Kidus Ejigu

Mr Rodberg

10/24/06

English III

 

Analysis of The Autobiography of Malcolm X: Pages 94-99

Even the most outspoken and regarded people in our society lack the ability to understand women’s characteristics. In pages 94-99 in the book The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X tries to evaluate the themes of women and porstitutes’ behavior towards themselves and racism using stated arguments, evidences and credibility. Malcolm X’s purpose in this section is to provide evidences of prostitutes’ lack of care towards their husbands and to also explain the fact that white women fall in love with black men for only 2 reasons. Even though his stories and examples illustrate the attitude of prostitutes around him, he lacks credibility on this issue because of his lack of professional education about the psychology of women and interracial relationships. Close analysis of this section will show how Malcolm is considered incredible on these issues.

 

To help explain the severity of poverty in Harlem during his days, Malcolm X uses Argument by Causation. He explains that poverty is present to such an extent that almost all people in Harlem use narcotics to cope with their problems. The cause in this case would be poverty, leading to the result of using narcotics. Malcolm writes, “This shouldn’t reflect too badly on that particular building, because almost everyone in Harlem needed some kind of hustle to survive, and needed to stay high in some way to forget about what they had to do to survive” (P. 94). This means that the people of Harlem were under the strict control of drugs. In general, Malcolm means to say that the white man entrapped the black man at the lowest level of society and that lead the black man to seek the lowest way out, by using drugs.

 

In this section, Malcolm makes a lot of assumptions about women, most of them being Stated Assumptions. Among his many assumptions, Malcolm generalizes that all women needed men in life and that they were incapable of leading their lives without men. He writes, “All women, by their nature, are fragile and weak; they are attracted to the male in whom they see strength” (P.96). His saying paints a portrait of women in our minds being weak, dependent on other people, unlike what we see in our world today. Malcolm came to this conclusion by observing the different women around him in Harlem and Boston. Overall, Malcolm’s view of women as being weak hinders the advancement of women in society and it also undermines the trustworthiness of Malcolm on this issue.

 

To explain how black men used whit prostitutes and to explain how much they were praised by black men, Malcolm uses Anecdotal Evidence. He narrates his experiences of seeing black men worship and spend their precious money on white women, and he uses his examples as evidence. He says “No negroes in the world were more white-women crazy in those days than most of those musicians” (P. 96) to support his theory. His theory is weak because it is based on his experiences and he does not consider other black men around the country as well as around the world. Generally speaking, Malcolm X puts a stereotype on black men as being after white woman and going crazy over the thoughts of being with a white woman.

 

In this section, Malcolm X puts forward numerous claims and premises. A lot of these turn out to be fallacious. Malcolm uses False Dichotomy to explain that white women link up with black men for satisfying themselves; he says “The white women with a negro man would be with him for one of two reasons; either extremely insane love or to satisfy her lust” (P. 99). Malcolm implies that there is no other reason for white women to be with black men except love and lust. This, in fact, is a false statement. We can see in this world that a white woman partners a black man for other reasons like protection, experience, etc… Some white women might do this to anger their white husbands by showing them that they prefer the black man rather than to stay with them. Another claim that Malcolm makes is an Appeal to Pitty. He says that women (prostitutes) were so ignorant and disrespectful that their husbands lost their roles of being husbands. Malcolm says “The wives were so disagreeable, that the men were robbed of the satisfaction of being men” (P.95) to support his claim. He feels that the wives didn’t care what their husbands thought and that they didn’t carry out the things that wives were supposed to do. Due to this, the husbands lost their manhood. Overall, Malcolm claims that women (white women) chose to be with black men because of love or lust, a fact proven to be false and also that the prostitutes robbed their husbands’ manhood by being non submissive.

 

On the issue of Credibility, Malcolm is generally viewed as incredible in this section. He is incredible on the issue of relationships. This is mainly due to the man evidences (Anecdotal) that he provides that are based on just a few examples and his lack of experience on relationships. Malcolm says that all black men are crazy about white women, when in reality it is false. He only saw this happening in his neighborhood and amongst his friends; he didn’t consider other black men in America. The other reason Malcolm X is incredible in this section is that he states claims that have false premises and weak arguments. He states that prostitutes were so ignorant that their husbands were robbed of the satisfaction of being men. This is incredible because Malcolm hasn’t seen all the prostitutes in this world and because he doesn’t have the necessary education and experience to make such judgments. On the issue of relationships between black men and white women, Malcolm is incredible because he states his personal views on the issue and because he is not an expert on interracial relationships between people.

 

Most readers might think that Malcolm’s thoughts towards women and interracial relationships are incredible; but they should not forget how Malcolm came to this conclusion. He put every little experience he had on the issues to come up with such a big theory. His argument by causation shows how he believed the white race was responsible for the poverty of black people in Harlem and around the country. His Anecdotal Evidence, False Dichotomy and Stated Assumption prove that he lied through racism; ignorant women to the extent that he generalizes all women are the same. The most powerful piece comes from the never-ending struggle of blacks trying to beat poverty and leading lives of heavy drug se. We can all agree that African Americans were denied their chance of self-redemption, but there might be people who disagree with Malcolm’s thoughts and women and love.