Brittany Thorpe

10/30/06

Mr.Rodberg

 

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Detroit Red Pg.94-96

 

 

 

                                                                                                                 

 

                Malcolm X stayed in a hotel in Harlem on 800 block of St.Nicholas avenue. He lives in the house with a couple of dope-peddlers and prostitutes. Almost everyone in Harlem needed some kind of hustle to survive and Malcolm X was about to become one of them. It was in that hotel were he learned from prostitutes more about women than any other single place in Harlem. The prostitutes told him a lot mainly about things that every wife   husband should know. The women that weren’t prostitutes taught him to be distrustful of most women. Malcolm X also tells how he thinks that women are weaker than men are.

 

Malcolm X is trying to argue that all women are fragile and are weak. Malcolm X thoughts of women and I Quote:” All women, by their nature, are fragile and weak: they are attracted to the male in whom they see strength.” I think that not all women are weak and fragile. Women are fragile because were emotional creatures. Women aren’t fragile to point that were breakable. Women do want men that they see strength in. Women don’t want a weak man that can’t protect them in case of a emergency or not sure of himself.

 

Malcolm X assume that women try to be men. Malcolm X thoughts of his assumptions and I quote:” They said that after most men passed their virile twenties, they went to bed mainly to satisfy their egos, and because a lot of women don’t understand it that way, they damage and wreck a man’s ego.” Well a women can damage and wreck and man’s ego but when women do it they there for the feelings and a relationship. Men also damage and wreck women’s ego’s because men are being selfish they want the want and not a relationship.

 

The evidence Malcolm X uses is what the prostitutes told him. The prostitutes were not always telling him the truth about women and men. Malcolm X evidence was and I Quote:” It was from these working prostitutes who schooled me to things that every wife and every husband should know.” The evidence show that what the prostitutes told him to him it was right to him because he assumed this was right because the prostitutes told him. The problem was that the prostitutes were not always true to there statements.

 

 

Some of the problems with Malcolm X’s arguments is that some of them weren’t true.

Malcolm states that all women are fragile and weak and are attracted to the men they see strength in. The problem with this statement is that the part about all women are weak are fragile. “Domineering , complaining, demanding wives who had to just about psychologically castrated their husbands were responsible for the early rush.” Women are strong and sometimes try to control men so from my prospective not all women are weak and fragile. For example: Oprah Winfrey is a very strong women and has here own show and the best career and with billions of dollars.

 

How credible is Malcolm X? Not so credible because he doesn’t prove some of the arguments that he makes. “There seemed to be a higher code of ethics and sisterliness among those prostitutes than among numerous ladies of the church who have more men for kicks than the prostitutes have for pay.”

 

Throughout these paragraphs you have learned much about the different arguments , evidence and assumptions.