m X was on the right track when he said that black men must respect black women before they could ask that anyone respect them. Malcolm understood the importance of the mother in passing along cultural values and dreams to the children. It must, then, have a great impact for young children to see the submissive and degraded role that many women are forced into by a male-dominated society. The men learn by example that this is the way women should be treated, and the women are conditioned to have so little self-respect that it is easy for men to dominate them. Only by breaking the cycle of having women in submissive roles can the society advance. The best way to do this is to recognize the importance of women in the African-American community and use that to build self-respect for the women that will then be passed along, like the dreams of Nanny and of Gabriel’s mother, to the children....
