“Being oppressed means the absence of choices”
― bell hooks
I really did enjoy reading the little bit we had on hooks. I thought her points really brought out the culture of black women and the way we make ourselves lower than men.I wanted to add a good point she made on pg.74."Dialogue--- the sharing of speech and recognition--- took place not between mother and child or mother and male authority figure but among black women." That definition is the best one i have ever read. Dialogue usually means to talk to one another. hooks understands that you can't just talk, you have to be recognized and so do your ideas. Maybe that's why children don't listen to the mother. She talks so much that the dialogue is no longer recognized. When the father speaks, it is a different story. They may not be at home as much as the mom so their words seem more important since they are not heard often. I read an article on hooks abouther views of the educagional system. In this, she describes how dialogue is the toolto use to get students to not only improv but to be involved in how they learn. She is a really hands on type of person. Her logic is, "If i have to learn this why can't i do it my own way?" I really admire that about her.http://www.nea.org/assets/img/PubThoughtAndAction/TAA_98Fal_05.pdf
This post reminded me about a topic we spoke about in fem theory a lot, which was language. As humans, we place so much importance on words. Take the term "black" for example. Whether we like it or not, using that word in different contexts can mean completely different things. Same for the word "Feminism." I think this is why bell hooks says that black women are "below" men. Men will not understand the language they use because they do not have the same experience as black women. Even though they both experience racial oppression, its in a different way. Black women have a drastically different idea of racial oppression than black men. But instead of recognizing and embracing the difference, men assume that a women's language is "inferior" to men.
ReplyDelete