Post 8

According to Deborah Brandt’s “Sponsors of Literacy,” a literary sponsor is a person or institution that provides opportunity or guidance to someone in the hopes of benefiting in return either directly or indirectly. This relationship requires no sense of altruism. The main purpose for the sponsor’s involvement with the reader is to make him or herself look better.

Malcolm X encountered many sponsors in his attempt to become literate. While in prison, he was motivated to learn how to read and write out of envy toward a person named Bimbi’s “stock of knowledge.” Malcolm wanted to be able to express himself effectively, and the only way to do so was to learn English skills.

His main sponsors after Bimbi’s influence were Elijah Muhammad and the prison system. X admired Muhammad’s literature very deeply. Coming from an oppressive society toward minorities, it further inspired him to actively participate in the black power movement. The prison could be considered a sponsor because it supplied him with the materials to learn how to read with the belief that it would turn him into a more educated and law-abiding citizen upon his release.

X lived during a very discriminatory time when African Americans were being treated horribly. X’s race and low socioeconomic standing contributed to his eventual prison sentence. It was through these circumstances that he became literate. Also, the materials that he chose to read were materials that challenged the status quo and white superiority. This influence drastically affected X’s perception toward societal and cultural morals and obligations.

X’s sponsors constrained his literacy acquisition through being the products of an oppressive society. The prison industrial complex and teachings by such leaders as Muhammad operated due to injustices in racial equality. X was led to learn the atrocities perpetrated by white society and formulate opinions based on writing from the opposition. This relationship compelled X to become so vocalized in his attempt to correct these injustices.