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.