Malcolm X Intro Draft

            In our lives, there are people we meet who we come to care for, respect, and to love. These people play a monumental part in our growth and development, but there are people who hold an even deeper and dearer place in our heart: our families. The people we meet in life show up in the middle of something; of a day, month, year. In the middle of a life that’s already been started. But family is with us from the start, and in most cases is still with us in the end. Other people come and go, but family stays. And we should love them most.

            However, Malcolm X has different ideas on loyalty. When his brother Reginald is accused of adultery during Malcolm’s time in prison, and right after Reginald introducing him to The Nation of Islam, Malcolm stands by him for a little while, but then gives up on him as someone who disobeyed Allah and is now being punished for it. But when later on Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm’s role model and closest friend, is accused of committing the same crime as Reginald, Malcolm goes into complete denial and refuses to accept it. This is surprising because we would expect Malcolm to have a deeper trust in Reginald, his beloved blood brother whom he’s known his entire life than for Elijah Muhammad, someone who showed up much later on. Plus, Reginald had just brought Malcolm into The Nation of Islam, something that completely saved him from his previously “wicked” ways. You would think this would make Malcolm feel an even stronger bond with his brother, instead of something that would break so quickly. And the evidence against Elijah Muhammad was much stronger, so there were more opportunities for Malcolm to realize the truth. So if siblings should feel a deep-seated loyalty for each other and should defend each other more than anyone else, but Malcolm gives up on defending his brother and stands by Elijah Muhammad longer, then why does Malcolm trust and believe in Elijah Muhammad more than Reginald? This is a crucial question to investigate because it can tell us a lot about how Malcolm values people and why, which is something that can help us understand Malcolm’s own morals and the people he felt represented them.

            One way to consider this is that Malcolm stood by Elijah Muhammad longer than he did with Reginald because he looked up to Elijah Muhammad and expected him to be incapable of flaws, whereas Reginald was the younger brother who was still learning right and wrong. An important thing to note here is that Reginald was Malcolm’s younger brother, something that garners less respect and more simple adoration. Malcolm loved Reginald, but expected Reginald to look up to him, not the other way around. However, Malcolm’s view of Elijah Muhammad was very different. As it says in The Autobiography of Malcolm X (as told to Alex Haley) on page 372, Malcolm believed in Elijah Muhammad “Not only as a leader in the ordinary human sense, but also I believed in him as a divine leader. I believed he had no human weaknesses or faults, and that, therefore, he could make no mistakes and that he could do no wrong.” In other words, Malcolm thought of Elijah Muhammad not truly as a human being but as The Messenger of Allah. How was Reginald, who was very human, supposed to compete with that? Elijah Muhammad not only led The Nation of Islam, he practically was The Nation of Islam. If he was a hypocrite, that meant his teachings were all fraud too. Malcolm couldn’t accept that, couldn’t handle having his temporary stability shattered. Reginald at this point in Malcolm’s mind was really just a pawn in the game. He still saw him as a child. And children make mistakes.

Malcolm X Exploratory Draft Reflections

Doreen

Claim: Malcolm accepted The Nation of Islam while in prison because he was going through a hard time and The Nation of Islam seemed to be his chance for freedom.

Question: How did Malcolm X being in prison influence him to join The Nation of Islam?

Trouble: Malcolm went into prison with a set mindset and left with a completely different one. (It's a little hard to pick up on in this draft.)

Situation and Status Quo: People don't undergo their most drastic life changes while in prison.

If people don't experience life-changing epiphanies while in the solitude of prison, but Malcolm during his time in prison is so completely altered that his views change and he joins The Nation of Islam, then what about being in prison influenced him to change?

Something that needs to be included for someone to believe this claim is more background on Malcolm - what his views were like before his time in prison - to demonstrate just how big this change was.

Jesse

Claim: Malcolm changes because of changes in his environment, emotional crises, and the influential figures that pop up throughout his life and change his way of thinking.

Question: Why does Malcolm change so radically and so thoroughly so many times in his life?

Trouble: Malcolm is a leader, yet he never maintains the same mindset for long and his views are constantly changing.

Situation and Status Quo: When leaders develop beliefs, they stick with them.

If leaders are supposed to develop beliefs they want to fight for and stand by them, but Malcolm is a leader whose beliefs are frequently undergoing drastic changes, then what caused Malcolm to change so many times?

Something that needs to be included for someone to believe this claim could be some more specifics about when Malcolm experienced these changes (ex: his age) to show the reader how quickly and drastically these changes happened in his life.

Me

Claim: Malcolm stood by Elijah Muhammad longer than he did with Reginald because he looked up to Elijah Muhammad and expected him to be incapable of flaws, whereas Reginald was the younger brother who was still learning right and wrong.

Question: Why does Malcolm fight the adulterous charges against Elijah Muhammad longer than he does for his brother Reginald?

Trouble: Malcolm loved his little brother dearly, but when Reginald is accused of adultery Malcolm turns on him quicker than he does when Elijah Muhammad is in the same situation.

Situation and Status Quo: Siblings should stand by each other.

If siblings should feel a deep-seated loyalty for each other and should defend each other more than anyone else, but Malcolm gives up on defending his brother and stands by Elijah Muhammad longer, then why does Malcolm trust and believe in Elijah Muhammad more than Reginald?

Something that needs to be included for someone to believe this claim is detailed background on Malcolm's relationship with Reginald in comparison to his relationship with Elijah Muhammad.

Exploratory Draft for Malcolm X

            I am writing about Malcolm’s relationship with Reginald in comparison to his relationship with Elijah Muhammad. Reginald is Malcolm’s blood brother, and the one out of all of his siblings (not including his half-sister Ella) that meant the most to him. Elijah Muhammad is, for a while at least, Malcolm’s closest friend and respected leader. Reginald and Elijah Muhammad have something else in common other than being close with Malcolm and being associated with The Nation of Islam – they both faced accusations of adultery. It’s troubling that Malcolm stands by Elijah Muhammad longer than Reginald, Reginald whom he’s known and loved his whole life, even when the evidence against Elijah Muhammad is greater than the evidence against Reginald.

            This is confusing because Elijah Muhammad is Malcolm’s friend but Reginald is his brother. Reginald is the little brother with hernia that Malcolm looked after and nurtured in childhood. That’s what a lot of the text in Nightmare talks about; Malcolm’s love for his brother. And Malcolm, at his Detroit Red stage took Reginald under his wing and offered to show him the ropes. They had a bond, those two! How did Malcolm give him up so quickly?

            Elijah Muhammad he first heard about in prison. Elijah Muhammad he learned everything from, everything that ended up being false, but nevertheless was a monumental part of Malcolm’s chronology of changes. Why did Malcolm stick by him longer? Why did he forsake Reginald? Was it because Reginald, at the time of the adulterous charges, turned on The Nation of Islam? But why would Malcolm feel more loyalty to The Nation of Islam, something he had just learned about, than to his blood brother? It doesn’t make sense. However, the moment Malcolm heard about The Nation of Islam, he was hooked. He read many books, he lectured the other inmates and tried to convert them, even though he’d only recently been converted himself. Malcolm wasn’t the type to wait, to double-check. He was the type to dive right in.

            Though you would think Malcolm’s loyalties first and foremost would be to his family, it’s debatable. Malcolm loved his half-sister who he met later in his life more than his mother. In fact, when you think about it, most of the people and places from early in his life seemed to be of little importance to him later on. Malcolm considers his “first big turning point” to be when he met Mr. Ostrowski, not all the crazy things that happened to his family in his early years.

            Malcolm, in prison, decides that everything up to that point was him being the brainwashed black man catering to the devil white man. Because he is suddenly forced to question everything he has ever known, everything in his past – and Reginald is a part of his past – does he question Reginald for this reason too?

            This brings us to the topic of who really saved Malcolm in prison. In the chapters Saved and Savior, it’s actually not entirely clear. It is Reginald who brings Malcolm into The Nation of Islam, who hooks him, who encourages him to write to Elijah Muhammad. Reginald was the one who could get through to him when no one else could. Elijah Muhammad gave him the information, but none of that would’ve happened if it weren’t for Reginald. Then why did Malcolm stand by Elijah Muhammad longer?

            My claim is that Reginald looked up to Malcolm who looked up to Elijah Muhammad. It’s like a food chain, really, or a social order. Reginald was below him, in Malcolm’s mind. That doesn’t mean he loved him any less – it might even mean he loved him more, because Malcolm had a thing for those inferior to him – but it does mean that Malcolm puts less faith in him. Elijah Muhammad is pretty much Malcolm’s idol. Malcolm looks up to him. Malcolm admires him. Malcolm is Elijah Muhammad’s Reginald.

            If a child and an adult make the same mistake, you’d be more upset with the adult, because they should have known better. Maybe that’s why Malcolm can’t accept the truth about Elijah Muhammad – because he should’ve known better.

            And although Reginald is Malcolm’s actual brother, Malcolm spent far more time with Elijah Muhammad than with Reginald. Since Malcolm and his siblings were separated during childhood, Malcolm and Reginald weren’t really in the same place very often. Malcolm spent years speaking side-by-side with Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm didn’t even know Reginald that well when Reginald came to visit him in prison. It’s easier to doubt someone you don’t really know than someone you think you do.

            Reginald told Malcolm about The Nation of Islam. That’s one thing. But Elijah Muhammad WAS The Nation of Islam. If Elijah Muhammad was a liar, that meant The Nation of Islam was a lie too. That would mean that everything Malcolm rebuilt his life around and on, and everything that had gotten him out of the gutter, was a lie.

            But Malcolm hadn’t had that degree of trouble accepting changes before.

            But maybe this was different. Maybe it was in a completely different league. As it says on page 372, Malcolm believed in Elijah Muhammad “Not only as a leader in the ordinary human sense, but also I believed in him as a divine leader. I believed he had no human weaknesses or faults, and that, therefore, he could make no mistakes and that he could do no wrong.” He doesn’t think that Elijah Muhammad is an ordinary human, whereas Reginald is very human. Does Malcolm hate Reginald in fact for his humanity? Reginald looks up to Malcolm. That would mean, in a sense, that since Malcolm influenced him, the crimes Reginald has committed Malcolm has indirectly committed too. Is Malcolm afraid to accept his own humanity, his own faults? Especially when he is at the vulnerable time of being in prison? But it is in prison that Malcolm realizes the flaws in how he’s lived.

            Malcolm might’ve seen Elijah Muhammad as a divine leader, maybe that was why he didn’t want to doubt him. But people doubt God as quickly as they doubt humans.

            But if someone told you that your brother and God both committed adultery… well at first I was going to say you’d doubt your brother because he’s human, but in reality wouldn’t you stand by him longer? Because he’s your brother and you know him? But what if your brother is estranged? But even so, you don’t know God. You can’t trust him.

            It’s important to remember that Elijah Muhammad and Reginald being accused of adultery did not happen simultaneously on Malcolm’s timeline. There was a significant gap in between. But wouldn’t Malcolm be more open to the fact that people commit adultery after Reginald’s incident?

            Malcolm’s life had been a fast-paced chronology of changes during the time in his life up to being in prison. Isn’t it easier to doubt things when your life is moving so quickly? During his time with Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm had temporarily achieved a sort of stability. Maybe it seemed impossible to him for anything to come along that would shake that. Or maybe he didn’t want to forfeit his stability and thought that if he didn’t accept Elijah Muhammad’s adultery everything would stay the same and it would just be gone like a passing breeze.

Malcolm X Proposal

I am interested in writing about Malcolm's relationship with Reginald in comparison to his relationship with Elijah Muhammad because I want to figure out why when both Reginald and Elijah Muhammad committed adultery (at different times), Malcolm stood by Elijah Muhammad much longer than he did for his own blood brother Reginald. This is important because uncovering who Malcolm values most during his life and for what reason can help us understand more about him as a person. One way to consider this is that Malcolm was a devout follower of Elijah Muhammad, whereas Reginald was always the little brother who looked up to Malcolm. Watching his little brother making a mistake was more believable because he was young, but Malcolm put so much faith in Elijah Muhammad, and it's hard to watch your idols fall.

Intro to Mecca

In Malcolm's life, even as early as childhood, race has played a big role. He caught his first glimpses of racism in grade school from Mr. Ostrowski, but because this view was incomplete, he continued to play into the ideals of white men. During his time in prison he learned about Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam, which introduced him to Yacub's History, and the theory that the white man is the devil. These false teachings make Malcolm believe that the black race was natural and peaceful, and the white race only came into existence to disrupt the peace. He believes that different races cannot live together, and that his people should separate themselves from the destructives whites.

However, when Malcolm goes on the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, he sees Muslims of all races living in harmony as brothers. This is extremely troubling to Malcolm because it contradicts everything he's ever known. It leads him to wonder: how? How is this possible? He meets white men during the pilgrimage who treat him as if he were family - offering him shelter and feeding him. Malcolm looks suspiciously for ulterior motives and finds none. These people truly care about him. This puts Malcolm into an awed state; it is a marvel and a wonder to him. There is no race issue in Mecca. This brings Malcolm to the conclusion that not all white men are evil. He believes now that having one unified religion like Islam could solve America's race problems by ridding the white man of his negative thoughts and forcing him to treat all races as family. This concept is completely new to him - he was blinded too long by stereotypical labeling. Now he can look past that and see not single colors, but a kaleidoscope.