Explain and evaluate Malcolm X’s account of race relations in the United States.
The 1965 Autobiography of Malcolm X is one man’s accounts of race relations in the United States. As a minister for the Nation of Islam, and a man deeply affected by white oppression of his race, X proposes separation as a suitable response to the racial crisis in America, rejecting suggestions of racial integration. His condemnation of integration includes opposition towards the integrated black man, as he believes the denial of racial identity to be an unhealthy and intolerable mentality holding back the progression of the black race. In his fight for black human rights, X’s attitude to whites in his speeches is patently racist, but he gains a deeper understanding of racial relations after his disengagement from the Nation of Islam. Despite his fierce, angry manner, Malcolm X is able to communicate his account of racial relations concisely and effectively.
In public appearances, Malcolm X openly professes hostility to the idea of integration, offering the alternative of separation as the solution to racial discrimination. As he sees it, integration is not a viable answer to America’s racial problems, as outlined in one of his speeches:
And the only way the black people caught up in this society can be saved is not to integrate into this corrupt society, but to separate from it, to a land of our own, where we can reform ourselves, lift up our moral standards and try to be godly.
(The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Pg 348)
From this quote, it can be seen that X’s opinion of Western society as ‘corrupt’ indicates that he no longer wants to be concerned with Western society as he feels it is too immoral and depreciated. In promoting separation over integration, X makes an honest attempt to solve the racial dilemma. His disdain for integration is possibly a product of his childhood environment, specifically at Mason Junior High School:
Though some, including the teachers, called me ‘nigger’, it was easy to see that they didn’t mean any more harm by it than the Swerlins.
(The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Pg 109)
Having been called and accepted being called the degrading term ‘nigger’, could be a factor in X’s adamant belief that Western society is demeaning to blacks and that integration is an impractical effort. Similarly, the scenario where X told his English teacher that he wanted to be a lawyer and received the reply, “That’s no realistic goal for a nigger…Why don’t you plan on carpentry (Pg 118)?” is an explicit portrayal of the notion that black people are incompetent. Not surprisingly, the incident deeply affected X on a personal level, and has likely contributed to his disapproval of integration and particularly the integrated black man, who was willing to be servile in a white-run economy.
In addition to his condemnation of racial integration, Malcolm X criticises black imitation and adoration of whites as a deplorable offence. During his time as a minister of the Nation of Islam, one of the most prominent of his philosophies was the notion that the “middle-class integrated black man” was equally as bad, if not worse, than the white man:
I’m talking about those ‘token-integrated’ Negroes who flee from their poor, downtrodden black brothers – from their own self-hate, which is what they’re really trying to escape. I’m talking about these Negroes you will see who can’t get enough of nuzzling up to the white man. These ‘chosen few’ Negroes are more white-minded, more anti-black than even the white man is.
(The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Pg 378)
X’s reasoning behind his disgust towards the ‘bourgeois’ Negro stems from their ignorance of their own racial identity. In their attempts to integrate, and defend or forgive the white man during the interludes of X’s speeches, they appear to be ashamed of their heritage, opposing his personal belief of the black man’s virtue and goodness. However, X understands the mentality of feeling inferior to whites, as he once tried to emulate the white man’s appearance by conking his own hair:
This was my first really big step toward self-degradation: when I endured all of that pain, literally burning my flesh with lye, in order to… have it look like a white man’s hair.
(The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Pg 138)
This attempt to try to look like the white man demonstrates the drastic action that many Negroes will go to obscure their blackness. As conking is a violation of the black man’s natural configuration, X considers it to be a symbol of black self-hate, an unhealthy mentality which hampers the progression of the black race. Malcolm X is accurate in his evaluation that white Americans are responsible for projecting an inferiority complex onto black Americans. In this sense his arguments against the integrated black man are persuasive, but his fierce approach is disconcerting, as his anger develops into that which he so fiercely opposes, namely, racism.
During his time as a minister for the Nation of Islam, X’s attempts to spread anger and hatred against white Americans was racist. However, his attitudes became more tolerant and inclusive as his understanding of Islam became more universal. During his prison term, X receives notice of the propaganda purported by the Nation of Islam, a religion which holds white people responsible for the state of black people. As a man mistreated and imprisoned by white Americans throughout his life, it is unsurprising that X accepted Elijah Muhammad’s teachings as the truth, for it allowed him a chance to absolve himself by blaming white oppression. In trying to exonerate himself, and liberate others in similar positions, X endeavours to enlighten fellow black people to the wickedness of the white man:
What shade of black African polluted by devil white man are you?
(The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Pg 299)
This vicious attack, marked by words such as ‘polluted’ and ‘devil’, demonstrates Malcolm X’s contempt for the white man. By including these subjective words as part of the question, X ensures that there is no room for dispute about the white man’s guilt. Though his autobiography focuses on the oppression he suffered throughout his own life, it is also reflective of the mistreatment endured by black people across America, making his arguments quite persuasive to those also facing oppression. The suggestion that the blood of black Africans has been contaminated by the white man is a reference to the Nation of Islam’s professed theory of race and also Malcolm’s own personal history, which many black Americans could relate to. The rape of his grandmother is likely to be a major contributing factor to his feelings of oppression, influencing his position that the white man is a “devil”. Furthermore, he rejects the prospect of interracial relationships, as his aspiration for racial purity among blacks entails the omission of white people, in much the same way that whites wish to preserve their race by omitting blacks. His stance can be seen as a reaction to the oppression suffered by his people, yet it places him in the same scope as the white racist.
However, after his journey to Mecca, Malcolm X experiences harmony between all races. As a result, he changes his perspective on the nature of white people:
They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and the non-white.
(The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Pg 454)
Due to this experience, Malcolm is able to appreciate the ‘spirit of unity and brotherhood’, a revelation which results in his new view that white racism is a consequence of social circumstance rather than innate evil. This idea of brotherhood was one of the most prominent features in his Black Nationalism campaign, used as the foundation for a black-run economy. At the time of his death, X’s viewpoint was in the process of change, abolishing his racist views in order to obtain a more productive attitude towards racial relations.
In his autobiography, Malcolm X attempts to influence the black man to improve his lifestyle, by using the past experiences and encounters that have shaped his views on racial relations as the basis for his arguments. After the confusion he faced during his childhood, X decides that separation from white people would be a more fruitful avenue in securing black human rights rather than integration. Similarly, he views the integrated black man as an obstruction to the securing of black human rights, as they comply with the notion that the white race is superior. X’s racist attitude towards the white race is evident throughout much of his speech-making as a Nation of Islam minister, yet weakens after he accepts a more general Islam. Though sometimes extreme in his views, Malcolm X communicated his arguments with style and meaning, sharing insight on the experience of racial identity and illuminating the nature of racial relations.
Word Count – 1,241 words (not including quotes).
Reference:
Haley, A., X, M. 2007, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Penguin Books, London.