In the first chapter of Malcom x’s biography, he explains how many african americans were brainwashed in the ideology of white supremacy and how he grows up analyzing this idea. He saw this first hand from his father, Earl Little, who was a Baptist minister and an organizer to U.N.I.A. Living in a nation where all around you is just blunt on the idea of black culture than white culture you fail to recognize that you were brainwashed to believe in white supremacy. Earl never really hit his son Malcom because his skin complexion was lighter than all his other siblings. His father would also take him to his preaching sessions rather than anyone else in the family. This given fact gave him the idea that his father favored more on him because he was given a lighter complexion than all the rest and he held Malcom as somewhat of a trophy.
Malcom’s mother on the other hand gave him hell for his his skin complexion. Because her side of the family was raped by a white man she is reminded everyday of the horror of her history just by looking at her son Malcom. In her perspective she views having a whiter complexion something to be frowned upon. Ironically she too had a lighter complexion but it is the idea that her gene is going to pass down a little bit of white blood that bothered her. She unlike her husband, treated the rest of her children with respect.
Malcom became the catalyst of both worlds, his father’s perspective and his mother’s perspective. He viewed these facts and narrowed the idea to only find out that white supremacy plays a huge impact among the black race. He wanted his readers to recognize that even white supremacy is both given externally and internally. whether you are enforcing the black race to move back to Africa or you carry the blood of a white man. He viewed white supremacy a lingering shadow.
