Summary Of Homeplace: Yearning By Bell Hooks

In the chapter Homeplace: a site of resistance of Bell Hooks’ book Yearning, Hooks explains her feelings toward the deprivation of equality in African Americans, specifically women. She shows in several ways how women were deprived of their rights to raise a family, grow a home, and other privileges that white families had over black families. Hooks’ argument was valid for the time while she was a child, however, when the chapter was written, the the percentage of women in the work force had grown dramatically. Thus her argument seems biased due to her experiences as a child (Hooks).
Throughout the chapter and even in the title, Hooks mentions the word “homeplace” multiple times. The author gives several different types of definitions of what this term means, but the most prevalent one would be a place where African Americans are able to feel safe and not mentally or physically attacked by whites. There are also many other ways to interpret what a homeplace is including certain people, smells, objects, etc (Hooks).
To start out the chapter, Hooks tells her childhood story of how whenever her and her siblings would walk home from school, they felt as if they did not belong. However, as soon as they stepped onto their grandmother’s yard, they felt secure, as if nothing could harm them.

That was an eighteen percent increase between those years (Facts Over Time). With that in mind, there were many women, not just African Americans, who were working away from home and then having to come home to create their own “homeplace” It is understood that caring for other families might be a whole different type of work, however, all of these women are leaving their own homes to work for someone else, while their home and family are functioning on their own