Mindset vs. Ideology
Today, I am going to be talking about Booker T. Washington's reader's autobiography Up from Slavery, and Malcolm X's The Autobiography of Malcolm X . The main thing that I want to emphasize is how similar their stories are in background and experience, yet how differently they apply their intelligence and voracious attitude toward learning. The time their stories take place massively affects how they use their power and influence. The main way we see the difference in their character show up is in the philosophy they hold and advertise to the world. Washington's main idea was creating economic independence for black people by themselves through hard work and perseverance, i.e. the "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" mentality. Malcolm X, on the other hand, had a very different idea of what black people deserved, though he does have a somewhat similar mindset to Washington. He was much more aggressive in his ideology, and this was very appealing to a lot o...