DJs 41-55

DJ 41. “I believed that a man should do anything that he was slick enough, or bad and bold enough, to do and that a woman was nothing but another commodity.”

This shows Malcolm when he is at one of his lowest times. He hasn’t yet realized what is really important in life. But he will soon find out.

DJ 42. “Looking back, I think I really was at least slightly out of my mind.”

This represents how Malcolm grew as a person and was able to learn from his mistakes and learn to live with them.

DJ 43. “Deep down I actually believed that after living as fully as humanly as possible, one should than die violently.”

This is ironic because later, he believes in nonviolence unless in self-defense. So when he was still at rock bottom, he thought that everyone should have to experience violence.

DJ 44. “She has since told me that she had a foreboding that I was on my way in to big trouble.”

This is foreshadowing Malcolm being arrested. It can also connect back to how it runs in the family that they have geed hunches when something bad was going to happen.

DJ 45. “And I knew, before he did, that he was going to get down and look under the bed.”

This is a connection to the beginning of the book when he says that nothing catches off guard and can sense thing before they happen.

DJ 46. “I was going to have a long time in prison to think about that.”

This statement hints at the fact that prison is going to be a life changing experience for Malcolm. Not only is he going to think about the bad things he has done in his life but sort of realize what things are really important in life.

DJ 47. “I have thought a thousand times, I guess, about how I so narrowly escaped death twice that day.”

This is where Malcolm realizes he has another purpose in life than stealing and getting high all the time.

DJ 48. “Later, when I learned the full truth about the white man, I reflected many time that they average burglary sentence for a first offender, as we all were, was about two years. But we weren’t going to get the average—not for our crime.”

This connects to racism and that black people got harsher punishment than whites, even if that have committed the same crime.

DJ 49. “He told me that all whites knew they were devils…”

The idea that white people are the devil is one example of the idea and beliefs that black people had back when we all weren’t equal. It was a way to cope with the idea that at that time, white people had more power than blacks.

DJ 50. Satan

This chapter is titled Satan because in this chapter Reginald tell Malcolm of his connection between white people and the devil.

DJ 51. “I was going through the hardest thing, also the greatest thing, for any human being to do; to accept that which is already within you, and around you.”

I think this is the biggest life lesson that Malcolm learns and is what he talks to people about. You can connect this quote to “Notes of a Native Son” because they both get at the idea of acceptance of not only who you are, but the situations you are in.

DJ 52. “And so my mind refused to accept anything so grotesque as adultery mentioned in the same breath with Mr. Muhammad’s name.”

The fact that Malcolm is so appalled by this deed done my Mr. Muhammad but shows how much he has changed and how drastically he turned his life around.

DJ 53. “I had to force myself to bend my knees. And waves of shame and embarrassment would force me back up.”

This is a metaphor for Malcolm accepting his past for what it is and learning from it. He had to admit with what he has done and grow from it.

DJ 54. “But the threat of death was much closer to me than somewhere in Louisiana.”

This is foreshadowing his assassination.

DJ 55. “And the reason for this was that my faith had been shaken in a way that I can never fully describe.”

 This statement is further foreshadowing what he said at the beginning of the book, where only one thing has caught him off guard. The betrayal of Mr. Muhammad. 

DJs 31-40

DJ 31. “I told him, when he asked, that id never been in trouble with the police—and up to then, that was the truth.”

This is foreshadowing when he gets in trouble with the law.

DJ 32. “Everyday I listened to costumers who felt like talking, and it all added to my education…. I was thus schooled well, by experts in such hustles as the numbers, pimping, con games of many kinds, peddling dope, and thievery of all sorts, including armed robbery.”

This is foreshadowing how he gets in trouble with the law. By him listening to all of these men and their influence on him as a young man really takes a toll on who he turns into until he goes to jail.

DJ 33. “What I was learning was the hustling society’s first rule: that you never trusted anyone outside of you own closemouthed circle, and that you selected with time and care before you made any intimates even among these.”

This is foreshadowing to his relationship with Elijah Muhammad. At one point we trusted him with his life, than he found that he could trust him anymore. Also it is showing how deep he is into hustling.

DJ 34. “… the first thing she remembered being conscious of was that she was supposed to hate niggers.’”.

This connects to the idea is racism in the south. One of the first memories this girl’s from the south has is that she is supposed to hate blacks.

DJ 35. “And when she started hearing older girls in grade school whispering the hush-hush that niggers were such sexual giants and athletes, and she started growing up secretly wanting to try one.”

This reinforces that idea that whites and black were not familiar with each other and they were both curious about each other. And now that black are more accepted the curiosity because more and more propionate.

DJ 36. “This shouldn’t reflect too badly on that particular building, because almost everyone in Harlem needed some kind of hustle to survive, and needed to stay high in some way to forget what they had to do to survive.”

This shows that tough times are horrible thing most black people have to go through back when they could find really decent jobs. That fact that they had to remain high just to get though the day is pretty rough.

DJ 37. “More women would keep their husbands if they realized their greatest urge is to be men.”

Racism wasn’t the only problem happening in America. Sexism was too and women just wanted to be treated as equally as men. It is a little funny that he says this because it isn’t much different from what black people are going though.

DJ 38. “It didn’t make any difference if you were in Lansing, Boston, or New York—what the white racist said, and still says, was right in those days!”

This reflects on how blacks were aware of the racism and Malcolm is mocking it here. This is ironic because at one time, he was one of those brainwashed blacks that really thought that white were better and so he changed his personality and appearance to seem more white.

DJ 39. “All you had to do was put a white girl anywhere close to the average black man, and he would respond.“

This is talking about the interest of the opposite races was booming at that time. It also shows the power that a white woman could have on a black man.

DJ 40. “The black woman also made the white man’s eyes light up—but he was slick enough to hide it.”

This also shows the interest of the whites and blacks but white people are more ashamed of their interest in black woman, to they aren’t so obvious with their interest.

DJs 21-30

DJ 21. “It was when I began to be seen town with Sophia that I really began to mature into a real status in black downtown Roxbury.”

This relates to Malcolm brainwashing metaphor. There was this idea that black men who got with white women were obviously of a high social status because they were that much closer to knowing what it was to be a white person.

DJ 22. “To have treated her as I did for a white women made the blow double heavy.”

The fact that Malcolm discard Laura the way he did would hurt her bad enough, but for him to leave her for a white women would be twice as offending because it feed that idea that whites are better. For him to leave her in the dust like he did for a white woman would make her more insecure about her skin color. This is the main reason she went downhill so drastically because it only solidified her feelings of needing to be white.

DJ 23. “The only excuse I can offer is that like so many of my black brethren today, I was deaf, blind, and dumb.”

When he says deaf, blind, and dumb, he is referring to the mask that to brainwashing has created making Malcolm unable to see what a good thing he had going for him. Not only with Laura, but what bad choices he was making in his life like the drugs and alcohol and not staying true to who he is.

DJ 24. “Like hundreds of the black ghetto’s young men, he was taking some stuff that, it was said, would make your heart sound defective to the draft board’s doctors.”

This connects to the idea that white people are still taking advantage of black people. The white people thought they were superior so they thought, why should I die when a black man can? White people convinced some of these black people, so they know just as well of the white people that they were going to go to war. This made black go to drastic measures to protect themselves.

DJ 25. “Shorty felt about the war the same way I and most ghetto Negros did: ‘Whitey owns everything. He wants us to go and bleed for him? Let him fight.’”

This also connects to the idea that white people knew they could get out of the dirty work.  Black people were fed up with this so, even though they couldn’t REALLY do anything about it, they did what to could. And the fact that the white people in the government were the ones who made to war happen in the first place, this makes black even more mad. They felt, I didn’t do this, so why should I fight and not a white man?

DJ 26. “I was astounded to find in the nation’s capital, just a few blocks from Capital Hill, thousands of Negros living worse than any I had seen in the poorest section’s of Roxbury; in dirt-floor shacks along unspeakably filthy lanes with names like Pig Alley and Goat Alley.”

This symbolizes how the white leaders of the country felt about black people and where they really stood in America. Whites, although freeing them from slavery, still didn’t feel they were their equals. This also crushes some hope for Malcolm and gives him drive for becoming such a big advocate for equal rights.

DJ 27. “Some of the railroad cooks and waiters had told me to be very careful, because mugging, knifing, and robberies went on every night among these Negros… just a few block from the White House.”

This also symbolizes how black people were thought of back then. It also can connect to how people think of the ghettos now a days and how people affiliated black people with the ghettos.

DJ 28. “I never would forget that—that I couldn’t have whipped that white man as badly with a club as I had with my mind.”

This is foreshadowing for how he goes about fighting the white man in the future. This supports his views on how to obtain equal rights when he starts talking about equal rights. He believes in non-violence unless it is in self-defense.

DJ 29. “I was rally a clown, but my ignorance made me think I was ‘sharp.’”

Malcolm in his later years is reflecting upon his younger self and sort of mocking himself. I think this part of the reasons he is so successful later in life because he was able to look back, reflect, and learn from his mistakes and eventually laugh about them.

DJ 30. “My conk and whole costume were so wild that I might have been taken as a man from Mars.”

His comparison to a man from Mars isn’t only referring to if outward appearance, but his personality as well. He has been so warped from the atmosphere of the big city that he doesn’t only not look like himself, but doesn’t act like himself either.

DJs 11-20

DJ 11. “And my black brethren today may hate me for saying it, but a lot of black girls nearly got run over by some of those Negro males scrambling to get at those white women; you would have thought god had lowered some of his angels.” Pg. 50

White women were more appealing then black women to black men because it was exciting and socially unacceptable. So when a black man got his way with a white woman, he was looked upon as more macho if you will. So at dances, white woman were more appealing than the usual black women they were used to.

DJ 12. “And on top of my head was this thick, smooth sheen of shining red hair – real read – as straight as any white man’s.” Pg. 54

This is the point where Malcolm really becomes one of those “brainwashed” black people. He believes that straight hair is more attractive than his natural frizzy hair. This all has to do with the fact that black people need to feel accepted by white standards, so they go to drastic measures to feel like a white man.

DJ 13. “I had joined that multitude of Negro men and women in America who are brainwashed into believing that the black people are “inferior”—and white people “superior”—that they will even violate and mutilate their God-created bodies to try to look “pretty” by white standards.” Pg. 54

These people who are being brainwashed are the people giving in to society. Although Malcolm X realized later that he had been foolish, when he was in high-school he has given in to society in believing that whites were better than blacks. This feeling can probably be linked back to when his father favored his as a child because he was the lightest skinned of them all.

DJ 14. “I reflected many, many times to myself upon how the American Negro has been entirely brainwashed from ever seeing or thinking of himself, as he should, as a part of the nonwhite peoples of the world.”

This refers the fact that black people believed white people in the fact that they were better than them. They were all brainwashed into thinking that whites were superior to blacks. You couldn’t really blame them because of the society they were raised in. They grew up seeing their parents and grandparents disrespected by whites, so they didn’t know anything else other than the superiority of whites.

DJ. 15 “The ‘Negro’ was taught to worship an alien God having the same blond hair, pale skin and blue eyes as the slave master.”

This refers back to when the slaves were brought over, they had to drop their culture and do as the white man did. This is a big reason that black people, even after they were freed, were trained to think that whites were better than them. This can even been seen with some stereotypes today. Not only with race but religion as well.

DJ. 16  “I'm sorry to say that the subject I most disliked was mathematics. I have thought about it. I think the reason was that mathematics leaves no room for argument. If you made a mistake, that was all there was to it.”

I picked out this quote because not only does it link to how he messed up and went to jail, but then picked himself back up again, but I love math for the very same reason he hates it. This statement is foreshadow for when he got in trouble with the police but then got a second chance and changed his life for the better.

DJ. 17 “This was my first lesson about gambling: if you see somebody winning all the time, he isn't gambling, he's cheating. Later on in life, if I were continuously losing in any gambling situation, I would watch very closely.”

This statement is all about how like is a gamble and what Malcolm X does to become such a successful speaker. If he was always losing, than he watched very closely, and became aware of the possibility of a cheater. This would make it harder for the cheater to cheat. Malcolm X becomes a person who become aware of the situation he is in. You can connect this quote to the one where he states that nothing catches him off guard.

DJ 18. “Now at that time, in Roxbury, in any black ghetto in America, to have a white woman who wasn’t a known, common whore was—for the average black man, at least—a status symbol of the first order.”

This connects to the fact that black men thought more of white women because they were new and exciting. This is another form of brainwashing that he talks about so much. The idea that white are better than blacks, so black try and be like whites in any way possible.

DJ 19. “She didn’t dance well, at least not by Negro standards.”

I thought this statement was funny because you can connect this to a common stereotype today that black people are better dancers than white people. It’s interesting to see the stereotypes back then and how you can connect them with stereotype today.

DJ 20. “Sophia admitted that she also had dates with white fellows, ‘just for the looks of things,’ she said.”

This is sort of the opposite brainwash that Malcolm talks about. In this situation a white woman, Sophia, want to obtain the reputation of a black woman. It makes sense because before then, and even past this time, mixed couple were not accepted into society, so now that it’s ok, both races are exploring each other.

DJs 1-10

DJ 1. “So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.” Pg. 8

This sentence is foreshadowing what Malcolm X will do later in his life. By saying he learned this lesson early in life sets up the story to show that he will become someone who “makes some noise” for equal rights and no segregation. You can also connect this to Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” where he says that if you feel something is morally wrong to you that you need to do something about it.

DJ 2. “When something is about to happen, I can feel something, sense something. I never have known something to happen that has caught me completely off guard—except once.”

This is another example of foreshadow. He hints at the fact that Elijah Muhammad would come to upset him, after he respected him so much. This also alludes to his father’s death. Not that the death caught his off guard but he had a feeling something bad was going to happen.

DJ 3. “It’s like the Negro in America seeing the white man win all the time. He’s a professional gambler; he has all the cards and the odds stacked on his side, and he has always dealt to our people from the bottom of the deck.” Pg. 16

This can be connected to prejudice. It suggests that black people have always gotten the short end of the stick. They were taken out of their own countries to be shipped to American in disease, just to become slaves. After the civil war, they may have become free, but they were not equal. Black people may be free, but they are still lesser people.

DJ 4.  “All I had done was improve their strategy, and it was the beginning of a very important lesson in life- that anytime you find someone more successful than you are, especially when you’re both engaged in the same business- you know they are doing something that you aren’t”

Another example of foreshadow, this statement is another example of who Malcolm X becomes in his adult life. This statement talks about his being able to adjust to situations. It is part of how he becomes such an influence because of the things he learned when he was little.  

DJ 5. “A white man in charge of a white man’s children! Nothing but legal, modern slavery—however kindly intentioned.”

I found this interesting because of the truth of the statement. I feel like back then white people utilized black people for physical labor and for the jobs no one wanted, such as shoe shiner.

DJ. 6 “And knowing that my mother in there was a statistic that didn’t have to be, that existed because of a society’s failure, hypocrisy, greed, and lack of mercy and compassion. Hence mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people and penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.” Pg. 22

I think that this is one of the reasons Malcolm X had his downward spiral. He was a handful for him mom, and once his dad died, I think it all blew up in her face, and made her go crazy, as it would many people. But the fact that Louise was black and a woman also played into that fact that all of her kids got taken away. If he were a white man, than I think they would not have been separated.

DJ 7. “But it has historically been the cade with white people, in their regard for black people, that even though we might be with them, we aren’t considered of them. Even thought they appeared to have an open door, it was still closed. Thus they never did really see me.” Pg. 27

This statement has to do with the fact that white people didn’t think of back people as their equals, even though they weren’t they’re slaves anymore. In many ways, black people were just slaves that got paid minimum wage. They still had to do the dirty work that white people didn’t want to, they couldn’t disrespect a white man in any way, and they were all treat like children. I think that those stereotypes have carried on today still. In was that black people are still look at some blacks and think of them as criminals.

DJ 8. “ He may stand with you through thin, but never thick; when the chips are down, you’ll find that as fixed in as his bone structure is his sometimes subconscious conviction that he’s better than anybody black.” Pg. 27

This statement talks about how blacks can’t trust white people one hundred percent. Although black people were becoming more accepted into society, they were still not equal to white people. So if a white man had to throw a black man under the bus to save himself, he would do it in a heart beat.

DJ 9. “The only difference was that the ones in Boston had been brainwashed even more thoroughly. They prided themselves on being incomparably more “cultured,” “civilized,” “dignified,” and better off than their black brethren down in the Ghetto, which was no further away than you could throw a rock.” Pg. 40

When African Americans became free from slavery, they divided into two different groups. The people who know where they stood to white people, and the people who thought they stood on the same social level as white. Malcolm X refers to the second group as “brainwashed.” Really, black people just wanted to be accepted, to the pressure they were getting form society was that they need to be just like white people. What he is trying to get at here is that all of the blacks in society were all still thought as lesser individuals. Blacks who thought they were so much better, were only delusional.

DJ. 10 “It was shocking to me that in town, especially after dark, you’d occasionally see a white girl and a Negro man strolling arm in arm along the sidewalk, and mixed couples drinking in the neon-lighted bars – no slipping off to some dark corner, as in Lansing. Pg. 43

This shows that the progress that black had made in society, although not very significant, in different states. Boston had become more advanced as far as acceptance to blacks was. Mixed relationships were frowned upon in some places, like Lansing, and more common in places like Boston.

Malcolm X vs. James Baldwin

Malcolm X and James Baldwin

            One of the connections between is how they felt about trusting white people. In Malcolm X he says, “He may stand with you through thin, but never thick; when the chips are down, you’ll find that as fixed in as his bone structure is his sometimes subconscious conviction that he’s better than anybody black.” There is a similar quote in “Notes of A Native Son” “… that my white friends in high-school were not really my friends and that I would see, when I was older, how white people would do anything to keep a Negro down.” These two men are both stating that white people may only be friendly skin deep, but they won’t be by your side one hundred percent. One of the more obvious connections was that they were both black ministers seeking equal rights, although their style and beliefs about obtaining equals rights are a little different. One more connection is that you can argue that bot of their fathers died from the feud between whites and black. Although James’ dad’s death was internal from the hatred and Malcolm X’s father passed from a white mob.

Grammer 2

1.     We may expect a full report, since the investigators have gathered and analyzed all the evidence.

2.     Although Tom has listened listen to the music of Bruce Springsteen fro years, he had no idea a like performance could be so exciting.

3.     While the team has suffered its share of injuries this year, it could have improved its performance by giving Flynn more time on the field.

5.     If he charge; If he took…

a.     Condition

10. Until

      Condition

4.     If the alternative…; condition

When the subject…; Time

If a thousand men were not to pay….;Condition

Thoreau it giving a list of conditions to be met so the revolution can be accomplished.