Hair and English B

In the stories Hair and English B there are many similarities that can be made between the two, and with the lives of their authors as well. For one thing the stories were both written within the 1950-1960's period, in which segregation in North America was still enacted and fully tolerated. Their authors (Malcolm X and Langston Hughes) were also civil rights activists who saw the evil within segregation and fought to end it. However, despite their similarities, how both authors viewed life in segregated America in their stories differs very much considering the fact that they both were victims of the segregation. For example, in Langston Hughes story English B he expresses his thought that although he is less free than his white english teacher, they still influence each other and are both equally American. This differs from Malcolm X's story Hair, in which Malcolm tells the story of his first hair conking, and how he sees that experience as a degenerative one and states in the end that Black people are beautiful and as capable, if not even better, of anything a white man could do. These stories, although similar, clearly show a different message on how the authors feel on the segregation that occurred in North America.