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RACISM DIVIDING FEMINISMEarlier it was said that there are a variety of definitions of feminism. Though hooks advocates unity among feminists she realizes that the prevalence of racism even in the roots of the movement itself create a problem. The white supremacist culture has less difficulty recognizing upper class white women’s experience then the experience of those generally excluded from this grouping. Feminists who are recognized by the media and the American culture are generally white women and black women in the movement, like hooks, have often felt marginalized. White women often speak for black women without fully understanding their experience and thus complicating the problem with increased racist assumptions under the guise of positive social change. White feminists also have been known to express connection with black women’s experiences while completely missing their point of view all together. Having the dominant culture speak for black women in the movement is not only damaging because it creates misunderstanding but, even worse, it silences their voices out of the movement further denying self actualization to this group of people. Manifestations of this racism can be seen in schools as well as in the workforce, media and the academy. While white supremacist sexist society guarantees a devaluing of women’s experiences and their bodies white women will always be better off on this structure than black women because of their race. hooks in LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATEbell hooks is a wonderful resource for debaters because of her application to a wide variety of concerns. Her criticisms apply to every conceivable area of American life because she critiques the fundamental structures in which we live. This critical approach may seem most accessible for a debater on the negative who wants to critique the dominant stance of the affirmative case. Her theories work well to indict any affirmative case that does not question its own underlying assumptions. When faced with a case that advocates a particular ideology, hooks will generally have something to criticize because even when someone is conscious to avoid racism and sexism they often don’t recognize the critical role class plays in the assumptions we make about the way society functions. Whatever the flaw, using hooks’ work debaters should be able to uncover the problems with assumptions made in the case construction process. The wonderful thing about hooks for debaters is that she does not simply critique. She provides a unique perspective for creating practical approaches to societal issues. That makes her a good person to refer to when constructing cases as well. She may criticize the educational process in America but her books also discuss what can be done to alleviate detrimental effects of a problematic educational system. She looks at issues of poverty and class and discusses the ways that a feminist perspective addresses those issues. Freedom of expression is another great area to use hooks’ work, in this area she not only has a vast array of works dealing with expression but also mass media and she attempts to come to grips with what society can do to move away from destructive expression without censoring out groups who are already marginalized by the dominant culture. These are only a few of the many areas bell hooks has chosen to write about. The next great thing about bell hooks is her accessibility. Not only is her work easy to locate but it is simple to read. Type her name into any library data base and you are bound to find something written by this author, she even writes interesting children’s books! Bookstores often carry a sampling of hooks’ major works as well. Let’s face it though, debaters tend to want the information accessible on the computer as well. Type the name bell hooks into internet search engines and you will find tons of information. Because she is so interesting people want to provide information on her, even her publishing company has made parts of the book Feminism is for Everybody available on their website for free. Not only can you find her work but when you sit down to read it you will not be lost. One of the most important issues for hooks as an author is a student’s ability to read. She wants to make her work something that everyone can understand the issues that are important to her. Finally, one of the most important parts of winning a debate is the ability to persuade your audience that the stance you have taken is correct. A careful deployment of hooks’ work can bring audiences to your side. Her use of personal experience allows her work o be passionate and compelling. Combined with knowledge of social realities and academic subjects hooks is an author many audiences can relate to. The key is finding the appropriate discussions to have with particular audiences in order to raise consciousness. BIBLIOGRAPHYFlorence, Namulundah, BELL HOOKS’ ENGAGED PEDAGOGY: A TRANSGRESSIVE EDUCATION FOR CRITICAL CONCIOUSNESS, Westport: Bergin & Garvey, 1998. Golden, Marita and Susan Richards Shreeve, SKIN DEEP: BLACK WOMEN & WHITE WOMEN WRITE ABOUT RACE, New York: Doubleday, 1995. hooks, bell, YEARNING: RACE GENDER AND CULTURAL POLITICS, Boston: South End Press, 1990. hooks, bell, “Black Woman Artist Becoming,” LIFE NOTES (ed. Patricia Bell-Scott), New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1994. hooks, bell, KILLING RAGE: ENDING RACISM, New York: Henry Holt, 1995 hooks, bell, BONE BLACK:MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD, New York: Henry Holt, 1996. hooks, bell, WOUNDS OF PASSION: A WRITING LIFE, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1999. hooks, bell, FEMINISM IS FOR EVERYBODY, Cambridge: South End Press, 2000. Olsen, Gary A. and Elizabeth Hirsh, WOMEN WRITING CULTURE, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995. RACISM PERMEATES US CULTURE1. American society has a white supremacist culture. Namulundah Florence, adjunct faculty member in Fordham Univeristy’s Graduate School of Education and College of Bussiness, BELL HOOKS’ ENGAGED PEDAGOGY: A TRANSGRESSIVE EDUCATION FOR CRITICAL CONCIOUSNESS, Westport: Bergin & Garvey, 1998, p. 11. Critical, feminist and multicultural critics highlight the fallacy behind mainstream norms and practices. It is argued that a pervasive false consciousness is reinforced in society due to the sanctioning of exclusive ways of being, feeling and knowing as the norm. Essentially, these values and traditions are racial, gender, and class specific. Students from marginalized cultures find their primary cultural values and traditions inadequately represented and/or denied. The subordination of one group’s cultural traits and characteristics has significant impact in marginalized students’ experiences of schools and/or incorporation of official curricula. In a white supremacist society, White people’s values, traditions, and practices are engrained in social policies and norms serving as basic criteria for social and economic mobility. hooks succinctly states: In the beginning black folks were most effectively colonized via the structure of ownership. Once slavery ended, white supremacy could be effectively maintained by the institutionalization of social apartheid and by creating a philosophy of racial inferiority that would be taught for everyone. This strategy of colonialism needed no country, for the space it sought to own and conquer was the minds of blacks (1995, p.109).
Namulundah Florence, adjunct faculty member in Fordham Univeristy’s Graduate School of Education and College of Bussiness, BELL HOOKS’ ENGAGED PEDAGOGY: A TRANSGRESSIVE EDUCATION FOR CRITICAL CONCIOUSNESS, Westport: Bergin & Garvey, 1998, p. 14. In the United States, colonization of the continent led to the institution of economic, educational, and political structures that primarily served the interests of the colonizers , currently policy makers(Banks, 1988; hooks, 1992, 1994, 1995; McNaught, 1996). Historically, in America, Anglo-Saxon sociocultural traditions functioned as a “prerequsite to social acceptability and access to the political structure” (Banks 1988, p.58). However, unlike Northern and Western European immigrants, groups such as African Americans, Chinese Americans, and Mexican Americans faced greater challenges in trying to assimilate as a result of possessing different cultural traits and characteristics from the mainstream (Banks, 1988; Nelson et al., 1996). Insisting on the primacy of racial discrimination, hooks contends: Racism took precedence over sexual alliances in both the white world’s interaction with Native Americans and African Americans, just as racism overshadowed any bonding between black women and white women on the basis of sex. (1981, p.122)
bell hooks, TALKING BACK: THINKING FEMINIST, THINKING BLACK, Boston: South End Press, 1989, p. 67. While assimilation is seen as an approach that ensures the successful entry of black people into the mainstream, at its very core it is dehumanizing. Embedded in the logic of assimilation is the white-supremacist assumption that blackness must be eradicated so that a new self, in this case, a “white” self, can come into being. Of course, since we who are black can never be white, this very effort promotes and fosters serious psychological stress and even severe mental illness. My concern about the process of assimilation has deepened as I hear black students express pain and hurt, as I observe them suffer in ways that not only inhibit their ability t perform academically, but threaten their very existence. Directory: uploads uploads -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 uploads -> Department of science and humanities department of mathematics part-a questions and answers uploads -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It? uploads -> For want of a nail uploads -> Ownership Models There are two different types of ownership models uploads -> Police Militarization uploads -> City of rising star regular meting thursday, july 14, 2016 uploads -> Township of winfield uploads -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 uploads -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program What We Want Now! Download 5.81 Mb. Share with your friends:
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