While reading these last couple of chapters (10+) it has been hard to understand why Malcolm X would ever believe the teachings of the honorable Elijah Muhammad... but I then try to view it in a black incarcerated man's shoes instead of a white middle class student. Trying to do this has helped me to view and understand his reasoning and even has helped me to see people's differing views in everyday life as well.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Malcolm X Post 3
For Malcolm, going to jail turned out to be a godsend... literally. Immediately when he starts to talk about his conversion to the Nation of Islam while incarcerated I thought of the movie The Longest Yard. Although completely different time periods and for crimes committed, both Malcolm X and the fictional Paul Crewe find a type of salvation and realize their past wrongdoings. After watching the movie American History X, ironically an incarcerated neo-Nazi discovers his beliefs and ideas about minorities are wrong while being surrounded by black inmates. Malcolm on the other hand discovers the complete opposite, thinking that whites are pure evil and the devil's "children" and starts to learn about a new sect of Islam- the Nation of Islam- which is completely anti-white.
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I thought that was a good connection with The Longest Yard. Just as Malcolm X convinced other inmates to convert to Islam, Paul Crewe persuaded his fellow convicts to come together as a group in order to achieve a common goal. Also, prison in Malcolm X's time period had a large amount of African Americans, while The Longest Yard shows that today many white people are being convicted for the crimes that they commit.
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