In life you cannot escape the importance of reading and writing, it's used in your everyday life. But writing freely might be able to help you feel like there's nothing to hold back and that's how I feel. A significant moment in my educational journey regarding reading for writing occurred during my senior year in African American History class when my football coach and then teacher challenged me to educate myself better through words by reading the Mis-education of the Negro.
The novel the Mis-Education of the Negro was a challenging read, but it taught me valuable life lessons about being a young black man in America. The relevance of the issues discussed in the book today, concerning education of any color should begin with the people themselves. African-Americans won't be able to build upon their strengths if they aren't made aware of it through education, which will leave them far behind. Through reading it I came upon the alleged curse in the bible on black people, Genesis 9:18-27. Many people have used this text to justify themselves and other's prejudice against people of African descent. This has been widely used to claim divine sanction for slavery and segregation, with this passage being unknown and not familiar with details it is time the misunderstanding of this passage come to an end.
Reading this book helped and challenged me to express myself through words. This skill will be needed throughout life. For example, in chapter seven my football coach and then teacher had us write chapter summaries about thoughts on the book. He often gave us feedback on our summaries which we discussed in class. So the question becomes is the black church a pattern of the white Man's church. "Have black churches become the dumping ground for uneducated people carrying the bible, you be the judge," as stated in chapter seven of the novel entitled Dissension and Weakness. The book mentions how in the past African-Americans have been mis-educated based on training and how the educated Negro has inherited his religion from the early white Methodists and Baptists, who evangelized the readily- made inferior classes of slaves and the poor whites.