Early in Malcolm's life he realized that many lighter skin african americans felt gifted over the darker ones because they were closer to the white man in complexion which gave them a sense of power and pride. Malcolm on the other hand learned to hate this. Because of the whites being the oppressors later on it made the african americans feel they were inferior and while some decided to fit in others decided to rebel. Malcolm would preach that its NOT ok for the white man to try to do whatever they wanted to black people and get away with it, because it would continue the cycle of oppression. Thats why he encouraged them to fight back in any way possible.
If you look closely you would see that a lot of countries hate America for the same reason of dominance and its not just african americans. Also, since its considered the best in the world and the land of opportunity many people from all over the world migrate here just to live the "American Dream". America has always had its way of getting a lot of power and coming across as the most powerful and for this many countries had felt less competent and come here to see if they could live a better life. So its this white supremacy that made this happen all from the very beginning.
Interesting post. A point of clarification - it wasn't his mother whose rape he is writing about - but his grandmother, which he relates to his mother's lighter skin.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about your last paragraph, where you say If you look closely you would see that a lot of countries hate America for the same reason of dominance and its not just african americans. Also, since its considered the best in the world and the land of opportunity many people from all over the world migrate here just to live the "American Dream" - how do you see the relationship between distrust of the U.S. because of its domination and the immigrant dream of American success?
Like i said before, America is seen as the land of opportunity by other countries and i guess they see it as "if you can't beat em, join em" kinda way. A lot of immigrants take chances coming here even though they distrust America. They know America is one of the richest if not THE richest and obviously pays more than in their countries, so many want jobs and have a better quality life. Many immigrants have a lot to sacrifice coming here including leaving families behind. What i mean by hate America is countries like Puerto Rico where the U.S uses it for military bases and profits millions of dollars off it and Mexico which some parts of the west coast belonged to it in the past. Its kinda messed up that originally parts like California some Mexicans already lived there cause it was part of Mexico and now they're being kicked out of it cause technically now it belongs to the U.S.. And also Korea and now Iraq don't like America very much. I'm just saying we have a lot of enemies..
ReplyDeleteHi Chris - Really interesting follow up. Americans are used to thinking that all immigrants have a very idealistic view of the country, but as you point out, it may often be a more pragmatic decision than that.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course Puerto Rico is a really interesting example since it's actually part of the United States, and yet people who leave to come to the rest of the U.S. fit the 'immigrant' story in a lot of ways.