Pg. 24
"I knew I was scared, but I didn't know, as Bill Peterson told me later on, that he was scared of me, too."
In this sentence, it is right after Malcolm fought Bill, who is white. Malcolm stated how he was scared to not only fight, but fight a white man. But what he didn't know was that Bill was afraid to fight him. In this era the African Americans were afraid of the whites, but you would never think a white man would be afraid of a African American. After all of the years of torture they put them through, and claimed there dominance, you would think they would feel powerful.
Note: that boxing was the one place that African-Americans were equal with Whites - and yet, both of these boys are afraid of the other (and afraid to lose. What happens to them if they lose?)
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