Every February when Coate’s was in school, he learned about the heroes of the Civil Right Movements. However, he was upset about this. I was not happy that his school showed examples that only relating to black people. The films were dedicated to the glories of beatings on camera. He refers to the films as “The black people in these films seemed to love the worst things in life- love the dogs that rent children apart, the tear gas that clawed at their lungs, the firehoses that tore off their clothes and tumbled them into the streets. They seemed to love the men who raped them, the women who cursed them, love the children who spat on them, the terrorists that bombed them.”(page 32) My understanding of this statement is that he believes that they only focus on the bad that black people had to. go through. When around the US there were those who were black that did not go through the things that some of them did. When Coate’s was not at school, he chose to study Malcolm X. He would listen to his hip-hop lyrics, books, speeches, and other materials. Coate’s looked that Malcolm was a great positive activist against black people. In Coate’s writing, he explains a portrait of Malcolm. He describes it as “The portrait communicated everything I wanted to be- controlled, intelligent, and beyond the fear.” (page 34).In his life, he sees Malcolm as a role model and someone that he can look up to.
