Summary
Richard Wright’s “The Library Card” clarifies historical obstacles to african american literacy. For African Americans in Wright's day, institutional racism, segregation, and restricted access to educational resources constituted formidable challenges. For example, african american access to public libraries was frequently restricted or they were given subpar resources and facilities. There are many different ways that literacy can be used as a hegemonic tool frequently used by dominant groups in a community. The term "hegemony" describes how one dominating group shapes the views, values, and actions of other groups through social, cultural, political, and economic influence. While taking the literacy test, I realized how simple minded those questions were and how little they expected of a colored person back then when it came to literacy. In order to advance equality for the Black and African-American communities in the US, systemic problems must be addressed, and numerous layers of positive change must be advocated for. The argument in the article title “With COVID, the African-American Literacy Crisis will get much worse”? Is insinuating that with covid the african american literacy crisis will only get worse probably due to online schooling or other factors that may be involved. The article also talks about the lack of accessibility to computers or wifi in low income communites “With COVID, the African-American Literacy Crisis will get much worse”? States “ Education is supposed to have moved online, but for the many students who don’t have Internet access, learning has simply come to a halt. African-American students are more likely to be missing out on instruction during this pandemic, since they’re more likely to lack the connectivity needed for remote schooling than their White peers. They’re also more likely to be struggling with literacy. “
