Malcolm X Reading

Summary
Malmcolm X's article is mainly about that hope that he found from his writing/reading in prison and throughout his religious journeys. He discusses the comfort and the revelations he felt due ot the writing/reading he experienced and how it molded him to be so open minded.

Questions For Discussion 1-4, 6
1. I believe his intended audience is the American public because of the way he discusses American history. I think he wanted to aim it at the American public so that people understood in a first-hand account of what went on during his lifetime.
2. Malcolm X defined literacy as simply being motivated to learn and to better yourself through reading and writing. He considered his reason to read, as motivation to read even more. He needed to read to get ahead, and to educate himself, which only drove him to want to read even more.
3. Malcolm X's literacy sponsors include religion, educators, politicians and the pressure/need to spread equality. I believe the American public was his greatest motivation- he saw the need to spread equality and to educate the public about equality, and he knew before this could happen, he had to educate himself.
4. People tend to underestimate the power of their literacy sponsors because they don't always understand that the sponsors are such a force in their lives. I do not believe this was ever the case with Malmcolm X because he read because he was always conscious of the reasons and the pressure he was under to keep himself educated and to keep reading and learning and studying and writing.
6. At the time, this claim may have been accurate. If this claim was to be made today, I believe it definitely would still hold true, even stronger. I believe the amount college students read per day, has decreased in the past few decades. The motivations I have to read include what i need to read for class, what I want to read for leisure (the newspaper) and the research I opt to do for my assignments.

My Own Thoughts
I liked this article because it applied what we learned about literacy sponsors to a read life situation/something that actually happened in American history. And especially because it really shows what African-Americans had to do to get ahead and to pull themselves to the literacy levels of the people they were protesting. The people pushing for equality not only had to provide logical and strong arguments for their case, they had to educate themselves on how to make these claims- this is a part of history that isn't thought about a lot. I really liked how this article pulled the literacy/literacy sponsor side of it into the readers knowledge and appreciation.