Dana Stevens Character Analysis

Malcolm X’s legacy to the struggle for black equality in the USA went far beyond focusing on solely equality. Malcolm X hardly forgot the fact that he was the ‘servant’ and not the ‘master’ of the black nation’s aspirations and dreams. Malcolm X resisted the objective of integration and encouraged blacks to build their own society. ‘We can never win freedom and justice and equality until we do something for ourselves’.[i] He felt they should shield themselves against violence, ‘by any means necessary’. Malcolm X confronted the United States to protect its own hypothetical qualities. He held up a mirror for the country to scrutinize itself, now was the reflection showing too much for some white individuals in America?

Malcolm was often perceived as a ‘radical’ or a ‘black supremacist,’ when in reality he advocated for better treatment of black people, as well as the realization that ethnocentric values had been suppressing other cultures. His religious values forwarded his life’s work, and also influenced his views on gender roles. The movie attempts to explain many standards set by a society that cared little for actual equality, and one that is vital to understand in order to sympathize with current societal

America’s social climate is described as “the melting pot” while the underlying conditions in our current society has, and may always remain one of class, gender, sexual orientation and race discrimination. The origination of our nation began with immigrants seeking freedom from oppressive governments however the method of eradication or control of indigenous peoples and dominating over them became the norm. In today’s climate we have come a long way from dominant oppression and classes based on race and evolved into a subversive form of oppression. The Ethnic Studies course has enlightened my view of conditions and how films discreetly reinforce the stereotypes and class structures to maintain a particular ideology. For this reason, I chose to view the movie The Help because it is considered to promote the ideology of empowering black women during the tumultuous and dangerous 1960s civil rights movement in a volatile Jackson, Mississippi. While the movie delivers a powerful and intriguing theme, the reality is that Hollywood has yet again provided the Eurocentric view and classical style or naturalized ideology through stereotypical roles and dominant power needed to deliver the lower class (black women) to feeling empowered to fight the system.

Malcolm X, an African American leader and prominent figure in the Nation of Islam, was a significant individual in the African American fight for justice and equality. In contrast to the mainstream Civil Rights Movement with its nonviolent pursuit of integration, Malcolm X voiced concepts of race pride and Black Nationalism during the 1950s and '60s. Although many argue that Malcolm X did not actually “do” anything for the black community, his nontraditional programs brought a new perspective to the Civil Rights Movement, and this perspective is of relevance today in the black community.

Malcolm X once said, “If you stick a knife in my back 9 inches and pull it out 6 inches, that’s not progress. If you pull it out all the way, that’s not progress. The progress comes from healing the wound that the blow made. They haven’t begun to pull the knife out… They won’t even admit the knife is there.” While this quotation couldn’t fit his personality more it relates to Naomi Shihab Nye and Brent Staples more than you would think. Due to Malcolm X’s effect on racial oppression in his time each figure (Malcolm X, Brent Staples, and Naomi Shihab Nye) dealt with a racial oppression in their lives, as Malcolm X dealt with it in “Learning to Read” where educated himself to the best of his ability. As Naomi Shihab Nye deals with it in “To Any Would-Be Terrorist” by trying to get rid of Muslim stereotypes, and how Brent Staples deal with it in “Black Men in Public Spaces” by the fear and being mistaken for a criminal because of his race. Each author shows in their articles that racial oppression played a role in their lives, and that knife hasn’t been pulled out of their back. In the end, each author of the texts faces a racial oppression that develops their defining resistance and voice that changes their communities and the world for the better.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told by Alex Haley is the story about a man who greatly impacted American history. Malcolm Little, or Malcolm X as he is more widely known, taught what he believed in regards to segregation, racism, and discrimination. Growing up in a large family with a father Earl Little, a Baptist minister, and his mother Louis Little, who was a homemaker, Malcolm’s life at the time seemed very promising. His father’s involvement in support of the Black National gained him many death threats at the hands of white supremacists. In 1929, they lost their house to fire, and two years later the body of Malcolm’s father was found mutilated. This lead to the emotional breakdown of Malcolm’s mother and in turn she was institutionalized. Malcolm and his siblings were separated and placed in foster homes, and from then, his life began a path of drugs, sex, and crime. It was not until he was imprisoned in 1946, that he decided to make some changes for the better. This essay will assess and discuss those changes whether negative or positive, on a micro, mezzo, and macro level. It will also cover some of the effects of racial prejudice on human behavior, and how society today keeps the ideology of Malcolm X alive.

Malcolm X by Alex Haley is about a man who spoke for racism and articulated the anger, struggle and beliefs of african american in the 1960s. His Autobiography is now an established classic of modern america and a book expresses like none other the crucial truth about our violent times. The story of Malcolm X’s life shows us how difficult it is to speak out and try to be seen as something other than a color. Attempting to find a answer of when we be equal when will we have the chance to be seen as something other than a color. Racism and label and is introduced abruptly in the text when Malcolm shows how racist his environment is when he describes the names that white people called him such as “negro, niger,darkie

In the influential and provoking essay “Learning to Read” (1965), Malcolm X, a civil right activist and powerful black leader, narrates his story on how books transformed his life forever into the realm of human rights. Incorporating sequential narrative and social analysis, he explains his methodology in attaining literacy and how this process influences him to espouse black separatism and resent white people, while providing historical fact and jarring criticism in his arguments. Using first-person narrative, Malcom advances through the story by pointing each progression in detail, while using provocative diction in order to evoke emotional response without forsaking essential argumentation in his writing. Malcolm conveys his writing to an ostensibly general audience, although he purposely focuses more on white people in order to unleash his anger and criticism.

Malcolm X, born in 1925, didn’t have the easiest life. His family was not the wealthiest family and they went through the ups and downs of life more than anyone could ever imagine. After his father passed away a lot of things became harder to deal with. It was he, his mother, and his brothers and sisters. Life became harder to go through. Malcolm and some of his siblings were taken away from their mother and put into other homes while they sent his mom to a psychiatric hospital. Things were going pretty well for Malcolm but he got into some trouble and was sent to a reform school. While at the reform school, things were going well for Malcolm. “Then in the second semester of the seventh grade, I was elected class president” (Haley 32). “I was then one of the three highest in the class” (Haley 34). It seemed that the white people he was surrounded by were accepting him. But it was his conversation with his English teacher Mr. Ostrowski when his views of white people began to change.

Malcolm X relates to our class readings when we discuss the fading dream of racial integration, white backlash and Black Nationalism in chapter 22. As a growing number of young people become dissatisfied with the

Malcolm X describes an early time in his life when he lived in the “ghetto” and took part in activities that included gambling and drug dealing. He connects those experiences with nationwide issues at the time: racism, discrimination, and inequality. Growing up, Malcolm had always noticed how people of the white race had a substantial amount of advantages in life. Most things seemed to work in their favor. For those of the darker race, the amount of opportunities they had was not the same; just by their appearance and color, they had immediately been placed at the bottom of society from birth and there was no possible way to rise up.

Malcolm X was an African American protester. He argued that African Americans would never achieve equality in a society that was dominated by whites. Because of this belief, Malcolm encouraged blacks to “fight back”. He believed they should fight back in an armed revolution or at least to do so when being attacked. Malcolm believed that the African Americans should form a new society of ‘their own’ rather than trying to combine with the dominant white society. While he advised violence, he also spoke about pride. Because of this Malcolm was able to contribute greatly to the black power movement of the 1960s.

We all remember the time when the blacks were second-class citizens. First, they were slaves. Then they were freed, but still oppressed. Unable to vote, unable to own land, unable to be comfortable in their own skin. Fast-forward to the 1960s, a time where they now had separate seats on the buses, they had their own drinking fountains, and even their own churches because they were so hated. Martin Luther King Jr. was a household name, fighting for human rights for his fellow African-Americans. But there was someone out there doing the same, someone a little less conventional: Malcolm X. Malcolm X was an advocate for bonding all the groups of black people into one, he was for violent approaches when he considered it necessary. All of these points are highlighted in what was considered his most political speech at the time: Message to the Grass Roots. Malcolm X does a good job digging at his audience from all sides and angles, asking them to push aside their morals on individual ideas to stick together for each other. He uses logic and emotion to grab at you, to make you see

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little, was a human rights activist, and a revolutionary black nationalist leader who doubled as a spokesman for The Nation of Islam. Malcolm X was a persuasive and skilled speaker. He strongly encouraged African-Americans to rise up against the oppression of from racism by any means possible, even if they had to use violence. In Malcolm X’s speech, Message to the Grassroots, he explores the idea of all those oppressed by privileged whites joining together as a solution to the power of racism. Message to the Grassroots was one of the last speeches Malcolm X gave before he left the Nation of Islam. Throughout his speech, Malcolm X uses parallelism, repetition and inclusive and exclusive language to persuade the attendees

Malcolm X believes that the realization that the white man is the enemy is crucial to change the social and economic status of the black man. Malcolm X urges black people to recognize that white people are the enemy, and says that once they are aware of that, white people’s evils become obvious. Otherwise, he says, ignorance allows white people to stay in the best social and economic positions while blacks are in the lowest. If black people see that the white man is their enemy, that the white man is putting them in the worst positions so that he can be in the best, then they can fight it. In Malcolm X’s autobiography, he tells stories of black people, including himself, who don’t see the white man as a threat. They don’t associate the poverty