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.
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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.
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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.
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“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
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Thanks Abagond. Doing research on bell hooks. Your blog has been insightful!
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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
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@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.
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racism is prejudice plus power. if blacks do not have power then clearly they cant be racist.
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“Equality will not come till whites accept blackness and think there is nothing wrong with it.”
Abagond,
Equality of opportunity, access and power can never be achieved with the majority tribe by the minority tribe, not in the United States, not anywhere in this world. The majority tribe holds the power unless the minority tribe is aided by an outside group (such as the former European colonies in Africa). In the end everyone wants what is best for their children and their family ( a family in my context would be an extended group of people connected by clearly visible genetic markers and then cultural characteristics) and they will not assist “others” if they believe that assistance is at the expense of their children and the tribes prosperity. Individuals may act differently, but we live in a society, we are not lone wolves and society will decide your fate.
It does not matter if whites believe that blackness is okay, it does not matter if they believe blacks to be of good intent and noble character, it only matters that blacks are “others’ and not “us”. On a group basis (whites) may work with “them” for mutual gain or negotiate with them, if for instance “whites” need more willing soldiers to fight in foreign wars, then “whites” may want to provide more benefits (economic opportunity, less arbitrary repression) to “them” in order to obtain their acquiescence in such foreign endeavors.
There is no tribe called Americans. America is a political/military construct with artificial borders and a charter of rights developed by the majority tribe for the majority tribe and not completely shared by all who live within its borders. Why is that? Because within America’s borders there are many different tribes and depending on where you live, the charter will be applied differently according to who is enforcing it. And the enforcers will almost always be the majority tribe or its auxiliaries and ass-kissers.
In my opinion, MLK had a much better plan than Malcolm X and other radical black power groups like the Black Panthers. MLK illustrated to whites through the Montgomery bus boycott and other actions that blacks could hit whites in the pocketbook if whites did not accommodate the needs of blacks, if they did not render some justice unto them. MLK showed whites that they could not expect black men to fight in Vietnam and other foreign wars if they could not vote. He explained to whites that they could not expect blacks to take part in working for the betterment of white America if they were denied access to education (desegregation), fair housing (HUD), family assistance (AFDC) and jobs (affirmative action).
Radical black power groups showed blacks that they could stand up, arm themselves and intimidate white power. They also showed white society that armed angry blacks are to be feared. I don’t think that white fear of blacks has helped anything except convince a lot of whites that the best place for blacks is far away from them.
Follow MLK’s path. Think with your pocketbook. Develop your communities and negotiate with whites for greater access and opportunity when needed, from a position of economic strength. Show whites that when the black tribe gets rich, so does the white tribe. trying to convince white of the error of their ways is like talking into the wind.
(when I say white I am generalizing. Within European America there are many tribes and they don’t all see themselves as white and some whites don’t acknowledge that they are white. Typically when a white person says white, they mean northern European Germanic/Celtic. These differences though are meaningless for non-whites.)
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@biggiefriez
The major flaw with your argument of course is…
If MLK’s path was so good for teaching white people to see how Black and white can both benefit economically from each other. Why did white people authorize him to be killed?
If they refused to listen to someone as peaceful as MLK way back then why would they listen now?
Also, most of the indigenous people of colour on this planet were getting along just fine sharing planetary resources together until minority white people came along roughly 10,000 years ago. Who by the way still occupy this minority status globally today but wish to greedily hold onto and claim the majority of land based wealth and resources for themselves.
Now do you have any suggestions for how white and Black people should tackle this problem?.
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Kwamla,
“If M.L.K’s path was so good for teaching white people to see how Black and white can both benefit economically from each other. Why did white people authorize him to be killed?”
I don’t think he taught white people anything. I think he used non-violent coercive methods to force the white power elite to understand that they could not continue exploiting black labor and acquiescence in the operations of the American Empire and expect further black cooperation. His methods had positive results. His efforts did not yield full equality. In my opinion, nothing could have accomplished that outcome.
I don’t know who if anybody, authorized M.L.K to be killed. He was killed, and it could be argued he was killed because of how successful he was. Ghandi was also killed, but he drove the British out of India just the same.
“If they refused to listen to someone as peaceful as MLK way back then why would they listen now?”
They did listen to him and his many supporters. It can be argued that he was the central figure in the overthrow of Jim Crow and the many social policies aimed at blacks as part of L.B.J’s Great Society.
“Also, most of the indigenous people of colour on this planet were getting along just fine sharing planetary resources together until minority white people came along roughly 10,000 years ago. Who by the way still occupy this minority status globally today but wish to greedily hold onto and claim the majority of land based wealth and resources for themselves.”
My education taught me differently. I do know that the battle for resources all tribes engage in has lead to uncounted human suffering. It will continue wherever conflict is seen as more beneficial than cooperation.
“Now do you have any suggestions for how white and Black people should tackle this problem?.”
I don’t think most white European Americans think they have a problem. I think black Americans are treated as second class citizens by the white majority and the institutions they control. How do blacks overcome that in order to ensure the safe upbringing and financial well being of their families? In my opinion they will have to buy their well-being as they have probably achieved all they can through non-cooperation. And they already are. Millions of blacks have moved into the middle-class and subsequently into powerful positions in American business and government institutions. In some parts of the country they are numerous and wealthy enough to force the media and businesses generally to respect them and for government institutions to show some deference to them.Furthermore to reduce the number of blacks in prison and push for changes to black treatment generally, I think blacks would be better served by illustrating to whites the cost of this unfair treatment – to whites, the costs whites must bear to support the unnecessary police state we all suffer under. I like Eric Holder’s plan to reduce minimum sentencing guidelines, allow states to decriminalize weed and enfranchise former felons that have done their time.
I also think a bit more of blacks sticking together and supporting one another would be of benefit. Lots of other minority tribal groups do this and it works. Some blacks seem to be co-opted into thinking that going along with the majority tribe and playing their game will garner them equality. It won’t. Your strength comes from each other and your pocketbook. I have lots of other ideas but I won’t bore you.
I hope I haven’t been offensive. I’m not trying to be. I’m trying to be honest and not color-blind kumbaya.
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Loving Blackness doesn’t mean you hate others. If Black love was taught in every single Black household self-hatred would be non-existent.
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Reblogged this on Project ENGAGE.
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