The Path to Discovering Racial Identity

Before Malcolm X, also known as El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz, became a Black Muslim Minister, National Spokesman for the Nation of Islam and founder of Muslim Mosque, Inc he had humble beginnings in Lansing, Michigan. He was born May 19, 1925 as Malcolm Little to Earl and Louise Little. His mother was born in Grenada and had light skin because her father was a white man. His father Earl Little was a Baptist preacher and a supporter of Marcus Garvey. Malcolm was the fourth of eight children. Earl and Louise Little's children's names were Wilfred, Hilda, Philbert, Malcolm, Reginald, Wesley, Yvonne, and Robert. He had two half sisters and one half brother named Ella, Mary, and Earl, Jr. Malcolm’s father was killed by Black Legion members who believed he was too outspoken in the town. Malcolm’s mother was denied a large portion of life insurance money because the court ruled that Earl Little’s death was suicide and that was the exception to the policy. Eventually her sanity slipped away and social services stepped in and separated her from her children. Malcolm X spent ten years in prison for burglary charges before emerging as a powerful speaker for The Nation of Islam. He taught a message of Black Nationalism, traveled the world to give speeches and opened a mosque before his assassination at Audubon Ballroom in 1965.

The goal of The Autobiography of Malcolm

X is to chronicle Malcolm X’s changing understanding of racial identity. Racial Identity is gradually discovered through a combination of life experiences and the negative interactions that he has with white people. When he is a child he is called “nigger” so much that he is desensitized to the term. In his teenage years most of his interactions with white people are attempts to elevate his status. His experiences in exposed him to the pro-black ideas of the Nation of Islam. These experiences allowed him develop a firm understanding of his black identity.

The combination of these experiences caused him to be bitter towards white people.

In order to understand how Malcolm X awakened out of being a brainwashed black man into a powerful leader one must examine his life experiences that helped to shape him into the influential man he became. Malcolm X states “All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Every thing that ever happened to us is an ingredient” (163) His life experiences can be seen as ingredients that made him into who he was. One of these experiences is when he noticed that he had lighter skin than his siblings and he attempted to gain acceptance through integration in his school and community. Malcolm was the forth of eight children and he inherited his light skin from his mother. He was a light skinned boy and early in life