I tried. Twice. As a privileged white man in America trying to understand the black experience. However, I could only get about 2/3 of the way through before giving up. I empathized with his early agony and injustice, but the fact that he turned it into a hate for white people and a religious fixation was way too much for me. In the end I saw the only difference between his view and the views of the Klan was his brought out by personal and systematic suffering. The hate, the bias, the intolerance would have just been a simple copy/paste of terms. I got volumes more out of James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time".
It's worth getting all the way through. He becomes transformed at a certain point, and realizes his earlier beliefs were wrong. Malcolm wanted to delete or revise the earlier part of the book at that point but Alex Haley prevailed to keep it as it was.
MAN you need to get through that last third! He eventually rejects this worldview after his disillusionment and departure from Nation of Islam. After converting to Islam proper, during his pilgrimage to Mecca, he completely alters his old views.
If there's a quote to sum up the final third, it's this:
"Brother," he said finally, "remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant -- the one who wanted to help the Muslims and the whites get together -- and I told her there wasn't a ghost of a chance and she went away crying?"
"Yes."
"Well, I've lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping Black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a [Black] Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then -- like all [Black] Muslims -- I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me twelve years." [0]
I guess you didn't get to the point where he says:
>There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. 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 non-white.
>You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to re-arrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.
>During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug)--while praying to the same God--with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions in the deeds of the 'white' Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana.
>But as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the walls and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth--the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to...A few nights ago, a man who would be called in America a 'white' man, a United Nations diplomat, an ambassador, a companion of kings, gave me his hotel suite, his bed. Never would I have even thought of dreaming that I would ever be a recipient of such honors--honors that in America would be bestowed upon a King--not a Negro.
(Above are snippets from a letter he wrote. The different portions I quoted are non-contiguous). On his return from that trip he said in a press conference that he is willing to put aside his differences with others and is willing to work with anyone who is dedicated to improving the lives of African Americans.
What I found impressive about him was how much he had changed, and continued to change, throughout his life. He was a deeply introspective person, and continued to refine his thoughts. He was a high school dropout who lived a fairly pathetic lifestyle. And then during his time in prison he decided to make something out of himself. It's impressive how much he changed for the better. I am a very well educated person, but I struggle to achieve what he did in terms of how articulate he became. And most people I personally know simply do not have the courage to continually evaluate their beliefs and change them.
Much of it may have been fueled by hate, but it's also clear his greater goal was always to improve the lives of his kind - hatred was merely a strategy towards that goal. And at some point he realized it didn't need to be part of that goal.
Over a decade ago I had to go on a multi-day road trip and needed something to listen to. So I downloaded all the speeches I could find of his, sorted them chronologically, and listened to them. In some ways they were more impressive than what you see in the book. And the transformation over the years is quite apparent. One other thing that stood out was how well informed he seemed to be about foreign affairs - something neither the book nor the movie points out. He was quite critical of US foreign policy. And he was very skilled at pointing out hypocrisies of the government very openly - something very few people do these days, and frankly, the likely reason many people idolize him.
Of course, he had his flaws - you can find them in Manning Marable's book. His trajectory in a continual positive direction, though, was impressive. He died before he reached his 40th birthday. I have little doubt that he lived another decade or two and had continued on his path of self improvement, he would be a much more revered figure than he is.
Thank you for sharing this. I still have the copy on my bookshelf in my office. I know that I'm a different person now from when tried to read it 10 years ago. I'll pick it up again.
To be fair, the second half of the book (soon after he comes out of prison) is relatively poorly written compared to the first half. A lot of rambling, preaching and jumping around chronologically. I wonder if Alex just got lazy or had some kind of deadline to meet.
The movie's not bad, to be honest. Obviously can't capture everything, but overall does a good job.
I enjoyed the book, although I felt like he was overawed with and naive about how harmonious Saudi Arabia (and the greater Muslim world) actually is. But that's easier to say from today's perspective, where we're all familiar with sectarian warfare between Muslims.
