Blued-Eyed White Devil (Post 3)

Throughout a major portion of the book, Malcolm blames the "white devil" many times for causing all of the problems black people dealt with such as: living in poverty; being hated because of racism; and taking part in criminal activity involving drugs, violence, burglary, and prostitution.  This made me think about the racism that is involved with criminal activity.  I don't want to sound racist, but I always thought that mostly black people were in jail in our country because of TV shows and movies.  I wanted to look up  the different races involved with drugs and I found this website: http://drugpolicy.org/communities/race/.  I found the part about racial profiling interesting because I think it is a form of racism.  The African American community as a whole should not be viewed as criminals just because of certain individuals' bad choices, and this should not have anything to do with race because anyone can make the choice to be a criminal.  Also, the children of the convicted people suffer when their parents go to jail, and this disrupts the whole family.  I never realized how African American children are more likely to have a parent imprisoned than white children.  

At first I was insulted every time he said "white devil" because I believe that there are good people and bad people in the world, and race does not determine if someone is a saint or a devil.  I felt personally attacked when he used the phrase "blue-eyed devil" because that stereotyped all whites to have blue eyes and insinuated that the fairest whites are the most evil.  I wanted to defend myself and all the other blue-eyed people because eye color does not make someone good or bad.  

I kept thinking, "Doesn't Malcolm believe there are any good white people?"  I really identified with the young, white college girl who went up to him and asked him the same question, but he just shooed her away like she was an annoying little fruit fly.  I felt very sympathetic for her because he probably would have done the same thing towards me if I went up to him and asked him that question.  But then I realized, even though I felt sorry for her, I should feel worse for Malcolm.  He grew up in a poor town with an unstable home.  He moved to Boston to be with his older sister, but he eventually ended up in a "hustling" life style with prosecution, alcohol, and other drugs.  He had to realize his mistakes in prison, and he bettered himself through education and Islam.  Malcolm was the person who was judged and hated every day because of his skin color, not the young college girl.  

This made me think about how the "white devil" is a general term that is true.  Malcolm was not attacking me every time he said it, he was talking about all of the white people who ever took part in slavery and were more concerned about making money than treating people of every race with equality, respect, kindness, and friendship.  Malcolm made me realize that prejudices will always exist and the African American community will always have to remember that their ancestors lived in horrible conditions while they hope for more change in our nation's future and change in some stubborn peoples' minds.