The Black And White Lines Of Racism

8 Pages 2080 Words

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Over the course of his thirty-nine year life, Malcolm X had almost as many attitudes toward racism as he had different names; in fact, the two often went hand in hand. At each point during his life, he was given a reason to develop the attitudes on race that he did.
Born Malcolm Little, he came to know racism at a very early age, even in his own home. Malcolm saw how differently he was treated than his siblings. He was always his father’s favorite child, which Malcolm blamed on the fact that he had lighter skin than his siblings. This treatment made him extremely conscious of the color of his skin, which was his initiation into racism. His focus on color was furthered along when his father was murdered by white men. His mother was also treated badly by whites at the welfare agency. These instances enforced his anti-white views, as Malcolm was forced to watch white society destroy both of his parents.
Malcolm’s anti-white views were further reinforced in school. Malcolm was elected class president. He was popular. He earned really good grades. Yet, despite all of these things, Malcolm’s teacher discouraged him from trying to become a lawyer, because he was black. Malcolm quickly started to think that the whites who seem to be nice to him were, in fact, actually doing it to show how non-prejudice they were...