According to Scribner, there are three metaphors of literacy: adaptation, state of grace, and power. All of these metaphors have their own unique significance; however, I find the analogy of literacy as a projection of power to be the most prevalent extension of literacy in used in our society — especially in our current political climate.
Literacy allows people to comprehend, interpret, and engage with texts. That being said, those who are literate have significant power over those who are not. For instance, literacy helps us navigate society, it leads to social change and is vital to economic and political advancement. The recent presidential election is a good example of this concept. Trump used social media — more specifically, Twitter — as his main platform for reaching his supporters. Our society has grown to rely on social media as our main form of communicating and Trump took advantage of this new form literacy to promote his campaign to much broader audience; thus, resulting in such a close race.
On the other hand, governments have unfortunately used literacy as a means of keeping minorities oppressed. For example, the United States employed literacy tests to keep African American voters from being able to vote since the majority of African Americans did not have access to education and, therefore, lacked the knowledge of literacy required to pass the tests. This meant they were not able to have input on policies that were made for them; thus, keeping them systematically oppressed.
