My first conk. 5th Period Malcolm X "My First Conk" Response 2022-10-23
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The process of getting a "conk" was a painful and controversial practice that was popular among African American men in the mid-20th century. A conk was a hairstyle in which the hair was straightened and styled in a more Eurocentric way, often by chemically relaxing the hair. The term "conk" comes from the word "congolene," which was a brand of hair straightener that was popular at the time.
I remember the day I got my first conk like it was yesterday. It was a hot summer day and I was excited to finally be able to get my hair styled the way I wanted. I had always been self-conscious about my naturally curly hair and had always wanted to have a more "polished" look.
I went to a barbershop in my neighborhood and sat in the chair as the barber applied a thick, pungent-smelling cream to my hair. He then wrapped my hair in plastic wrap and sat me under a dryer for what felt like hours. When the timer went off, the barber unwrapped my hair and began to comb it out. It was a painful process, as the comb pulled at my hair and scalp.
Finally, my hair was straight and styled to my liking. I looked in the mirror and felt a sense of pride and accomplishment. I had finally achieved the look that I had always wanted.
However, as I left the barbershop and walked home, I couldn't help but feel a sense of discomfort and guilt. I had always been taught to embrace my natural hair and culture, yet here I was, altering my appearance to fit in with societal standards of beauty.
In hindsight, I regret getting a conk and participating in a practice that was steeped in racism and self-hatred. I now understand the importance of embracing and celebrating my natural hair and cultural identity. I hope that others can learn from my experience and choose to embrace their natural beauty rather than conforming to harmful societal standards.
My First Conk Analysis
The author, Malcolm X, told a vivid tale using numerous rhetorical strategies to emphasize the importance of self worth, self respect gained the intended effect quite well on his audiences. Conks gave the people of the town self-confidence and a sense of importance. Piven makes his point on how to avoid a bad date by giving a list of instructions with subtitles and a numbered list, while also giving many examples for each situation. Many people read literature and only experience the story which means they only think about the affect the story has on them. Are they, presented in chronological order? It is prominent in all human civilizations to take a chance as a source of entertainment and as this chance is taken, something is both won and lost.
He admitted his faults, and that is a really hard thing to do. In the Harlem underworld, Malcolm remakes himself in the lawless and isolated image of the black hustler. A jelly-like, starchy-looking glop resulted from the lye and potatoes, and Shorty broke in the two eggs, stirring real fast — his own conk and dark face bent down close. He lathered and spray-rinsed, lathered and spray-rinsed, maybe ten or twelve times, each time gradually closing the hot-water faucet, until the rinse was cold, and that helped some. I grew up in a very small town in East Texas, a very rural area that was not surprisingly dominantly white.
That officer was George Orwell, and he writes about his experience in his short story, 'Shooting an Elephant';. Of course, I had no idea of what the book actually said. In truth, the atmosphere of fear and pressure overwhelmed him. Overall, Malcolm X focuses on how time has given him the opportunity to learn more than many people can ever hope to learn. Malcolm X wants people to think about how society has affected them and how society also takes away individuality. What does the conk symbolize to him at the time he gets it? Shooting an Elephant A police officer in the British Raj, the supposedly 'unbreakable'; ruling force, was afraid.
While telling his story, Malcolm speaks with a tone of childish fascination quickly changing to one of reflective cynicism. These influences were external, a result of the societal pressures around him and the actions of others. Malcolm X, being from Lansing, Michigan, never expected his life to change as drastically as it did. Malcolm X with a conk Malcolm X with Kinks natural hair What are your thoughts on how times have changed? A conk straightened a black man's hair, so he could look more like a white man. You got a good conk. He begins with how he taugh himself to read and write in prison by using tablets and a dictionary and wrote from every night.
What did you learn from this experience? He also said that he admired Lionel Hampton and Sydney Poitier, because they had kept their hair natural and fought to the top. The Civil War demolished slavery but that still did not stop the white man. It went through a process on how he and his friend conked his hair. He realizes this as he is going back and telling this story in his short story and sees that what he was doing was just bringing himself down and not noticing his own look as an African-American. But I endured it because I wanted to look like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr.
This was unheard of among Black people in those days. He knew it was wrong, in fact he had a plan on what to do in order not to kill it. It was awfully late and the whole family were asleep. Malcom was eventually able to see beyond the lies that he had been fed his entire life and come to love himself and his people. Is the thesis of this excerpt from the book still revelant today? He also calls books his alma mater, showing how he owes everything he knows to those… Analysis Of The Autobiography Of Malcolm X Unlike most books, The Autobiography of Malcolm X discusses a problem in the first chapter. By altering their hair, blacks changed their original I was pleased when Malcolm X realized that blacks only had conks because they were inspired from the whites hair.
He wanted to fit in and feel accepted. One does not fight for equality in differences, only to, in the end, lose the identity fought to be recognized and absorb another. Challenging America's image of beauty and black women worth, I've decided to go natural to challenge the view, and I couldn't be more proud. He also does not approve of young black women wearing wigs in order to mimic the popular hairstyles of white women. As he said the islamic brotherhood treated each other equally, however isn't he contradicting himself as by being treated better? Even when he moves in with a white foster family, he is taught at school that black people are seen as lazy and dumb and will never be completely successful in this society, no matter how smart or gifted they are. The ironic thing is that I have never heard any woman, white or black, express any admiration for a conk. But the longer you can stand it, the straighter the hair.
While in prison, Malcolm X taugh himself from dictionaries and books how to become literate. You got a good conk. Going through the pain of the hot lye burning in his scalp was part of the conking procedure. Malcom X grew up in the time where this was becoming a popular trend for African American men. Black women in America face an interesting dilemma when it comes to hair.
