The most important idea in the excerpt of Malcolm X’s autobiography is the idea of becoming a literate person. His descriptive approach to desiring to gain knowledge of words that would make him articulate.
A connection that stands out between this small reading and my current research about Literacy is the fact that we as people are in charge of what we learn. We hold a power to decide for ourselves, in terms of literacy, to being literate, learn to be articulate, maintain a discourse with someone or a group that understands our ideas in a precise way. It is not to say that because Malcolm only knew to speak the language of the streets, he wasn’t involved in a particular type of language, it is to say that we can acquire/dominate more than one particular type of discourse. it opens one’s mind to newer perspectives and allows us to start making realizations of our own. For my research in particular, making the literacy gap between high school to college readiness disappear still goes a long road ahead to go. But their is this particular idea of power that we hold when being literate, wherever one may fall