Racial Conflict In The Autobiography Of Malcolm X

In “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” the author skillfully structures each chapter to correspond with Malcolm’s development and implants a sense of purpose throughout each event.
Chapter one is efficiently named “Nightmare” due to the automatic introduction of racial conflict that is constantly recognized throughout the book. Malcolm’s earliest experiences with racial violence began before he was even born, with the KKK constantly terrorizing his family. They are persistently threatened by them until the clansmen finally burn their house to the ground, permanently scaring Malcolm and his family. His early stages of transformation and development begin in Lansing, Michigan where Malcolm becomes old enough to understand the racially oppressive

After pin pointing the major differences between black and white culture, Malcolm finds white culture to be extremely bland and lifeless, rather than black culture which is lively, colorful, and the exact opposite. Malcolm takes up a job as a shoe shiner at the Roseland State Ballroom where his first early lessons on hustling began. After being “schooled” Malcolm’s point of view enhances as he starts to learn the ways of how Boston works. While working at the ballroom Malcolm observes the dancing styles of blacks and whites, how “The white people danced as though somebody had trained them-” and “-those Negros – nobody in the world could have choreographed the way they did whatever they felt-”(pg.52) Malcolm feels as if dancing is in the blood of African Americans, and feels prohibited by the fact that he doesn’t know how to dance (“I could feel the beat in my bones, even though I had never danced”). The author describes the feel of the ballroom during these dances by using fast paced words and short sentences to create the illusion of a lively environment. Exclamation points and hyphens add on to the noisy, ear-ringing atmosphere. The way the sentences are structured makes the reader want to read faster and faster, trying to keep up with the rapid movement. Malcolm begins to change his style, by buying outrageous zoot suits, knob style shoes, and he even gets his first homemade conk. The conk represents black people inflicting pain upon themselves trying to look “pretty” by white standards. It shows how blacks would “literally burn my flesh to have it look like white persons hair.” Malcolm even admits that “This was my first really big step toward self-degradation.”(pg.56) Everything that was white or affiliated with white culture, was seen as superior and everything that wasn’t was considered