“Micro-Activity # 3: Malcolm X”

Quote 1: “I suppose it was inevitable that 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. Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened.” -Malcom X

Response: Malcom knew that he wasn’t someone who was able to understand literature because his vocabulary wasn’t as great as someone who had more education than what he did. He took the time that he spent in jail to make himself better and to be able to understand what books were trying to say when being read. He did dedicate a lot of time as he was learning and he knew that it wouldn’t come easy because he himself was his own teacher. He took the challenge on his own besides having the challenge already of being in jail and he converted it into something good.

Quote 2: “Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois gave me a glimpse into the black people’s history before they came to this coun­try. Carter G. Woodson’s Negro History opened my eyes about black em­pires before the black slave was brought to the United States, and the early Negro struggles for freedom.”

Response: Malcom was learning a lot just with the vocabulary, but he did take it upon himself to learn more about his people and the struggles that they faced. He was getting more insights by reading books from people that had gone through the experiences and shared them with people. His curiosity led him to discover who were the brave leaders that were fighting back against slavery.

Quote 3: ” Not even Elijah Muhammad could have been more eloquent than those books were in providing indisputable proof that the collective white man had acted like a devil in virtually every contact he had with the world’s col­lective non-white man.”

Response: With Malcom educating himself more on the things that were done by the “white man” and he did want other people to know about it. In a way we can interpret this as Malcom knowing how it’s like to not be well educated and being able to understand things so he wanted other people to become educated. Malcom realized that education is a powerful tool he was able to educate himself in every area that he can possibly educate himself on. With education being something powerful he wanted people to know the same things as well and he wanted to spread his knowledge to other people so that they can conquer barriers as well.