The Example X
Since time immemorial, people have gone through a lot of crisis and difficulties that changed the path of the world either in a positive, or a negative way. One of the most significantfeatures of change throughout history of humankind was the African American Civil RightsMovement; the movement was carried on the shoulders of a large number of people. One of those people was Malcolm X, who made himself of no reputation. Despite the fact that Malcolm X did not have a good school education, Malcolm X was an eloquent speaker whose abilities of controlling debates were brilliant. Malcolm X wrote an article that described how hard he worked on himself in order to be a good reader and a better writer, his article was inspirationalfor many people. A summary of Malcolm X’s literacy narrative, and some benefits and lessons that can be learned out of his article, and analyzing Malcolm’s voice and trends will be the focus of this essay.
In the article “Learning to Read” that was written by Malcolm X he talked about how he taught himself how to read and write, and how he began to look for truth and gained knowledge through analyzing different sources. Malcolm X’s literacy trip began when he was at the prison,he realized that he was neither articulate nor functional at writing; thus he feared not to be able to express his emotions and clarify his thoughts. So he realized the problem and tried to solve it bychoosing random books and reading them, yet; he also could not quite understand what was written in those books due to his poor word base. Then Malcolm saw that the best idea to improve his word base was getting hold of a dictionary. So he asked the North Prison Colony School for one and he got it, he started to copy each word in each page respectively, then memorizing them as long as he can so his skills can be increasingly developed. It took him allday long only to copy the first page, and it took him more to memorize them especially because there were a lot of English words that he had never heard. As he studied the dictionary he also learned a lot about life and culture; Malcolm X said “I also learned of people and places and events from history” (Malcolm X, 69). Soon Malcolm X started to see the differences, he wrote “as my word-base broadened, I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying” (Malcolm X, 69). Learning and reading in prison was not quite easy, Malcolm had some problems in reading at night because of the lights being cut at 10 p.m. by the prison administration, so the only way he could read was through a glow which was cast by a corridor light. Also, Malcolm explained how he used to feign sleep between a time and another to avoid having troubles with the guards who past the rooms every hour.
Malcolm X moved to talk about some knowledge he gained, and some truth he found through reading books. Malcolm X wrote that Mr. Muhammad stressed how history had been “whitened” when white men had written history books, and how black people had been left out. As Malcolm X started reading books about black history, most of the books that Malcolm X mentioned in his article were about black and white people conflict. As an example, he talked a little bit about the New York Times reporter Arnold Toynbee and some of his famous sayings and writings; Toynbee said “Africa was the only continent that produced no history” (Malcolm X, 71). Moreover, Malcolm X spoke about the African slaves and describe that with the words “The world’s most monstrous crime, the sin and the blood on the white men’s hands, are almost impossible to believe” (Malcolm X, 71). He continued to talk about American black men “The American black man is the world’s most shameful case of minority oppression”. Malcolm Xmoved then to talk about how all of the world’s white men ended acting like devils as he claimed, he gave an example of the Chinese Opium War with the United Kingdom, he said “The first Opium War was promptly declared by the white man. Imagine! Declaring war upon someone who objects to being narcotized!”(Malcolm X, 73). At the end he admitted that education helped him a lot in his life and that he would not stop learning and looking for justice and freedom; a writer asked this question when he was in London “What is your alma mater?” Malcolm’s answer was “Books, you will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I’m not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man”.(Malcolm X,74)
When Malcolm wrote about some readings he had done, it was obvious that all he thought about was taking the dignity of African American people back after years of slavery and humiliation, Malcolm sounded very strict about his issue. I believe that Malcolm saw the African American issue as the most important subject to talk about since he was saying “you will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I’m not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man”(Malcolm X, 74). Also, he pointed his fingers to white people remindingthem of the sins they have done to the humanity; he supported his accusations with a lot of examples. For instance as he was talking about the African American history he wrote “the sin and the blood on the white men’s hands, are almost impossible to believe”. (Malcolm X, 71) He also talked about the Opium war that happened between China and the United Kingdom, and how selfish the British were when they put their own self benefit ahead of millions of Chinese’s lives, “Imagine! Declaring war upon someone who objects to being narcotized!”. (Malcolm X, 73).
Malcolm X stated some arguments or what he saw as facts against white people as a counter attack for the prevailing thoughts about black people at that time in America. One of the points that shocked me as a “white” reader was when Malcolm said “the whole word’s white men had indeed acted like devils” (Malcolm X, 70)! I think that Malcolm had extremelyexaggerated by saying that, that quote means that there has not been any good in white people in another word. Even though a lot of the bloody wars in the history were created by white people, it is not fair to generalize violence about the peaceful side of white people. Malcolm as a Muslim, he should have remembered what Allah said in Quran that no one bears the burden of another. Another point that stopped me in Malcolm’s article was the amount of words he used to split people into colors and races. I understand that Malcolm struggled a lot because of the racism at that time, but to solve the problem you must not fall at the same problem. Malcolm used words like white and black men in several places, also, he said “you will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I’m not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man”.(Malcolm X,74). All those type of words he used is like pouring oil on the fire, it makes the problem bigger when the two sides of the issue are using races words against each other, Malcolm should have used words that help him alleviate the controversy.
As reading the above, you can see several qualities in Malcolm X, I think his journey isinspirational for hopeless people to stand up again after a fall, or even for successful people to keep up the good work. He got arrested and went to prison for a long time, but he did not give up on life. On the contrary, he started learning in prison, and he taught himself despite the poor environment around him. People can learn from this story that when they fall they can stand back stronger, that endpoints could also be new points to start. Malcolm was looking for the truth, he defended a whole group of people and fought for their independence. He admitted that he was an ignorant person, but he worked hard on himself, taught himself, did not give up. He studied every word in the dictionary, and he read a verity of books. He had an issue to stand on, he did,and he succeeded. He left us with a life model to follow, he represented the hope for a lot of people since he made himself out of no reputation.
Works Cited
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References
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Malcolm X. "Learning to Read and Write." Reading for ENG 100. Boston: Bedford/st, n.d. 68-74. Print.
Written by/ Abdullah Alrefaie
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