“Learning to Read” by Malcolm X

In Learning to Read, Malcolm X, one of the most articulate and powerful leaders of black America during the 1960s, describes his struggle of self-education while being incarcerated. Malcolm X composed his journey of self-in order to convey the message that the reader should strive to look for more than what is taught to them by the public school system, to, in a way, look outside the box.

The three portions of the rhetorical triangle, to analyze Learning to Read, are the audience, author, and text (sometimes referred to as the argument). In Learning to Read, the main audience is comprised of those who are being educated by the public school system. The author of Learning to Read is, simply, Malcolm X. Malcolm X was one of the most eloquent and influential African-American leaders during the heated 1960 segregation period of America. He was noted as being the leading spokesman for black separatism, a philosophy that urged African-Americans to cut political, communal, and financial ties with the white community; in other words, meaning that African-Americans should diverge from being part of White America. He became an orthodox Muslim in 1964 and was assassinated in 1965. The text (or argument) of the work was to persuade the targeted audience that they should strive to look for more than what is taught to them by the public school system. Malcolm X chose to present this text due to the fact that he was self-educated during his stay in prison.

Context is defined as the larger textual and cultural environment in which specific rhetorical acts take place. This means that while Malcolm X was incarcerated, there were larger events affecting his perception. As Malcolm X taught himself to read, the racial events in America were very heated. The animosity that Malcolm X had toward the Anglo-Americans showed in Learning to Read. One example of Malcolm Xs despise of whites is when he states, Book after book showed me how the white man had brought upon the worlds black, brown, red, and yellow peoples every variety of the suffering of exploitation (X 248). After being in the dark for so long concerning the truth about racism, Malcolm X was shocked after reading about how the white man had brought about a large amount of misery to every other race.

This fueled the need to stress black separatism and the need for African-Americans to separate themselves from White America.Another example of Malcolm Xs loathsome attitude toward the Anglo-Americans is concerning the Opium War in China. Malcolm X talks of white Christian traders who sent millions of pounds of opium into China. By 1839, so much of the Chinese population was addicted to opium that the Chinese government had to destroy twenty thousand pounds of the drug. Due to this event, the white Christian traders declared war against China. Imagine! Declaring war upon someone who objects to being narcotized!

The Chinese were severely beaten, with Chinese-invented gunpowder (X 249). This statement shows the irony that Malcolm X perceived the white man acted out. Not only did they attack an addicted country, but they did it with the countrys own weapon. Not only did this occur, but the Treaty of Nanking forced the Chinese to pay the British for the destroyed opium, opened the Chinese ports to British trade, forced the Chinese to abandon the city of Hong Kong, made the Chinese import tariffs so low that cheap British goods flooded in, which severely hurt the Chinese industrial development. This event in history only furthered Malcolm Xs push for black separatism.

I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive (X 250). This statement by Malcolm X relates to the context of education in the United States. In Rereading America, a section entitled Learning Power, tracked the progression of education in the United States from the Puritan society to the present. As the requirements moved from stressing moral and religious training to the current requirements of modern education, so did the context of education in the United States did.

Additionally, Malcolm X, nearing the end of his work, stated that, I imagine that one of the biggest troubles with colleges is there are too many distractions, too much panty-raiding, fraternities, and boola-boola and all of that. Where else but a prison could I have attacked my ignorance by being able to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day? (X 251). Simply meaning that he was unimpressed with the current education system. He argued that his ability to learn would be severely impeded by the distractions that the public education system offers.

In Rereading Americas opening section, the reader is presented with an explanation of cultural myths as our ability of accepting certain ways of looking at the world, and always of thinking and being. Malcolm X provided a specific instance of the context of these cultural myths in saying that, And I read the histories of various nations, which opened my eyes gradually, then wider and wider, to how the whole worlds white men had indeed acted like devils, pillaging and raping and bleeding and draining the whole worlds non-white people (X 248). The books that Malcolm X read instilled certain cultural myths in the judging of the Anglo-Americans, which influenced his learning bias. He felt that he could not have learned such things while being educated in public schools.

These instances helped the reader situate Malcolm Xs project statement of the targeted audience should strive to look for more than what is taught to them by the public school system. The information provided by Malcolm X was presented in order to open the eyes of the audience to have more experience in the larger context, meaning the current situation in America. I dont think anybody ever got more out of going to prison than I did (X 251). His ability to be self-educated proved far more satisfying to him rather than being educated in the syllabus-and-requirement driven public school system.

References:

Works CitedColombo, Gary et al. Rereading America, 6th. ed. Bedford/St. Martins. New York: 2004.

X, Malcolm. Learning to Read. Colombo, Gary et al. 243-251.