The Issue and History of Illiteracy Among African Americans

The young And History Of analphabetism Among African the Statesns Becca smock Writing 123 Instructor Sydney Darby 27 whitethorn 2008 Illiteracy is a growing exhaust in the States. The U. S. Depart handst of Education funded the subject adult Literacy Survey (NALS) in 1992 that estimates over 90 trillion Americans come back salutary below an eight grade literacy aim (Rome, 2004, pp. 84). Nowhere is this tragedy to a greater extent preponderant than among the devoid African Americans. Illiteracy has perpetu alone(prenominal)y been higher among African Americans now the sally is growing even wider due to a verity of reasons.According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy prison Survey (2003), the number wizard deterrent to becoming a nefarious is having the ability to read past the 8th grade, and the number unrivaled preventive for an gyp becoming a repeat offender is to educate in literacy past the 8th grade level. Today, the definition of literacy is ba sed on what is called functional literacy. That is, someone is lite number if they argon able to function properly inside society, (Roman, 2004, pp. 81).This definition can cover a variety of skills not wholly denotation and writing still also the skills call for to process general information from ones surroundings (Roman, 2004, pp. 81). To truly catch to understand the disobliges surrounding analphabetism among African Americans you have to go back to the beginning. America saw 7. 7 million slaves trade from Africa between 1492-1820 more than half the imports of slaves took sharpen from 1700-1800 (Foner, 2006, pp. 112). By the 1830s laws were in locating to make the education of slaves illegal, thus only 10% of slaves were literate (Foner, 2006, pp. 48). At the measure slavery ended only most 10% of the African American state could read and do sums A vitally important ability in a Jim Crow society. Jim Crowism came to embody the laws, customs, and policies of segre gation (Foner, 2006, pp. 310), but more importantly the post elegant war separate but not equal mentality. The phrase from Brent Staples (2006) obligate, wherefore Slave-Era Barriers to Black Literacy remedy Matter, caught my attention as he wrote, literacy was a form of loving capital that could be passed from one times to the next. While post Civil fight America moved toward the 1880s laws were passed in the South making it legal to look into any unemployed African American and the penalties for petty crimes were vastly increased the penalisation all were sentenced to take camps (Foner, 2006, pp. 557). Labor camps it appears were created for force labor pools this is also the first extensive influx of African Americans into the penal system. African Americans were barred from Unions, participation in Democracy, and from masterly employment.Further more men and women were desperately despicable and unaffected by the laws regulating hours and conditions that labor was under (Foner, 2006, pp. 645). On the eve of humans War I, 90% of African Americans quiesce lived in the South, barred from all but the most menial, unskilled, labor and paid the concluding wages. Many African American women had to fiddle outside the home in influence to help the family survive (Foner, 2006, pp. 650). During WWI mass migration of more than 1 million African Americans took plant out of the South and into the northernmostern ghettos of natural York, Detroit, Chicago, Buffalo, and Trenton (Foner, 2006, pp. 85). Industrialization, thousands of jobs had opened in the North and many African Americans were looking for a chance at living wages, for their children to go to educate, and escape the constant fear of lynch (Foner, 2006, pp. 685). The last to enter the workforce of the alter jobs they were the first to lose them as the frugality slumped. Now instead of being throttle in the deep Southern soilside the impoverished African Americans were in ghettos acro ss Americas industrialized cities.The 1980s witnessed the deindustrialization of Union cities as thousands of African Americans lost jobs as factories closed across the Nation. The national unemployment rate of 1981 was 8. 9% but African Americans exceeded more than 20% of the total unemployment due in part to the inability to transition over to more technical jobs due to poorer education. The mid-eighties saw African American males fall further than any other collection in terms of wages and jobs (Foner, 2006, pp. 920).The eighties also saw the War on Drugs begin with new sentencing laws making prison house sentences longer and harsher for possession of much little quantities of fall in and cocaine (Foner, 2006, pp. 951). With the waning of the crack epidemic, crime rates dropped across the country however prison population be still on the rise (Foner, 2006, pp. 951). In 2000, over 2 million men were in prison with approximately 4. 2 million more on parole, or probation, conv ict labor is now in use again in several(prenominal) States (Foner, 2006, pp. 951).Among prison inmates, African American men make up more than 70%, and represents only 6% of the total US population. The common thread is most of the desolate inmates cannot read, they also are less better than their fathers had been (Nealy, 2008, pp. 21). It is estimated that as much as 70% of inmates are illiterate, and that 40-70% have not ruined a GED or high school program (Drakeford, 2002, pp. 139). The approach according to the federal spot of Prisons (2001) was $22,632 per inmate per year or $62. 01 per day. The total population under punitive supervision includes more than 7 million people, or about 3. percent of all US adults (Western, 2007, pp. 512). Research has shown that literacy is directly conjugate to lower crime rates, and that intensive education programs implemented in prisons drastically get down recidivism rates of inmates after release (Drakeford, 2002, pp. 139). The cos t of incarceration is on the rise on with prison populations it seems that Nationally we are muster ever closer to a crisis advert where the issuers of illiteracy among the African Americas especially will need to be conducted and handled appropriately.In all the query and history I cover that goes into the issue of illiteracy what has yet to address is why illiteracy is such a persistent issue among the African American males. The closest explanation comes not from a research paper but from an article by Orlando Patterson (2006), titled A want of the Mind, where the author claims in interviews with young African Americans the heart of the issue lies in the cool-pose civilisation of the young males trying to live a sustenance of parties, drugs, hanging with the homies, sexual relations, and hardly trying to looking cool becomes a way of life (pp. A). This is only a partial explanation but in searching through studies statistics, and the history of illiteracy among African A mericans Ive found the issue is as tangled as my balls of yarn. Illiteracy is an issue among African Americans especially overabundant among the prison population. Literacy is a key to unlocking the gate to a crime free life for ex-cons. As to illiteracy being the form of higher crime rates of that I have not seen any endorse for or against even though studies and research point to illiteracy being a strong indicator to future felon activity it is not an absolute.Whether the issue of illiteracy will begin to be communicate in K-12 grade, or once a young man has become incarcerated is questionable. It appears that no matter what the answer the solutions will invite support from all areas of the community in order to be successful in addressing the issue in its entirety. References Drakeford, W. (2002). The Impact of an intensifier Program to Increase the Literacy Skills of Youth throttle to Juvenile Corrections. Journal of Correctional Education, Vol. 53 Issue 4, p139-144, 6p . Retrieved April 17, 2008. from http//web. ebscohost. com Foner, E. (2006). Give ME Liberty An American History.New York W. W Norton & Company Ltd. Literacy Behind veto Results From the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Prison Survey, http//nces. ed. gov/ pothousesearch/pubsinfo. asp? pubid=2007473 Nealy, M. J. (2008). BLACK MEN go forth OUT AND LOCKED UP. Diverse Issues in high Education. Vol. 24 Issue 26, p20-22, 3p. Retrieved April 17, 2008. from http//web. ebscohost. com Patterson, O. (2006, March 26) A Poverty of the Mind. New York Times. Retrieved April 17, 2008, from http//www. nytimes. com Roman, S. ( 2004). ILLITERACY AND old(a) ADULTS INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETAL IMPLICATIONS. Educational Gerontology. Vol. 0 Issue 2, p79-93, 15p. . Retrieved April 17, 2008 from http//web. ebscohost. com Staples, B. (2006, January 1). Why Slave-Era Barriers to Black Literacy Still Matter. New York Times. Retrieved April 17, 2008, from http//www. nytimes. com U. S. Department of Jus tice (2001) federal Bureau of Prisons, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Special Report. Retrieved May 15, 2008. http//www. ojp. usdoj. gov/bjs/pub/ascii/spe01. txt Western, B. (2007). Mass Imprisonment and Economic Inequality. amicable Research, Vol. 74 Issue 2, p509-532, 24p. Retrieved April 17, 2008 from http//web. ebscohost. com