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A review by bhnmt61
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X, Alex Haley
5.0
There is plenty that’s problematic about Malcolm X. The worst for me was reading his ideas about women—for example, that women need and even want to be slapped around every once in awhile (p 156). But there’s no denying that his analysis of racism in the US was what the times required, and maybe is still required. He’s brilliant on racism, especially toward the end after his pilgrimage to Mecca. Everyone should read this.
“Where the really sincere white people have got to do their “proving” of themselves is not among the black victims [of racism], but on the battle lines of where America’s racism really is— and that’s in their own home communities. America’s racism is among their own fellow whites. That’s where the sincere whites who really mean to accomplish something have got to work.”
The eeriest moment in the whole thing is when he wonders who— MLK Jr or himself— will be killed first, as representatives of two different ways of fighting racism. At the moment when he wrote that, they were both still alive, but as it turned out, he was assassinated before this book was even published in 1965, and Martin Luther King, in 1968.
I never read non-fiction quickly, so I’ve been working on this for about a month. It gets a little repetitive at times, but overall it is well worth the time.
“Where the really sincere white people have got to do their “proving” of themselves is not among the black victims [of racism], but on the battle lines of where America’s racism really is— and that’s in their own home communities. America’s racism is among their own fellow whites. That’s where the sincere whites who really mean to accomplish something have got to work.”
The eeriest moment in the whole thing is when he wonders who— MLK Jr or himself— will be killed first, as representatives of two different ways of fighting racism. At the moment when he wrote that, they were both still alive, but as it turned out, he was assassinated before this book was even published in 1965, and Martin Luther King, in 1968.
I never read non-fiction quickly, so I’ve been working on this for about a month. It gets a little repetitive at times, but overall it is well worth the time.