- The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1964, when many African Americans regularly straightened their hair. Is the thesis of this excerpt still relevant today?
- Why do you think Malcolm X includes so many references to pain and discomfort throughout the text? Do modern techniques for straightening, which can be much less painful and damaging, change the message he is trying to get across? Explain.
- Discuss Malcolm X's choice of telling his story via a process essay. Is it an effective technique? Might another form have been more effective?
- What behaviors can you identify from your own group (women/men/ethnic, etc.) that you feel is destructive to their identities as members of this group. Why do people continue to engage in it?
- Comment on another classmate's post to either add to his ideas or intelligently (and politely) refute his logic.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
My First Conk
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1.The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1964, when many African- Americans regularly straightened their hair. Is the thesis of this excerpt still relevant today? Yes is this relevant today many African- Americans straightened their hair.With all types of products, their evening straightened their children's hair.Alyssa said
ReplyDeleteThe Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1964, when many African Americans regularly straightened their hair. Is the thesis of this excerpt still relevant today? Yes the thesis of this expert is still relevant today. But its mosstly females that conked their hair. In todays society conking is called relaxer. The relaxer todays has no lye so the conking does not hurt the sculp. Malcomn talks about that conking was a disrespect toward his race but today people do it to manage their hair.
ReplyDelete1. The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1964, when many African Americans regularly straightened their hair. Is the thesis of this excerpt still relevant today?
ReplyDeleteThis thesis excerpt still relevant today, for many African Americans still straightening their hair. They no longer do it as a feeling of inferiority, but more of a fashion sense visualizes how their hair fit their image.
I feel that the thesis statement that was made in this piece is still relevant today. I feel as though many African Americas do straighten their hair. Although the number of people who do it regularly may not be as high as they were in the 1960’s. Many African Americans may straighten the hair of their children along with their own hair. I feel that in 1964 when this piece was written that it was much more common for African American’s to straighten their hair to fit in with the whites. It is still used today but I feel that it is more of a fashion statement and less of a process done to fit in.
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ReplyDelete1)The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1964, when many African Americans regularly straightened their hair. Is the thesis of this excerpt still relevant today?
ReplyDeleteThese days people mostly African americans still do straighten there hair because they just want to look good. They use any store bought products or even make there own out of home ingredients.Even womens of our generation do the same thing. Its pretty common around the world and theres really nothing wrong with it. So yes i believe the thesis of the excerpt I read is still relevant.
2. In my opinion Malcolm X included many references to pain and discomfort throughout his text to show the outcome of each step and how it may or may not lead into the next step. The fact that he mentions the burning and the itching sensation made it clearer for the reader to understand the effects of each step. For example he mentioned in the text that the jar was hot after stirring all of the ingredients together, which then led to his scalp burning and itching. He then presented the pain that came along with the application of the “jelly-like, starchy-looking glop”. In today’s society for I think the process may be less painful with the new tools that we have to make things easier. I am sure there are some techniques that still include pain, but maybe not as intense as he mentions in his text.
ReplyDelete3. I feel as though Malcolm X’s choice of telling his story via a process essay was effective. I feel that this writing style fit the essay well. I feel through this essay he was able to describe the steps of getting a conk. It also showed how each steps led to the end result of a conk hair style. He also used chronological order from buying the products to the final steps which gave the reader clarity in what was going on throughout the essay. I feel as though other writing styles would not have been as effective as this the process style for this specific essay.
ReplyDelete1.) I think that each person has their own reasons for straightening their hair. However what I do believe is that the thesis from the excerpt is not relevant to our generation for today because most people back in the 60’s did it for respect from white people because black people was constantly in this place of inferiority so they did things like straighten their hair to be viewed as somewhat equal in a sense to whites.
ReplyDelete2.)
Discuss Malcolm X's choice of telling his story via a process essay. Is it an effective technique? Might another form have been more effective?the way Malcolm X choice to tell his story was fine with me. He gave us detailed information on how the conking process goes. If someone wanted to do conk their hair like him they had enough information on how to do it. He tells us the pain he went through causing me to think twice about conking my hair. Overall the process essay was in order and the information was clear.
ReplyDelete1. Yes, it is still relevant today because men don’t straighten their hair anymore, but the women do. Back then, African Americans regularly straightened their hair only because they wanted to be respected by the whites around them. African American women today don’t do it to look higher class. They do it to just look good and for grooming. African American Men don’t do it anymore because there is really no point in it. The men just get their hair cut or shaped up. It’s not to impress people anymore.
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ReplyDelete2. Why do you think Malcolm X includes so many references to pain and discomfort throughout the text? Do modern techniques for straightening change the message he is trying to get across? Explain.
ReplyDeleteMalcolm X includes so many references to pain and discomfort throughout the text to imply that the African Americans people that aim to make themselves feel less inferior to the white races have to go through this much pain for just a single hair style. Modern techniques allow hair to be straightened without any pain and discomfort so Malcolm X message can’t be apply.
2)Why do you think Malcolm X includes so many references to pain and discomfort throughout the text? Do modern techniques for straightening change the message he is trying to get across? Explain
ReplyDeleteThe references to pain and discomfort in the text is trying to show how painful it is to change who you are, thats what i believe Malcolm X is trying to get across. In todays modern society the techniques use to straighten hair or change it has changed the logic he is trying to get across. This was the past where he was trying to get black people to unite with him to fight segrigation. Tough he was willing to use force to do that. In any case the text lost its meaning in todays society because our more modern style is less painful then back then.
2. Why do you think Malcolm X includes so many references to pain and discomfort throughtout the text? Do modren techniques for straightening change the message he is trying to get across? Explain. Malcolm references to pain and discomfort throughtout the text, because of what he went throught to get his hair strightned. His hair was pulled, got on fire at one piont, change colored. It was a painful and long process to endure. Yes modren techniques has change the message he was trying to said. Nowaday product are little to painless. People know more about hair care and treatments for all hair types.
ReplyDelete1. The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1964, when many African Americans regularly straightened their hair. Is the thesis of this excerpt still relevant today?
ReplyDeleteThe thesis of the essay is still relevant today. While hair relaxing, or perming, is not prominent amongst African American males today, the process is still practiced by many African American women, as well as the use of wigs or hair extensions to make their hair conform to white standards of beauty. It is still an issue amongst black men and women, some who like Malcolm X, regard it as a practice of self hate, and others who believe it to be just another beautification process. Perming isn’t only limited to African Americans, extending to anyone with tight curly hair who wishes to have it straight.
2. Why do you think Malcolm X includes so many references to pain and discomfort throughout the text? Do modern techniques for straightening change the message he is trying to get across? Explain.
ReplyDeleteThe references to pain and discomfort are a rhetorical tactic to illustrate the irony of conking. He literally put himself through burning pain, applying lye to his head to achieve a white standard of beauty. But Malcolm X makes it seem as though there is no greater pain than self-hate. Modern chemical straightening processes still hurt, though not as much as in Malcolm X’s days. More so, the process is unhealthy for hair, repeated use of chemical straightening makes the hair weak and brittle and it eventually falls out.
3. Discuss Malcolm X's choice of telling his story via a process essay. Is it an effective technique? Might another form have been more effective?
ReplyDeleteBy telling his story his story in a narrative process essay, Malcolm X avoids the typical boring and objective style of process essays. It almost doesn’t come across as a process essay but as more of a narrative with a reflective conclusion. If he would have reached his thesis without anecdotal evidence, the thesis would almost seem cheap. How would he know that conking his hair was an act of self-degradation had he not conked it himself as a youth? Because the topic is such a personal one, the reader would not believe or respect his thesis had it come from statistical evidence.
4. What behaviors can you identify from your own group (women/men/ethnic, etc.) that you feel is destructive to their identities as members of this group. Why do people continue to engage in it?
ReplyDeleteI was, for a very long while, a self-hating Hispanic. Since I look white, and most people think I am, I assimilated myself into white American culture. I frequently denied being Hispanic and pretended to not know Spanish. It was only until recently that I embraced my own culture, started studying Spanish, listening to Spanish music. I still see some Hispanics who neglect their culture and try to assimilate into another (with white culture not necessarily being the only option). I think much of it comes from trying to avoid the stereotypes that Hispanics have in this country, that we’re lazy, that we’re here illegally, that we’re criminals, that we’re stupid. But this is an extremely unproductive way of avoiding a stereotype. If you don’t want to be stereotyped, don’t stereotype yourself.
3. Discuss Malcolm X's choice of telling his story via a process essay. Is it an effective technique? Might another form have been more effective?
ReplyDeleteMalcolm X 1st tells his experience of when he has his 1st conk, in this part he describes of how painful his experience was. Then in his 2nd part he describe of his thought of how this is a way of the African Americans race viewing themselves as inferior to the “white”. It’s quite an effective process since he use his experience in the 1st part as a backup for the ideas of how his races feel inferior, why else would anyone go through such pains as he describe. We as the audience can just think of this same process was done through countless African Americans Men who wanting to become “white”, ask this one question “Was it really worth it?” .
2.) When he describe the pain and discomfort in getting his first “conk”, he is ultimately expressing the things that black people endure to gain respect and some type of dignity amongst themselves in a white dominated society. I believe that the techniques in straightening hair today does to some degree change the message that he’s trying to get across because now the relaxers that we use are not as painful as the ones they had back in the 60’s. You can almost say that the idea that relaxers aren’t as painful today as they were then is metaphoric as to how much American society has changed over the pass decades.
ReplyDelete3. The form that Malcolm X has choosen to use for the story was fine he explain his reason for getting the conk.Malcolm went into full details about the pain he felt while receiving the process. He went in dept on how the conk was made. Malcolm also shared his first experience on how getting the conk brought out his look.He really enjoy the new look.Malcome X compared it to a white man hair do.Im almost positive that nobody took him as a white man.
ReplyDelete3)Discuss Malcolm X's choice of telling his story via a process essay. Is it an effective technique? Might another form have been more effective?
ReplyDeleteThe way Macolm X used a story telling technique to get his point across i would say it was a very poor technique. in the story he says he admired his conk and all that stuffs then later states that anyone who has a conk is a digrace. I dont know why he would tell a story on how hegot his conk and then tries to fight against it its just doesnt make sense. If he wanted to make his argument sttronger I would suggest he try an approach that shows how unfairly he was treated when he got a conk and how the white society didnt accept him. This would better fit the argument he makes to tell his african american people that they shouldnt change there hair to make them look white and that they should be proud with the hair they were born with.
2. I believe that Malcolm X made so many references to pain and discomfort, because he wanted his readers to realize this was not a simple little one, two, three process. This was not like going to the barber today and relaxing while he straightens your hair. It was a painful and sometime mutilating process that was by no means pleasurable. I also do not think that today’s techniques for straightening hair changes his message at all. Malcolm X message was a message about how far some people will go to fit what society see’s as pretty. It happened then and it still happens today.
ReplyDelete1. The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1964, when many African Americans regularly straightened their hair. Is the thesis of this excerpt still relevant today?
ReplyDeleteI do think that his point of view is relevant today. On the surface it has less to do with race, but is still a valid point. My first thought in answering this question was, no. Because I see every race going to do drastic cosmetic changes to their hair. Everyone I see on the television has fake hair one way or another, and for the most part they have straight hair. I believe that is based on what the norm is, and the norm is straight long hair. Even though it has nothing to do with race when we think about it, if we think of the origins of the norm it has a lot to do with race.
2.I think he includes so many references is because of all the suffering that African-Americans had to go through at that period of time in America. Back then, the technique of hair relaxing was way more painful than it is now. That somewhat relates to the pain that African Americans went through in terms of being accepted in a society that looked down upon them for just being different. Things change all the time. The way the hair relaxers were used, also called the conk, and the way African Americans were getting treated. As an era changed, so did the reason for hair relaxing for African Americans.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think Malcolm X includes so many references to pain and discomfort throughout the text? Do modern techniques for straightening change the message he is trying to get across? Explain.
ReplyDeleteMalcolm X writes about the painful process of straightening hair to convey what an awful, tortuous experience it is. He is driving home the point of what African Americans are going through to have the “right” kind of hair. I do not know what the modern process entails, but going through any kind of process to have straight hair seems like they’re not appreciating the natural beauty of the hair God gave you. But that also goes for dying hair black, blue or blonde and going to a tanning bed. I think the message would be a little different if written today. I think the point would be that or differences are what makes each person beautiful and unique, so appreciate what was given to you.
3.) I think Malcolm X did a great job in deciding to use a process essay because he uses this technique to basically breakdown the way in making a conk and also the description as to what he felt the whole time he was receiving this conk.
ReplyDelete1) Yes this thesis is still relevant because today, many african americans,black, and hispanic people straighten there hair in todays society. You may not really see men coming into a salon to get there hair straightened but you do see them walking around with straight hair whether it is natural or not and woman still do it. They no longer do it to gain the approval of white men and woman, but do it for the purpose of fashion and style. Minorites use relaxers and hair straighteners with their unmanageable curly hair. I myself use hair straightening to manage my curly hair.
ReplyDelete1. I don’t think Malcolm X observations of his time in 1964 are relevant to our generation now. I think straitening your hair was a model of appeal and more frequent use to attract people’s attention. Our society now has involved and constructed many hair styles. Straight hair is more of a business attraction or when you go on a date. Curly, straight with swirls at the end, Mohawks, short hair, and color adding are some of the new ways people are using their hair styles.
ReplyDelete2. I think Malcolm X was very direct of how pain and discomfort was involve back in the days while trying to straightened out your hair. His message and new techniques does indeed change as for now, we have new and better techniques that are less painful. Comparing hot lye to a Salon where your hair is treated different like washing and new hair products and technology as well has improved straitening hair.
ReplyDelete4. One of the behavior that is destructive in my race is hiddening behind fashion. Men have giving up their lives for a pair of boots. Ladies go without feeding their children just to get a 100$ hair do. People feel like they have to have what others have and better.When we try to keep up with others it only keeps our mental minds down.We must learn that the world is about more than just fashion. Their is other issue like hungry kids and wars.
ReplyDelete3) Malcolm X tells he story in process form because he wants the readers to understand every step of conking.He wants readers to know the measures African American took just to get good hair.Malcolm's techniques was effective because he explain evertying step by step in full details.From the products he brought, to Shorty schoolindg him about the barber shops. No i do not think any other from of writing will have made it better.
ReplyDeleteWhat behaviors can you identify from your own group (women/men/ethnic, etc.) that you feel is destructive to their identities as members of this group. Why do people continue to engage in it? The behaviors i can identify from my own group that I feel is destructive to their identities as a member of this group is when I see my own kind put thier pants below their waist. This fashion come from the prison system where the men are not allowed to wear a belt because they can use it as a weapon so as a result their pant are below their waist. They have an excuse. You as a free person do not need to follow this type of behavior. This type of fashion is not just among afircan americans anymore. I see many more other races doing this. They know its not okay and its degrading to their own image but they still want to be followers.
ReplyDelete2. Discuss Malcolm X's choice of telling his story via a process essay. Is it an effective technique? Might another form have been more effective?
ReplyDeleteMalcolm X’s chose an effective way to get his point across. Another choice would have been to write an exemplification essay. An exemplification essay would have been able to list all the terrible things that happen in the process of conking hair. I believe that his process essay was a form of exemplification but maybe he would be able to use his creative license to switch up the steps his friend did to make it more dramatic.
4)What behaviors can you identify from your own group (women/men/ethnic, etc.) that you feel is destructive to their identities as members of this group. Why do people continue to engage in it?
ReplyDeleteWell for the women society they straighten there hair with an electric hair straightener. If they were going to a party i would understand why they do it, but if they had curly hair to begin with they shouldnt be ashamed of it and try to make there hair straight just because a couple of there friends have straight hair or just because there friends tell them other wise. For the men society we mostly get hair cuts and fades and most random times its mohawks. This is also how we mess up our identities. the fades and stuffs aren't bad, but what really bothers me is the mohawks i believe that there just plain wierd some of my friends have them and i dont really see them the same anymore. Its just one of those things that really is irrelevant and has no point in it. Also the bald men who gets wigs cause there ashamed of it they mess up there identity as well because there try pretend or a better term hide who they are i just think its just pointless.
3. By Malcolm X using via process essay technique was very effective. It was more like a real life story telling, where at his time many of his audience might have had a connection with him and his story. His essay concludes many well details and you can actually imagine the pain people felt while trying to straighten out their hair. I think he chooses a very effective technique, and if I was him I wouldn’t have done it any other way.
ReplyDelete4.) I believe that every group of people man woman or ethnic does things that are destructive toward their own group. If I had to mention anything it would be how some people within the African American society takes little interest in voting during Election Day. That in itself is destructive to our communities because you failed to vote we have more issue to deal with and changes can’t be made. That a right that was fought for by most civil rights leaders and for you not to take advantage of thing they fought and died over makes you out to be ungrateful for the right you have.
ReplyDelete@ Jessica Esteves, i very much agree with all your answer and i can almost relate to whet you ar esyaing. The tway Malcolm uses pain and discomfort on his thesis captures the readers attention and feelings as well. Great Job!
ReplyDelete2. I think Malcolm X includes so many references to pain and discomfort because he is trying to show that the black man has gone through so much pain to be accepted. Yes I think the modern techniques for straightening can change the message he is trying to get across. His message was trying to show us how far these people have gone for one single hair style. Today his message is irrelevant because no one has to go through this pain for such an easy hair style ever again unless of course they wrongly apply a relaxer.
ReplyDelete@ Alyssa, i disagree with your answer for question one. Simply because the techniques they used back then doesn’t really apply to the techniques used now. But maybe in fact old age members might still use those techniques but our generation now has simply adapted to better, more efficient and less painful ways.
ReplyDelete4. What behaviors can you identify from your own group (women/men/ethnic, etc.) that you feel is destructive to their identities as members of this group. Why do people continue to engage in it?
ReplyDeleteI hadn’t look back at what my race is like for a long time. I think it was ever since I move over to the U.S. It might be because I’m living over here now I become less corner about my race.
In response to Catherine's question number 2 I agree that back then there was this White standard of beauty and the pain black people endures Testifies the extremes that they underwent to gain dignity and respect from whit people. Even in the word Conk compared to today's term for straigthening hair Relaxer. How the words in itself seem to give way to the transition of American Society
ReplyDeleteThe thesis that Malcolm X used is Still relevent in today society because this thing has become greater. There are many kinds of straighteners mild, strong, and super and if not applied right will cause a problem. With straight hair a person can do a lot more styles it has nothing to do with any particular race.I was suprize to no that it was a guy who made it and applied it. Before reading this article I fiqure that only women added chemicals into their hair.
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ReplyDelete@ ebonyPrincess, I highly agree with your statement about how people do not have interest in voting. I think that it goes for any culture or group. Many people don’t have any interest in voting but then when the results don’t come out the way that they wanted, or something goes wrong in the government they complain about it. In reality they shouldn’t have any reason to complain because they did not have anything to do with the results and the outcome. I completely agree with this statement and it definitely has an impact on every group in our society.
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ReplyDelete4 I fell that the things some women go throw in their need to look like supermodels is destructive to themselves and their identities. Starving once self or forcing them self to throw up after eating or when they just feel fat, because some girl in a magazine is super thin is stupid. Letting yourself be cut, plucked and polled like a turkey just because they don’t look as hot as a movie star. And why do they still do it because society tells them they have to. They tell them that you don’t look good the way you are you need to change. You’re not pretty you need plastic surgery. Your to fat you need to lose weight. Don’t get me wrong a little of these things is fine but you don’t need to weight 99 lb, and you don’t need to look like a supermodels.
ReplyDelete4. Being considered as a white woman the one thing that bothers me the most that other women do (and some men at times) is stress over physical image. Botox, plastic surgery, and intense crazy diets should not be stressed over and forced upon. I feel as though you are given your image and you should not try to change it. Botox and plastic surgery seem to bother me the most. You are changing your image for what reason? You are still the same person with the same personality after the surgery. I feel as though people still go along with these processes and procedures because the media in our society forces it upon us. Media tells us that in order to look like a celebrity, surgery and Botox is the answer, when in reality, it’s not.
ReplyDelete3. I think the choice of a process essay was effective because it showed me how Malcolm x got through all the steps to get to where he desired. At first, he was hesitant to get the conk, but then got the courage to do it. It was painful, but he got through it. After that, he felt self-humiliated because he had to change himself just to be accepted by another group that looked down on him. If Malcolm x choose another form to tell his story, I don’t think it would have had a greater impact than if it just stayed as a process essay.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think Malcolm X includes so many references to pain and discomfort throughout the text? Do modern techniques for straightening, which can be much less painful and damaging, change the message he is trying to get across? Explain. Modern technology has changed the way relaxer feels on the head. Relaxer in todays world does not hurt at all. He includes so many references to pain and discomfort to tell you how african americans felt just to fit into the white mens genre. The reason for conking now has changed. Females dont do it to get accepted, they do it to help manage their hair. Even the word conking is not used anymore. Now its called relaxer.
ReplyDelete5) I agree with what mel said about people spented money they dont have just to look good people have to understand they to not need everything they see in store, in mariziges, or on the rich and famous. There more to lvie than just fashion. Like family, school. helping others, and just being happy with what you have.
ReplyDelete2.Malcolm X decribe the pain of getting a conk correctly if done by someone who don't know what they are doing. If done improper a person can suffer hair loss. It can also burn someone skin as well. Today we can get a mild one done but even this can cause damage if applied to long. Any race can get a relaxer it is not just for peolple of color.
ReplyDelete3 I believe that Malcolm X’s choice of telling his story via process essay was so that his readers could truly understand what some people went throw back then just so they could conform to what society wonted. Also by using a process form he was able to keep everything in order, less confusing and give better detail were it was needed. I believe his choice of using a process from for his story was very effective. I don’t think another form would have been anymore effective.
ReplyDelete5. I mostly agree with what Jessica Esteves says people do stress way too much over their physical image. So much so that they acutely make them self’s sick. She’s also right about the fact that the media dos forces upon our society that beauty is how you look and you’re not beautiful unless you look like Jennifer Lopez or Angelina Jolie. I mean ever tome you turn on the TV theirs on new add telling you that you need to look different. It’s ether about losing weight or getting a boob job there is always something
ReplyDeletei have 7 question that i really need help with it.
ReplyDelete1. summarize the essay
ReplyDelete2. from Malcolm's explanation what is a conk and what is its purpose?
3. Malcolm shares that seeing his conk for the first time "(the) transformation after a lifetime of kinks is staggering" (2) what is the (or his) transformation, and what inside do you gain his response?
4. Malcolm reveals that (t) his cooking was (his) first step toward self degradation" (2). what does he mean by this, and why would he make this revelation?
5. Malcolm talks about Negros believing "that the black people are "inferior" and white people are "superior" (2). based on his narrative, how does conking reflect this belief?
6. Malcolm considers a conk to be "self- defacing"(2). discuss what he means by this statement.
7. Malcolm connects conking with shaming. from his view, discuss this connection. do agree or disagree with his conclusion? discuss why or why not...
i have 7 question that i really need help with it.
ReplyDeleteZalterflow56@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteWas the conclusion efdecrive? Why or why not?
ReplyDelete