White Boy in a Black Black WorldAn Alternative Viewpoint of The Autobiography of Malcom X
White Boy in a Black, Black World I have not yet felt a feeling of self-hate for my own skin. ... I cant hope to understand the pain of the skin, and my heavily white, rich, sheltered community cannot help to give me the comprehension needed to achieve empathy. I can never be "black", I can never share the same roots, the same heritage, the suffering that has been and still is brought on by those of my pigmentation. Today, black "culture" is glorified, gangsta rap playing in a rich white Suburbia; lyrics of blacks killing blacks, prostitution, drugs, the ghetto, these are all taken in as "the black lifestyle". ... I wish I was the "nigger", I wish my race, the white race, was the race that had been subjugated, I wish my music told of slavery, rape, bondage. I wish I could be some "white boy" in a black, black world; one that distrusted me, and hated me for generations. Perhaps then, with the knowledge that my skin defined what I was, I could understand what being black in America must feel like. I did not always like The Autobiography of Malcolm X. ... I do agree that a large amount of his concerns and his problems with white/black relationships were founded and are even now an issue, but I also believe that he was as much as a racist towards whites as some white supremacist are for much of his life.