Bell Hooks Conception Of Eating The Other

Hooks did not fit in with her peers at either undergraduate university she attended. At the all girls school near her home the girls were all wealthier than she was and they lacked her educational ambition. Hooks “lived in the world of books ” while her classmates had “giggles and their obsession to marry” (26, 25). Their separate spheres kept them socially divided, but it didn’t stop the popular girls from going into hooks’ room and destroying and making a mess of all her things. They saw it as a joke, but hooks was not able to “replace broken things, perfume poured out, or talcum powder spread everywhere” (27). They crushed not only her physical items, but also her spirit. The other girls had a sense of entitlement because of class privilege. This blinded them to the feelings of others, and made hooks feel inferior. This sense of inferiority started much earlier in her life, and followed her throughout her academic career.

Jose Antonio Vargas states, “Until we unpack ‘whiteness’ as a social construct…we cannot have a real, more honest conversation about race and racism…In this era of #BlackLivesMatter, at a time when Latinos are the largest minority group and Asians are the fastest growing racial and immigrant group, exploring and questioning ‘white privilege’ is essential” (qtd. in Craven). Having a discussion about what “whiteness” means today and how it came about is so important because in the past, other races have had their worth based off of what “whiteness” was worth. This topic has been avoided because it questions the majority in power and it brings out the

Persuasion is a key focus in many essays, stories, commercials, and other forms of media. There are many methods to this, one of which is rhetorical devices. Bell hooks, the author of Feminism is for Everybody, writes to persuade the reader to her own cause: feminism. She uses rhetorical devices, which can be used to persuade—or dissuade—readers in comparison to the writer’s own point of view.

Alice McIntyre talks about how whites view racism in many different examples and stories of white talk. McIntyre defines white talk throughout the reading, “Talk that serves to insulate white people from examining their/our individual and collective roles in the perpetuation of racism. It is a result of whites talking uncritically with/to other whites all the while, resisting critique and massaging each other’s racist attitude, beliefs, and actions” (McIntyre, 45-46). McIntyre talks about the themes that were discussions of white talk: “(1) How the participants constructed differences from “the Other,” (2) how they reconstructed myths about white and people of color, and (3) how they privileged their own feelings and affect over the lived

According to Peggy McIntosh, an American feminist and anti-racism activist, whites are convinced that they carry an “invisible knapsack”, which allow them several privileges that African American or other ethnicities don’t have. In her article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” McIntosh describe a long list of white privileges such as, ”When I go shopping, store detectives don’t follow me” and “…people of my race are positively presented on television or papers”. They believe that the fact of being whites automatically makes them less suspicious of wrongdoing (McIntosh, 152). The American philosopher John Berteaux, a specialist in social ethics and philosophy of race agree with McIntosh about the wrong believe that whites have about some privileges embedded in the race, “Most white people don’t question their race or it’s privileges; they simple take them for granted” (Rosenstand, 373). In other words, whites believe that the skin color is what makes a race better that the other, giving some people more rights that to the others.

Wise’s examination of the inconspicuous character of racism 2.0 dovetails fittingly with our course’s recurring theme of institutionalized racism. In class lectures we have defined institutionalized racism as the discriminatory practices that have become regularized and routinized by state agencies, organizations, industries, or anywhere else in society. Although such practices might not be intentionally racist, they end up being racist nevertheless as consequence of the systematized and unspoken biases that have become increasingly convoluted and entrenched within society over time. It also doesn’t help white people to recognize these discriminatory practices considering they have been unconsciously tailored to be consistent with white perspective and mentality. In her article, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntosh examines not only how white folks often consider themselves to be a normative figure within society, but also how they are carefully taught not to recognize the advantages they gain from the disadvantages that impair people of color. In the article, McIntosh acknowledges the reality of her own white privilege and expresses, “In my class and place, I did not see myself as a racist because I was taught to recognize racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth” (McIntosh 4). In fact, even if white folks do not believe themselves to

crimes,Ku Klux Klan, and so many are being made to prove the point of “White is the superior

From this learner’s point of view, there could be many reason why we might resist pre-existing social structures and categories within oppressed groups, and one of them is that we tend to distinguish feature that both changed our perception of individuals and their social transformation, like being an African Americans, Mexicans, Muslim, GLBT, or minority that can affect us daily, either because of our own biases or from fear of a particular group (e.g., Iranians). We also tend to place minorities in a negative light base on income or life styles. We

‘Whiteness’ is a socially constructed category of race, where people who are not ‘white’ are racially designated while ‘whites’ escape designation as if their racial category is not historically and ideologically based (Puzan, 2003). Race is socially constructed (Dyer, 1997) and it is important to acknowledge this in order to address its impact. Unless whiteness is labelled and confronted, being ‘white’ is usually considered the ‘norm’ which acquires certain social privileges, while all other socially-constructed categories of ‘race’ are considered different or, as Puzan (2003) terms it, the ‘racialised Other’.

In “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” Peggy McIntosh argues that racism can be found imbedded into the culture of society; conferring and denying certain privileges on some rather than all. This is a dangerous cultivation; endowing a strong expectation that white privileges are naturally deserving. Furthermore, making the cornerstone of McIntosh’s main argument; that white privilege is just a less aggressive synonym for dominance. When you receive privileges for looking a certain type of way, the recipient becomes immune; often not being able to acknowledge their advantages. As a result, this creates a cultural divide, between racial groups.

Rather than merely examining the affects of racism on people of color, the book turns its attention to whiteness and how a system of white privilege, supported and perpetuated by whites, also damages whites by inhibiting them from making meaningful connections with other human beings. Until I almost reached the end of this book I was uncomfortable and disturbed by the way the book made me feel. As a white male, I am aware of the pain that my ancestors have created for others to advance the free world. I have pain for those who suffered and disagree with actions that were taken by my white predecessors. But I believed that we are now in a much more advanced world where we have chosen the first black president and equality was a focus of most Americans. Identifying with my culture as currently being a white supremacist society is something I have never considered, or would not want to consider. In Neuliep, within the Coudon and Yousef’s Value orientations, we perceive the human nature orientation within the United States with people being essentially rational. This term, rational, can be somewhat subjective. And if we continue with the same value system, and look from ‘the self’ values, we foster our self-identities from the influence of our culture’s values. If we are to reflect truthfully to how our country evolved and what we ‘had to do’ to create our freedom by limiting the freedom of other, how would we then perceive

This essay will address key aspects of white privilege and pick the two most important aspects with explanations signifying the reasons for their choosing. An explicit aspect of white privilege is the fact that it is an automatic add-on to anybody satisfying the definition of “whiteness”. Whiteness is defined by Frankenberg (1993) as a concept/identity historically, socially, politically, and culturally produced involving systems of domination (p. 40) thereby privileging anyone who satisfies this definition. Another notable aspect of white privilege is the fact that white people are taught not to recognize their privilege (McIntosh, 2002, p. 33). On a more subtle level, white privilege is an ongoing, institutionalized remnant of colonization. Another aspect of white privilege is its ability in creating dichotomies with PoC. For example, whiteness is associated with “innocence” and “goodness” while blackness is associated with “evil” and “badness” (hooks, 1992, p. 49).

bell hooks in “Love as the Practice of Freedom” explains thoroughly as to how love is the form to be liberated. Without any love society is blind and continues to practice systems of domination without being aware. However the community should look out for one another not just when a problem impacts an individual. Everyone must be aware of the systems of domination- imperialism,sexism,racism, and classism to create change. When radical love is comprehended it allows the destruction of oppression,exploitation and there is liberation

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.

In analyzing both essays, Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance by Bell Hooks and There Is No Unmarked Woman by Deborah Tannen the authors address societal problems that highlight and emphasize the differences that certain groups in society must face and overcome, although the targets in both of the examples of societal dilemma between the two are very different, they both accurately represent how unjust the modern social structure is.