Bell Hook's Upbringing: Class Inequality

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

In the book ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, racism and social inequality are two central themes. Many different forms of social inequality coexist in the society depicted in the book, as the people of Maycomb are very rigid in their ways. This is because the book takes place in a time at which there was much racism and social inequality. In Maycomb, firstly there is discrimination between rich and poor white people, who do not often interact with each other. There is also racism against blacks by all white people in society, both rich and poor. Black people are denied basic rights and discriminated against in this town. Lastly, there is racism between the lowest classes of the community: poor white people and

In Bell Hooks’, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, Hooks introduces the reader to the state of poverty of many individuals that have to suffer because they are unable to live a normal life due to them being extremely poor and uneducated. She stresses about comparing the higher class people to the poor and how different their lives are in terms of survival rates and healthiness. The higher class people tend to be way healthier and survive longer due to them having many ways of treating their problems, while the poor have absolutely no way of paying their medical bills due to their low income. She makes many valid points referring back and forth to different stereotypes of people (mainly black people) and how each of those

Because it is very credible, emotionally appealing, and slightly academically based, bell hooks's essay "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education" is an essay that I consider to be very touching. While arguing in her essay that the rich class and the working-class should come to respect and understand each other, bell hooks employs three elements of argument: ethos, pathos, and logos. With her usage of ethos, hooks relates her experience as an undergraduate at Stanford. Providing an experience from a time before she went to Stanford, hooks uses pathos to inspire the audience. However, hooks uses logos by appealing to the readers' logic. These readers are the working-class and the privileged, the audience of her book: "Ain't I

It’s pretty clear that Bell Hooks hated her time in school, and the reasons for this go back to how her mother raised her. Bell was taught that it was wrong to strive for what you did not already possess, and because of this she did not make the most of her years in school. She believed wanting to be accepted by her peers, and wanting to resolve her other conflicts, was wrong, and because of this she grew to hate everything about her life at school. The “boundaries” that she believes were places upon her were the boundaries of her upbringing.

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.

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

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,

In this chapter, bell hooks describes her experience with class privilege in college. Her race and socioeconomic status made her stick out from her classmates, which made her a target for their stares and torments. Her financial situation also made it hard for her to get into a college that she felt comfortable at. Hooks’ struggles ultimately made college hard for her, and left her feeling bitter and troubled about her achievements.

When she goes away to college she joins the campus ministry. She thought that this would be a group that she would feel right at home in. Instead she feels more like an outcast she says, “Her soul is black like the inner would of a cave-bone black. Feeling so alone she tries to kill herself by jumping off a cliff, but one of the priest stops her. She begins to see someone about her problem of feeling lonely. He helped her see that her joy and acceptance was to express herself through stories and poems. Then Bell Hooks realizes that all her life she was meant to

As hooks is an academic, she worked to reach her position, and she faces a threat because of her refusal to participate in the black self-hatred that is reinforced by white supremacist teachings.

The question is: how do we make change to years, and year of conditioned notions? I feel, that as a male I can strive to provide equality in every day actions. These actions can take place at school, the work place, with family, etc. Similarly to this conversation, Bell Hooks believes that the way to make change is to not let it stop with academia. She feels that if feminist theory only lure’s to the academic world, then it won’t impact society the way that it should. Hook wants it to reach out to men, the poor, the rich, different races, and more. She wants it to be in the hands of the many. Again, as this conversation started about how philosophers viewed woman and how to make change, Hooks is suggesting that in order to make change with oppression of woman, then it is necessary to branch out this theory of feminism. Coincidently, Hook critiques Irigaray (or all French Feminist for that matter) for focusing too much on appealing to woman and not enough on the rest of the

“Feminism as a movement can become the staple against oppression. One thing is clear and that is that hooks approach to feminism can become a universal centralized thought. A successful movement needs a voice, a face, supporting group, and a call for action, bell hooks definition bring all that to the forefront by just stating I advocate for feminism”

Class is what that hooks claims neither the rich people nor the poor ones want to talk about widely.

Gender stereotypes for hooks started when she and her brother were told to assume certain roles even when playing. Hooks mentions how her parents,