Malcolm X

Anotace: The paper discusses ever changing life, attitudes, rhetorics and identities of one of the most influential and controversial Afro-American leaders of the second half of the 20th century, Malxolm X. It claims that the most important, however not single, determinant of his life experience had been American racism, namely segregation in the South and especially discrimination in the North. The paper than focuses on changing adaptation strategies toward the racism, especially in terms of attitudes toward religion, politics and violence. It uses R. K. Merton theory of adaptation (anomie) to contrast the various life stages of Malcolm X that are characteristic with radical discontinuities and as such create very flexible, however dramatic, life course of Malcolm X that is in this respect significantly different from the other Afro-American leaders of the 20th century.