Lucy Walker
8/13/08
D’Aquila
AP U.S. History, Per. 3
Malcolm X Essay
In 1965, Malcolm X stated, “Sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner, unless
you eat some of what’s on that plate. Being here in America doesn’t make you an
American. Being born here in America doesn’t make you an American.” This quote was
true to his own personal experiences, and reflected the experience of millions of blacks
who lived in America at that time.
Malcolm X noted here his observation of the black man’s struggle in America.
Eating is a basic human need. Every human must eat in order to survive. In America,
every citizen has basic needs, among which are the need to express himself, the need to
be protected, the need to educate himself, the need to support himself financially, the
need to be respected by others and to respect himself, the need to make choices for
himself, the need to find pleasure in life, and the need to survive. As American citizens,
and more importantly as human beings, we all deserve to have equal opportunities to
fulfill these basic needs. The fulfillment of these needs is a defining part of being an
American citizen and being a human being, just as Malcolm X notes that eating is a
defining part of being a diner. When someone is denied these basic needs, they are denied
their full American citizenship and their full humanity. The United States Declaration of
Independence states, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.” Throughout his life, Malcolm X saw blacks in America denied their basic
needs as American citizens and as human beings. At the same time, Malcolm watched in
rage as these needs were fulfilled for whites in America. He expressed this observation
with this particular image of the diner.
Malcolm X’s 1965 statement is a valuable depiction of his personal experiences.
As a boy, Malcolm witnessed the denial of his family’s basic rights. After the death of his
father, Malcolm felt that Michigan state welfare men purposely divided his family,
placing his mother in a mental hospital and relocating him and his siblings to separate
homes. He and his siblings were then put under the complete authority of a white judge
(Haley and Shabazz 25). In Malcolm’s eyes, white society denied his family the
opportunity to remain united and to make choices for itself. He described it as “[n]othing
but legal, modern slavery—however kindly intentioned” (Haley and Shabazz 25). From
the beginning of his school years, Malcolm was denied the basic human right of being
respected by others and being able to respect himself and his culture. In Malcolm’s
school textbook, the black history section was one paragraph long. Unlike his white
classmates, Malcolm never learned of his people’s importance in history until much later
in his life. Malcolm was the only black American in his junior high school class, and
recalled his teacher’s stinging black jokes as the class covered that particular section of
the textbook (Haley and Shabazz 35). As Malcolm grew up, the color of his skin
prevented him from receiving the respect of others and pursuing the profession he wished
to pursue. When Malcolm expressed to his English teacher his desire to be a lawyer, his
teacher responded that Malcolm’s goal was unrealistic for a “nigger,” although Malcolm
was one of the top three students in his class (Haley and Shabazz 43). Malcolm often
reflected on that conversation throughout his adult life. Although he went on to prove his
impressive skill as an orator and a logical thinker, in a white man’s society it was socially
unacceptable for Malcolm to pursue a career equal in prestige to the careers of many
white men. Although he possessed the same American citizenship, Malcolm was never
allowed the same right to be judged equally among white Americans in the professional
world. Instead of going on to study law at a university as he might have done as a white
man, Malcolm would become a street hustler in Harlem, New York as a young adult. He
would later convert to the Nation of Islam and become one of its leading ministers.
Malcolm felt that white society was unfairly biased against the Nation because it was a
black peoples’ religion. Early on in his Islamic faith, he believed that white society’s
criticisms of the Nation as a group of “hate messengers” and “violence-seekers” was
unfair; whites had always had the right to express their hate of blacks, yet they tried to
deny this right of free expression of black religions (Haley and Shabazz 277). Malcolm
was angered by the criticisms of the Nation’s “Fruit of Islam” being taught methods of
self-defense. “Why does judo or karate suddenly get so ominous because black men study
it? Across America, the Boy Scouts, the YMCA, even the YWCA, the CYP, PAL--- they
all teach judo! It’s all right, it’s fine- until black men teach it” (Haley and Shabazz 277)!
In these ways, Malcolm witnessed the Nation of Islam, which he so strongly believed in,
denied the respect of a white man’s religion. From childhood to adulthood, Malcolm X
felt that the color of his skin prevented him from receiving the human and civil rights he
deserved. While the white man ate at the diner, he could only sit and starve.
Malcolm’s diner analogy reflects the general struggle of his fellow black people
for their basic human and civil rights in the United States. Malcolm’s black forefathers
were first brought to the United States as slaves from Africa, seen as mere possessions
instead of humans worthy of human treatment and human rights. Even after the
Emancipation Proclamation was issued, this belief that blacks did not deserve the same
rights as other human beings remained at the base of American society. Although blacks
legally obtained some rights after the Civil War, including the right to vote, they were
ultimately prevented from using their right to vote in the South and were the victims of
segregation, violence, and discrimination throughout the country (Maier, Smith, Keyssar,
and Kevles 559). During World War I, hundred of thousands of Southern blacks moved
north (Norrell 3). This history set the stage for the environment that Malcolm X would
encounter as a young adult in the northern ghettos. Malcolm was aware that although the
northern United States was seemingly more liberal than the South, in that it did not
directly deny blacks of their civil rights, in the North blacks were still denied the
economic, political, and social powers that they deserved as American citizens. In his
autobiography, Malcolm recounted how blacks in the northern ghettos were considered
socially inferior to the white man, and how this discrimination in the business world
made black communities economically dependent on white businessmen. He noted that
black Americans in Harlem were “infuriated…by the white merchants in Harlem refusing
to hire a Negro even as their stores raked in Harlem’s money” (Haley and Shabazz 131).
Blacks were denied their need to be self-sufficient and instead were exploited by whites.
Whites held most of the money, and therefore held most of the power in the North, while
most blacks lived poorly and by any means necessary in the confines of the ghettos.
Although the racial conflict seemed to be improving in the North as some middle class
black “leaders” emerged to fight to improve the black peoples’ position in America,
Malcolm expressed the idea that behind these black leaders “was a white boss— a
president, or board chairman or some other title, pulling the real strings” (Haley and
Shabazz 280). The black man’s freedom to protest and express his discontent in the
white man’s system was always indirectly, if not directly, suppressed. Whites also
manipulated the political power in the United States. While blacks could vote, their votes
were divided among political parties controlled by whites who did not support black
interests. A black voting block could turn the tide of American political power, yet
blacks’ right to obtain this power was undermined by the American political system
(Haley and Shabazz 361). Ultimately, blacks throughout America were denied the basic
respect and self-dignity that are inherent in being a human being. As Malcolm X
vocalized in his autobiography, “Human rights! Respect as human beings! That’s what
American black masses want. That’s the true problem. The black masses want not to be
shrunk from as though they are plague-ridden. They want not to be walled up in slums, in
the ghettoes, like animals. They want to live in an open, free society where they can walk
with their heads up, like men, and women” (Haley and Shabazz 313)!
Malcolm X expressed the view that black people had been “sitting” at the table of
the American diner for centuries. Yet, because of the color of their skin, they had never
had the opportunity to “eat,” to have their needs met as human beings and citizens of the
United States. Malcolm conveyed this same idea in a statement he made in his
autobiography: “Four hundred years of black blood and sweat invested here in America,
and the white man still has the black man begging for what every immigrant fresh off the
ship can take for granted the minute he walks down the gangplank” (Haley and Shabazz
207).
Lucy, very good first apush essay. There are some minor mechanical issues
(paras, etc), but it is generally well written. You included good OI and your
analysis is generally strong. You stayed focused on addressing the prompt
and answered all part of it. Good first essay. Glad you are taking this
course!
Works Cited
Maier, Pauline, Smith, Merritt Roe, Keyssar, Alexander, and Daniel J. Kevles. Inventing
America. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2003.
Norrell, Robert J. “Civil Rights Movement in the United States.” Microsoft Encarta
Reference Library. 2005 ed.
Haley, Alex, and Betty Shabazz. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: The
Random House Publishing Group, 1965.