On pages 86-87 it talks about Obama reading the autobiography of Malcolm X and how his ideologies changed what Obama though about certain topics. The words spoken to Obama in the text inspired him due to Malcolm X speaking on wanting to a uncompromising change in the world. In the text it mentions that Malcolm X hated the part of him that carried white blood and wished for it to be “expunged”. This part stuck out to Obama because he also had white blood within him which lead him to think what would happen if he left that part of him behind somewhere. On the other hand Malcolm X also mentioned that he wished for a future where there were white brothers of Islam that lived beside him. This led to have Obama begin to look for those who would lead the way into a new world.
“…If Malcolms discovery toward the end of his life, that some whites may live beside him as brothers in Islam, seemed to offer some hope of eventual reconciliation, that hope appeared in a distant future,…” This quote from pages 86-87 shows that Malcolm X wanted to see change in the coming future. He wanted those who he wished blood no longer existed within him to stand beside him as comrades in Islam. This shows that his opinion of white people was not all full of hate and that he wanted to keep the past in the past and work towards a better future. With him those who were known for causing pain to black people in the past now his comrades in arms.
In pages 86-87 Obama realizes from Malcolm X wishing that he could remove the white part of him from himself that he him self would never let his whiteness become irrelevant. What he learned about the world is that even though something may be very relevant at the time but there are those who still oppose it. This relates to one of the men Obama was playing basketball with. This man mentioned that he would never sit on a carpet with a bunch of Arabs or give up eating ribs. He also learned that not all things remain the same and some people get caught up in a crowd that has caught their attention and once the hype is over they go back to how things once were. This relates to the guy playing basketball with Obama named Malik. Once Malcolm X died he gave up on going to mosque and political meetings and moved to Hawaii.
