From a sociological perspective, Malcolm X demonstrates many significant aspects of culture, identity, and the social construction of reality. The film also shows that individuals have the power to change their own lives, despite the cards dealt to them by fate. More importantly, because of the excellent job director Spike Lee does tracing the identity and worldview development of Malcolm X, we are able to see the fiery black leader as more than one dimensional. We are able to see that he could be self-critical and was capable of changing his views until the day he was assassinated. This is true even though his environment was often one of chaos, hostility, and violence.
Born Malcolm Little to a minister father who preached the beliefs of Marcus Garvey for black liberation, Malcolm was raised in a foster home after his father was murdered and his mother went insane. While an intelligent student, Malcolm’s white teachers steered him away from academics because of his color. He took on some menial jobs before turning to numbers running and small-time crime on the streets of Detroit. He partied, has sex with white women, and had white female accomplices for many of his crimes. He wound up in prison for “one year for the burglaries and seven years for associating with white women while committing them”.
In prison Malcolm experienced a turning point. He became entranced by the Black Muslim movement and Elijah Muhammad’s leadership. He drops his last name, becomes a fiery street-corner preacher, and adopts the philosophy of separatism for blacks as a means of independence and self-sufficiency because all whites are the devil. Despite these controversial years where Malcolm X displayed tremendous amounts of bitter vitriol against the white race, he experienced yet another individual conversion on a pilgrimage to Mecca where he discovered there were “good people of peace in all races”. Shortly af
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