In his autobiography, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X reveals that he has “been blessed by Allah with a new insight into the true religion of Islam, and a better understanding of America’s entire racial dilemma”. He supports his claim by using repetition, tone, and diction. Malcolm X’s purpose is to inform the audience of his new revelation of values in order to illustrate the racism, prevalent in the USA. The author writes in a shocked tone, addressing the citizens of the United…
Brent Staples’s “Just walk on by” was written to clarify how African-Americans like Staples go through stereotypes when in actually reality, shouldn’t be prejudged in the first place. He reminisces being perceived as dangerous just because of his skin color, and how this situation puts himself in endangerment. Staples arguers that people shouldn’t be so judgmentally and should get to know the person by the actions. He not only makes statements all through the text, but gives incidents of how his color and the way he looks to others tend to play in the role. He stresses about the fact that African Americans, can’t all be the same with the same intentions and wants the readers to know that as well.…
In 1971, a psychologist by the name of William E. Cross, Jr, released his Black identity model. It's a model with the purpose of theoretically explains the process in which African Americans develop their cultural identity. There are five stages in which are the pre-encounter, encounter, immersion, internalization, and finally the internalization-commitment stage. In each stage there is something different that is developed to make someone certain that they are indeed in those stages. Using this psychology of “Blackness” this essay will assess the course of Malcolm X’s life and evolving view on questions of racial identity and justice through the lens of William E. Cross’s Nigresence Model using “The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told by Alex Haley”. I am a true believer that Malcolm went through each stage in his life.…
In "Black Men and Public Spaces" Brent Staples writes about his experiences with racism and how it changes his life. He also helps people who have not been victims of racism understand the effects of their actions whether intentional or not.…
In the excerpt from Malcolm X’s “Message to Grassroots,” Malcolm X uses effective stylistic devices such as colorful figurative language, effective repetition, and powerful diction to persuade his audience of his argument. Malcolm X feels strongly that America has treated the people of color unjustly, and he is angry about it. He is arguing that minorities need to forget their differences, so they can unite in a common cause to gain equality and liberty. Too, he says blacks, and other “unwanted people,” should wake up to reality. They must understand they are being treated unfairly, and by doing so, can “plot a course” to become educated and therefore have the ability to defend themselves against white oppression. Malcolm’s masterful use of language makes his speech effective.…
In Brent Staples story, "Just Walk on By", the author underlines how black men are casualties of discrimination. First, he recalls his realization of how much his presence terrified other people, essentially a white woman, when he used to go out for strolls during the evening around the town. In spite of the fact that he understand that the world is seen to be progressively brutal and hazardous, he feels disappointed that African-American guys, particularly, are as yet being judged and misconstrued taking into account by their appearances. The author notice two cases where somebody misinterpreted him for a hoodlum and a companion who was a writer was flawed mistaken for a killer. These events, he states, are not uncommon. Presently so as to…
He unites the African American community as a whole and eliminates the necessity for division and argument by addressing that “whether you are a Christian or a Muslim or a Nationalist” all African Americans had the same problem. Malcolm quotes in his speech that “they don’t hang you because you’re a Baptist, they hang you because you’re black”. Through this he exposes the “white man’s strategy” of divide and conquer and counterattacks it by highlighting the most important reason they were there in the first place, which was freedom of oppression. Malcolm instructs his people that before they can move forward they must first come together. Whether it is politically or physically, African Americans must unite against their…
Malcolm X is one of the most controversial figures in US history. His dominant image is that of a ‘black supremacist’; an image embedded into the mass mind to such an extent it has become an ‘historical fact’. The picture painted has associated Malcolm with violence, racism and hate, so future generations will dismiss him as just a racist demagogue – a one-dimensional, fanatical enemy of America. This raises the issue of ‘facts in history’, and how such accusations became ‘facts’. However, in this essay, I will show that such images belie Malcolm X’s extraordinary dynamism and non-fixedness, and his immense metamorphoses as a man, leader, and thinker. Having divided his life into three stages – since he did live his life in three distinct stages, with three different personalities and goals – I conclude that while the dominant image is superficially plausible, it is in fact an image severely distorted due to the threat that Malcolm posed to racial domination and inequality, and by extension his threat to both US domestic security and US foreign policy, even after his death. Malcolm X himself predicted exactly this in his autobiography – that after he dies “the white man, in his press, is going to identify [him] with ‘hate’. He will make use of [him] dead, as he has made use of [him] alive, as a convenient symbol of ‘hatred’” (MALCOLM X, 1964, 381).…
Prior to watching the biographical film “Malcolm X,” my understanding of Malcolm X was very little and my being taught of him even less. I grew up in a very small town in East Texas, a very rural area that was not surprisingly dominantly white. In school, I was taught very little about the Civil Rights movement and all the teachings was focused on Martin Luther King Jr. Sadly, I had no previous idea or understanding of Malcolm X to even compare to the film. I understood the film to present Malcolm X to be an American hero. One of the scenes that I felt portrayed Malcolm X as an American hero, was after the scandals of the Nation of Islam that resulted in Malcolm’s leaving of the organization, talking with his wife Betty he said, “We had the best organization a black man’s ever had.” While it is easy for one to argue this with all the faults within the Nation of Islam, starting with it being a cult, one must give credit where credit is due. Malcolm X deserves full credit for the growth of the Nation of Islam, and putting aside all the flaws, one can’t deny that Malcolm’s teaching brought black societies together in a way that they never had been before. Arguably one could even claim that Malcolm taught black individuals more about their self-worth than any other Civil Rights Movement…
In Brent Staples essay, “Black Men and Public Space,” Staples expresses the difficulties African Americans face in society. Through specific diction and detailed description of imagery, Staples conveys his experience throughout his life where he was negatively stereotyped as “a mugger, a rapist, or worse”. His lifelong exposure to this matter taught him to take precaution in the people he encounters and the places he visits.…
To begin with his story, Staples presents a white woman who he comes across walking in the streets. He states that just by looking at him, she started to run until he could no longer see her. That first scenario made him realize of what being an african american man or what his “inheritance” (p. 336) will cause, if he was seen in a public space. This because of the stereotype black men suffer of being rapist or a thief. Later in the essay, he tells about white people’s actions in the intersections whenever he passed by a car or crossed the streets. For example, the driver will automatically put down the locks, or the pedestrians will cross in another direction.…
Staples has the ability to alter public space by his physical behavior, his dress and his verbal reaction. Black men have a reputation of being rapist, murders and gang members, therefore many people get worried when a young black man is around. So Staples has learned how to change his perception or level of threat to others. He accomplishes this by his physical behavior. The way he walks or acts around others can change there mood. Now Staples notices if people are frightened by him. Brent Staples attempts to introduce people to something most all are guilty of, but pay little attention to. Using accounts from his own and others’ experiences, Staples essay portrays the racist tendency of people to assume black men are potentially violent and dangerous.…
After years of study in prison, Malcolm reconsiders his racial identity in the light of history and philosophy, and discovers answers to his questions about race in the pro-black rhetoric of the Nation of Islam. His acceptance of the Nation’s belief that black people are an original and good people, and whites an aberration meant to spread evil in the world, reverses Malcolm’s understanding of blacks and whites. Later, in Mecca, Malcolm learns to see beyond America’s race problems even as he digs more firmly into his black identity. Feeling brotherhood with white-skinned Muslims, he returns to the United States with a message of racial tolerance and an impartial commitment to truth and justice. Still, he believes the most promising allies of American blacks are the…
Staples was stereotyped by his aferican American apperence as a mugger and rapist . He was often feared by women because he was an aferican American man women often see him as an unsafe creature. In the beginning of the essay where a frightened woman’s reaction is described he uses words such as “terrified, unwidely , quarry, wayfare, tranny, dangerious, harzard, dicey, fear, and weapon”.(354) to illustrate his response to the womans reaction. Neither of these words used suggested anything pleasant. Staples deals with his stereotype in a calm manner taking precautions to make people less nervous around him.…
One of his earliest experiences with racism caused him to be “surprised, embarrassed, and dismayed all at once…[as he realized that he] was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area from the surrounding ghetto”(1). The adjectives in this excerpt make that reader experience the horror and embarrassment that Staples felt in this instant, and forces then to think about the consequences of showing any hesitation or uncertainty one might feel. The diction makes the passage feel mortifying and distressing, which gives the reader an inside look at what being alienated feels like. By revealing to the reader that he had been discriminated against personally, he establishes his ethos. In the instance where a women begins to run away from him, Staples remembers that “it was the echo of the terrified woman’s footfalls that [he] first began to know the unwieldy inheritance [he had] come to - the ability to alter public space in ugly ways” (1). By sharing this memory with the reader, Staples creates himself to the reader in a knowing and solemn…