Malcolm X IWA

"Learning to Read"

Summary:

     In Malcolm X's "Learning to Read," he writes about being in prison and learning how to read and understand text. He began by writing out the dictionary, section by section, and studying the words. Once he knew enough words to begin reading text, he read everything empowering to his race that he could find. He was like a sponge and could not stop the thirst for knowledge about his people's history and theories about oppression. While Malcolm became powerful in his knowledge and beliefs, he also influenced others to take hold of their own power and education.

Before You Read:

Start a conversation with friends, roommates, family or classmates about whether and how "knowledge is power."

I started a conversation with friends from Southern Ohio about the concept that knowledge is power and we all agreed that it is powerful in three different ways in our personal culture: one, it has supplied me and my friends with the understanding of why our area is poor, two, we know we have the ability to leave the area to survive, and three, we understand the want to stay to empower others.  Knowledge, in our conversation, equals a lot of life-changing power.

QDJ:

Who seems to be Malcolm X's intended audience? How do you know?

His intended audience is two-fold: I believe it to be those who question Malcolm's education and young black people who he wishes to inspire to by telling them of their past and how to change things.
I know this because of his comments about how his education was better than any college (to build credibility) and then the subject matter is enticing to those who do not know what he speaks of.

AEI:

I would tell a person learning to read to use a Kindle. You can choose electronic books that you are interested in based on a subject, a lot of books are now free, and it has a dictionary feature that lets you highlight any word for an instant definition.

MM:

I think my professor would say that the most important part of the text is to acknowledge the different sponsors people have for literacy and that Malcolm X had an open literacy as far as choice of what he read, but a limited based on what influenced him to read what text. He was limited by hatred and influenced by history. I would agree.