A Revolution of Values: The Promise of Multicultural Essay

hooks felt hurt because her dad was a janitor. That was why it was so hard for her to look down on the working-class. Would it be easy for you to be able to suddenly look down upon your parents if they raised you to respect them? Because Stanford even accepted her into their institution, hooks felt as though she needed to act privileged. When she refused, the university and its students considered her rebellious; however, if she had not refused, she would have been ignoring and forgetting the values that she had learned from her parents.

Sitting on the porch with her sisters, hooks saw that “next to the white drivers in the front would be the dog and in the back seat the black worker.” This subtle image taught hooks the “interconnectedness of race and class,” and a demeaning message that white people placed animals ahead of African-Americans. Taking the high road, hooks attempted to spark conversation with her white neighbors; however, she was turned down and ridiculed. While trying to be friendly, hooks was told that “they came to this side of town to be rid of lazy blacks.” Time and time again racial and sexist tensions worked against Hooks, but instead of letting injustice get the best of her she made her porch a place of “antiracist resistance.” Hooks’ porch was an oasis in the male/white desert that dried up her life. On hooks’ porch she could experience the peace and joy she had as a child sitting on her porch with her sisters before her father came home. Hooks could have talked back to the white people that mocked her, but instead she chose the high road and conquered race with peace.

Her speech was mostly drawn from her experience of racism, racial injustice and poor treatment of women when she lived in the South. Her belief in the ending of these injustices was based on her religion and belief in Christianity and then natural rights of all individuals. Her motives to write the speech was based on changing the thinking of other people into acknowledging that all humans were equal despite their race, gender or ideologies. They were therefore supposed to be treated as the same irrespective of their social classes. Some of her personal details could have influenced the speech that she wrote. Among them is gender since she was a woman and her beliefs in Christianity through reading the Bible that championed that all people were the same

bell hooks Plantation Paratricay can be describes as a black feminist narrative that interrogates the ideas of colonialism, gender, race, class and the effects of socialized behaviors on the black community. The article continuously problematizes the black women's experience in relation to the black man, herself and white society. Though her views can be interpreted as a deconstruction of the black family structure and the black man, she has continuously brought the focus of her concepts back to the black women and her experience. Which in turn, takes her article from being viewed as just a black feminist piece to a womenist piece because its roots are constantly being drawn back to the sexual and general oppression of the black women.

She herself was put in the education system thinking she must assimilate, but with perseverance and the determination to succeed on her own terms, she was seen as the exception in her culture. Being "the exception," angered Hooks and made her more determined to help children rid themselves of this stereotype. Being successful in education means it was hard fought and deserved not just an "exception." In trying to establish an identity that borders their own culture and one that 's accepted within the education system, children are often teased, ridiculed, and mocked. This continues until they conform to the behavior accepted by their peers. Children are often taught to disregard family values and traditions which undermines a child 's character. Having a teacher or peer reinforce the fact that their behavior isn 't acceptable has devastating and lasting effects on children because they don 't know any better. Language is a good example of a difficulty a minority child might have when encountering an educational setting. In order to be successful, a child must have the opportunity to relate both with their community and their educational system to take one away with little explanation leaves a child confused. As Bell Hooks says, "that to deny ourselves daily use of speech patterns that are common and familiar, that embody the unique and distinctive aspect of our self is one of the ways we become estranged and alienated

Not all Southerners were completely unsympathetic to the black struggle, but many beliefs weren 't much better. Many saw blacks as the "white man 's burden" and treated them with paternalism and noblesse oblige. It was patronizing to blacks and done mainly in politics to gain black voting support. Eleanor Roosevelt, however, was a true supporter in the campaign for equality. She fought for anti-lynching laws and spoke out publicly against racial prejudice. Women 's organizations also banned together to speak out against lynching to defuse the idea that the white female needs protection from black men.

In “Touching the Earth” written by Bell Hooks, she explains her culture and is not only writing to black Americans, but to every ethnicity and future generations. She talks about stories from her past and the importance of nature to her and her family. Hooks wants to convince the readers to cherish and take care of the Earth, to grow produce and gain respect for nature. This essay was successful at explaining the beauty and importance of the Earth by the use of pathos, the history of slaves, and the obtaining of land.

She showed them that they could be equal. The only difference was the color of the skin. She taught them that that wasn’t even a big difference. She fought segregation her entire life.

     Her parents nurtured the background of this crusader to make her a great spokesperson. She also held positions throughout her life that allowed her to learn a lot about lynching. She was

bell hooks, renowned black feminist and cultural critic criticizes the lack of racial awareness in her essay, Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination (1992). ‘bell hooks’ is written in lower case to convey that the substance of her work reigns more important than the writer. From a marginalized perspective, hooks argues that sites of dominance, not otherness is problematic and critiques the lack of attention that white scholars pay to the representation of whiteness in the black imagination. Critical feminist scholars Peggy McIntosh and Ruth Frankenberg identify their own whiteness as a dominant discourse, but share a critical departure from hooks with the notion of whiteness as terror. hooks aim is not to reverse racism, but discuss her position to authentically inform readers about how she experiences racism. Furthermore, systems of oppression are manufactured by human thought and thus the site of the Other is always produced as a site of difference. Gender, race, sex, class, disability, and geography are situated differently in social structure, but dominant groups assume they share the same reality though they cannot experience it. In consequence, the Other cannot hold a singularized identity of their own and the binary structure succeeds in containing racialized bodies in place. What happens to those bodies when they cross boundaries of the binary? hooks recounts being routinely disciplined back into place when crossing the border; however, dominant white

In her article, bell hooks (1990) argues that the home is a site of resistance for black people. She recalls being raised with the mindset that women, particularly black women, took the lead in running the house. According to hooks, the home was a place that provided warmth, comfort, food, and nurturing. It was a place that taught the young about dignity, integrity, and faith. Black

She is very much a common sense figure. It also goes so far as to parallel the two voices for the black community at that time. One voice was proactive and wanted to march for freedom and the other wanted to kneel and pray rather than stand up for their rights.

hooks feels that in our culture a white life has more value then a black one; and therefore audiences are more willing to accept the worthlessness of  black life.  hooks goes on to state, " There is collective cultural agreement that black death is inevitable, meaningless, not worth much.  That there is nothing to mourn" (100).  Americans as a whole " do not take black life seriously" (hooks, 100).  Through her review of Crooklyn, hooks is able to reinstate her idea: white America sees blacks as worthless.

Her story starts off explaining her childhood and her quest to understand art. Ms. Hooks was able to paint beautiful pictures at a youthful age as noted by her art teacher Mr. Harold. Her family did not think art was a genuine approach to make your living and never considered Bell's talent important. Even though Hooks’ parents never supported her talent for art her art teacher continued to encourage her. During that time school just became desegregated, so even though Mr. Harold ( who is white) seemed as if he was ok with being around colored people, Hooks did not feel as if she can fully believe everything he has to say since she was taught that white people were not able to understand black lives. Besides Mr. Harold, Hooks had some one else to talk about art with which was her sister G.. The conversation started off when she asked “what she thinks about art, and more importantly what she thinks most black folks are thinking about art.” And she responds with “ art is just too far away from our lives, that art is something in order to enjoy and know it, it takes work.” This shows that black people do not believe that working to enjoy

Discussions of loving blackness in hooks’ class stems from her reading of Nelia Larson’s novel Passing. hooks wants to discuss Clare’s love of blackness and the consequence of her love for her race. She writes, “I asked the class to consider the possibility that to love blackness is dangerous in a white supremacist culture-so threatening, so serious a breach in the fabric of the social order, that death is the punishment” (9). Death in society can be literal, but it can also take other forms, such as isolation and self-segregation. hooks’ students’ stark refusal to discuss loving blackness is a testament to these impediments and how they have been fixed in the minds of citizens white and black.