White people use literacy as a hegemonic tool against Blacks/African Americans. One example of this is the Louisiana Voter literacy Test in 1964, which caused Black/African Americans to be unable to vote. Another example of how literacy is used as a hegemonic tool is in “The Library Card” where black people were not able to buy books solely because of their race.
My experience with the Louisiana Voter Literacy test was kind of confusing because the questions were worded in a way that confused me. It was easy for me at first, I just had to read the questions carefully. Question 2 was the easiest question to answer. The question asked to “Draw a line under the last word of this line”. The question was self explanatory and the last word was “line” which made it very easy to understand. Question 13 was the most difficult question for me. The question was: “In the line below cross out each number that is more than 20 but less than 30”
31 16 48 29 53 47 22 37 98 26 20 25
The question was very difficult to comprehend. I was slowly understanding the question because I had more time to read it and answer it to the best of my ability.
I believe this is a difficult question to answer because an answer like “giving Black / African American easy access to resources” is not as simple as it sounds. Put into Szwed’s words we need to understand “what the community wishes are”. Based on that information we would know what type of resources to provide.
One argument made in the article “With Covid, the African American Literacy Crisis Will Get Much Worse” is that schools are failing to teach Black / African American Students. During the pandemic, most students didn’t have access to the resources needed for online learning. The article mentions that this will lead to low literacy levels and low literacy levels will obstruct a kid’s success in college, career, and life.
