Racial defacing In Malcolm X’s excerpt My First Conk, He describes the process to get a conk. He talks about how his friend will do it for free instead of paying for it. He then goes on to list the items they need to buy to make the “congolene” to make the conk. They need “Red Devil lye, two eggs, and two medium- sized white potatoes… and a large jar of Vaseline, a large bar of soap.” Then the drugstore clerk comments about the Malcolm X getting a conk and Malcolm proudly says “Right!” He later goes on to describe the way the mixture is made and how the Red Devil lye makes the mixture burning hot. His friend tells him “it burns bad but the longer you can stand it, the straighter the hair.” He then proceeds to start to comb it into …show more content…
He says getting a conk was “This was my first really big step toward self-degradation: when I endured all of that pain, literally burning my flesh to have it look like a white man 's hair that they will even violate and mutilate their God-created bodies to try to look "pretty" by white standards.” He later goes on to say ask if the “Negro” has lost all sense of identity. That they would want to look like a white person so baldly they are willing to go to such extremes. He gives the examples of the black men with conks and the black women who wear pink, red, purple, platinum or blonde wigs. He asks “which kind of self-defacing conk is the greater shame--the one you 'll see on the heads of the black so-called "middle class" and "upper class," who ought to know better, or the one you 'll see on the heads of the poorest, most downtrodden, ignorant black men.” It is debatable as to why he published this when he did. People say it is because he came to hate the conk. Others say it is because he was trying to inspire people to rise above the crowd and fall away from the conk. Both are most likely true. He would not try to inspire a movement to embrace ones god given African American hair. Not to change it to copy a white man’s hair style.
In the excerpt Malcolm X talks a lot about Black men who conk their hair. He also talks about black women who wear red, pink, purple, blonde and platinum wigs because they want to look more white. People do many crazy
Different observation techniques help to focus the observation so appropriate data is collected and presented in meaningful ways.
Richard Wright and Malcolm X are two African Americans that struggled so much in the pursuit of knowledge in other to gain power and figure. Richard wright is from Natchez, Mississippi; he was in the south around the year 1925 and worked for the white men helping them get books from the library. During the process of obtaining books for the white men, he wants to read and know of the black history. Malcolm X is from Omaha, Nebraska, he was in prison for burglary, during his time in prison then came the passion for knowledge and he wants to build his vocabulary on how to speak, and write letters appropriately to Mr. Elijah Muhammad. Richard wright becomes motivated when he comes across an article that made mention of H. L. Mencken being a fool and wants to know the reason for such a saying, Richard wrights’ difficulties was how to get a library card without cut reading the novel of H. L. Mencken. Richard Wright becomes transformed greatly not only has his vocabulary improved but had known a great deal of black history. Malcolm X is motivated to read so he can write good letters to Mr. Elijah Muhammad. His difficulties was learning how to read, write and himself not having enough time to read because the lights had to go off and they were watched by a moving guard, he becomes transformed by studying the dictionary to improve his knowledge of vocabulary in reading, speaking and writing good letters to Mr. Elijah Muhammad.
As Indian groups started to settle in the Mississippi floodplain, their cultures and political systems began to intertwine, creating a complex sociopolitical structure (Page, 70). The largest polity to arise out of this area, known as the American Bottom, was Cahokia. At its height, it resembled a city, extending over five square miles, mounds and structures that towered over smaller dwellings, and a population, that some believe to have been the largest, north of Mexico, for its time (Page, 70). Estimates predict several thousand lived at the site of Cahokia, many of them elites, whose particular talents or skills, earned them the privileged title (Pauketat). Beyond its boundaries were smaller groups and
When the movie starts Malcolm Little is getting his hair cut. The appearance is that he wants to look more like a white person. Malcolm X's father is a preacher, but the KKK came to the house to burn it down. Later, Malcolm's father is killed by being tied to the rail road tracks when a train comes. His father died when Malcolm was just a child.. After Malcolm's dad died A white woman came to tell Malcolm that they were going to take her kids away because she was an "unsuitable mother". They then sent Malcolm to a detention home which drove his
Chris Rock’s documentary, Good Hair, investigates the notion of what good hair is. Dominant society views good hair as straight or essentially caucasian hair. This is not only problematic to the self-esteem and confidence of black women, but it can also cause black women to appropriate Asian culture. Black women unfortunately take advantage of Asian culture in search of what society believes is good hair. Many black women wear weaves in order to align to what society believes is good hair. However, when they buy this hair, they do not realize what Asians go through. Likewise, Asians who give up their hair do not know where or who this hair will be going to. Thus, this desire for good hair further perpetuates the lack of understanding that black
Evaluate the extent to which electronic communication enhances or detracts from the quality of interpersonal communication compared to face-to-face communication. Your analysis must engage with three elements of interpersonal communication (for example, eye contact or gestures) and discuss how each is affected by one particular electronic channel of communication. Your essay should be grounded in communication theory from appropriate academic sources.
The researcher interview with African American women with natural hair and examination of social media. The researchers explain that in the natural hair community a curl texture is more attractive than kinky hair texture and lengthier hair more desirable than short hair; also having manageable hair is dynamic to African American women’s effective performances of Black femininity. This research expands the discourse in African American Studies that theorizes the experiences of African American women with natural hair compared to those of African American women with relaxed hair such as perms (Howard, 2015, p.
“Janie ties her hair up in the store un- der her husband’s orders so that other men will not touch her. Hair is a tool for sexual desirability across races and ethnic groups; however, the issue within the African community is that the “type” of hair that is often de- sired. However, hair is a marker of femininity, so to restrict or demean one’s hair is a direct attack on women’s being. This implies that when the hair is covered—as it had to be on the plantation or other places where African women existed, they were deemed less feminine and thus less womanly”
The attitudes and arguments towards and against black hair in “Balm” by Lonnae O’Neal Parker and “My First Conk” by Malcolm X are contingent because they express two distinct views on black hair. Malcolm X pleads that manipulation of our hair by straightening or covering by wig is self- degradation. While Parker believes that the time she spent doing her daughters hair is translated to the love she has for them. This time not only assures the girls that they have a loving mother, it assures Parker that she could send them out into a world that would appreciate them because they had someone who put time (love) into the girls. Parker is aware of the scary truth that our worth by outside world is one dimensional and fuel by aesthetics. Both Lonnae O’Neal Parker and Malcolm X have analyze the importance of hair in the black community. Parker praises the “black hair ritual” while Malcolm criticizes it. Even though their topics differ, both essays share the act of taming natural hair, and the motifs of love and pain
Gates also writes about a time when he was at his uncle’s house to watch television. While they were all watching, they saw Nat King Cole, a famous singer with “patent-leather hair” (328). His hair was processed, but not to the point where it looked completely like white peoples’ hair. It still looked somewhat natural. Back then, it was rare for an African American to be seen on television as Cole was. This shows the slow transition of blacks becoming accepted into white society.
Instead of going to school to get a traditional education, he dropped out of school at fifteen and learned the ways of the streets. Malcolm associated himself with thugs, thieves, dope dealers, and pimps. He was convicted of burglary at age twenty and remained in prison until he was twenty-seven. During his prison sentence, he became a changed man. He educated himself and he learned about and joined the Nation of Islam, studying the teachings of Elijah Muhammed. Elijah taught Malcolm how history had been “whitened by the white man” (p.184) and he echoed “the black convict’s lifelong experience” where “the white man is the devil,” (p. 186). This thought process encouraged many black inmates to discover the Nation of Islam.
Scott and Jean’s Icebreaker activities serve several different purposes, the first of which being to encourage the group to come together as a whole and get to know one another. The initial activity did a fabulous job of encouraging the youngsters to introduce themselves to their peers in a fun and non intimidating way. It ‘broke the ice’ (LGBT Youth Scotland clips 2-6). If the introductions had been done with a greater amount
1. In the state of Oklahoma we know how important it is to have the appropriate resources available to you for early childhood intervention so they can maintain a healthy learning, living and social environment. Our most popular and highly recommended is SoonerStart. This program will evaluate all children from birth up to three years of age to make
Since the early 1900s, Black women have had a fascination with their hair. More explicitly, they have had a fascination with straightening their hair. The need to be accepted by the majority class has caused them to do so. Though the image of straight hair as being better than coarse hair still hasn’t left the Black community, there has been a surge of non straight hairstyles since the nineteen sixties. Wearing more natural hairstyles, which ironically enough include ‘weaves’ and ‘hair extensions’ has been considered to be more empowered and more enlightened. However, this image comes with a price, and though it appears the ‘natural’ hairstyle movement has advanced Black women, it has actually set
Lansing did not hold many opportunities of any kind for a young black man then, so without a particular plan, Malcolm X went to live with his half-sister, Ella, in Boston. Malcolm X looked, and almost immediately found trouble. He fell in with a group of gamblers and thieves, and began shining shoes at the Roseland State Ballroom. There he learned the trades that would eventually take him to jail dealing in bootleg liquor and illegal drugs. Malcolm X characterized his life then as one completely lacking in self-respect. Many journalists would emphasize Malcolm X’s “shady” past when describing the older man, his clean-cut lifestyle, and the aims of the Nation of Islam. In some cases, these references were an attempt to damage Malcolm X’s credibility, but economically disadvantaged people have found his early years to be a point of commonality, and Malcolm X himself was proud of how far he had come. He spared no detail of his youth in his autobiography, and used his Nation of Islam ideas to interpret them. Dancing, drinking, and even his hair style were represented by Malcolm X to be marks of shame and self-hatred. Relaxed hair in particular was an anathema to Malcolm X for the rest of his life; he described his first “conk” in the autobiography this way: “This was my first really big step toward self-degradation: when I endured all of that pain of the hair-straightening chemicals, literally burning my flesh to have it