Tyler Peaster - If you Don't Read, you Can't Write, so Stop Dreaming.

If you Don't Read, you Can't Write, so Stop Dreaming

#1 Pg 171

“If you don’t read, you can’t write, and if you can’t write, you might as well stop dreaming.” This is a quote from a retired teacher named Miss Bessie to a young black boy named Carl T. Rowan during the Jim Crow segregation times. Miss Bessie did not want Carl to suffer the same fate many of the other young black children would face, a life of poverty. But what does this quote truly mean?

To understand this quote, we must understand the context of the quote. When the North won the Civil War in the United States, they abolished slavery. However, not all white people in the Southern states believed black and white people were equal, so there was segregation. There were black children only schools, and they were usually not the best. Due to segregation, many black children were doomed to a life of poverty. Miss Bessie tried her best with her students to make sure this would not happen to them. 

In this quote, and in general, reading means knowledge. People learn a lot from books. White people in the south often seen black people as inferior due to their lack of knowledge, even though it was white people not allowing them to have opportunities to gain knowledge. If you couldn’t read, you could not gain knowledge, and if you have little knowledge, you are seen as inferior. This means others are less likely to hire you for higher level jobs, which leads to poverty.

Within this quote, writing means showing your knowledge. The reason you gain knowledge is to use it. Having knowledge makes others see you as respectable and equal, even if you were black during the times of segregation. Using your knowledge allows you to get higher-end jobs, which keeps you out of poverty and most of the stereotypes associated with it.

The “Dream” is to not be in poverty and to be seen as equal even though you were a colored person in segregation times. If you don’t read, you cannot gain knowledge. If you don’t read, you cannot write, which means you cannot use or spread your knowledge. If you don’t have knowledge or can’t spread it, you can stop dreaming.