In bell hooks Ain't I A Woman she gives a look into how being a black woman in America is the greatest disadvantage facing any American. She starts by explain how black women since the start of slavery have been more oppressed and discriminated against more than any group in the nation. She also explains that this is how it has been since African American women were brought to America and still plays a part in American society today. hooks has been criticized harshly for her so called male bashing in the book, I personally do not believe that it should be called male bashing. hooks makes the argument in her book that the whites males created a social hierarchy based off rank and sex. The order goes white males first, black males second, white women third and black women last. She says that this social hierarchy has become accepted …show more content…
While teen pregnancy and AIDS in African American communities were on the rise, Americans rallied together and made sexual education a priority for all of americans not just the one who could afford it. This includes places like Planned Parenthood who help teach and practice safe sex. This is something that has made big difference to African American women and has enhanced the quality of life for a lot people. Something that has not changed to me is the fact that black women are not glamorised as much as white women. To me in movies and television white actors and actresses are in most roles, which is troubling because they will not cast the correct race for certain roles. African American women have become more popular in music but still are not glamorized as much as white singers and stars. This is not the only place where African American women are not treated the same as males or females, they are paid less and are less likely to get a job that their counterparts would
Toni Morrison and bell hooks share the same views on how white America envisions blacks. In bell hooks' essays " Seduction and Betrayal" and " Sorrowful Black Death is Not a Hot Ticket" she focuses in on the portrayal of African Americans on the big screen. In "Seduction and Betrayal" hooks uses Spike Lee's Crooklyn to demonstrate how invaluable the life of a black person is. In " Sorrowful Black Death Is Not a Hot Ticket" she claims the Bodyguard and The Crying Game illustrate the notion that blacks, especially black females, are inferior to whites. In Toni Morrison's introduction to Birth of a Nation'hood , she suggests these same views by looking at the O.J. Simpson case. Through the use of these movies and courtcases, hooks and Morrison suggest that blacks are viewed as worthless, violent criminals, who are subordinate to the white race.
We saw the Thirteenth Amendment occur to abolish slavery. We also saw the Civil Rights Acts which gave full citizenship, as well as the prohibiting the denial of due process, etc. Having the civil rights laws enabled African Americans to new freedoms which they did not used to have. There was positive change occurring in the lives of African Americans. However, there was still a fight to suppress African Americans and maintain the racial hierarchy by poll taxes and lengthy and expensive court proceedings. Sadly, this is when Jim Crow laws appeared. During this time African Americans were losing their stride, there was an increase in prison populations and convict labor, and the convicts were
Deborah Gray White’s Ar’n’t I a Woman? details the grueling experiences of the African American female slaves on Southern plantations. White resented the fact that African American women were nearly invisible throughout historical text, because many historians failed to see them as important contributors to America’s social, economic, or political development (3). Despite limited historical sources, she was determined to establish the African American woman as an intricate part of American history, and thus, White first published her novel in 1985. However, the novel has since been revised to include newly revealed sources that have been worked into the novel. Ar’n’t I a Woman? presents African American females’ struggle with race and gender through the years of slavery and Reconstruction. The novel also depicts the courage behind the female slave resistance to the sexual, racial, and psychological subjugation they faced at the hands of slave masters and their wives. The study argues that “slave women were not submissive, subordinate, or prudish and that they were not expected to be (22).” Essentially, White declares the unique and complex nature of the prejudices endured by African American females, and contends that the oppression of their community were unlike those of the black male or white female communities.
Bell hooks covers an abundance of issues through different class, race, gender and nation. In her article ‘Feminism A Movement to End Sexist Oppression’ she begins by discussing the oppression of mainly black women who are in a lower class. Hooks discusses if men become associated with the feminist movement it would mainly affect the upper class and middle aged white women while just scratching the surface for working-class and poor women. In the recent article ‘Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination’ bell hooks discusses the oppression about the racism faced by black people. I find it that this article is more non-intersectional because we are only talking about black people in general. We can only assume that hooks is discussing racism faced by poor black people because they were servants. Further into the article however hooks does focus on African Americans and we read upon what their impression of the white man could be. Hook also looks as students and how racism occurred in one of her class discussions. Finally, we look at the view of two black women and how they faced racism. The first woman was Njeri from ‘Every Good-Bye Ain’t Gone and how her grandfather was run over by 2 white guys. The second woman was Sethe from ‘Beloved’ by Morrision and how she killed her young because she didn’t want them to grow up in a world of terror. I found it that hooks did not say specifically who she is talking about like in her article ‘Feminism A Movement to End Sexist Oppression’ but is targeting the topic of racism all
Bell Hooks Ain’t I a Woman was first published in 1981, named after Sojourner Truth's speech “Ain’t I a Woman” from 1851. Bell Hooks’ Ain’t I a Woman, following a similar concept of Sojourner’s Truth, initiated the feminist and the racial equality movement. One of the main struggle Bell Hook tries to express throughout her book, is that black women can not be treated equally due to the history of the former slaves. Her main point was to analysis the conjunction of gender and race, and the experiences of black women from slavery the present from her perspective.
In her article "Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination" bell hooks argues that the distance between the white and black races created a tense relationship between the two. This tension caused a multitude of problems that are still present today including systems of domination, stereotypes of one another, white naivety of their privilege and fear of white individuals. Similarly, Ruth Frankenberg 's article "White Women, Race Matters" discuss these issues but from the perspective of a white feminist. Many of the same points can be connected to hooks ' arguments because the main aspects with races focus on the idea that whiteness is a perspective in which we see ourselves, others and society and also that whiteness continues to remain
By writing Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery Bell Hooks gave black women a chance to relate to one another on issues that we are often afraid to express. In PSC 318 we often discussed the stigma of being a “strong black woman” and the negative aspects of that stigma. In my eyes thee is nothing negative about being strong and there is surely nothing negative about being a black woman. But, as a black woman we are looked at providers, caregivers, mentors, mother figures, a shoulder to lean on and much more. Bell Hooks touches on the touchy subject in the black community and that is mental health. Often times as black people we worry about physical health and spiritual health, in the black community our answer to everything and anything going wrong in our lives is to pray about it. Yes, God can heal and help us but Bell Hooks tells us in writing Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery that we need to take care of our mental health as well as pray. Black women rarely go to therapist to talk about their problems because they are so worried about helping everyone else handle their problems.
Changes occur on a daily basis. The changes that occurred in the 1870s, for the most part, were positive. The first change took place on February 3, 1870, when the 15th Amendment was ratified. It prohibited the federal and state government from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen’s “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Unfortunately, through the use of poll taxes and literacy tests southern states disfranchised African Americans (“Primary Documents in American History”). Another change that occurred is one that is in the book for the records. On February 25, 1870 Hiram Rhodes Revels, a republican from Mississippi, became the first African American to fill a seat in the United States Senate (“REVELS, Hiram Rhodes”). What’s a decade without a manipulative President? President Ulysses S. Grant added two justices to the Supreme Court to reverse the decision of declaring the Civil War Legal Tender Act unconstitutional. This is why the current size of the Court today is nine justices (Kennedy, 542). One last change of the 1870s occurred in 1875, when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The Act guaranteed equal accommodations in public places and prohibited racial discrimination in jury selection. Once again the law meant nothing to some and stayed that way for more than a century (Kennedy, ...
...change for much of the United States. Slavery was abolished by the thirteenth amendment and blacks were afforded full rights by the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, which was a revolutionary change compared to just a few years before. Although blacks were legally equal citizens, they were not treated as such. Racist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan and White League, oppressed blacks through blatant violence and intimidation. Although blacks were politically equal, they were socially inferior. The Freedmen’s Bureau was not as successful as it could have been and was of little us to most blacks. It only perpetuated the place of blacks in society as working for the white man. Although the constitutional changes to black’s rights were very revolutionary, there was very little revolution in American society with blacks remaining as lesser than any white man.
bell hooks closes her essay by saying, “If black men are betraying us through acts of male violence, we save ourselves and the race by resisting.” (123) I believe in what she is saying, but she is one sided. Maybe she is just saying that we, as women, would rather be called just ‘girls’, ‘women’ or even ‘chicka’, but that is every woman, not just the black women. But, did she even think about the girls (black and white) that like to be paraded around like giraffes at a circus? Did she realize that she is just one person, as am I, and she can’t change the world she lived in? The world is cruel and evil and some of the men in it are just as nasty and immoral, but it’s our choice whether to live in the world…or in the circus.
Even though people might have similar backgrounds it doesn't mean that they share the same opinions. This is evident in the works of bell hooks and Toni Morrison. bell hooks article mainly deals with the concept of racism and feminism. Her article looks at the movie about her people in a negative light. The other articles by Toni Morrison look at life and what it holds in a positive light. From the different works, I sense that bell hooks looks at the world with pessimism and Toni Morrison views the world with optimism. Toni Morrison feels that everybody is equal and the same. While bell hooks feels that everybody is not equal. From her opinions of female black woman you sense that she feels that life is not fare. On the other hand Toni Morrison's work makes her seem like a person who thinks that you make the best with what you are given.
In her book Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black, bell hooks describes how she helps her students find their voice within her classroom.She discusses her use of authority to enable her students.For her, teacher authority is a necessary part of helping her students find their voices:
bell hooks is a woman who does not concern herself with establishing credibility among her audience or critics. What is important to hooks is that she reaches the people who most need to hear what she has to say. As hooks tells us, "It is important that we know who we are speaking to, who we most long to move, motivate, and touch with our words" (90). hooks has, however, established credibility through her many achievements, such as, attending school at Stanford University, teaching at Yale, writing the book Ain't I a Woman: black women and feminism, and by starting a black women's support group. Although these are great accomplishments, no matter what your race or sex, I feel she best establishes her credibility through her character. hooks tells us that while she often may have needed money, she never had the need for new beliefs or values. She shows great strength in her ability to combine her past life with her new "privileged" life. As hooks says, "It was my responsibility to formulate a way of being ...
Today it is no longer a novelty to hear that teenagers are having sex. However, while this “bedroom” activity may be fun, there are now ample reports indicating that rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in teenagers have skyrocketed. Current data reveal that nearly 25% of adolescent girls who have sex are infected with one of the four commonly sexually transmitted infections-namely gonorrhea, chlamydia, herpes and HIV (Kann et al, 2015). Nationally, the prevalence of STDs account for 50% of cases in people under the age of 25. While every ethnic and race has been known to be affected, African American youth are disproportionately affected. These data are not a surprise to professionals who are engaged in adolescent sexual health because the numbers have been slowly creeping up over the decades, despite national educational policies to counter the threat of STDs (Sales & DiClemente, 2016). All the STDs have a significant impact on sexual and reproductive health, if they are mot promptly diagnosed and treated. Although many preventive strategies have been implemented in all communities, the rates of STDs are still increasing (Madkour et al, 2016).
The primary objective of the research project is to understand how to reach young people across America, due to the fact that HIV and AIDS is increasing among women of color and gay men under the age of 25 in the United States according to AIDSACTION.org, the national voice on AIDS. The rise in numbers of young people, especially those of color, contracting HIV/AIDS has raised much concern in the United States. For African-Americans, AIDS is still a leading cause of death and it is the leading cause of death for African-American women.