One thing that has stuck with me, really stuck with me, is something from the beginning. Maybe it's because it's one of the first things you read. Maybe it's because that's the modest alert I'm usually am while reading. Who knows. Whatever it is, Malcolm seeing the woman tell his father that he's, "scaring these white folk."
This is why his father was killed, in such a terrible terrible way. He scared the white people. You would think that the white people wouldn't be afraid of such an "inferior" person but no, he scared them. They saw him as a threat.
There are two parts to this which really have a hold on me. There's the fact that the white man was afraid of the black man here and then there's the fact that words were such a threat.
Starting with the former, in the time that the book is set in, it was basic (wrong) common knowledge that the black man was inferior to the white man in every way. False studies showed that the black race had less brain power and was incapable of intelligent thought. That's how they justified the lower positions black people were forced into.
Yet, these inferiority should have rendered anything the black man said as false, nonsense even. It should be like a baby's prattling or the rambling of someone who hasn't had enough sleep in a very long time. But this was not the case. Instead of ignoring what Malcolm's father was preaching, he was killed. I just find that, if not ironic, something morbidly funny at the very least.
Which brings me to the next point. The power of words. I've always been a big reader and, when I can push myself, a big writer. Words have and still mean a lot to me. Some people think that they're meaningless. For this, I cite the whole 'sticks and stones' saying. However, words can do a lot. They can inspire and uplift. And, with Papa Little's death, they can be a serious threat.
Serious a threat enough, in fact, that it was something worth killing a man (and quite brutally) over. I can't help but marvel at the effect that some strongly spoken words and people hearing them could have. Ip even these obviously inferior people with their menial words had a huge effect.
But I guess that is the dangerous part of then-black America. They were people who heard each other and words are powerful only when someone hears them. This goes with the communication issues that the original slavers tried to impose on their slaves. People are stronger together and to keep them from getting together, you must keep them from communicating. Papa Little's words were imposing one hell of a communication issue for the white people of that time. Unfortunately, his death inspired almost as much as his words during his life did.
These original word and this death and this fear may have started Malcolm the path that his life has taken. This has stuck with me, his beginning coming from people who were afraid of an ant enough that they didn't just stamp on it but throw it in the garbage disposal. Crazy as it is, this just fascinates me.
This is why his father was killed, in such a terrible terrible way. He scared the white people. You would think that the white people wouldn't be afraid of such an "inferior" person but no, he scared them. They saw him as a threat.
There are two parts to this which really have a hold on me. There's the fact that the white man was afraid of the black man here and then there's the fact that words were such a threat.
Starting with the former, in the time that the book is set in, it was basic (wrong) common knowledge that the black man was inferior to the white man in every way. False studies showed that the black race had less brain power and was incapable of intelligent thought. That's how they justified the lower positions black people were forced into.
Yet, these inferiority should have rendered anything the black man said as false, nonsense even. It should be like a baby's prattling or the rambling of someone who hasn't had enough sleep in a very long time. But this was not the case. Instead of ignoring what Malcolm's father was preaching, he was killed. I just find that, if not ironic, something morbidly funny at the very least.
Which brings me to the next point. The power of words. I've always been a big reader and, when I can push myself, a big writer. Words have and still mean a lot to me. Some people think that they're meaningless. For this, I cite the whole 'sticks and stones' saying. However, words can do a lot. They can inspire and uplift. And, with Papa Little's death, they can be a serious threat.
Serious a threat enough, in fact, that it was something worth killing a man (and quite brutally) over. I can't help but marvel at the effect that some strongly spoken words and people hearing them could have. Ip even these obviously inferior people with their menial words had a huge effect.
But I guess that is the dangerous part of then-black America. They were people who heard each other and words are powerful only when someone hears them. This goes with the communication issues that the original slavers tried to impose on their slaves. People are stronger together and to keep them from getting together, you must keep them from communicating. Papa Little's words were imposing one hell of a communication issue for the white people of that time. Unfortunately, his death inspired almost as much as his words during his life did.
These original word and this death and this fear may have started Malcolm the path that his life has taken. This has stuck with me, his beginning coming from people who were afraid of an ant enough that they didn't just stamp on it but throw it in the garbage disposal. Crazy as it is, this just fascinates me.
