As early as the age of 4 or 5, parents send their children to kindergarten programs followed by elementary, middle and high school. From there they are expected to continue through college and graduate school to learn everything for their future. In Malcolm X’s autobiography, he wrote an excerpt titled, “Learning to Read” where he explains finding encouragement to educate himself on vocabulary and the history of white supremacy. After being thrown into prison he found himself in the prison’s library reading non-stop, eventually discovering the history of his ancestry like all the wrong the white man caused. Educating himself changed his life for the better, leading him to become an inspiring leader in the Civil Rights movement. Malcolm X believed that all the reading he has done will lead him to do something good in life, saying “I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life” [citation]. After educating himself with all the books in the library, he became an inspiring leader in the civil rights movement and became a spokesman for the Nation of Islam. Similarly, in “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts,” Alfred Lubrano compares the difference between the working class and those from affluent neighborhood and schools. As a child of a working-class family, coming home from an Ivy League made him realize a separation between him and his family along with the students from affluent backgrounds. Receiving a higher education than his
He studied hard to get high grades and he was even elected as the class president. He was doing his best, until his teacher went up to him and told him that his dream to be a lawyer, is not possible all because he is black. Instead, he insisted him to become a carpenter. From then, something started to changed within him. Malcolm sees the limit to the white acceptance, and the inevitable truth of what life awaits for the colored. He starts believing that in the white society he was living in, there is no success nor future. Spike Lee never really focused on Malcolm's childhood in the film, except for this particular part. He chose this moment to highlight, because this scene single handedly explains why he hated whites, why he became a hustler, and why he became a civil rights activists. It was the hatred against the whites. From then, he stopped accepting the whites. This was the moment when Malcolm's view on integration between whites and blacks became possible, to impossible. The historical figure of Malcolm X’s philosophy started here, with the hatred of his enemy. Malcolm X in his speech, preached that the black man should have their own power, by separating themselves completely from the white society, similar to what his father was preaching. His childhood tragedy gave him the reason to fight for, and the belief for uniting the black race for separating them from the cruelty. Malcolm X we all know of, would have never existed without
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told by Alex Haley is the story about a man who greatly impacted American history. Malcolm Little, or Malcolm X as he is more widely known, taught what he believed in regards to segregation, racism, and discrimination. Growing up in a large family with a father Earl Little, a Baptist minister, and his mother Louis Little who was a homemaker, Malcolm’s life at the time seemed very promising. His father’s involvement in support of the Black National gained him many death threats at the hands of white supremacists. In 1929, they lost their house to a fire, and two years later the body of Malcolm’s father was found mutilated. This lead to the emotional breakdown of Malcolm’s mother and in turn she was institutionalized. Malcolm and his siblings were separated and placed in foster homes, and from then, his life began a path of drugs, sex, and crime. It was not until he was imprisoned in 1946, that he decided to make some changes for the better. This essay will assess and discuss those changes whether negative or positive, on a micro, mezzo, and macro level. It will also cover some of the effects of racial prejudice on human behavior, and how society today keeps the ideology of Malcolm X alive.
Malcom X's "A Homemade Education" tells a story of how he gained knowledge by himself and how it guided his thoughts and ideas. Reading also molded his political views. Although Malcom X is a very outspoken person about racism in America, and throughout the world, I find that he has a right to be angry, but goes a little overboard on blaming whites.
Since the past, black people had been oppressed and excluded from a formal education, leading them to find ways to educate themselves. While they open their minds to new worlds and perspectives, they encounter themselves with a disastrous world that discriminates them and unjustly takes their rights away from them. In these essays, “Learning How to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass and “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X, both authors tell their stories about how they found their way into the world of literacy even though they were banned to do it. Because they left ignorance back, they realize all the injustices that surround them. In my opinion, literacy is one of the most important tool humans possess to be aware of the issues of the world. Knowing about world problems makes people able to decide how to act towards situations and helps avoid being led by people that the only thing they want from others is power.
During the 1960s, Malcolm X was one of many articulate and powerful leaders of black America. Before he was a street hustler and spent seven years in prison, where he educated himself. Before this time, he was almost completely illiterate. He describes how he could hardly compose a sentence with a straight line or correctly articulates words, let alone read and write. Not being able to express his thoughts and feelings in the letters he wrote inspired him to educate himself. Malcolm then became one of the leading spokesman for African American separatism. Unlike Malcom X Frederick Douglass escaped to New York, where he became a leader in the abolitionist movement. Frederick was born a slave and couldn’t read or write at all. His mistress was teaching him how to read and write but suddenly was against instructing him so he
The Autobiography of Malcolm X is the story of Malcolm X, an African American male growing up in the United States in the mid-1900's. At this time in America prejudice and segregation were widespread and much a part of everyday life. Malcolm takes the reader through his experiences with American society, which rejects him. This rejection, along with the inferiority cast upon all Black Americans, forces these males to search for acceptance. They are forced to search for purpose in causes greater than single individuals. As the book shows, this is evident in Malcolm throughout his life and in the life of other African American males. The Autobiography shows how during this time in American history
In the beginning he speaks of his time in prison and how he learned to read. What he states in the beginning reflects his point of view to the reader. By stating that he's an inmate learning to read, readers gain the impression that at that point in the essay, rather than being Malcolm X, he's just your average inmate trying to finding his place in the world. During the middle, his point of view is still that of an inmate, but with additional knowledge aiding him in shaping his morals and values. In this section by Malcolm X stating that "an inmate was smiled upon if he demonstrated an unusually intense interest in books," and "I was lucky enough to reason also that I should improve my penmanship" the reader ascertains that he is making his transition from being your average inmate with no morals, to the learned activist Malcolm X. In the end, he instills upon the reader that he has obtained morals and become Malcolm X. In the two quotes "if I weren't out battling the white man," and "the worlds' white man indeed acted like devils", the reader finds out that through his reading, Malcolm X has obtained morals and by gaining such morals he has gained a purpose; the role of the civil rights activist. By putting his points of view in this specific order, the reader is given a chance to interpret his transformation from prison inmate to civil
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, told by Alex Haley, details the incredible journey of one of the most inspiration and life altering leaders the world has ever encountered. The book begins with the illustration of Malcolm’s early life experiences and ends with X predicting that he will die a violent death prior to seeing the publication of his autobiography.
In Malcom X’s “Literacy Behind Bars”, Malcom shares his journey of self-educating himself while behind bars in the Charlestown Prison. Malcom attempted to read books, but never succeeded because he struggled to understand the meaning of the words on the page in front of him. He claims that prison allowed him to study more than he would have if he had attended college. Although Malcom struggled on an intellectual level, he serves as a prime example of an individual with self-belief and self-determination which lead to great success. Personally, I can relate to Malcom X in the sense that my personal experiences with education have allowed me not only to believe in myself but also have a mindset that allows me to come to certain realizations not only about myself but also about the world around me.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told by Alex Haley is the story about a man who greatly impacted American history. Malcolm Little, or Malcolm X as he is more widely known, taught what he believed in regards to segregation, racism, and discrimination. Growing up in a large family with a father Earl Little, a Baptist minister, and his mother Louis Little, who was a homemaker, Malcolm’s life at the time seemed very promising. His father’s involvement in support of the Black National gained him many death threats at the hands of white supremacists. In 1929, they lost their house to fire, and two years later the body of Malcolm’s father was found mutilated. This lead to the emotional breakdown of Malcolm’s mother and in turn she was institutionalized. Malcolm and his siblings were separated and placed in foster homes, and from then, his life began a path of drugs, sex, and crime. It was not until he was imprisoned in 1946, that he decided to make some changes for the better. This essay will assess and discuss those changes whether negative or positive, on a micro, mezzo, and macro level. It will also cover some of the effects of racial prejudice on human behavior, and how society today keeps the ideology of Malcolm X alive.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley is an account of Malcolm X’s evolving perspective on racial justice. Malcolm X was a prominent figure in the Nation of Islam who advocated for black nationalism and separatism. The man who became one of America’s most powerful voices for African Americans was deeply affected by the terrors of racism, which shaped his view of social justice and the condemnation of the white man. The way Malcolm X narrates his experiences changes as his views on race change. At first, he wants readers to feel the destructiveness of racism, so he conveys his experiences through provocative language. When he aims to promote universal peace, he takes on a more optimistic tone. As a
Although both Richard Rodriguez and Malcolm X’s lives were profoundly impacted by becoming educated, how they acquired their education and the consequences of becoming educated were different for each author. The path that Richard Rodriguez took in his quest
Both Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass fought against racism with their education. In his early years, Malcolm X was at the top of his class yet he did not receive the same encouragements as his caucasian counterparts. In his autobiography, he depicted a scene where in his English teacher, Mr Ostrowski, said, “ Malcolm, one of life’s first needs is for us to be realistic. Don’t misunderstand me, now. We all here like, you know that. But you’ve got to be realistic about being [an African American]. A lawyer -- that’s no realistic goal for [an African American],” (X 38). While Mr Ostrowski said these things to Malcolm, he encouraged all the other children to pursue their passions. He also suggested for Malcolm to be a carpenter
In the excerpt “Learning to Read” from his 1965 Autobiography, Malcolm X argues that he had more opportunity to learn about the world and specifically black history in prison than he would have received in a formal education setting. He describes the process in which he essentially taught himself how to read and write, and how it lead to an awakening of his desire to learn everything he could through voracious reading. X illustrates to the reader the painful histories that he read about and the powerful knowledge which he gained to show that one needs little more than access to a book collection and the motivation to learn in order to become educated. This reading resonated with me as a learner whose love for independent learning often takes a backseat to the demands of academia and provides a key concept which I plan to instill in my students as a future teacher.
This quote illustrates where Malcolm X’s passion, towards advocating for minorities, may have been intensified. Malcolm X was an African-American Muslim minister and a human rights activist who, to his admirers, was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks. Moreover, this quote testifies how his education, even if it weren’t the most conventional, contributed to the level of qualification he had. The degree in which Malcolm X understood the oppression of blacks by not only being a black himself and experiencing it first