Some notes on an essay that bell hooks wrote, “Loving Blackness as Political Resistance”:
James Cone once said that if white people in America truly understood how whiteness and racism hurts them, and not just blacks, they would want to free themselves from it, they would “destroy themselves and be born again as beautiful black persons.”
An amazing idea, but hooks disagrees. For two reasons: First, how in the world can whites become black? And second, most whites are helped more than harmed by racism, so appealing to their narrow self-interest – as opposed to their political and moral beliefs – will fail for the most part.
Cone, a Christian thinker, sees whiteness as inhuman, as a sort of disease of the spirit, and therefore something that hurts whites most of all. Hooks sees whiteness in a more Marxist way, as a set of beliefs that American society has been built on which, therefore, benefits whites.
Schools and television and American society in general teaches people, both black and white, to overvalue whiteness and undervalue blackness.
Whites, even those who work with blacks for civil rights, believe that whites are better than blacks, that they have more intelligence and even kindness.
Blacks, on the other hand, are told in a thousand ways that they are no good, that they are lacking, particularly poor blacks. This leads to self-hatred, doubt and despair – and sometimes to drink and drugs.
There is more: American society teaches you to think mainly about yourself and how to achieve material success. But for blacks to succeed in a white world they have to downplay or even cut themselves off from their blackness. But how can you do that and still feel good about yourself? How can you be true to yourself and still succeed?
That is why you cannot end racism by acting like everyone is the same. Because everyone is not the same. To require blacks to be the same as whites is unfair to blacks; it is asking them to give up who they are. Equality will not come till whites accept blackness and think there is nothing wrong with it.
And blacks will not be free and good and right within until they unlearn the white messages about blackness and instead learn to love blackness, to love themselves as they are and not to the degree they fit some white American idea of what is right and good and successful.
Cone says whites should love blackness too as a way to fight against the white racist thinking that is everywhere. Hooks does not go that far.
Hooks also takes issue with Shelby Steele, who says blacks sit together at lunch because they are being racist. Hooks says maybe it is simpler than that: maybe they are sick of having to put up with racist whites and want a break from it. Steele assumes that whites of goodwill cannot be racist, that they cannot, for example, be cultural tourists who objectify blacks.
See also:
- bell hooks
- Audre Lorde: Eye to Eye
- acceptable blackness
- black-on-black racism
- There is absolutely nothing wrong with being black – something that whites do not accept in their hearts – and even many blacks
- Obama at Occidental College – find out about Obama’s take on the lunch table sitting thing
“blacks sit together at lunch because they are being racist. Hooks says maybe it is simpler than that: maybe they are sick of having to put up with racist whites and want a break from it.”
Out of everything mentioned, I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. When I was in highschool, I preferred to sit with blacks at times because all my dumb white friend would ALWAYS ask me ridiculous questions.
I mean the most ridiculous stuff…”can you wash your hair?” “Do blacks tan?” “Do people live in houses in Nigeria (where I come from)?” “Do some of your family members have AIDS?”
I mean absolutely stupid things on a DAILY basis…other black people were the only ones that truly understood me (even though being an African provides a weird divide at times too). Sometimes we just get tired of it.
A racist and ant-white article. What I’m about to say is tantamount to blasphemy in this politically correct day and age; yet truth is truth. How long are we going to pretend that origins play no role in our world, the origins of the inventions, science, technology, and economics of the world in which we live?
Trains, planes, cars, rockets, telescopes, tires, telephones, radios, television, electricity, Movies,atomic energy, computers, and fax machines. All miracles made possible by the minds and spirits of men with names like Ampere, Bell, Caselli, Edison, Ohm, Faraday, Einstein, Cohen, Teller, Shockley, Hertz, Marconi, Morse, Popov. Ford, Volta, Michelin, Dunlop, Watt, Diesel, Galileo, and other \”dead white males.\”
The great majority of \”booms\” past and present have been brought about by the genius and inventiveness of that most \”despicable\” of genders, the dreaded white male, or, to be exact, by specific, individual white males. This is not to discredit the many contributions coming from non-whites, but fact is fact. Our most important and consequential inventions have come almost exclusively from white males.
Curse me, or all white males, if you wish, that changes nothing. But if you call me a liar, you’ll have to come up with the proof that I’m wrong. Remember, I didn’t say there were no important contributions by non-whites; I said the overwhelming majority. Of course, I know about such things as the Chinese and gunpowder, but they didn’t take it much beyond firecrackers and pyrotechnics. And I know about the pyramids and masonry of South America and the zero of the Arabs.
Would we have atomic physics and electricity if it hadn’t been for the ancient Greek philosophers who, for example, had the idea that all matter consists of tiny atoms? Aristotle (5th century, B.C., 25th century pre P.C.) used electric charges to treat gout! Archimedes perceived the center of gravity of solids, cylinders, and spheres. From the basic discoveries of Greek civilization it went to the Romans and after the fall of Rome, it passed to later Europeans who expanded on this scientific knowledge. In modern times these ideas were developed by such Europeans as Volta, Ampere, Watts, Bell, Edison, and Einstein, who provided the basis for most of the technical wonders of today. All of them dreaded white males.
Maybe you got your enlightenment from one of the Ivy-League institutions of dis-education. Maybe they taught you that it’s all the result of white racism and oppression. That every time a potential Einstein, Edison, or Ford popped up in the Third World, a White hit-squad would swoop down and eliminate him before he had a chance to prove himself. Or maybe their schools refused to teach him in the Ebonics of his day. Or maybe they didn’t have proper daycare facilities. Or maybe our would-be innovator came from a \”dysfunctional family.\”
But the facts tell us that many of the great men pursued their genius at great personal risk–like the astronomer Galileo, who proved that the earth revolves around the sun. He and other men of genius and courage refused to be suppressed even if it meant their lives. They would permit no race, gender, group or class to keep them from their pursuit of truth and excellence whatever the cost.
If you eliminate, suppress, or debase the while male, you kill the goose that laid the golden egg. If you ace him out with \”affirmative\” action, exile him from the family, teach him that he’s a blight on mankind, then bon voyage to our society. We will devolve into a turd-world cesspool. Where has there ever before in history been a group of human beings who have brought about the likes of the Magna Carta, the US Constitution, and the countless life-saving and life- improving inventions that we now enjoy?
Now it is certainly true that China did lead the world in technology and commercial inventiveness about 1,000 years ago. They had great coal-mining operations, gunpowder, six-masted sailing ships, and intense commercial enterprise. But it all collapsed because the elites, the long-nailed Mandarins, centralized control–1,000 years before Mao–and crushed the expansion and inventions.
Does this mean we should sit back and let ourselves be governed by someone just because he’s a white male? Of course, it doesn’t. It means simply that we shouldn’t suppress anyone, including white males. Let our God-given gifts run free in a free and just society, free from the oppression and tyranny of social engineers. If anyone has gifts beyond our own, be he a white male or other, be grateful. Maybe we have gifts that in some small way can contribute something of value as well. One way or another, we’re all in the same boat. Few of us have truly outstanding gifts. And most of us have to humbly accept that there are others around who are more gifted than we are. In a democratic society it’s not for Big Brother to decide who shall thrive and who shall struggle in the hive.
What does the above diatribe have to do with the topic at hand? It would appear that the poster ‘Josh” is trying to divert the topic.
“Josh”, who goes by different names, not all of them even male, likes to cut and paste right-wing racist rants into my blog. This one is from Michael Savage’s “White Male Inventions”:
http://www.dadi.org/ms_dwm.htm
Thanks Abagond. Doing research on bell hooks. Your blog has been insightful!
Abagond:
Black people love being black. If we didn’t love us so much, we would have died off like the Aztecs and Mayans in Central America. We can survive during hard times, and we can live it up during the good times. Blackness wins either way. Whiteness is only relevant in good times, which is why they lust power and wealth as they do. The staying power of blackness will win out when it’s all said and done…Bottomline!
Tyrone
MindScape
@Tyrone
Blackness wins either way. Whiteness is only relevant in good times, which is why they lust power and wealth as they do.
Just a little self-centered and racist, eh, Tyrone. If a white person wrote anything like this, you blacks would be screaming racism. I take what you as nice prose, but not factual.