Bell Hooks' A Revolution of Values: The Promise of Multicultural Change

Lastly, King appeals to character as well as establishing his creditability. For starters, the the vocabulary King chose to use shows that he is educated and possesses the knowledge to respond to the clergymen. King also informed the clergymen that he had previous experience in conducting and participating in non-violent campaigns. This provides credibility because it showed that he had prior knowledge of the behavior and purpose of those participating, while also addressing that past campaigns have always been “untimely”, but with desired outcome. The last and most obvious proof of credibility, is that King was a black man that faced the same adversities that he referred to in the last paragraph of this section. The example being of having to personally tell his daughter why she could not be allowed to go to a public amusement park because she was black and looked at as less than.

Hooks writes that today she would be considered a well-paid member of the “Professional-managerial class” she rarely thinks of herself in relations to that class. She explains how she was taught at an early age, by her grandparents and parents, to assume that

First of all, King makes his point clear by appealing to the reader’s common sense, beliefs and values (logos). He does this by using specific examples of logos such being anecdotes and facts and data. An anecdote is basically a short story. He uses an anecdote by saying: “Watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools.” (King paragraph 2) The reason for this being an example would be because Negroes and white boys are dying, thus demonstrating that we as a nation, are falling apart from the inside. The second of example he uses in this article is facts and data. He states that in 1957 when a group formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, they chose their motto: “To save the

It is necessary to first understand King's arguments before delving into the actual analysis. King's main argument is that African-Americans are not free or equal according to the rights

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.

bell hooks gains the power and credibility of her audience through knowledge of the topic at hand, establishing peace with the reader, and demonstrating honesty. Ethos shows an audience that the writer is credible, or expert in the subject of the agreement. bell hooks is widely known for being a writer, feminist thinker, and her academic background. She establishes her credentials through her personal struggles with understanding social class during adolescent. The reader gains respect for hooks as she takes the audience back to a time where they may have desired something, but never attained. For example she says, “As a child, [she] often wanted things money could buy that [her] parents could not afford and would not get”(hooks, 138). bell hooks writes to not only help others find strength to hold on to their desires, but to show how

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

Through this book, the most important point she puts emphasis on is the acknowledgment of the complex interlocking of classism, racism and sexism. Bell Hooks is not a poor working-class any more,

when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?" King demonstrates his ability to inspire his fellow civil rights activists, raise empathy in the hearts of white conservatives, and create compassion in the minds of the eight clergyman to which the "Letter" is directed.Ethos are present throughout the “Letter” but there was one specific example that caught my attention. “Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code

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

Whiteness is an integrative ideology that has transpired in North America throughout the late 20th century to contemporary society. It is a social construction that sustains itself as a dogma to social class and vindicates discrimination against non-whites. The power of whiteness is illustrated in social, cultural and political practices. These measures are recognized as the intent standard in which other cultures are persuaded to live by. Bell hooks discusses the evolution of whiteness in an innovative article in which she theorizes this conviction as normative, a structural advantage, an inclusive standpoint, and an unmarked name by those who are manipulating this interdisciplinary. Most intellects, including hooks, would argue that whiteness is a continuation of history; a dominant cultural location that has been unconsciously disclosing its normativity of cultural practice, advocating fear, destruction, and terror for those who are being affected by this designation.

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.

King inspires those who support equal rights for all “ to rise up from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial injustice”.and stand up for what they believe. He insists that people who believe in the cause to speak up and join together as one voice, to demand equal rights that they deserve. In addition King uses Light and Dark imagery to make a statement on how people have been waiting a long time to receive equality and the same freedom as everyone else. He does this by discussing the Emancipation Proclamation, and how “ It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

In the Feminist Theory, bell hooks provide vivid examples and assertions on how mainstream feminism exclude the issues of women of color. Mainstream feminism in America pertains to the ideals of “white, middle-class privileged woman” as they “reinforce white supremacy by negating the issue of race and class amongst woman of color” (hooks, 2000, pg. ). Due to not fulfilling the attempt to gain equality, as they may claim to do, it also can be an organization that displays “narcissism, insensitivity, sentimentality, and self-indulgence” (hooks, 2000, pg. 3). As mainstream feminism shuns the needs and interests of African-American women, it allows current social issues and inequalities to persist.

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.