Representing The Poor Bell Hooks Analysis

In Bell Hooks, Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor, Hooks writes about what she considers to be hazardous in dispositions towards neediness in the United States, and in proposing arrangements. Hooks starts the essay off by saying, “Americans today rarely talk about the poor” (Bell Hooks). She explains that Americans acknowledge the existence of four groups: the poor, the working class, those who worked and have extra money, and the rich.

What is your perception of the poor and less fortunate in society? Would you say that you have a low perception of them or do you regard them in the highest? Would you do your social duty to reach out to the poor and impoverished to assist them, or help assist, in establishing programs that would aid in leading them to a brighter future? These are the questions that I ask of myself as I read, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor,” by bell hooks. My paper examines the perception that pop culture, society, and media have of the poor, as well as, the expectations and responsibilities of society to ensure a response to

I liked bell hook’s essay “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”. Bell assesses the light in which higher class people view the poor or lower class. Bell hooks, also known as Gloria Watkins grew up in a small Kentucky town where her father worked as a janitor for the local post office. As one of seven children she was taught that money and material possessions did not make her a better person but hard-work honesty and selflessness determined character. Her hard work landed her acceptance into Stanford University. Although she received various scholarships and loans, her parents worried that she would not have enough for books and supplies or emergency funds. Regardless of this, belle went on to earn a Ph.D. Her experiences and education earned her a very good reputation and even an authority writing critiques on popular culture and diversity (hooks 431-432). She uses ideas in her essay “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, that stem from her own personal experiences with poverty to add credibility to her writing, as well as examples from pop culture and mass media to demonstrate how these representations portray the lower class in ways that radiate negative stereotypes. She wrote the essay because she saw how the poor had many assumptions made about them. It wasn’t until college thought that she made that discovery. She discovered how unjustly they were represented due to the

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,

Many movie companies and industries have made millions of dollars off of movies that portray poor people, because many individuals prefer to relive the times when they were either poor, or disliked by the society as a whole. There are many movies such as Pretty Woman which “is a perfect example of a film that made huge sums of money portraying the poor in this light” (Hooks, 486). Hooks perceives this as a very good way of making profit, but does mention that the poor should not be devalued by the society this way, and should be treated differently with respect. The way the companies portray the poor in the movies is the way the higher and middle class

In professor and editor Diana George’s article, “Changing the Face of Poverty: Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation,” published in the printed book Popular Literacy: Studies in Cultural Practices and Poetics, in 2001, she insists that representations of poverty in the media, only reveal of a small percentile of everyone impoverished, which makes them counterproductive. Opening with a brief anecdote about donation appeals made by nonprofit organizations, George directs her article towards the organizations themselves offering a suggestion to maximize the impact of their work. That suggestion is that representing poverty in a wider light, helping to display the more complex ways individuals are considered to be in poverty. The examples that George provides, become a pillar for her thesis that these current representations of poverty, while emotionally capturing, work against themselves.

In ‘Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor’ by Bell Hooks, issues involving the poor and the rich in the society are brought to light. Hooks addresses issues such as how the poor are viewed in the community, common assumptions about the poor, and how the poor are represented in the media. In her analysis, it is evident that those living in poverty are grossly misrepresented. This misrepresentation affects these people’s daily lives.

In the article, Hooks focuses on the issue involving lower and higher class and comparing them in poverty by giving her own personal experiences to illustrate her argument. While addressing the assumptions made about the poor and the view in America culture in the U.S. usually portrays the poor in ways that radiate negative stereotypes according to Hooks. The way that the poor are being represented on television. Hooks clarifies that the misinterpretations of those in poverty can affect their daily lives. Popular culture in the U.S. usually portrays the poor in ways that radiate

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.

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.

Linda Tirado, author of Hand to Mouth Living in Bootstrap America, tells her story of what it’s like to be working poor in America, as well as what poverty is truly like on many levels. With a thought-provoking voice, Tirado discusses her journey from lower class, to sometimes middle class, to poor, and everything in between. Throughout the read, Tirado goes on to reveal why poor people make the decisions they do in a very powerful way.

Toni Cade Bambara addresses how knowledge is the means by which one can escape out of poverty in her story The Lesson. In her story she identifies with race, economic inequality, and literary epiphany during the early 1970’s. In this story children of African American progeny come face to face with their own poverty and reality. This realism of society’s social standard was made known to them on a sunny afternoon field trip to a toy store on Fifth Avenue. Through the use of an African American protagonist Miss Moore and antagonist Sylvia who later becomes the sub protagonist and White society the antagonist “the lesson” was ironically taught. Sylvia belong to a lower economic class, which affects her views of herself within highlights 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.

I found chapter six titled, “Being Rich”, to be the most real and important part of the book. Hooks talks about the reality of the rich people in our society. They flaunt their wealth with material objects and although they may not speak about being wealthy. They think about their riches very often. “Possessing wealth in a greedy culture, where millions of poor people live without the basic necessities of life, they work to hold on to what they have, using it to make more.” And now a day, we have the media and society telling us that identifying with rich is the way to get ahead in our society. How obscene is that? We used to have sitcoms and T.V. shows that were relatable to the audience. Now, shows like Keeping Up with The Kardashians or Real Housewives, are what has become popular. Individuals sitting at home watching the rich and powerful live life “rich and powerfully”! “Our nation is full of young people, especially teenagers who deny the reality of class, even as they identify with the predatory ruling class.” (hooks, 2000, P.76)

Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” exemplifies how those of the lower class were frequently dehumanized by those who had power over them and were often viewed either as tools that could be used to serve one's means, or, when they were not found useful, pests to be exterminated. This rampant dehumanization often caused those of the upper classes to neglect to see the actual struggles of these people, such as mental and physical afflictions that could be attributed to their economic or physical environment, or to pay mind to the greater societal forces that were contributing to the rise of poverty in the first place.