bell hooks, is an American
author
, feminist
, and social activist.
Her writing has focused on the interconnectivity of race, class
, and gender
and what she describes as their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression
and domination. She has published over thirty books and numerous scholarly and mainstream articles, appeared in several documentary film
s and participated in various public lectures.
Revolutionary feminism embraces men who are able to change, who are capable of responding mutually in a subject-to-subject encounter where desire and fulfillment are in no way linked to coercive subjugation. This feminist vision of the sexual imaginary is the space few men seem able to enter.
The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.
As we search as a nation for constructive ways to challenge racism and white supremacy, it is absolutely essential that progressive female voices gain a hearing.
To counter the fixation on a rhetoric of victimhood, black folks must engage in a discourse of self-determination.
Black women control the world. We are through being discriminated against.
"Popular escapist fiction enchants adult readers without challenging them to be educated for critical consciousness." - From 2003 Rock My Soul
"People with healthy self-esteem do not need to create pretend identities." - From 2003 Rock My Soul
"What nationalist educators often fail to recognize is that merely being taught by teachers who are black has not and will not solve the problem if the teachers have been socialized to internalize racist thinking." - From 2003 Rock My Soul
"A dangerous form of psychological splitting had to have taken place, and it continues to take place, in the psyches of many African Americans who can on one hand oppose racism, and then on the other hand passively absorb ways of thinking about beauty that are rooted in white supremacist thought." - From 2003 Rock My Soul
"When television screens had only rare images of black folks, black people were more critically vigilant about these representations. Even when blackness was represented 'positiviely,' as it was in early black television shows like Julia, which focused on the life of a black nurse, the beauty standard was a reflection of white supremacist aesthetics." - From 2003 Rock My Soul