Malcom X: Learning to read

In Malcom X's excrept, learning to read; the author explores the many benefits that were incorporated into his life through reading. He dives into the deeper meanings of life through introducing his African America race and how much it suffered during the earlier years of the 1900's. He then explains about how much of his success was brought through reading, and not to mention the understanding of Britain's history while involving his race, the Asian race, and the Indian race. All of this plays a factor in how he was able to get by in prison so fast mentally while at the same time giving him peace in mind. Malcolm X details on the faulty actions of what he refers to as the "white man". He details how over 115 million african blacks, which is close to the united states population of the 1930's were either enslaved or murdered. He also takes the time to emphasize on the hypocritical history of the "white man". He mentions in his excerpt " First, always "religiously", he branded "Heathen" and "Pagan" labels upon ancient non-white cultures and civilizations. the stage thus set, he then turned upon his non-white victims his weapons of war". This has been proven to be hypocritical since, as they would preach christs teachings of being kind, meek, humble, and giving; they would do all but just that. They would go on to kill, take, manipulate and pillage almost all non-white cultures.     My reflection on Malcolm X's excrept of learning to read gave me much insight on the history of Great Britain. It also gave me a deeper understanding of what it is to be human, in addition to the many universal perspectives that give all comfort and ease. The excrept taught me that comfort and unity is found through mutual pain. I obtained this moral through recognizing the patterns of the author's writing where he introduces all the different races that have been victimized by the "white man" at one point or another. This passage also proved to me man's inevitable greed, and how they will do or use anything to get what they want; even if it means using religion as a tool. Malcolm X made valid points of this with the quote "the collective white man had been actually nothing but a piratical opportunist who used faustian machinations to make his own christianity his initial wedge in criminal conquests". This specific part of the excrept also lead me to wonder about Lewis Thomas's excrept "To Err Is Human", and how humans are able to progress through mistake. Reflecting upon that, I learned that people can learn from this; all that I had learned, and even more. Aside from moral understanding Malcolm X well established his thesis on all the benefits that are brought through reading. in addition to that he also supports his thesis by giving us an introduction to the basics of the African American race and all the mistakes that Great Britain had made during the early 1900's regarding slavery, murder, and manipulation. All together it was a very well written excrept with valid support for his thesis.

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