The Realization

By Calinda Roberts, with comments by Lauren Calabrese and Katherine Prosswimmer

[1] This scene titled “Behind the Words,” is one of the most important in the film. It depicts the pivotal moment in which “Malcolm Little,” played by Denzel Washington, begins the transformation into “Malcolm X.” The African American men in the prison yard play baseball and celebrate two victories. They celebrate one for themselves playing a 10 to 1 game against the White prisoners and one for Jackie Robinson’s recruitment to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Up until this point in 1947, African Americans were barred from baseball and other sports that were segregated and white-male-dominated. This should have been a major achievement for all Blacks in America, but to some it was not. This scene helps to demonstrate the limited options open to many black men in prison. The men were good at putting on bravado to cover-up their pain, but, they were genuinely happy that one of their own was able to break the color barrier.

[2] Malcolm’s friend and mentor while in prison, Baines, played by Albert Hall, seeks to shed some light on this so-called achievement. He explains that while Blacks feel that this is something to celebrate, Whites can do nothing to erase the 400 years of slavery, hardship, and disparity they have caused. This comes as a shock to Malcolm because he would most likely celebrate right along with everyone else. Malcolm clearly thinks it’s a big success for Robinson to have entered the big leagues, as he also corrects himself from using the “n” word to the word “negro.” This is a big step for someone who earlier in life, thought the “n” word was his name because he was so accustomed to being called that. A new dynamic is taking shape whereby prison becomes a place of education for Malcolm and the road leading to ultimate freedom. It becomes clear that if Malcolm had such a mentor in his life, he would not have ended up in prison. On the other hand, it could be argued that if he did not go to prison and experienced what he did that he would not have attained the heights that he did. (see comment by Lauren Calabrese)

[3] The camera suddenly pans to reveal the faces of Black men in the prison. Baines demands that Malcolm “dig out the truth.” He also says, “and now they let one black man in the majors. That don't cancel out the greatest crime in history. When that blue-eyed devil locked us in chains -- 100,000,000 of us -- broke up our families, tortured us, cut us off from our language, our religion, our history.” This sparks thoughts of the past tribes in Africa, the close-knit families, their hard work, struggle to survive, tradition, language, pride -- imagine that all being taken away all because the whites wanted slaves to work their land and they were too lazy to do it themselves. Baines is trying to instill in Malcolm the fact that what African Americans have lost can never be recovered -- heritage, language, family, i.e., their identity.

[4] Baines finally enlightens him to the truth, and now he is able to make his realization. He compares Whites with the devil, since that is the only explanation for another human perpetrating such evil against their fellow man. The fact is that this is a sign of tokenism, where Whites in power would allow one or two Blacks to move up in their ranks, their system. Soon after, there’s no more room for encroachment on their unmerited authority.

[5] The problem remains, what was lost and destroyed in the African American past is unable to be recovered. Slavery has completely severed ties to the history, language, tradition, and religion. The past hardship is directly reflected on the faces of those prisoners. Baines goes on to question Malcolm about his identity and where he came from. He states confidently, “We are the original people.” The name given to Malcolm, “Little,” was given to him by his ancestors’ slave masters and, Baines claims, he is suffering from an identity crisis, as so many African Americans were during that time and still continue to today. Finally, Malcolm’s thoughts begin to take flight, just as the baseball is hit and takes flight in the prison yard.

[6] “I'm not Malcolm Little and I'm not Satan,” Malcolm utters, bewildered. He is somewhere caught between feelings of understanding and anger, saint and Satan. Now things are not just black and white as he always thought. According to Baines, “all white men are devils,” and he learns his teachings from the honorable Elijah Muhammad. He also implores Malcolm, “Have you ever known a good white man? Think back in all your life…” This gives Malcolm pause. He only has to look around him to find confirmation. (see comment by Katherine Prosswimmer)

[7] With a flashback we see all the people that have caused him pain and hardship. It’s the social worker that tore apart his family, the KKK members that terrorized his family and murdered his father, the chef that got angry with him on the train for using his first name instead of last, the teacher that told him that a law career is no realistic goal for him -- he should be a carpenter, the judge that sentenced him to 8-10 years in prison, and, finally, the white girlfriend that shared a life of romance, crime, and drugs only to later betray him and marry a white man with money. Malcolm is forced to examine his life and realize the forces that have been working against him all of his life. It is a wake-up call for him. He makes the bold decision to change his life and become the master of his own destiny.

Comments

Lauren Calabrese

Consistent with this moment, it is no mistake that the emergence of the character of Baines is concurrent with Malcolm X’s dismissal of “hair conking” and assimilation of everything that is white. Spike Lee’s synthesis of the fictitious character Baines functions to illuminate Malcolm X’s transformation from psychological submission of the white world to a black Muslim individualist. Maurice E. Stevens states “through his Malcolm X’s interactions with Baines, the work performed by conking and the ideological meaning that it carries is taken up under the sign of Malcolm’s relationship with Black Muslim teachings and black cultural nationalism”(289).

Baines enters the film when Malcolm has been released from solitary confinement and finds himself alone in the shower. Equipped with nothing but a white towel and the white cream of the conking chemicals, Malcolm is approached by Baines who provides him with his last fix of nutmeg and proposes Islam as the only viable and sustaining tool of empowerment, because, as he claims,“ you can’t bust out of here like they do in the movies because even if you do get out you are still in prison.” Although as Stevens posits “prison shower scenes have been so overdetermined in their filmic representation that they have become almost a trope in their own right, conjuring stereotyped images of sexualized violence,” Baines’s caricature is positioned to “seal out the implicit threat of homoeroticism”(288). Rather than focus upon Malcolm’s white towel, Baines is drawn to his white “head” or conking. Baines immediately approaches the conversation from the angle of mentor and racial provocateur. He questions Malcolm: “why don’t you want to look like what you are?” At first agitated by Baines’s probing presence, Malcolm eventually relinquishes his desire to be white and embraces Islam as a means to cultivate his authentic black identity. Essentially, this scene along with Baines signifies Malcolm’s ascension into independence and the evolution of his black selfhood.

Katherine Prosswimmer 8/18/12

I wonder here if Malcolm is struggling with his own ties to whiteness, namely, his light skin and red-tinted hair that bespeaks of white ancestors. Even before this moment, Lee's Malcolm clearly struggles with the idea of a mixed black and white identity. This is most evident in the Russian roulette scene with Rudy. Malcolm makes a major show of asserting his dominance of the biracial man, taking pains to incorporate Rudy's biracial ancestry in his verbal intimidation. After his conversion to Islam, Malcolm eschews all former elements of his life related to whiteness: his conk, his white girlfriend, and cocaine (a pure white drug) referred to as "the white man's poison." This doesn't seem to be addressed later in the film, but I wonder what Malcolm X's feelings on biracial participation in Islam were. He rejected the proffer of help outright from the young white woman on the Harvard campus. We know that after his haj to Mecca, Malcolm becomes indiscriminate about who aids with his cause. Before this change of heart, I can't help but wonder if he struggled with the acceptance of those tainted with whiteness into his cause.

Lee, Spike, with Ralph Wiley. By Any Means Necessary. New York: Hyperion, 1992.