Malcolm

The first few chapters of Malcolm X truly opened my eyes to a whole to view of things. I thought that African Americans during times of segregation took pride in who they were. I thought that they never wanted to be like the white people because they were cruel and the reason for segregation. I was proved wrong in chapter 3 of Malcolm X. Conking hair was one of the fads during this time. It was a hair straightening treatment to make African American hair look more like Caucasian hair. I really had no idea that black people during that time did things like this. The media today emphasizes the pride black people have in themselves and their race, but then again, there's integration now."This was my first really big step toward self- degradation: when i endured all of that pain, literally burning my flesh to have it look like a white man's hair. I had joined that multitude of Negro men and women in America who are brainwashed into believing that the black people are 'inferior'- and white people 'superior'-that they will even violate and multilate their God-created bodies to try to look 'pretty' by white standards" (Haley 56). Even Malcolm admits that he was falling into the path of changing his appearance to look more like the "superior." I also agreed with him when he said,"It makes you wonder if the Negro has completely lost his sense of identity, lost touch with himself" (Haley 57). Things like this happen today too. People are changing the way they look drastically so they can look like the elite or celebreties. It seems though, that just as Malcolm X noticed, people are tending to lose touch of their true selves.