Chavez Notes

Everybody has a little bit of racism in them. In the book of The Autobiography Of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley it talks a lot about racism, black history, and life. In the pages 164-169 it talks about the black man being the first man and how the whites changed and brainwashed blacks. It also talks about how Muslims have to stay true to their religion and prove to Allah that they are really serious about being Muslim and not just using it as an excuse. The book also talks about how racism can change a person and how finding out the truth can open a new path in how you view the world.

“The black man, original man, built great empires and civilizations and cultures while the white man was still living in caves.”(165) According to Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad the Black man was living big and they were having and creating their own culture, but the “devil white man” took the black man and women from their homeland and took their knowledge of their culture and ways of doing things. The “Devil white man” deprived the black man and women from their world, and took them into their “white world”. “The “Devil white man,” down through history, out of his devilish nature, had pillaged, murdered, raped, and exploited every race of man not white.”(165) Malcolm had learned a lot in jail through books, and he started teaching others about their Black history as well. He taught the black man their black history through books and readings from the bible.

According to Malcolm X blacks were brainwashed since forever. He said that the whites brainwashed the blacks to exploit them and degrade them. Malcolm X said that the “white devil” tried their hardest to get rid of blacks on the Island of Patmos. “A two-hundred year span was needed to eliminate on the island of Patmos all of the black people—until only brown people remained. The next two hundred years were needed to create from the brown race to the red race—with no more brown left on the island. In another two hundred years, from the red race was created the yellow race. Two hundred years later—the white race had at last been created. On the island of Patmos was nothing but these blondes, pale-skinned, cold-blue-eyed devils—savages, nude and shameless; hairy, like animals, they walked on all fours and they lived in trees.” (169) Malcolm X said that the “devil white” race were savages and animals, not people. He believed that blacks had turned against each other and started fighting because they were brainwashed from the “devil whites”.

If the white man always made the black believed that they were less, and that whites were the only ones to succeed in life, then the blacks must really believe so. Malcolm x wanted to change their view of themselves, because to him no black man should see themselves as less than any white “devil”. “The devil white man cut these black people off from all knowledge of their own kind, and cut them off from any knowledge of their own language, religion, and past culture, until the black man in America was the earth’s only race of people who had absolutely no knowledge of his true identity.”(165). Malcolm quoted that the “devil white” was the one that erased every little bit of knowledge that blacks had of their own race. He said that the only reason why blacks think they’re less is because the “devil white man” worked on making the Negroes forget whom they really are. “This “Negro” was taught of his native Africa that it was peopled by heathen, black savages, swinging like monkeys from trees. This “Negro” accepted this along with every other teaching of the slavemaster that was designed to make him accept and obey and worship the white man”(166). If the black person accepted that they were less than the “white devil” then they were being brainwashed and they were falling for the “devils” tricks.

“You don’t even know who you are,” Reginald had said. “You don’t even know, the white devil has hidden it from you, that you are from a race of people of ancient civilizations, and riches in gold and kings. You don’t even know your true family name, you wouldn’t recognize your true language if you heard it. You have been cut off by the devil white man from all true knowledge of your own kind. You have been a victim of the evil of the devil white man ever since he murdered and raped and stole you from your native land in the seeds of your forefathers …” Every Muslim looked at the white man as the “devil”, because they have ruined it for blacks. The white “devil” had so much power over the black people that he was able to change their minds against themselves. Muslims tried to get their voice out there and tried to be heard, because all they wanted was for blacks to know their own history and background.

All that the “devil” white man wanted from the blacks was to control them, use them, and then throw them away like if they were things not human beings. Malcolm said “The devil white man cut these black people off from all knowledge of their own kind, and cut them off from any knowledge of their own language, religion, and past culture, until the black man in America was the earth’s only race of people who had absolutely no knowledge of his true identity.”(165). This statement is talking about how the whites have created a new race that wasn’t black, but they were brainwashed Negroes. Malcolm X talks about how black women were forced into making families and they were forced to give up their race, religion, and dignity. If a person don’t know who they really are and still being brainwashed by the “devil whites”, then that means that no matter how long its being, no one has tried to change this until Mr. Yacub.

Dignity, religion, race, power, and identity are many of the qualities a person would never want to loose, and mostly never want to be taken away. Malcolm X tried so hard to make people believe that blacks were as good as the “devil whites”, he tried so much to understand that blacks had a history, a very rich history hidden from them. He shows by authority that blacks weren’t savages or animals, but they were people with a culture and a civilization. He shows by evidence that the “devil white” man tries his hardest to make the black man degrade themselves and to lower their own kind. Malcolm X shows that everyone has a history, and from the quotes from The Autobiography Of Malcolm X, that discovering you have a rich, beautiful history is very amazing.