The movie Malcolm X revealed the extreme racial tensions in Harlem. Malcolm came from a broken family life. His father was murdered on the railroad tracks, he was taken away from his mother as a young boy, and involved himself in gangs, drugs, and burglary to survive. On his own, he teamed up with "Shorty" and began working as a shoe polisher to earn money and receive access to the dance club. There Malcolm involved himself in a white woman who became his partner in crime. After Malcolm was busted by the police for his "burglary" business, he was sentenced to ten years in jail on fourteen accounts, the most important punishment was for sleeping with a white woman. It was in jail that Malcolm learned of Mr. Muhammad and his religion of Islam. Malcolm began to educate himself, reading from the dictionary and the ideals of Muhammad. When released from prison, Malcolm had spread the word of the Islam religion
Malcolm X is an example of racial inequality in our society. The movie took place during a period of harsh racial tensions where the society was divided into blacks and whites. Malcolm's teachings started off as a "skin game" in which the point of the game was to prove which skin color was superior to the other. The video showed the division of class where the whites held the capital positions and the blacks were the majority of the working class. For example, we saw Malcolm as a shoe polisher and a waiter on the train, both jobs were serving the white man. The movie questions the boundaries of race and challenges those who want change. We see the boundary lines crossed when Malcolm sleeps with the white woman, Sophia, as she feeds him in bed; racial roles for that time reversed. Malcolm X wanted a sense of nationalism for African-Americans, it took him many years to discover that nationalism is a unity to be achieved
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