Gurtej Singh Bhamra, Grade 11
UWCEA Moshi Campus
“A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.”
From a drug dealer, pimp, and robber Malcolm X transformed into one of the leaders of the civil rights movement and one of the most influential people in American History. He is prime example that one does no have to be a slave of ones evironment and that one can escape the shackles of evil and transform themselves. Malcolm X was staunch in what he believed in and never let anyone put any words in his mouth, he was a man of conviction and strength. Most of all he was a sincere man willing to shift his views based on the facts and what was irrefutable truth. From referring to whites as “devils” to seeing them as brothers after his travels to the holy city of Mecca.
“We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us.”
Malcolm X had a shocking childhood. At age 4 his father, along with his five uncles were killed by a white supremists group named the black legion. Later on his mother would be admitted into a mental hospital and Macolm sent to a foster home. In school Macolm was an intelligent student, averaging a 4.0 GPA in the 8 grade. His aspirations were to be a lawyer, however Malcolm’s teacher suggested that he chose a more realistic job for a black person such as that of a carpenter. This scarred Malcolm as he would later place a pin under the teacher’s chair and get expelled. As a teenager Malcolm found himself a several jobs as a dishwasher and a sandwich seller on the train. However, the young teengar nicknamed Detroit Red due to his red hair and complexion, would find himself in Harlem involved pimping, drug dealing and robbery. At 18 he was caught in an armed robbery and sentenced 8-10 years in prison. It is here that the transformation of Detroit Red to Malcolm X took place.
“There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.”
In the midst of all the hardship, Malcolm did not let his situation take over him. In fact he turned prison into the school house where he would transform himself and so many others. In prison he explored religion, and became a Muslim. He explored the prison library and taught himself how to be a reader, copying every single word by hand from start to end. He himself quotes “if I wasn't reading in the bunk“ he read philosophers like Kant and Spinoza and classics like Shakespeare. His time spent learning meant that he could enter into an Oxford University debate years later and win, despite having only studied till the 8th grade.
Robert Greene describes two types of ways we can spend time, dead time: when we are waiting and being passive, and alive time when we are actively learning and improving. Malcolm X chose alive time. (Holiday)
It was not so much that Malcolm X read that inspires me, but how he chose to reflect and reshape his life. that in all of the hardship he was going through he could have doubled down and decided to plot his next roberrey after prison or seek revenge on those who put him there, but he didn’t. Instead,
“If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary.” - Malcolm X
“It’s liberty or death. It’s freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody.”
In a time, where he was hunted down, his family recieving death threats and his house getting bombed he did not waver, and how the Sikhs would describe him “adol”, unmoveable. Macolm X is a man of compassion and courage, he risked his life to not only fight racism in America, but to fight injustice around the world. On 16 February 1965, he would be shot 30 times, and the man everyone knew as Macolm X was gone forever. He was only thirty-nine years old.
Conclusion here
Malcolm X sparks a fire in us, he is in us
"They may kill me, but they cannot kill my ideas. They can crush my body, but they will not be able to crush my spirit" - Bhagat Singh
I first discovered Malcolm X around the rise of COVID-19 when the whole world was in dire state. When protests were going on. When corruption was on the rise. When mental health became an even greater issue. To me it felt like a hero had risen from the ashes, one more time to rescue the world. His bravery in the most bleak of situations and his resilience, transcended his fight against racism but inspired people in all corners of life.
If we do not have many leaders in the present to look up to, we at least have those in the past such as Malcolm X.
Bibliography: (get links)
Autobiography of Malcolm X
Ego is the Enemy
Denzel Washinton interview
From a drug dealer, pimp, and robber Malcolm X transformed into one of the leaders of the civil rights movement and one of the most influential people in American History. He is prime example that one does no have to be a slave of ones evironment and that one can escape the shackles of evil and transform themselves. Malcolm X was staunch in what he believed in and never let anyone put any words in his mouth, he was a man of conviction and strength. Most of all he was a sincere man willing to shift his views based on the facts and what was irrefutable truth. From referring to whites as “devils” to seeing them as brothers after his travels to the holy city of Mecca.
“We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us.”
Malcolm X had a shocking childhood. At age 4 his father, along with his five uncles were killed by a white supremists group named the black legion. Later on his mother would be admitted into a mental hospital and Macolm sent to a foster home. In school Macolm was an intelligent student, averaging a 4.0 GPA in the 8 grade. His aspirations were to be a lawyer, however Malcolm’s teacher suggested that he chose a more realistic job for a black person such as that of a carpenter. This scarred Malcolm as he would later place a pin under the teacher’s chair and get expelled. As a teenager Malcolm found himself a several jobs as a dishwasher and a sandwich seller on the train. However, the young teengar nicknamed Detroit Red due to his red hair and complexion, would find himself in Harlem involved pimping, drug dealing and robbery. At 18 he was caught in an armed robbery and sentenced 8-10 years in prison. It is here that the transformation of Detroit Red to Malcolm X took place.
“There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.”
In the midst of all the hardship, Malcolm did not let his situation take over him. In fact he turned prison into the school house where he would transform himself and so many others. In prison he explored religion, and became a Muslim. He explored the prison library and taught himself how to be a reader, copying every single word by hand from start to end. He himself quotes “if I wasn't reading in the bunk“ he read philosophers like Kant and Spinoza and classics like Shakespeare. His time spent learning meant that he could enter into an Oxford University debate years later and win, despite having only studied till the 8th grade.
Robert Greene describes two types of ways we can spend time, dead time: when we are waiting and being passive, and alive time when we are actively learning and improving. Malcolm X chose alive time. (Holiday)
It was not so much that Malcolm X read that inspires me, but how he chose to reflect and reshape his life. that in all of the hardship he was going through he could have doubled down and decided to plot his next roberrey after prison or seek revenge on those who put him there, but he didn’t. Instead,
“If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary.” - Malcolm X
“It’s liberty or death. It’s freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody.”
In a time, where he was hunted down, his family recieving death threats and his house getting bombed he did not waver, and how the Sikhs would describe him “adol”, unmoveable. Macolm X is a man of compassion and courage, he risked his life to not only fight racism in America, but to fight injustice around the world. On 16 February 1965, he would be shot 30 times, and the man everyone knew as Macolm X was gone forever. He was only thirty-nine years old.
Conclusion here
Malcolm X sparks a fire in us, he is in us
"They may kill me, but they cannot kill my ideas. They can crush my body, but they will not be able to crush my spirit" - Bhagat Singh
I first discovered Malcolm X around the rise of COVID-19 when the whole world was in dire state. When protests were going on. When corruption was on the rise. When mental health became an even greater issue. To me it felt like a hero had risen from the ashes, one more time to rescue the world. His bravery in the most bleak of situations and his resilience, transcended his fight against racism but inspired people in all corners of life.
If we do not have many leaders in the present to look up to, we at least have those in the past such as Malcolm X.
Bibliography: (get links)
Autobiography of Malcolm X
Ego is the Enemy
Denzel Washinton interview
www.unitedworldwide.co