After reading the first few chapters of the book in many ways I feel ashamed to be white. The active bigotry that Malcolm and his family experienced when his father was killed was terrible, but what bothered me even more was the fact that even “the well meaning whites” had racial prejudices. It really shocked me that Malcom’s teacher had such a negative perception on the intellect of blacks that he believed it was impossible for Malcolm, the brightest student in his class, to become a lawyer. I can understand why in the later chapters, Malcolm speaks out against blacks straightening their hair and being obsessed with white women, because it affirms white superiority. In my view, it is worse when blacks believe this than when whites do, because they essentially then allow whites to treat them any way they want.
This passive racism that Malcolm experiences in his youth is still very present today. It still seems to me that many whites subconsciously feel that they are the dominant race. They may feel this way, because they may grow up in more privileged communities than minority students, which effectively makes them feel entitled to their thrown. I think that many people would disagree with me, because it is so subtle and often hard to see. I think at times white people, including myself can be discriminatory without even knowing it. For example, my mailman happens to be black and there are no black residents that live in my neighborhood. One day when a mailman was walking through my block I said “Hello Charles.” It just so happened that this was not Charles, just another mailman. I must have felt that since for so much time Charles was the only black man I had seen on my block that that had to be him, but that simple assumption was very offensive. Luckily the other man was very kind and laughed off the mistake. My point is that some things we do might not seem like much, but can actually be very demeaning and presumptuous just like the white characters Malcolm encounters.
No comments:
Post a Comment