Fight against oppressors with literacy

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As a woman with disabilities, I thought of ways that life is almost impossible to obtain. Much of life depends on what is unavailable. Can I work at work if I don’t take a break (help prevent seizures)? Can I participate in this event? (Is it possible to walk? Is there a cover policy?) If I can attend, can I attend it alone (in an emergency)? Can I take the bus (because I can’t drive due to a seizure)? etc. However, one inaccessible language I noticed this year is the inaccessible language. Especially in our literacy as a country.

News and inaccessible languages

The New York Times released the best books of the 21st century last year. My partner was also a reader, so we browsed the list together to see how much we read. I will read the title, the author and the clips provided. Every day, I’m glad that there are only 20 books because I’m getting more and more frustrated.

I love flowers, long, grand language, and I do. I like this language of existence and believe there is a place here. Nevertheless, as a kid, I was told that newspapers could have been accessible to more people. But between paywall and the language used, I found that news has become More difficult to access. For the best book list, the descriptions I read are overwhelmingly frustrating. I kept thinking, “Why don’t you describe this more simply?” Then I noticed it again and again. Throughout the year, I saw world news, politics and other types of stories in difficult to access language.

One of the comedians I followed recently posted a link to a quiz to tell you where you are in the political arena, followed by a commentator who posted a deeper quiz. I took the quiz and was just confused by a lot of languages. After that, my partner had heard about a partner who had used a lot of phrases before, and took a quiz with me, and I realized that I said “yes” to what I could have said no, and vice versa. This makes my results biased because I’ve been pieced together what I think is the problem and is far from the foundation.

In a country where 54% of adults have lower literacy levels than 6th grade, why don’t we discuss important information in daily language? Why do newspapers hide behind pay walls? Why do they use languages ​​that 54% of adult populations may encounter?

Traditional literacy is the basis for how we receive and process information. Manipulate them with information they cannot handle thoroughly. Trevor Noah jokes about how great the right brand must be. When you first hear the word “Pro-Life”, if you don’t know what it means, you might think “OK, I’m certainly a biological child!” But when you understand what “biological life” really means, your opinion may change.

The same thing happened to “all life matters”. My gramps have heard it used in the news and thought it was a good phrase that explains how we unite and take care of each other…until my grandma explained how it used Black Lives and how we claimed that all life wasn’t important when Black Lives are systematically attacked.

Literacy provides us with language to explain and understand these things. Higher literacy provides us with a stronger foundation, especially when we view the way we receive news and information. Higher traditional literacy ensures that we have what we need to build media literacy.

The phrase I hear (or read) is usually “media literacy is dead”, but people usually don’t explain what they mean. Media literacy is our ability to observe different media information and analyze or evaluate them. Do you remember the teacher said that Wikipedia would not be used as the source of the report? Do you know how Google and Apple Map change their maps to read “America Bay”? We are using media literacy skills when we ask key questions about the media showing us. They are very important to ensure that we avoid manipulation and avoid being vulnerable to the impact. However, media literacy is a skill that we must teach.

My dad taught me media literacy through the movement. Every year, my dad reads the “Things You Need to Know Before Drafting” post by author Matthew Berry, who always starts the same way (using different players). He would hype a player and show positive stats that make you think “I have to put them on my team.” He would then show you the statistics for another player, which sounds like the last person you want to draft. Usually, they are either a) the same person or b) the active players are very unpopular, while the negative players are All-Star talents. As he said in his 2024 version: “You know, I can make the stats say anything I want. Literally, anything I want… can go up and down any player I want. I just have to choose the right stats for the job.”

I read Berry’s teenage article for the first time and it has been bothering me. If the statistics or facts are there, you can rotate them. A concept that was absolutely terrible to me because I realized it included the news I was taught to be just.

My grandparents and I saw very different coverage of the protests in 2020, because we have different sources of news. They watched local news channels and I scrolled on social media. They saw the police saying how the riots were out of control and I watched a video of the police firing bullets on the peace organizer. I read first-hand accounts when police fired rubber bullets in the press, once blinded journalist Linda Tirado. Tirado lost her left eye and filed a lawsuit with the Minneapolis Police Department and is currently dead due to a rubber bullet.

I don’t understand why my grandparents, who raised people who have the values ​​I do, did not see the police who I do. It wasn’t until I sat down to watch their news that I realized they didn’t actually see what I did. I showed the story of my grandma Tirado, along with videos of other protesters. I showed her her last minute curfew to lure protesters. Although my grandparents still watch and trust the news, after that, my grandmother criticized them more. She would ask me what I was not seeing her, she would listen. At the same time, she also reminded me to make sure I feel lasting about getting all the information from social media.

Social media can be a powerful tool, but that doesn’t mean it’s unprofitable. Just look at the changes in Twitter after Elon Musk bought it and turned it into X. Media literacy means watching critically anywhere we get news or media. It includes asking yourself questions when influencers promote brands and sell them to you, like health brands. ((Hey, she By Emily Lynn Paulson covers MLMS often targets mothers looking for communities and shares the strategies they use to do so. )

Media literacy includes asking yourself questions even when interacting with the FBC, even in this post. “What do we know about the FBC? What do we know about NOX?” We hope you ask yourself these questions. Build those media literacy skills!

Literacy statistics

The gender gap in global literacy levels is 7.3%, and the overall literacy rate among men is higher than that of women. As the National Institute of Literacy said,34% Adults who lack literacy are born outside the United States. “When you look at the demographics of the highest adult literacy rate (New Hampshire) and lowest adult literacy rate (California), or the countries with the highest child literacy rate (Massachusetts) and the lowest child literacy rate (New Mexico) (New Mexico) have higher literacy rates than literacy rates. In California, although $30,000 more than the wealthy people in New Hampshire.

This is the data I can easily get. Many states do not collect data. However, it is clear that illiteracy has a disproportionate impact on communities in color and low-income communities. It’s a relevance that won’t be noticed when you think literacy can give people access to information they’ve never had. The U.S. Treasury Department has an article about racial inequality that begins in 2022 from 2022. In it, they said: “While discussions on racial inequality in the United States are often concentrated on economic inequality, racial inequality is also manifested in many ways, and together affects the well-being of all Americans. educateemployment, housing, mobility, health, incarceration rate, etc. “The focus is on my own color community and should not have access to less educational resources.

Literacy as social justice

When I was in third grade, my teacher told us that our reading test scores were used to predict how many prison beds we would need when we were 18 years old. It turns out to be a myth, but as the Central Literacy says, there is a correlation between literacy levels and incarceration levels. There is a history of literacy tests used to deprive blacks of their right to vote, which is nearly impossible to pass. Literacy is a social justice issue.

Since most of the literate populations in the country are white and/or men, white supremacist patriarchy will prefer languages ​​that other populations cannot access. Perhaps that’s why only 22 of our 50 states passed laws on the readability of voting measures. Rhode Island is the latest in this language, and it is necessary to “…just calculate the understanding of the eighth grade reading level”. This is a start, but again, more than half of adults in the country have lower literacy levels than in sixth grade, rather than in eighth grade.

We are making progress, but we have more to do. When accessing information, we need to improve our literacy.

what can I do?

Fighting bans can help you read! The lack of access to reading materials, especially those that readers can relate to, makes it less likely that readers will pick up the book. It also challenges areas where books can be used. Last year, the Idaho Library was merely a response to the state’s new laws. Fighting these laws ensures that more books can be used by everyone.

Namle has a list of questions about interacting with the media! Use them to build media literacy skills!

We need more literacy materials for older students and adults. Trying to build your literacy skills and view everything targeting young students has to be frustrating. If you are able to create them, or see anything, make sure to share them!

Become a reading tutor! Organizations like Reading Partners and South-Central Literacy provide you with the training and materials you need. If you cannot volunteer, you can donate to these and other organizations, such as the space and media literacy of reading now so that they can continue to support literacy.

At times like this, it is easy to become overwhelmed or think we are powerless. However, we can use literacy tools to continue doing things and support others.