Exposing the Dynamics Behind the Devaluation

books:

	• Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism Bell Hooks South End Press, 1999 - 205 pages average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Exposing the Dynamics Behind the Devaluation

I love this book! I think she had done an excellent job on dissecting the classist, racist, sexist structures that have kept black and mixed black women at the bottom of all the racial/class/gender hierarchy. She wrote a chapter about how privileged white women historically used their racial and class privileges to block black and other women of color(mexican, american indian,puerto rican) from access to wealth, power, influence, and especially, upward mobility. They also blocked poor and working class white women(to a lesser extent, for they also have white skin privilege like their sisters)from realizing their potential. Privileged white women just want to preserve their privileges they obtain and keep other women from having them. White feminists tend to protect the status quo, mainly privileged white christian heterosexual men. For example, the Anita Hill case. It have brought far more changes in politics and, once again, white women have benefited more than black women(new 2001 Senate will have 13 women, all white).
As for the antimiscegnation laws, I knew they were originally enacted to prevent white men to marry black women. If a lot of powerful white men were to marry black women and other women of color besides east asian and mexican women, white power will be gone for good. Which was the reason why American media didn't covered the royal wedding of the Prince of Liechtenstein and the black Panamanian woman. They do not like to see black women taking their cherished places as wives of powerful white men. Bell Hooks have done an excellent job on her book. I hope I look forward to see her publishing more of her works soon.

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Here is where it all began

Those who would dismiss Hook's scholarship and arguments as substandard are truly threatened by the radical observations she makes about the world and black women's relationship to it and in it.

The "Clif Notes" version Hooks has been maligned for by her critics have been practiced openly by white feminists (and predominantly white groups) so I honestly cannot see what the criticism is about unless it is the particular ideas themselves and not the way they are phrased. Hook's work is radical because it forces readers to deal with the less than favorable aspects of American history.

Confronting the real truth about America and the way it has historically treated and maligned women of color (and how they moblized against this) can be a challenging read, but only if the reader comes in with a defensive mind, prepared to discount the work anyway. Individuals with an open mind should love the pages of this now-classic work.

I have always loved this book and it's practical insights on gender roles and a multifaceted approach to reproductive rights. Although Hooks is pro-choice, she reminds us that legalized abortion should be only one aspect of reproductive rights, and freedom from sterilzation abuse and full information on contraceptives is also important. It is a testament to Hooks and other activists that this paradigm has been adopted by the general feminist movement.

True women's liberation involves the liberation of all women from all artificially constructed notions about gender and ethnicity. While we as a nation have historically seen the civil rights movement as primarily for black men, and the feminist movement as being for white women, we have silenced and subjugated the black feminist who has one foot in each of these communities and is going to weave together her own experiences.

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Few books truly change your life

This one changed mine. I urge all young women of color to read this book while you are still in high school or college. Do that for yourself. I urge all other humans to read it as soon as you can. It's the seminal work of bell hooks career, which continues to enlighten and enrich all of us. Unlike some other "classic" works, it deserves the designation, for it remains as timely today as it was at publication.

Her observations are wise. Her grasp of history is absolute. Her ideas stimulate intelligent and loving thought, conversation, and action. Read this book.

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My sentiments exactly

This is an amazingly eye opening book for those who yearn to learn of the TRUE roots of American capitalism. Two prerequisites in order to enjoy this book: A) an open mind and B) an optimum outlook on change in society. Read this book and enjoy!

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

In this classic study, cultural critic Bell Hooks examines how black women, from the seventeenth century to the present day, were and are oppressed by both white men and black men and by white women. Illustrating her analysis with moving personal accounts, "Ain't I a Woman" is deeply critical of the racism inherent in the thought of many middle-class white feminists who have failed to address issues of race and class. While acknowledging the conflict of loyalty to race or sex is still a dilemma, Hooks challenges the view that race and gender are two separate phenomena, insisting that the struggles to end racism and sexism are inextricably intertwined.

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