“It was because of my letters that I happened to stumble upon starting to acquire some kind of a homemade education.
I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote, especially those to Mr. Elijah Muhammad. In the street, I had been the most articulate hustler out there — I had commanded attention when I said something. But now, trying to write simple English, I not only wasn’t articulate, I wasn’t even functional. How would I sound writing in slang, the way I would say it, something such as “Look, daddy, let me pull your coat about a cat, Elijah Muhammad — “
Malcolm would write letters to his muslim friend Muhammad and would obtain his own education/knowledge through that. He became angry with himself because he could not express himself through the letters. Malcolm was known among his group of hustlers as a well spoken hustler but, when it came to reading and writing he failed at it. Malcolm was also concerned about how people around him would react to him talking in slang. How he would sound to people starting off by saying “ Yo man, let me tell you about this cool dude, Elijah Muhammad.
I like how you annotate and explain it.
Excellent!