Malcolm X And Frederick Douglass Analysis

Literacy is a fundamental skill that all people, regardless of race or social class, need to develop in order to convey ideas and communicate them intellectually. But two hundred years ago, learning to read and write was not a privilege. During this time, and even today, many factors play a role to determine the difficulty of reaching literacy, such as the time period a person lives in and where he is raised, the color of his skin, and even what determines or denies his basic rights as a human being can restrict his education. Both Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X—African American men who are raised in societies where white men are predominant and where it is challenging for them to find a pathway to education if it is allowed in the first
Nonetheless, he ends up at a similar conclusion: Knowledge will give him the ability to assume control of a situation and to influence others with his words—not only spoken, but written as well. It is a fellow prison inmate, Bimbi, who first inspires Malcolm X. “It had really begun . . . when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge,” Malcolm X expresses. “Bimbi had always taken charge of any conversations he was in . . .” (1). Through Bimbi, by failing to imitate what the inmate did, Malcolm X finds his motivation to become literate. “As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally
Only when he decides to pursue an interest in texts on black history and slavery does he begin to piece the puzzle together, comprehending the necessity of similar literacy among black people, as well as the other minorities of the world. He uncovers the truth; and not just “slavery’s total horror,” but also how the “world’s collective white man had acted like a devil in virtually every contact he had with the world’s collective non-white man” throughout history (5). Due to the wicked procedures of the race, Malcolm X deduces the white man to be “nothing but a piratical opportunist who used Faustian machinations to make his own Christianity his initial wedge in criminal conquests” (4). Embracing the harsh reality with which he “attacked [his] ignorance,” Malcolm X stands behind the idea that the black man needs to “start thinking of himself as one of the world’s great peoples” (6). Unlike Douglass, who saw knowledge as a way for the black man to become equal to the white man, Malcolm X takes an interest in black separatism, a philosophy that will ultimately divide the white and black institutions. Douglass and Malcolm X both face their fair share of hardships while striving to educate themselves in a world that oppresses them. If they had not found an inspiration to learn, or tactically schemed to sidestep restrictions,