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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92057.The_Autobiography_of_Malcolm_X_As_Told_to_Alex_Haley?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1171240741m/92057.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92057.The_Autobiography_of_Malcolm_X_As_Told_to_Alex_Haley?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17435.Malcolm_X">Malcolm X</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21159538?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> This is my second time though this book and it is still one of my favorite stories of all. I read several hundred pages of it while taking Greyhound to Virginia last week. The whole way I was sitting with three black ladies, and we all kept on talking about what all of us thought of Malcolm X and his ideas. Early in the trip lady across from me asked what I was reading--I think she knew and just wanted to see my reaction to her asking. I told her and we got into an amazing conversation about race in America, Islam and the ignorance of people who have grown up in the majority. Even when we weren't talking, I heard other people in the bus having conversations about race. One big guy behind me was arguing about something with the man across from him and kept calling himself and the other man "Negro"--always just as I was reading about Malcolm X calling himself and other people "Negro".<br/><br/>I realized, reading a story in The Atlantic about Bill Crosby called "This Is How We Lost to the White Man", a lot of what I like about Malcolm X's story is his conservatism. His fight in the north wasn't against admitted racists, it was against the entire culture of bias which hid (and hides) behind promises of "someday" and "if you only wait". That's why he pushed so hard for everyone to be self-sufficient. I don't ascribe to his early segregationists talk, but I believe anyone who is treated as lesser (women, teens, people in minorities) is most powerful when they are independent. PS: one of the creepies letters Malcolm X mentioned was on this topic from the head of the American Nazi party--saying they should get together to work for total segregation and relocation to Africa. Creepy stuff.<br/><br/>Some questions I have been left to contemplate after to this reading:<br/><br/>If Malcolm X hadn't been assassinated:<br/>Would America have better relations with the Middle East? <br/><br/>From his trip to Mecca to his tours of Africa and his work to bring Islam to America, vitally linked with his newly moderate racial stance, I think a lot of the stupid fears about "Why Do They Hate Us" would have been dealt with long before 9/11.<br/><br/>What would Malcolm X's effect on the Women's Liberation Movement have been? <br/><br/>One of the most jarring stances of Malcolm X's for me was his incredibly low opinion of women. I think raising four girls would have forced him to become a feminist--I would hope he could not have failed to see the parallels between the degrading limitation of racism and sexism.<br/><br/>Anyhoo, I love this book! <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/52622?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>