Though Malcolm first espouses a worldwide view of racial oppression
in this chapter, earlier sections of the autobiography hint that
Malcolm will eventually relate the struggle of blacks in America to
the struggles of other oppressed groups. For example, while describing
his first impressions of New York City in Chapter Five, “Harlemite,”
Malcolm traces the history of the Harlem ghetto as a place where
minority racial groups have confined themselves. In seeing blacks
as part of a series of American immigrant groups’ struggle to escape
the ghetto, Malcolm relates racism against blacks to bias against
Germans, Italians, Jews, and the Dutch. But Malcolm feels that prejudice
against blacks, while similar to the prejudices against these other
groups, is more deep-rooted and more difficult to remedy. He aligns
the struggle of American blacks with the struggle of minorities
in other countries because he believes that the political and economical
problems of American blacks are more similar to the problems of
blacks in other parts of the world than to those of other groups
in America. Though ethnic minorities in America have had to fight
prejudice, they have not suffered the same degree of oppression
and subjugation as the many black peoples whom whites reduced to
slavery.
The great change that Malcolm undergoes at the
end of the autobiography parallels the change that he earlier undergoes
in prison. In both cases, he abandons his radical views on race
and broadens his perspective. His time in prison, during which he
educates himself and converts to Islam, shows him the need to bring
the struggle for equality to the black masses. After his release
from prison, he no longer wants to get by for himself; rather, he
wants blacks to unify and fight for their due as a people. Similarly,
his time in the Middle East exposes him to new points of view and
offers him new insight into how to resolve racial tensions. For
example, during his pilgrimage to Mecca and his subsequent stops
in the Middle East, Malcolm witnesses the “colorblindness” of the
Islamic world. This colorblindness refers to a model of racial integration
that Malcolm actively resists earlier. Seeing its effectiveness
in another environment, however, changes Malcolm’s attitude toward
it. He emerges from his travels convinced that oppressed nonwhite
groups throughout the world must unite to eliminate white oppression
altogether. In both cases, Malcolm’s openness to the wisdom around
him helps him develop a more mature outlook. His constant growth
as a person shows that he is not a mere angry revolutionary who
wants vengeance against whites but a leader sincerely interested
in achieving racial harmony.