Malcolm X Post I

As the novel progresses, I think that Malcolm is continually ethically and morally regressing. In Chapters 7-10, Malcolm increasingly turns to drugs and alcohol for sustenance and even encourages and draws more and more people down to his level such as his brother Reginald and his friends in Boston. This is illustrated by Haley when he states, "Between jobs, staying high on narcotics kept me from getting nervous" (Haley 112). There are some quotes and occurrences throughout these chapters which struck me as being very eye-opening. One of theses occurrences was how often people gambled in Harlem in those days when war was raging and other places of the country were suffering. I found it amazing that people such as Malcolm gambled DAILY in hopes of striking it big, but usually lost much more money then they gained. Another interesting quote was "She knew that crime existed only to the degree that law cooperated with it. She showed me how in the country's entire social, political and economic structure, the criminal, the law, and the politicians were inseparable partners" (Haley 119). This quote really was interesting because it demonstrated what occurred in old Harlem...politics were entwined in every matter and therefore showed the large amount of corruption that would take place back then. A third thing that surprised me in this section of reading was that Shorty and Sophie readily agreed to Malcolm's suggestion of starting robberies. I thought that they were better than that. A final statement which shocked me was "Boston had no specialty sex houses, just individual rich whites who had their private specialty desires catered to by Negroes who came to their houses...the predominantly old men, past the age of ability to conduct ordinary sex, always hunting for new ways to be sensative" (Haley 143). I thought this statement was shocking because of the mere obscenity of it and the fact that these old men hated Negroes but had their sexual desires catered by the very people which they hated. One article that I found that has relevance toward this topic is located at http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/research/sociocultural.shtml. This article suggests that white slaveholder's were OK about having sex with slaves, who they "owned" and considered inferior because it furthered their status in society as well as their slave holding (created more slave children). This article also relates that Christian missionaries of this time period implied that SEX WITH AFRICAN AMERICAN SLAVES WAS OK!! This article also mentions surprising statistics about African American and white rape victims today and how they experience different things; one of the most imteresting statistics that I think relates back to African American slavehood ancestry is that "African American women are more likely to blame their living circumstances for placing them at risk for victimization" than white women.