Bell Hooks

Nichols uses humour as the main deconstructive strategy to be an efficient tool for subverting the myths that have oppressed black women. The woman’s body acquires relevance, as the poems focus on a black immigrant woman within a context of white supremacy. Nichols creates persona who she uses to represent the black female body and she constitutes a challenge to black women’s objectification in the Western (British) society, in which she is exiled. The writer occasionally speaks in the first person, has no name, so the third-person poetic voice refers to her as ‘the fat black woman’. The fat black woman refuses to be a victim and, therefore, rejects all the traps laid by racist and sexist society by means of stereotypes that aim at constricting her into limiting roles. It is her that

With these mediums of oppression, her first theory, referred to as the Matrix of Domination is brought up. Previous models of oppression were considered additive, or hierarchal, meaning that they must be ranked. Collins uses the experiences of black women to explain that all these modes of oppression, gender, race and class are interlocking and equally important when viewing domination. This bleeds mores into Part II, but the essentials are discussed in this section.

Allowing students to speak anyway at home but when at school they have to speak Standard English is unfair. Jordan’s student wrote their letters in the language they are most comfortable with, Black English. Even after writing in a language they identify with, they were ignored. America only accepts on form of English, Standard English. If Black English was recognized, African Americans students would feel confident and comfortable in the classroom. Without a language they are comfortable with, they lose their identity, and lack power to make a change. The lack of power is what Jordan is trying to make known to her

In Tiffany Hendrickson’s essay, Talking in Color: Collision of Cultures (2013), she argues that we should not be defined by the sound of our voice. Hendrickson supports her argument of ethical appeal by comparing dialects, race relations, and environments to eliminate the stigmas of having to change your voice in order to be accepted in a perceived “correct world” based on ethnicity. In writing this essay, she recounts her own personal struggle in order to bring recognition to the power of having your own voice, no matter your color. Hendrickson shares her personal narrative with the goal to educate and disprove those with preconceived discriminatory views that individuals from a specific race should speak in a vernacular that defines their

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.

Whiteness and racism comes from the oppression, colonization and systems of dominance over black people and their feelings. In this case, an intersectional feminist analysis matters because women who are able bodied, cis-gendered, privileged and white are only being considered whereas bell hooks argue that men, women and trans people who oppressed should be fought for. And Peggy McIntosh adds onto this but a white woman who addresses and recognizes her privilege to help other white individuals understand what they have and blacks do not.

This week, the readings touched on issues relating to resistance and social change. Martinez explains how the U.S. has struggled to see issues of race beyond just Black and white. She also stresses the importance of including other races when speaking on these issues. Hernandez argues that the mainstream feminist movement fails to include minority and low-income women and the issues they face. She states that the movement only benefits white middle class women. Collins explains how people’s ideas and behaviors actualize other people’s inequalities. She says comparing levels of oppression is a competition for attention and instead we should use a new mentality that interlocks these inequalities. Harris

The incorporation of pathos in an argument can form a strong structured reading or a make the reader feel emotionally taken advantage of. In Hooks argument she uses pathos effectively, without exploiting readers of her article. She states, "estrangement from nature and engagement in mind/body splits made it all the more possible for black people to internalize white-supremacist assumptions about black identity" (973). Hooks uses this sentence to appeal to those who have experienced a loss of identity to feel for the blacks. Also, the citation brings a desirable topic up of unity within different race and cultures, which adds more reason for the reader to be persuaded to her side of the argument: the emotional pull of how blacks were treated even away from their normal ways of living.

This essay will critically analyze the various forms of oppression that are set out through Audrey Lorde’s concept of the “mythical norm” as discussed by Barbara Perry. Through the “mythical norm”, it can be seen that oppressions exists through the forms of racism and sexism which are exhibited through many scholarly texts and articles. Racism can be seen as a means of privilege and power that is given to individuals who coincide with the criteria of societies norm. In this case, these individuals consist of white, heterosexual, male beings who unknowingly oppress their racialized counterparts. Oppression can also be seen through the form of sexism. Sexism looks at the injustice and inequality of male dominance over female, which results to men being more privileged and advantaged in society over women who are disadvantaged. Therefore, privilege and power is obtained by those who coincide with the concept of the “mythical norm”, leaving minority groups who do not coincide with this conception oppressed through the forms of racism and sexism.

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

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.

“Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination” written by American author, feminist and social activist, bell hooks, dissects the dichotomy of black and white culture in a westernized society. Hooks utilizes the term ‘whiteness’ throughout her piece as an acknowledgment of the domination, imperialism, colonialism, and racism that white people have asserted among black people. This discipline progressively has evolved from history; through slavery and forth, leaving an imprint in

“The Word “Nigga” Is Only for Slaves and Sambos” was written by Rob Nelson and first published in a university newspaper in North Carolina. Later on, the article was so meaningful that it was re-published in the academic journal, the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. In the article “The Word “Nigga” is only for Slaves and Sambos”, Rob Nelson uses ethos, logos, and especially skillful pathos appeals based on the history of slavery and the illustration about the future of African American, to prove why he thinks the “N-word” is not acceptable. By using ethical argument and those clever appeals, Rob Nelson definitely persuades his young African American audience.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, an African American abolitionist woman in pre-Civil War America, utilized her education to write about and fight for civil rights and gender equality throughout her lifetime (Strong Female Friday). Her desire and willingness to fight for social reform was fueled by the inconsistencies and double standards that she viewed within the society in which she lived, both based on race and gender. In the poem “A Double Standard” by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, the issue of gender discrimination is discussed through the portrayal of the contrasting principles in society regarding society’s response to a sexual encounter between a male and female. Harper approaches the issue by advocating not for greater rights for women at the expense of men, but for equality among men and women. Although there have been various monumental advancements for women since pre- Civil War America, Harper’s claim that the sexes have not reached a point of equality as seen through double standards in society can be seen within modern-day America based on societal standards in sexual relationships, the workplace, and society’s expectations of the sexes.

     Richard Wright's novel Black Boy is not only a story about one man's struggle to find freedom and intellectual happiness, it is a story about his discovery of language's inherent strengths and weaknesses. And the ways in which its power can separate one soul from another and one class from another. Throughout the novel, he moves from fear to respect, to abuse, to fear of language in a cycle of education which might be likened to a tumultuous love affair.