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 of people who were filled with anger at the constant racism directed toward them.

    Both Booker T. Washington and Malcolm X have lots of similar themes and experiences in their stories. One of the biggest ones is their level/desire for education. In Booker T Washington's story, he spent his whole life trying to earn his education and learn as much as he could. Malcolm X was put in jail and spent his time also trying to educate himself as much as possible. This is partly because both of them share a strong desire and passion for learning and education. In addition, they both used their education to try to influence the world and create social change for black people at that time. However, the difference lies in the things that they tried to change about black people's situation in America. Booker T. Washington was mainly concerned with the economic well-being of black people, arguing that without a means to support themselves, there was no way to get any other kind of rights. He thought that black people needed to be "respectable" to create a spot for themselves in white society. He believes that, "...mere connection with what is known as a superior race will not permanently carry an individual forward unless he has individual worth, and mere connection with what is regarded as an inferior race will not finally hold an individual back if he possesses intrinsic individual merit" (p. 28). While Malcolm X would have agreed with this somewhat, he looked down on those who were trying to integrate into white culture and be accepted as what he considered not truly themselves. He felt that human rights were the necessary step in allowing black people to create their own society. At one point, he and others extended this thinking to include leaving America in the "Back to Africa" movement.

    While they both have very similar backgrounds, there are some key differences in the way that their stories play out, which affects how they view the world. The way that Malcolm X experienced racism in his life was much different than Booker T. Washington's, and this drastically affected the way that they interpreted the texts that they read. For example, Malcolm X became much more focused on black identity and human rights, while Booker T. Washington was less concerned, at least in terms of priority, with the civil and human rights of black people, instead believing that it was more important that they get economic rights first so that they would be able to support themselves. Malcolm X felt that it was much more important that people be respected as people. For example, he says, "How is the black man going to get 'civil rights' before first he wins his human rights?" (p. 1868). Malcolm X's own experiences with racism and injustice, as well as what he had seen happen to others, led him to see things differently than Washington, and meant that he would also notice things that Washington perhaps missed or did not think as important. Another difference to be made clear is the difference in time; Malcolm X had great opportunity and access to many more texts, texts that had not been written in Washington's time. What they would agree on, however, is that the black people of America were responsible for getting the things that they wanted. They both were much more proactive in trying to create change and get to the things they wanted. While they wanted different things in different ways, the same underlying mental framework seemed to drive them.

    Overall, though Malcolm X and Booker T. Washington have some similarities, they have very different priorities and opinions on the best course of action for the black man to make his way in a white supremacist America. Booker T. Washington makes the claim that it is best to strive for economic freedom and independence and that your success will ultimately depend on talent as an individual regardless of race. Malcolm argues basically the opposite: that the first step is to get black people human rights, and then civil rights so that they can actually be people in society. While we don't see quite the same "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" mentality from Malcolm X, we do see him put it on the individual people to make change and stand up for themselves.