Discussion Topic
Significant Quotes in "The Autobiography of Malcolm X"
Summary:
Significant quotes in "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" include: "Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today," highlighting the importance of education, and "A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything," emphasizing the necessity of having strong beliefs and convictions.
What are some significant quotes in Chapter 18 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X?
In Chapter 18, Malcolm X is touring Mecca. He says, "I cannot describe with what feelings I actually pressed my hands against the earth where the great Prophets had trod four thousand years before." He is clearly affected by being in Mecca. As he tours Mecca and parts of Africa, he says, "Even with my background, I was astonished at the degree to which the major single image of America seemed to be discrimination." Wherever he goes, people abroad ask him about racial discrimination in the U.S. and whether or not people are aware of the situation.
Touched by the concern of people he meets abroad, Malcolm X writes:
"I reflected many, many times to myself upon how the American Negro has been entirely brainwashed from ever seeing or thinking of himself, as he should, as a part of the non-white peoples of the world. The American Negro has no...
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conception of the hundreds of millions of other non-whites' concern for him: he has no conception of their feeling of brotherhood for and with him."
Malcolm X believes that African-American people should form unions with people around the world who are not white and who feel compassion and connection with African-Americans. He calls for a global unity among non-white people.
Towards the end of the chapter, he further writes about the brotherhood of Muslims that he saw in Mecca:
"My pilgrimage broadened my scope. It blessed me with a new insight. In two weeks in the Holy Land, I saw what I never had seen in thirty-nine years here in America. I saw all races, all colors, blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans--in true brotherhood! In unity! Living as one! Worshiping as one!"
He believes that this brotherhood can unite people in a way that African-Americans have never been united with the rest of America. He has witnessed what he sees as the ability of Islam to draw together people of different races into a great unity, which is not a reality in the United States.