Carolina Gonzalez

Reading Report 1
Brandt, Deborah. Sponsors of Literacy

In this essay Sponsors of Literacy, Brandt defines sponsors as any supporter, teaching,
model, or advancement of literacy and its development in the lives of people. Throughout the
years, and within every generation, literature as a whole expands. The economy and social
movements also have to do with that expansion and change with literacy as well. Although
literacy and its sponsors are alleviating, there are misappropriations. One misappropriation
would be the church-sponsored literacy for economic and physical survival. Brandt initiates the
topic with the print shops of antebellum America in the twentieth century and how the
workshops served as incubators for literacy and political discussion. These print shops were
outmatched by steam shops, obliging these people into this new economy and forcing them to
sharpen their reading and writing skills. Literacy was derived from the sponsors of magazines,
encyclopedias, essay contests, radio, television programs, etc. It is portrayed that race, economic
living, and wealth had much of an impact on people's availability to receive sponsors. For
example, Dora Lopez and Raymond Branch were born in the same year and lived in the same
area. Yet, Lopez had less access to literacy sponsors because she was in a low-caste racial group.
Compared to Branch who was born into high-caste racial group, had generous amounts of
powerful sponsors. As we witnessed from the interviewees, literacy and the sponsors behind it
have shaped and opened plentiful opportunities to their lives. Whether it is a legalistic form of
literacy which has more powerful sponsors, that Dwayne Lowery experienced. Or Carol Whites
experience of literacy through a spiritual sponsor. To even Sarah Steele comprehension of
literacy to elevate herself and her family past the expectations of lower-middle class. Brandt
interviewed and studied these people as an aim for us to recognize literacy as a pursuit of us, and
not too much of how the economy should be the basis of our learning of literacy and its sponsors.
While reading Brandts essay, I was very captivated by the different stories of each of the
interviewees and how literacy and its sponsors changed their lives. But the one passage that
opened my conscious was Sponsorship and Access. The reason why I was attracted more to
this passage than to any of the other ones was because it spoke the truth about what we see a lot
of in our society today. Brandt mentions the statistical association between high literacy
achievement and socioeconomic and how the majority-race status commonly shows up in results
of national tests and literary performances. The primary examples Brandt used were the parallel
experiences of Raymond Branch and Dora Lopez. Both Branch and Lopez were born in the same
year and moved to the same area. The only difference was that Branch grew up in a higher class
than Lopez. Branch did not have to work as hard as Lopez did to get to where he is at. And why
so? Because Branch had more sponsors available at his feet than did Lopez.
In the first paragraph of the passage Brandt says something that made me realize how unfair
the economy is with our education. Throughout their lives, affluent people from high-caste
racial groups have multiple and redundant and contacts with powerful literacy sponsors as a
routine part of their economic and political privileges low-caste racial groups have less
politically secured access to literacy sponsors (Brandt 6). Its sad to see how race and our
economic standing defines what sponsors we receive to fulfil our education. It makes me feel
very fortunate to have the sponsors that I receive and the ones I have to work hard for.
Carolina Gonzalez
Reading Report 1
X, Malcolm. Learning to Read

In the piece of writing Learning to Read by Malcolm X, the audience is introduced to

Malcolm X in a short biography. He was born on May 19, 1925 with the name Malcolm Little.
Although he was a street hustler and was sentenced to seven years in prison for robbery,
Malcolm X grew to be one of the most influential and powerful leaders of the black community
in the 1960s. He surged as the head spokesman for black separatism that advocated the black
community to cut ties with the white community. During prison he educated himself and became
a disciple of of the founder of Islam, Elijah Muhammad. It was in prison where Malcolm X
became curious and educated about every single thing in the world. He became frustrated when
writing letters and not being able to express what he wanted to communicate through those
letters. It began when Malcolm X felt envy towards the great knowledge of his fellow inmate,
Bimbi. Malcolm X admitted how sad it was that he could not even write in a straight line nor
being able to read most words. This envy drove him to pick up a dictionary and copy every
single word onto his notebook. He learned every word and since then he could never put a book
down. He progressed onto serious reading in which he was awoken to the reality and history of
his people and how it had been whitened. It took him deep hunting in the prison library to find
books about black history. But once he did, his knowledge expanded and he was left in shock
when he read about the horrors of slavery. He was so impacted by the truths about slavery that it
became his favorite subject. Malcolm X later began reading about Occidental and Oriental
philosophy and about Chinas history with the whites, soon enough he was out of prison. After
prison he began spreading and expanding his knowledge on the American black man. Malcolm x
explains how he got so much out of prison and how drastically different his life would have been
if he would have attended a college and not prison. Thanks to prison, he had the opportunity to
attack his ignorance and become educated.
After reading this passage, I was left with a sense of irony. I was amazed by how ironic it was
that Malcolm X became immensely educated in a prison. While in prison Malcolm X learned
beyond the limit he would have learned in any school. Due to all the reading and education he
gained, ironically, he felt free. ...I never had been so truly free in my life (X 190). Who would
have thought that someone would gain remarkably amounts of knowledge in a prison. Not only
was the quantity imposing, but the quality of the information was also impressive. ...history had
been whitened- when white men had written history books, the black man had been left out
(X 191), this has to be the most truthful quote in the prompt. It made me realize how true and sad
it is that our educational system makes it almost a taboo to learn about the veracity of black
history. Not even Malcolm X knew the true history about his people. I never will forget how
shocked I was when I began reading about slaverys total horror (X 193). It becomes so evident
that the teaching of black history is so vague that black people are oblivious to their own race. To
witness the amount and standard of knowledge Malcolm X gained in prison makes me think to
myself how truly bungled and ignorant the system of education is.