bell hooks
bell hooks
American author, feminist, and social activist whose real name is Gloria Jean Watkins. She wrote "Ain’t I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism".
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth25 September 1952
CityHopkinsville, KY
CountryUnited States of America
expression names profound
When we only name the problem, when we state complaint without a constructive focus or resolution, we take hope away. In this way critique can become merely an expression of profound cynicism, which then works to sustain dominator culture.
romantic-love expression want
It is a distortion of the notion of romantic love to want to see obedience as the quintessential expression of respect.
thinking expression people
I think the invitation offered the non-black reader is to join us in this expression of our familiarity and via that joining, come to understand that when black people come together to celebrate and rejoice in black critical thinking, we do so not to exclude or to separate, but to participate more fully in world community. However, we must first be able to dialogue with one another, to give one another subject-to-subject recognition that is an act of resistance that is part of the decolonizing, anti-racist process.
believe commitment expression
All too often women believe it is a sign of commitment, an expression of love, to endure unkindness or cruelty, to forgive and forget. In actuality, when we love rightly we know that the healthy, loving response to cruelty and abuse is putting ourselves out of harm's way.
care face whenever women
Whenever women struggle with breast cancer and face better care than ever, that's feminism.
aggression black lives love mass media people time
In general, the mass media tell us that black people are not loving, that our lives are so fraught with violence and aggression that we have no time to love.
assertion body create criticism given mirror movies time written
An often-repeated assertion in the body of film criticism I have written is the assertion that movies do not just mirror the culture of any given time; they also create it.
button coat goes purse sees standing white
I can be standing in Barneys with my coat and purse and my selections, and some white woman will say, 'Can you get this in my size?' What she sees is a black woman, and her service button goes off.
life people
I think life experiences are different for people who know what they want as children.
committed love loving major possible
A major part of love is commitment. If we are committed to someone, if I'm committed to loving you, then it's not possible for me to 'fall out of love.'
art assert building essential foundation identity males schooled sees
All over the world, young males and females, schooled in the art of patriarchal thinking, are building an identity on a foundation that sees the will to do violence as the essential way to assert being.
mind
There is a lushness to how my mind works.
knowledge money
Class is more than money. Class is also about knowledge.
history people supports wonder
These days I wonder more and more why people are pessimistic when American history actually supports optimism.