Acosta- powerful or weak?

I chose not to read the introduction to Johnson's "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" and missed an important detail to the book- that it is not, in fact, an autobiography. So I chose to read the introduction to Acosta's "The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo", which gave me a strong impression of Acosta's character before reading his autobiography. I expected a strong, powerful individual- a "dangerous thug" who was involved with the "politics of confrontation" as "the main spokesman for a mushrooming 'Brown Power' movement" (5-6). We saw in Franklin's autobiography an example of how the author has the ability to only highlight certain aspects of his or her life. Franklin chose to show mainly the positive aspects of his personality. Acosta does not speak of himself as Thompson does; instead, Acosta portrays his negative self-image through the early incidents in his autobiography. Acosta begins with criticisms of his physical appearance and makes his way to the toilet where he tries to puke. Acosta's references to disgusting behaviors such as "a belch of brown water" (13) intimate his inner feelings toward his own skin color, as he describes himself a "brown buffalo". Acosta's silence appears odd after reading that he was a great spokesman. Acosta talks about his aversion to certain cases that would involve a second party lawyer to argue. I would classify this behavior as aversion of confrontation, so how does this same person become so involved with the "politics of confrontation"? I wonder if he undergoes some kind of transformation during some point in the book or if he had somewhat of a dual identity of personal and political.