Bell Hooks Research Paper

Improved Essays
Black, White, Asian, and Hispanic women all have one thing in common. They all have dealt with some form of oppression. bell hooks exemplifies a woman who seeks change and improvement in the feminist movement. When bell hooks enrolled in a graduate class on Feminist Theory she realized all her readings were written by white women and one black man. She had every right to be curious of the works from women of different cultures. Did I mention bell hooks was black? Oppression has no color or race. I completely agree with bell hooks for making this valid statement and inquiring about other writings. In the following paragraphs I am going to examine women such as Frances Beal, Paul Murray Dolores Huerta and the Asian American Movement in the 1960s. These women …show more content…
Her insights and vision continue to resonate powerfully in our times. She was a historian, attorney, activist, scholar, educator, feminist, poet, same-gender-loving woman, and Episcopal priest she worked throughout her life to address injustice, to give voice to the unheard, to educate, and to promote reconciliation between races and economic classes. Murray's first book, States' Laws on Race and Color , was published in 1951, and became an invaluable reference for civil rights lawyers.” Both of these women could have had an impact on bell hooks educational career had she been introduced to their stellar work. In the Hispanic community, Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta is an American labor leader and civil rights activist who was the co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. Although, she did not do much dealing with feminist thought she made a huge contribution to the labor conditions that improved working conditions for thousand of farm workers across the country. However, Huerta receives little credit for being the co-founder. Everyone remembers the name Cesar

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and represents 40th congressional District and became the first Mexican-American woman elected to Congress in 1992. When I saw that she was an alumni from Cal State La I was surprise and happy because she actually represents my district and my community. Roybal-Allard supports the immigrant community, labor unions, veterans and the rights of women and children. She is an original co-author of The Dream Act that was aim for undocumented students to have a path to citizenship and advocates to keep families together and not separate them. In 2007 she was awarded the Elected Leader of the Year Award.…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Intersectionality and the Many Variations of Masculinity 1. Dorothy Allison stands as a well-known, best-selling author of Southern literature. Allison may be best known for her provocative and honest book Two or Three Things I Know for Sure. In this memoir, Allison recounts her life by emphasizing the abuse, sexual and physical, the Gibson women encountered from their male counterparts. She uses her voice in literature to stress the painful fate she was destined to have because she was born into a poor, white family.…

    • 1438 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The main goals of the Hispanic American community were to unite for equality. By use of unions and boycotts, the Hispanic American community fought for equal rights. Most of the field workers were Hispanic Americans, the workers faced poor conditions at their job. This job did not require much education to get, but that also meant that there was smaller pay. The Hispanic Americans needed someone who would organize them and would find a solution.…

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While women involved in the black and non-white feminism movement were concerned with their race, mainstream feminism never had to cross that barrier. In the identities of the women the groups differed. The difference in their goals are apparent when works featured in Nancy MacLean’s The American Women’s Movement, 1945-2000, a chapter by Michelle Wallace from Gloria T. Hull’s All the Women Are White, All the Men Are Black, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women 's Studies, and Kimberle Crenshaw’s…

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Black Feminism Stereotypes

    • 1482 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Black feminism, a term not recognized by many, is a form of feminism that fights to include African-American women in the conversation of women equality and explain how our race, gender, class and other identity markers shapes our experience with societal institutions. Patricia Collins, an African-American woman who encourages intersectionality, discusses suppression of black feminism, and believes social change can only occur through uniting women, and men, of all walks of life to work towards one common goal. We will examine two pieces of literature and put it into conversation with Collins perspective of symbolic and institutional dimensions of oppression. Hip Hop, a genre of music with the stigma of being a male dominated industry that…

    • 1482 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Summary In the article, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor,” Bell Hooks, discusses the issues of poverty. One of her claims is that America has negative attitudes and stereotypes towards poverty; she believes poverty is not something that should be looked down upon in society. Hooks has also observed the way these ideas have affected people’s views on poverty.…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sabrina Coccia Women Images & Realities 9/22/2015 Reading Analysis #2 Although, most people assume feminism is just about being against ‘the man’, it is more than that. Usually, when individuals think of feminists, they immediately think of white feminists but what about the colored feminists. Colored women have to endure racial based problems more than white women. Colored women have to endure white supremacy oppressing them. In “No Disrespect Black Women and the Burden of Respectability” by Tamara Winfrey Harris and “Ideals and Expectations: Race, Health and Femininity” by Margaret A. Lowe, these writers talk about the ways in which ‘politics of respectability’ is forced upon and the effects on women of color especially on their bodies.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Her resourcefulness and effective leadership supplied the proper platform for activists like Rosa Parks and Recy Taylor to continue the fight against the scourge of being both, black and female living in a white-privileged patriarchal society. Many of her grassroots tactics helped bring an end to sexual violence, and helped tear down the barriers cultivated by biases of race, gender and…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although the issue of women oppressing other women is a topic not discussed enough, but should be. In order to understand why the oppression of women is still taking place, one must identify the groups involved in the oppression and how their actions contribute to the oppression? In the first two chapters of Talking Back bell hooks sheds light on her personal experience of being oppressed both by males and females in her…

    • 1112 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Nearing the end of the book, from chapter 8 – 10 Hooks talks about solutions about how black males can help liberate themselves from a white – supremacist patriarchy society that victimizes them. she was successful with educating people about the racism and discrimination that black males faced in America also, she was encouraging because she was, able to project hope and that change can happen if people raise these issues and discuss them. " No matter how broken, how lost we are, we can be found. Our wounded souls are never beyond repair" (Hooks, 2004, p. 152). This is unlike Ellis Cose’s book The Envy of the World:…

    • 1788 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Starting with “Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female”, author Frances M. Beal, says that, “the black woman in America can justly be described as a ‘slave of a slave’” (Beal, 385). When we think about it, black women endure a lot of suffering throughout history. Not only does the color of their skin put them in the position to receive discrimination, but also on top of that they are female, which reduces their rights to even less. Beal points out that when it comes to the white women’s movement, a majority of the women fighting for their rights come from the middle class.…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Research Proposal 1. Kimberle Crenshaw’s article “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color” is an essay that exposes the reality of being a colored woman today. It compares the unfair treatment of colored women to the treatment of white women in various scenarios. Colored women not only face discrimination due to sexism but they also experience racism. Facing both make it a hard intersection for many colored women.…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Upon entry of the story “Talking Back,” by Bell Hooks she declares that “talking back” means speaking as an equal to an authority figure. “It meant daring to disagree and sometimes it just meant having an opinion,” (Hooks 152). Hooks states that she apprehends that women of different races should be able to express their opinions, not just inside the household but also out. She then reveals some of her early trials as a writer and the complications with being a female, African American child (Hooks). In my opinion, being a female with sympathy on the subject of achieving women 's rights, I do agree to an extent with what Hooks has declared.…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Theme There are actually several themes that are central to this book. One reason is that there is so much that made this movement a success. One central theme was the leadership role that the three main subjects of the book played during this movement. Raul Ruiz, Gloria Arellanes and Rosalio Muñoz were three key activists of the Chicano civil rights and empowerment struggle.…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Cherríe Moraga’s La Güera tackles the idea of a hierarchy of privilege that is present in many aspects of the world, including, but not exclusive to, feminism. She uses her experience as a Chicana lesbian to acknowledge both the oppression that has been inflicted upon her and the oppression she has inflicted upon others. It is through acknowledging one’s own oppression that they are able to fight their own internalized bigotry. Using her ideas, we are able to unpack a bit of Junot Diaz’s Monstro and the racial implications that come with it. Through multiple texts, it becomes evident that oppression is present for countless groups across the world.…

    • 2371 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Superior Essays