Class Matters Where We Stand Book Report

Hooks expresses when growing up she consider her family as poor because of how large her family was and how they had enough money to make ends meet. Although, her family was among the working class, when she went off to college she began to she herself as poor. Hooks states that she had scholarships and loans to attend Stanford University, but her parents were concerned with how she was going to pay for getting there, the things she needed for classes, and for emergencies. She says she spent her breaks, when she couldn’t go home, with the black women who cleaned the dormitories. Hooks states that they were more likely to understand where she was coming form than other individual who attend Stanford. She claims they supported and affirmed her efforts to be educated.

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.

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

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.

Women have struggled to identify themselves and claim what has belonged to them, because of their race, class, as well as, gender, that has limited them from all the opportunities men have received. While growing in a more recent generation, individuals believe that there is no longer a gender divide because women no longer are forced to stay in the home and cook and clean, while the men work. Women have resisted returning to the lifestyle of being a housewife, and now are working at higher positions, receiving an education, and at times even managing their own business, etc. Whereas Bell Hooks reflects in “A Place Where the Soul Can Rest”, her struggle to claim her own space as an African American woman from the American South; connecting

It is easy to dismiss people either as too detached from the subject or as attention seeking, and this has been too common when anyone talks about any of the disenfranchised. bell hooks has approached the misrepresentation of the poor in a way most people either have not or cannot. By sharing parts of her life, she is connecting with the reader in such an intimate way that it is difficult to dismiss her. The reader knows that she has struggled to get to where she is now, and the reader knows that there are many who have worked hard and are still impoverished. Before the reader finishes the essay, he or she knows that not all poor people are lazy, witless degenerates. In conclusion, it is through the sympathetic bond that she created that the reader is able to fully understand

It is said that all men are created equal, but this is not all correct. Thomas Jefferson said that “All men are created equally”, but this feeling has been betray if all humans were equal. Then people would all get equal privileges. This is a belief that everyone is equal. Moreover, that they all have the same chance to be successful in life. If humans are, create equally, then why did the government split up the levels of pay rate and social class, and why racism stops people from being what they want to be? In this discussion Gregory Mantsios, the writer of “Class in America”, describes how society has divided into upper class, middle class, and lower class, and that the government is trying to deal with both extremes, forgetting that middle class will face deeper tragedy if it is unnourished. Likewise, Diane Kendall, a sociologist from Baylor University shows how mass media and social class is being frame in her essay “Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption”. Kendall discusses how many people frame classes and everyday life. In addition, Mike Rose discusses how people just want to live there in life without people bully them. In his, article “I Just Want to Be Average”. He tells the story about some of his experiences throughout high school. When he was a freshman, he was place into a vocational program. Rose goes into detail describing specific events and different types of people that he

In Memphis Tennessee on January 31st, 1925 Benjamin Hooks was born. He was the fifth out of seven children by his parents Robert B. and Bessie White Hooks. Because of his family’s background and the amount of success they were able to obtain, Benjamin Hooks was brought into the world being held to a much higher standard than most. His father was a photographer along with his uncle Henry who partly owned a photography studio. The two of them were known across town as the Hook brothers. During a period of time where African Americans weren’t so fortunate to live as comfortable as the Hooks, Benjamin recalled that he still wore hand-me-downs and the money that they did have was carefully spent to keep food on the table etc. Along with the success of his family his Grandmother ,Julia Britton Hooks graduated from Berea College in Kentucky in 1874 and was only the second American Black woman to ever graduate from college. Her sister

Loewen states “They have no understanding of the ways that opportunity is not equal in America and no notion that social structure pushes people around, influencing the ideas they hold and lives they fashion” (213). He supports his claim by illustrating the lack and misrepresentation of the social classes in history textbooks and expounding how social class affects people from “the womb to the tomb”

Bell Hooks exercise her personal reflections while arguing that class matters and how her upbringing demonstrated class inequality. She express her lack of knowledge of class and ignored anything resulting to it. Even after becoming successful she attempt to disaffiliate herself with her designated class position. She knew that socially class was of significance because during her upbringing she met different people that has stood on a different pedal stool than her. The class hierarchy system of growing up in a working class family and becoming a woman to live upper class with luxurious items made her more aware. Towards the end of the book the author graciously thanks her family for living in a rural area with grandparents. She also accredited

Hook's essay is a compelling literary piece that explored how the poor are represented. She wrote about how she herself grew up poor and explored how our culture portrays the poor as lazy, worthless, and dishonest. Hook also explained how in television and film the rich are seen as those who are hard-working, honest, and eager to share.

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

The role black women played in creating a nurturing household is one of the most notable roles among the black community. Bell Hooks, a prominent feminist scholar, wrote, "Homeplace: a site of resistance." In her work, she thoroughly describes this expected female role as a sexist, but a very important role. Her definition of a home place states that it is a safe haven that separated harsh reality from the home. This haven was a site of resistance and allowed the members to achieve a window of freedom.

In Feminism is for Everyone, Part 2, Hooks continues to talk about the issues she finds most pertinent in feminism that relate directly to that to what the movement of feminism has become overtime. Hooks talks about how kids should be raised in a household that isn’t inclined to be misogynist. That a household that treats all kids fairly, of both genders, if the one that will be the best in the end. She discusses points of how even in a single parent household, kids that are raised in that environment go on to do great things because just one woman alone is all that’s needed for successful raising of children, rather than the classic concept of the two- parent household, of which she discounts as something that’s not vital to the successful

Centuries after another and now the present, the twenty-first century still faces a huge issue towards the acceptance of gender equality. Nonetheless, women are unappreciated in today’s society’s workforce. But for Sheryl Sandberg, who wrote the article “Lean In”, believes that any women in the world could be whoever they want to be. Sandberg inspires many girls of today’s generation for being a successful woman who followed her dreams and not let inequalities and gender roles affect her. Through Sandberg’s hard work, she became the COO of Facebook and eventually became a billionaire. Her success story was shared on her essay where she stated encouraging aspects of how women should be. Such as, leaning into their careers instead of stepping back to focus on family. In addition, Sandberg concludes that women shouldn’t be afraid of pursuing their ambition because of the negative views that they may receive or even the fear of failing. In other hand, the author of “Beyond Lean In”, Bell Hooks argues that leaning in is maybe not for everyone. Hooks criticizes Sandberg about her views of how women should be because Hooks thinks that Sandberg did not consider the women with different backgrounds. Furthermore, Hooks did not ignore the fact that some women struggles to succeed in the workforce due to their race and social class. Hooks points out a very legitimate fact, because she actually looks at different types of women while Sandberg might not be able to relate to that because