Guest Blogger Dennis Boatwright’s Visit With A Black Elder

The inability to read and write keeps many members of our black communities from knowing what they are rights and privileges they are entitled to. It also limits their ability and actions about how to strategically and forcefully demand those rights and privileges. Another negative limitation of this inability to read and write with comprehension is how it silences their voices politically in society. It is almost as if they become invisible, isolated from the rest of the world around them. Many of these individuals struggle with a basic understanding or simple understanding of national and world events that affect their daily lives. Ignored and shutout by institutions that control those events because those institutions understand that with that knowledge these individuals are no threat to the status quo that minimizes change. This morning a friend of mind speaks knowledge to power to why we all must ensure that everyone has the ability to gain those skills to read and write effectively, thanks Dennis Samuel Boatwright II


#universalblackliteracy

Last night I went to Barnes & Nobles in Ann Arbor, MI to buy OPEN SEASON, a newly released book authored by famed Trayvon Martin attorney, Ben Crump. While searching for the book I bumped into an incredible 82 year old retired elder African American man who was obvious very educated an in tuned with world affairs. He's the only person I know that has read every book I happened to mention to him. He was polite, yet serious. He told me at the end of our conversation that this was his third time ever having a pleasurable discussion with a total stranger. I found out that he was a former prevost of a major university, and has post doctorates in physics and economics. Before we departed, I asked him if he could recommend just one book for me to read, what would it be? He said that back in the 70s he used to carry three books in his brief case at all times,one of which is the book EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS AND THE MADNESS OF CROWDS, written in 1841. He then said, they have it here, "I'll buy it for you." It is a classic eye opening book which gives readers an idea on why we hold certain beliefs, why we are willing to spend so much on diamonds, etc.Our encounter was the second time I ever met such an intelligent fellow who had a positive impact on my thinking in such a short time span.