In Malcolm X’s Learning how to Read Written by Malcolm X as a life story, was a piece of nonfiction in history gave to us modern people as a source to express what he went through learning how to clear different words and get people to understand and know what he was saying coming from as a black Muslim learning how to read in America. Malcolm’s X’s article also covered the different learning sponsors that influence him in his life. This article also outlines how motivation can push someone to further his or her academic career. Malcolm X basically dropped out of school after the eighth grade and shortly got involved in the Criminal activity and eventually wounded up in prison. Prison has driven him to further his reading and becoming well-educated. …show more content…
I mean there was kind of nothing to do so he figured why not gain knowledge while in there no matter what epidemic Malcolm X had always been in, one thing he did do was keep his mind and his spirit clear. Malcolm X wrote different documents to the Mr. Elijah Muhammad (who was a black-American religious leader, who led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death in 1975) of the Islam Realm and became one of his disciples and told him about the rarely told story of the “black man” in history. Some of the individuals Malcolm X learned from were in prison and in the Nation of Islam, and injustices of the white man throughout history and the improper views. Malcolm X had said in his autobiography an example of prison being a positive learning sponsor is in the library an inmate who had the reputation of a passionate reader was permitted to check out more than the allowed determined number of books. An example of prison being a negative learning sponsor is the lights were out at ten o’clock each night, and Malcolm had to read using a very dim light, which only allowed him to read and see once his judgments adjusted, this was the beginning of Malcolm's X learning how to read in the natural sense and how to read in the mental sense in between the lines of the white, and black men. I learned from this article that motivation can push someone to further his, or her academic career no matter what position you are in or might have been in like Malcolm X who at one point grew up in the ghetto life, and the ways which one man learned to survive in the ghetto. He is an excellent example of a self-educated spokesman of the blacks. Malcolm X’s urge to get education pushed him to what he became, a powerful and persuasive personality in the American society, especially among the blacks.
Malcolm X enlightened the blacks about their political, and economic privileges. In this regard, he encouraged the blacks to disassociate from the whites politically, and economically. Malcolm X believed that the blacks can only achieve liberation if they distance themselves from the whites along the political, economic and social lines. Malcolm X said the blacks were still blind since they were not motivated to learn many issues regarding the humanity they had no sense of education because of how they were treated as a sort of remembrance of their ancestors, so they were considered ignorant, as a result, black people in his time, in general, continued to be worried and dictated by the whites in many ways. My response to Malcolm X’s learning how to Read is the beginning of my concern when he begins to talk about the things that he learned from his reading and explains why he thinks the way does. Since he read several books that included history in his learning how to read, he saw how slaves were treated when they first got to the United States to how the “white man” tried to put down other races. Where Malcolm said in the reading “volume after volume exposed me to how the white man had brought upon the world’s black, brown, red, and yellow every variety of the sufferings of mistreatment”. From what I read it seemed as if …show more content…
Malcolm X had a hatred for “the white man.” He read books that went back to ancient civilization and even back then “the white man” was in the governor or trying to be. It seemed like the more he read the more he came to his understanding, and his reasoning seemed to be correct.
All Malcolm X wanted to fight for was freedom and equal liberty and rights. The same things we put in our constitution, the pledge of allegiance, and National Anthem. Through saying words like for the land of the free, and words like for liberty and justice for all in the pledge of allegiance. I believe that Malcolm X seemed too angry at the white man, but he had the right to be in this time in America. Since all he did was reading, he was able to see the reality of things rather than what they seemed to be. Me being a minority if I were in his position I would be equally as mad too. Me coming from a black minority ethnic group I can relate to what Malcolm X was writing. He wanted to fight for rights and to give minority ethnic groups the chance for all to be treated
equally. In conclusion, I believe his words were meant to make a change and were meant to give confidence to his readers that soon everyone will have equal rights. The same rights in which majority of the black community still don’t think we got today, and I’m not talking about the physical rights of being allowed in certain places today, but the psychological slavery like slavery days the systematic plans of people in power today knowing what they are doing is to keep that hidden racism going on. The reason whites didn't want slaves or colored people to read was to make them feel superior to them, feeling higher might bring uprising, and stand for something that’s right in the fact that slavery was very wrong. Most whites during that time were barely knowledgeable in reading and writing themselves, but by keeping blacks at the bottom meant you at least could brag that you are smarter or better than them and that they were always ignorant and were always going to be ignorant. In which today is so far in perspective. My conclusion to this article comes from my favorite quote that “We were all humans until race disconnected us, religion separated us, politics divided us, and wealth classified us.” This, in conclusion, being acceptably true through this reading.
How his time spent in prison made him strive for more knowledge. Also, how he taught himself how to be more articulate. Malcolm X had an agenda of why he wanted to convey himself in more literary manner. Malcolm x talks about his use of language, he uses words
Malcolm X was a man who was best known for his leadership positions in various human rights activist groups and his advocating for Pan-Africanism. What most people don’t know about him was how he got there; his struggles on learning how to read and write are described to us in the excerpt from “Literacy behind bars”. Malcom X speaks about his time at Charlestown Prison and how an inmate, Bimbi, was the one who really fueled his desire to better himself through the pursuit of education. From an early time in his imprisonment he picked up a dictionary and word by word began to transcribe it onto his on pads from the commissary. Through his perseverance in learning new words his whole world was opened up as he began reading and, most importantly, fully understanding what he was reading about. Once he gained the knowledge to see the world around him in a different way his newfound love for literature paved the way to one of the most memorable black activist in American History.
The reading on Malcolm X had lots of points that hit everyday society in America for African Americans. Malcolm X was like any other man hustling on the streets to get by, like a lot you see in today society with the drug dealers and such. Starting off Malcolm X was not an intelligent man; he didn’t know how to write without a little slang to his words, he didn’t know how to articulate what he wanted to be said. Malcolm X was convicted of robbery and was sent to Charleston Prison, but was later sent off to the Norfolk Prison Colony School, this is where he gave himself the educated needed to be a well productive citizen. Malcolm X stated, “I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary-to study, to learn some new words (p.211). “I spent two days just riffling uncertainly through the dictionary’s pages.” “Finally, just to start some kind of action, I began copying.” Here Malcolm X is seeing his time being served in prisons to not only be a lessoned learned but to learn something that he knew he would never learn...
Of the people whose names are mentioned in history, some men like Thomas Edison are praised for their genius minds, while others such as Adolf Hitler are criticized for leaving a depressing legacy behind. While it is relative easy to notice the type of legacies these two men left, legacies of other men are often vague and they seem to be imbedded in gray shadows. This is how many people view the life of Malcolm X. Malcolm X during his lifetime had influenced many African Americans to step up for their rights against the injustices by the American government. One on hand, he has been criticized for his hard stances that resemble extremism, while on the other hand he has been praised him for his effort in raising the status for African Americans. The extremes in viewing his life from the modern day perspective have often come from reading his climatic speech The Ballot or the Bullet that he gave in many cities across America in 1964. When he was with the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X favored Blacks to be separated from the Whites, and during this time he strongly opposed White Supremacy. This also seems quite prevalent in his speech The Ballot or the Bullet. However, one events during the last year of his life reveal that he wanted the Blacks and the Whites to coexist as peaceful Americans.
He wanted to be able to properly write his thoughts and opinions out to be understood. He wanted to leave an impression on people to give them a thought of him exceeding his education far beyond the eighth grade. That impression was credited to his “prison studies” (Malcolm X 1). He had a voice that needed to be heard all over to bring a change to society. He self educated himself day and night with the dictionary, teachings ,and books. Malcolm X considered that “three or four hours of sleep a night” was enough (Malcolm X 3). Malcolm X became interested in the “glorious history of the black man” (Malcolm X 3). “Book after book” showed him the “white man had brought upon the world’s black, brown,red,and yellow peoples every variety of the suffering of exploitation” (Malcolm X 4). Like Douglass, Malcolm found the “Faustian machinations” of the “white man” against the “non-white victims” (Malcolm X). Douglass states, “I feared they might be treacherous.” Unlike Douglass being social and receiving help from others around , Malcolm was to himself and seeked information on his own through books. Malcolm X had more pride in his education and wasn 't afraid to share his knowledge, “Mr. Muhammed, to whom I was writing daily, had no idea of what a new world had opened up to me through my efforts to document his teachings in books” (Malcolm X 6). Malcolm X had some basic education knowledge
In the tale of Malcolm X it states, “It really began back in the Charlestown Prison, when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge.” While he was in prison he began to realize that as his friend Bimbi began to talk he and take control of conversations that he wasn’t as educated as he believed himself to be. Also he’d begun to realize that being dumb and uneducated isn’t as cool as it seems when you begin to have a conversations with those who’re more educated than you are. In his tory he also states, “...nearly all of the words that might as well have been in Chinese...I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of s dictionary-to study, to learn some words.” He felt the need to acquire the knowledge due to the fact that he wanted to understand his friend and have the knowledge to hold a conversation with Bimbi. Malcolm X wanted to expand his knowledge and his vocabulary.“Under Bembry's influence, Little developed a voracious appetite for reading.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X) His original goal for obtaining education as for the purpose of understanding hi friend Bimbi and due to that need to acquire more knowledge it lead to him discovering more about the complexities and ‘greyness’ along with the deafness and blindness that was affecting the people of America more specifically the black community in
In his article, Malcolm describes the way he spent seven years in prison and uses his time to give himself an education. He gets a dictionary and starts to read it over and over to study the words
“I’m for the truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole” (X). This quote by Malcolm X represented his attitude towards equality and self-empowerment. The true Malcolm X was a passionate human rights activist as well as an extremely outspoken man during the fifties and sixties. X encouraged millions of African Americans to fight for what they believed in and to take pride in their ethnicity. X persuaded a multitude of African Americans that they are supreme and should not be degraded for their skin color. He learned at a very early age if he wanted something in life, he had to make some noise
...ica. Anna Hartwell states, “Christianity occupies a central place in Malcolm’s account of white supremacy, in both its global and domestic incarnations” (Hartwell). She also states, “Against this Christian tainted legacy, Malcolm X counterpoises Islam as “the true religion of the black man”. Islamic universalism proffered for him an alternative to U.S. citizenship, which had constantly failed to live up to its promises for African Americans” (Hartwell). Malcolm X had an understandable dislike of the system of white supremacy because it is a system that thrives from people being on the bottom who have higher percentages of taxes taken out paychecks even though they make far less than everyone else. The thing about white supremacy is that it affects in a negative way poor people of all colors, but black people suffer the most for obvious reasons. This was the message
Education is extremely important and can be achieved in the most unexpected places. In "Homemade Education", Malcolm tells about his time in prison, where he taught himself how to read and write. Behind the bars, through the use of a dictionary and books he became literate. In this article he explains how one can change his or her lifestyle by the taking the advantage of the opportunities that are available. This relates to me because couple of years ago, I didn't know how to speak English, but I took an advantage of the opportunities I had to learn a whole different language.
The history of the United States has in it much separation or segregation due to race. For a long time our country has seen racism as a large problem and this has caused ethnic groups to be looked down upon and forced into a lifestyle of difficulties and suppression. Due to this, races, particularly African-Americans, have been forced to deal with unequal opportunity and poverty, leading to less honorable ways of getting by and also organizations that support change. Malcolm X is one strong example of an African American man who became apart of a group acted against it, uniting people to promote the advancement of colored people and change. Malcolm's thoughts towards race and civil right in the previous years were displayed in a less way to the people and "by any means necessary" perspective. After his pilgrimage in 1964 his view of civil rights had quickly changed into a more complete view of civil rights, and the peoples views towards him. No one really knows what kind of impact Malcolm X would have had on history if he had not been assassinated. His beliefs and philosophy did gain him a place in history as one of the best-known Black Nationalist Leaders. Everyone seems to have known who Malcolm X was, and he ranks high with all other Black leaders. His ideas were radical and he was very out spoken. He was a major force in the development of black history. He fought not only for his people but also for all oppressed people everywhere. He was well spoken and he laid the groundwork for the black power movement of the late l960's.
Even though Malcolm X was speaking violence into the minds of many fellow African Americans, he persuaded them to use violence against people but only if it seemed necessary. Many people went against what he believed in because of this. They did not agree it was the right way to handle this situation especially since there was already violence present from the racist.
In Learning to Read, by Malcolm X, he talks about his studies while in prison. Having only up to an eighth grade education, Malcolm X struggles with reading and writing. The main reason he decided to learn how to read was because of the letters he received while in prison, primarily from Elijah Muhammad. (X 354). He wasn’t able to write responses to them like he wanted to without using slang. Along with not being able to write letters, Malcolm X couldn’t read books without skipping over most of the words, thus motivating him to study an entire dictionary. With the use of said dictionary, he also improved his penmanship by writing down every word, definition, and punctuation he saw. (X 355). Once he memorized the whole dictionary, he was then able to read books. There wasn’t a moment where Malcolm wasn’t reading even at night when the lights were out, he still managed to use the little bit of light shining into his cell to read.
When people go to prison, the majority of them do not learn as Malcolm does when he studies in the prison library. Malcolm realizes that “The best thing I could do was to get hold of a dictionary- to study, to learn some words. I was lucky enough to reason also that I should try to improve my penmanship" (198). This shows how he has an open mind, because despite quitting school, he never loses the interest in learning. Reading dictionaries usually happen in school, but Malcolm X learns to understand words from different ranges of difficulty in prison. He learns to read and write on his own, and even pays more attention to education in prison than he did when he briefly went to school. Prison is what helped Malcolm X prepare for his upcoming life situations. His education in prison is the foundation of how his becoming of a well rounded speaker
Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read,” is a powerful piece about his time in prison when he taught himself how to read. Through his reading, he discovered the awful things that happened in history and became a civil rights activist. Malcolm X changed his feeling and position throughout his piece, “Learning to Read.” His emotions are clear in his writing, but the change in his writing is clear to be caused by a change in his own thoughts because of the things he learned. The essay shows his lack of reading skills when he was young, but also how interested he became in it, and how much he uses it. He says that reading is important to readers' lives just as it was to his, helping one to form their own thoughts and views. Without the ability to read and understand the world, it becomes difficult to build your own ethical views.