(Myers 20).
Malcolm lived in various foster homes and continued to do well in school. In junior high school, he was smart, focused, and graduated at the top oh his class. One day, one of Malcolm's teachers asked him what he wanted to do with his life. Malcolm told him he wanted to be a lawyer. His teacher replied:.
"Malcolm, one of life's first needs is for us to be realistic. Don"t misunderstand me, now. We all like you here, you know that. But you"ve got to be realistic about being a nigger. A lawyer- now that's no realistic goal for a nigger. You need to think about something you can be-" (Haley 38).
As a result of Malcolm's teacher telling him he couldn"t be a lawyer, Malcolm lost interest in school and dropped out in the eighth grade.
After dropping out of school, Malcolm moved to Boston with his sister Ella. She only told Malcolm two things when he arrived: not to hang out in the ghetto and to lock the door when he left. In a way, Malcolm was left on his own. Of course Malcolm didn"t listen; he was often in the ghetto. There was a pool hall in the ghetto that Malcolm frequented. At the pool hall, he met a guy named Shorty. Shorty and Malcolm became good friends. Malcolm became known throughout Boston as "Detroit Red" or "Red". Soon after that, Red started selling drugs and moved to Harlem, New York.
While in Harlem he became involved in robbery, prostitution, and narcotics. Selling narcotics became his primary means of making money. After a while, Malcolm attracted too much attention from the police, which forced him to stop selling drugs. Without a steady income Red turned to running scams. When one of his scams didn"t go as planned he had an altercation with another hustler. The hustler told Malcolm he was going to kill him. Malcolm ran back to Boston.
While in Boston, Malcolm formed his own robbing gang. The gang was comprised of him, Shorty, and two white girls. The white girls would stake out in a white neighborhood where they calculate the most inconspicuous time for a robbery to take place.
