Systemic Oppression In Alex Haley's The Autobiography Of Malcolm X

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What is systemic oppression? What is integration vs. segregation? What is racial profiling? All these topics are the main focus points in the book The Autobiography of Malcolm X as Told to Alex Haley. Alex Haley structures each chapter different to correspond with what the chapter is telling the reading it adds to the beauty of the text. He also uses slang and different vocabulary to describe how the times were back then, it truly feels like the reader is in the middle Harlem and "hustling". Within the first eleven chapters of this book the reader is introduced to the character of Malcolm Little and how his point of view towards white people change as he lives out his life in the "ghetto". "When my mother was pregnant with me....a party of …show more content…

He quickly sees the difference between the lifestyle in Lansing and in Boston. Boston has more of a upbeat, fast passed rhythm to it rather than Lansing. He also notices the in Boston the African American community is divided into two sub groups, the "Hill Negros" and the "Ghetto Negros". The people who live on the Hill are more prideful in there menial jobs and constantly look down on everyone else who lives in the ghetto. They also continuously try to become more and more like the white people. Malcolm then gets a job as a shoe shine at a ballroom. He then meets another person who too came up from Lansing, Shorty, who then takes him under his wing. It 's while working as a shoe shine in the ballroom where many bands come to play Malcolm discovers his love for dancing. Shorty then takes him to buy his first zoot suit and get his first "conk". Now according to Shorty he doesn 't look like a country boy no …show more content…

Even if Africans Americans do something wrong Malcolm beliefs that it 's not entirely their fault. The white people were to blame because they were still treating them like slaves in a sense. "...told me to be very careful, because muggings, knifings, and robberies went on every night among Negros...just a few block from the White House." (pg 75 chpt. 5). This is a example of how systemic oppression plays a major role in this book. Malcolm sees how even children half naked are in the streets begging for money and living in shacks when the White House is just a few block

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