Malcolm X

I know we were supposed to comment on this book only about halfway through reading it. I missed the deadline. I'm sorry. I'm doing it now, the second half of the book late. I've read the whole thing. Of course, this would most likely make anything I have to say about him or his life fairly different than someone who had not yet read the whole book, for I have knowledge of what happened, but honestly I prefer that.

Brief introductions aside, there are a few things I can comment on. First of all, I would like to say that Malcolm X is human. And as all humans, he is susceptible to judgment, hate, indoctrination, hypocrisy, and a natural tendency to find something to have faith in. He judges women and hates white people (later only white Americans). He is indoctrinated by the Nation of Islam, while hypocritically blaming black people for becoming indoctrinated. He finds faith in Elijah Muhammad, and later refuses to believe that he had been betrayed by the man he himself worshiped. But what I loved most about this autobiography is that all these stages and phases that Malcolm X went through are shown and described, in detail, in sequence, written with the least amount of hindsight bias possible.

What I mean to say is, in the part where he writes about being a hustler in the streets, he IS the hustler in the street, with the beliefs and experiences of the hustler in the "narrator's" own voice, not letting the reader on about his later shift in ideals. In the part where he joins the Nation of Islam and puts his whole love and trust into Elijah Muhammad, he really does love and trust Elijah Muhammad. And, only later when he is speaking of the time he began to realize his blindness does he really write (or tell) as if he is only then coming to terms with reality.

Basically, it is written like a story. It CAN be spoiled. And for an autobiography, I think that is amazing.