malcolm's first turning point.

In chapter 2, Malcolm starts to make incredible progress in school and begins to come into his own once he is released from reform school and enrolled into a regular junior high. Even though he is only 13, he reveals the great amount of intelligence and spark that he possesses. But, when he has a life-changing conversation with his English teacher Mr. Ostrowski, who he thought liked him very much, he begins to slowly spiral downward again. What ignited this spiral? Well, when he asked Malcolm what he wanted to aspire to be when he was older, Malcolm said he wanted to be a lawyer. But, Mr. Ostrowski's detrimental response was, "Malcolm, one of life's first needs is for us to be realistic. Don't misundertand me, now. We all here like you, you know that. But you've got to be realistic about being a nigger. A lawyer--that's not a realistic goal for a nigger. You need to think about something you can be" (Haley 38). While reading this reaction to young Malcolm's aspiration, I literally could hear nails on a chalkboard. For someone to so bluntly suck every drop of self-esteem from a child, to me is most definitely verbal abuse at its finest.

The part that was a bit heartbreaking for me to read was what Malcolm thought once the words from Mr. Ostrowski had settled in his mind. His thoughts were, "But apparently I was still not intelligent enough, in their eyes, to become whatever I wanted to be. It was then that I began to change--inside. I drew away from white people" (Haley 38). To isolate oneself from an entire race is such an unhealthy thing, because especially when people are young and innocent, it's easier for them to be free-thinkers and accept everyone, until reality and other people's opinions begin to soil their outlook on life, as they grow older. But, it is quite obvious that this conversation definitely fueled a revelation for Malcolm, and seems to be foreshadowing the reasons as to why he becomes an adovocate for a separate nation for African Americans that is free from whites. Also, it reveals how in the future he will speak out about supporting segregation rather than integration, because this experience has caused him to see that whites and blacks can not live peacefully together, or be treated equally. The power of this autobiography is definitely beginning to hit me because the hardships that Malcolm goes through at such a young age definitely causes me to really reflect on how racist our country has been, and how it took so long to give these people the equal rights that they have always been entitled to.