Danielle Pyles
FP
October 29, 2004
The Spiritual Journey of Malcolm X
Malcolm X had a life as tough as sandpaper. To make his life worth living he knew he had to reach out and hold onto something tangible, because any other life he had known had been ripped away from him. When Malcolm put out his hands, he found the brotherhood of Black Islam. Maybe if Malcolm had never been thrown in prison and thus had never been exposed to the structure that this religion offered him, he would’ve been like every other hoodlum on the street, but Malcolm wanted more. He began his fellowship in Black Islam as a march of hatred. As he went through his own metamorphosis and growth in his spiritual journey, Malcolm X began to see the bigger picture. Finally he came to the conclusion that perhaps a better way of looking at that picture was to join hands--black and white, red and yellow–and observe it like one integrated society.
Malcolm X didn’t have it easy growing up. He stood by and watched his house burn to ashes by white supremacists. It appeared from that point on that Malcolm committed himself to revenge. Later in his life when he was serving time in the prison system he encountered the religion of Black Islam, and found something to delve his hatred into.
Angry at the white race and feeling as though a debt was owed to him, Malcolm threw himself into this war against Caucasians. He spoke eloquently, though full of cynicism, to draw up the Black race and to create an uprising. He gained the following of thousands of black people and had the power to persuade them to open their eyes to their “oppression.” In 1964 Malcolm took a trip that would change the way he looked at whites forever.
His trip to Mecca, Saudi Arabia enabled him to see and encounter whites that were removed of the “white attitude.” He was spellbound and this experience pushed him to change his perspective on many issues, namely that whites were not inherently evil. He...