racism. Yours is racism, but my reaction has nothing to do with racism..." - Malcolm X

I disagree with him. I believe that hatred towards a race of people is racism, regardless of origins. When one condemns a group for the actions of a few -- i'll never believe that to be correct. You'll notice that he only mentions a reaction to imminent racism; he, however, did not conduct himself in that manner.

He could be called a 'reactionary racist' because his racism was not entirely fueled by sociocultural norms, but rather as a reaction to the hatred that he experienced from living near racism which was fueled socioculturally. While I agree that the motives for that form of hatred are more pure and just, it's still hatred. The repeated perpetration of hatred only leads to more hatred, due to the non-linear growth of vendettas which require 'settling'.

Just because he was the victim of much hatred doesn't make certain things he said 'non-racist', and as a (loud) public figure, atonement for advocacy of violence and racism in the past does not undo the damage that it caused. The 'nation's teachings' were despicable; how many were affected?

I agree that nearly all of the atrocious stuff he said was during his part with the NOI, but there's no time machine. He still did it. He was never an angel, he just improved with age.

The work he did towards uniting blacks as a singular entity to stand towards oppressions was fantastic, however the inches closer towards utopia that got us were lost to incessant preaching of racial weakening (coffee and creamer allegory..) and 'Truly Africans' movement, just further alienating the country as a whole.

There are better civil leaders to look up to -- some don't even require you to skim past their evil past.

CameronNemo• 12 years ago

Not really his fault. If you read the book, you know that if he had his way he would have been a lawyer.

djtriptych2• 12 years ago

You are using your intellect to convince the world that white men are oppressed. That's a waste.

Malcolm X was addressing decades of white-on-black domestic terrorism across the country. Black people were being regularly lynched, firebombed, raped and imprisoned for little more than being black and asserting basic human rights.

Segregationists controlled Congress when Malcolm was at his most influential - there was vanishingly little support from the federal government in stopping these attacks, and the state and local authorities were often complicit.

Even in the face of this, Malcolm X never advocated violence except in self-defense, which is REASONABLE under the circumstances. His threat of returned violence lended credence to the more tolerant views of MLK, and even Malcolm preached universal love in the years before he was murdered.

likeclockwork• 12 years ago

Malcolm X was addressing decades of white-on-black domestic terrorism across the country.

s/decades/centuries

novacole4• 12 years ago

Black people can't be racist in any way that really counts. Racism only matters if the attitude had some sort of negative effect on the group you're racist towards. Since blacks have no real power as a whole, they can't be racist. If blacks were in the majority in terms of power, then and only then could they be racist. The ideas of Malcolm and the NOI, the panthers, etc were a perfectly sensible response to the racism of the white power structure.

hueving• 12 years ago

Ah, the standard bullshit apologetics of "the bad things they do don't count because they are an oppressed minority". Why do you think they can't be held up to the same ethical standards as the majority? Are you implying they are to incompetent to think?

moo16• 12 years ago

I think you make a good point. Racism is prejudice and power. Power to institutionally marginalize a racial group. It is meaningless to call racist an oppressed racial group that is institutionally powerless. Some reactionary people like to confuse the issue with calls of reverse racism by oppressed nation people.

jbuzbee• 12 years ago

Black people can't be racist in any way that really counts

Rolls eyes..

Tell that to this guy that it doesn't really matter:

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/04/04/white-man-beaten-by-m...

arjn• 12 years ago

This statement is completely false and intellectually dishonest. It doesn't stand up to even cursory scrutiny.

Do you think black people only exist in the US ?

Do you think racism does not exist in other countries and regions where the affected groups are neither black nor white ?

Have you never heard of ethnic/racist conflict between groups in Africa and South/Southeast Asia ?

Are your blinders so thick and US-centric that you cannot see anything else ?

PaulAJ• 12 years ago

Somewhat reminds me of Terry Pratchett's habit of attributing his education to his local public library.

parasight• 12 years ago

If I only could read all the books I want to read. I can't count the books I bought and only read half or not at all. The stack of to-be-read-next books grows and grows. And now after reading this text I just ordered Malcolm X's biography.

VLM• 12 years ago

"I just ordered Malcolm X's biography."

Not on a Kindle, I'm sure. I checked. Aside from the main story, this is another example of the problems of copyright. The most recent release is from the mid 80s (admittedly on the bazzilionth printing) and for political or whatever reasons it'll probably never be released again, including in electronic format. Which is too bad.

Just another 68 years until the copyright expires on the 80's version paperback, and then people will be able to read this again. Assuming they're allowed to, and the copyright laws aren't changed again (LOL)

Its a pity, its a good book.

Balgair2• 12 years ago

"You couldn’t have gotten me out of books with a wedge...my reading of books, months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life."

I'll pair that quote with this, please consider giving yourself: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/readingrainbow/bring-re...

givehimagun• 12 years ago

Looks like there are some better recommendations for book-related charities: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/05/...

Charities rated highly on Charity Navigator: http://www.firstbook.org/ http://www.cliontheweb.org/

Balgair2• 12 years ago

Thank you for the links!

dwolfson208• 12 years ago

Consider reading the comments on that article. A lot of good points are made about why Reading Rainbow is worthwhile.

novacole4• 12 years ago

My favorite book of all time.

sitkack• 12 years ago

Such a wonderful mind and finely tuned level of metacognition. The arc of the voicing in this passage is beautiful. It saddens me that the world has caused people like him so much pain.

sq10202• 12 years ago

For those who feel uncomfortable with Malcolm's former creed that white people are devils and the black race is superior to all others, please do take note of the fact that he did convert to mainstream Islam near the end of his life thus disavowing any such racism or black supremacy.

As Malcolm so eloquently stated:

"America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white - but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color."

You see, orthodox Islam, from the very beginning, espoused equality for all races. In fact, race in Islam is an inconsequential matter. Take for example, one of the greatest and most respected companions of the Prophet Muhammad was an African: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilal_Ibn_Rabah

The fact is that the Nation of Islam could not be any further from orthodox Islam. In fact, an orthodox Muslim could never possibly even consider one who believes in the NOI's teachings to be a Muslim. It's a shame that the NOI usurped the name Islam and applied it to its organization which really has absolutely nothing to do with a religion with such an illustrious history and tradition.

Perceval2• 12 years ago

You see, orthodox Islam, from the very beginning, espoused equality for all races. In fact, race in Islam is an inconsequential matter.

Oh, is this why Muslim Arabs engaged in the enslaving, transportation, and sale of 10–18 million black Africans over the course of 13 centuries (650 AD – 1900 AD)?

swombat• 12 years ago

I guess if there had been a market for white slaves they would have sold those too...

sq10202• 12 years ago

You seem to have misunderstood my claim. I was comparing the creed of orthodox Islam to that of the NOI. The NOI's official doctrine is clearly racist but you cannot point to a single tenet of orthodox of Islam which would indicate that Islam espouses racism.

redmaverick• 12 years ago

Is this also a good way to master programming? i.e Take a reference book/open source project and type out everything till you internalize it?

Perceval2• 12 years ago

Copying is an excellent way to memorize, but memorization is different from learning. I suspect that learning and mastering a programming language is going to require doing more than memorizing.

thrush• 12 years ago

It's amazing how empowering reading is. Benjamin Franklin used to stay up reading the books dropped off at his brother's printing press, and Warren Buffet supposedly reads 5 hours a day as part of his standard work schedule. Forget 10,000 hours, I'd like to know how many words the most successful people have read in their lifetime.

“Learning to Read” excerpt from The Autobiography of Malcolm X

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