2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X.

Pages: 466 pages

Length: 1 month (August)

Participants: Jannene, Beth

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

I don't think I will get to this until next week.

Fine with me. My library had an unexpected waitlist.

I'm starting today.

Still waiting. :(

Finished.

There was so much to think about while reading this book. I was 8 when Malcolm X was assassinated. I can't say I remember the event or the news coverage. I have vague memories of thinking of him as "the scary Black person." I've always been a rule follower, and the concept of upsetting the status quo has always been a scary prospect for me... I never wanted to do anything to anger my parents, my teachers, etc. So I never really learned much about this man and had a nebulous feeling of being fearful of what little I knew of him.

Reading this book opened my eyes to a lot of what I never knew. I thought the analogy between him and John Brown that Ossie Davis made in his essay was fascinating and likely on the nose.

It was really challenging to read Malcolm X's diatribes against white people. It's much like how white people are challenged today... to face their microagressions and unintended biases even though they don't think of themselves as racist or biased.

The quote, The well-meaning white people, I said, had to combat, actively and directly, the racism in other white people. sounds very modern in light of the Black Lives Matter movement... it's not up to Black people to educate themselves to "fix" racism because the one being oppressed cannot end the oppression. Instead, it's up to white people to educate themselves on how our history has impacted Black people on a systemic level and work to fix those barriers.

I learned that Malcolm X was a complicated, complex man who publicly lived out the growth and development of his personal philosophy. He was a man who came from a challenging early life and rose to become a world-reknown figure fighting in his way for the rights and dignity of African Americans.

I read this one in the early 1990s, when a lot of people were wearing "X" baseball hats. I really enjoyed the book and someday I'm going to revisit it, probably on audio. Hope you don't mind me sharing my thoughts! I'd like to peek into the discussion from time to time.

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "I read this one in the early 1990s, when a lot of people were wearing "X" baseball hats. I really enjoyed the book and someday I'm going to revisit it, probably on audio. Hope you don't mind me sha..."

Wasn't that around the time the movie with Denzel came out?

I think an audio read of this book would be great. Oh, I just checked Audible... Laurence Fishburne narrates the audio!

Beth wrote: "Wasn't that around the time the movie with Denzel came out?..."

Yes, I think I read it after the movie came out, but I didn't watch it until later.

I listened to the audio version of this in Audible last year - and thought it was great! (Also, very interesting, as I realized I didn't know much about Malcom X before it at all)