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Stereotypes Of Frederick Douglass: An American Through Education

674 Words3 Pages

In the wise words of Malcolm X, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” Education is the act of giving and receiving valuable information. Education leads to advanced knowledge and improves one's life choices by providing important experiences. Literacy is key to expanding knowledge and gaining the ability to self-express. Education is an important instrument that empowers individuals to break free from unfortunate situations, as well as challenge stereotypes they may be faced with.
Education offers freedom to individuals trying to escape adverse conditions. Among other situations, adverse conditions might include slavery or incarceration. In the case of Frederick Douglass, an American …show more content…

One stereotype that education challenges is that of the “dumb Indian”. For example, Sherman Alexie grew up on an Indian reservation where the children were “expected to be stupid” (Alexie 107), and the majority of the children fulfilled those expectations. Alexie sought to break through these stereotypes and educated himself by reading comic books, especially Superman. He displayed an exceptional level of dedication to his pursuit of literacy, as he states in his autobiography that he “read books late into the night, until [he] could barely keep his eyes open” (107). Alexie defeated the stereotype of the dumb Indian and became a renowned writer. Similarly, when Malcolm X was in junior high school, he was faced with the stereotype that “becoming a lawyer was unrealistic for an African American” (99). He turned to a life of crime and ended up in prison. While in prison, Malcolm X sees a fellow inmate and envies his knowledge. Because of Malcolm’s situation, he decided that he should use his free time to educate himself. Once being released from prison, because of his education, people would “think [he] went to school beyond the eighth grade” (96). He went on to become an American Muslim minister, and was a vocal supporter for black empowerment, defeating the stereotype of African Americans not having promising

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No one had advanced faster than Frederick Douglass during the era of self-made man in American. He defied the laws of Maryland by learning how to read and write, after all Frederick owner’s wife was his teacher along with other Caucasian children (Fonder, 395). Fredrick’s life would be different from slaves, he worked as a skill craftsman and a house servant before working the field of a plantation. So, Fredrick Douglass soon faced many floggings to break his self-determine and free spirit. Instead of oppressing his spirit, Fredrick became more determine to pursue a new career.

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Here, Douglass expresses his sadness of the fact that slave owners would refuse the education to any slave, claiming that it would just damage the slave even more. This was just one way of eliminating any possibility of a slave to try to compete against a slave

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Malcolm X was a prominent African American civil rights leader and activist during the late 1900s. Prior to his role as a civil rights trailblazer, Malcolm X was an inarticulate hustler who was sentenced to ten years in prison on burglary charges. It was in prison that Malcolm X had acquired a taste for education and he could not stop yearning for more; as a result, he began to study tirelessly. Throughout “a Homemade Education”, Malcolm X appeals to one’s sense of ethics, logic, and emotion by utilizing his own personal experiences to stress that everyone should educate themselves and thus gather an understanding about the world. When in prison Malcolm X had attempted to emulate a man named Bimbi, a fellow prison mate whom he had looked up

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In “A Homemade Education,” Malcolm X expresses that reading and increasing your knowledge is extremely important and that it has helped him understand black history and slavery. Malcolm X was very frustrated with himself because he could not convey what he wanted to say when it came to writing simple English. Many people, who have heard Malcolm X on television or read something he wrote, would have thought that he had obtained an education “beyond the eight grade” (1). Malcolm X claims that this impression of him is a result of him studying during his prison sentence. It began when he met a man named Bimbi in the Charlestown Prison, where he felt as if he was far less knowledgeable than him.

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In fact, he argues that slavery and education are polar opposites. He works towards making himself free by expanding his understanding through reading. While still determined to physically escape, Douglass recognizes that education allows him to escape his situation even when enslaved. Douglass believes that his mind can be free even when his body is not. At some points, Douglass worries that, “I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing.

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