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bell hooks lessons and life Suzette L Speight, Ph.D. How can bell hooks die? Who is going to said what needs said? I counted on bell hooks to do that as cultural critic. I never considered not hearing her voice anymore. I was not ready for her transition. On December 17, 2021, I read a tweet from Dr. Jenn M. Johnson who said, “I genuinely believe there’s a whole generation of Black feminists who only exist because of bell hooks”. I am one of the Black feminists to which Dr. Johnson refers. My feminist mother, Sallye Jean, introduced me to bell hooks when I was in college. I was not happy about it. My mother and I had epic debates about feminism and Black nationalism. The feminism that I knew did not fit with my immersion/emersion racial identity attitudes. I was not a fan of the universal version of feminism propagated by liberal White women. But bell hooks was not talking about White women’s feminism, she was talking about Black women’s feminism. What? I had never heard of such a thing and it changed everything for me. In her books, “Ain’t I a woman? Black women and feminism (Hooks 1981) and Feminist theory from Margin to Center (hooks, 1984) hooks placed Black women at the center, effectively re-inventing the wheel. As Shanda Hubbard tweeted on December 15, 2021, “If you are a Black woman who centers Black women in your work then you were influenced by bell hooks in some capacity whether you realize it or not”- bell hooks gave Black feminism life. Let’s start with her name-uncapitalized “bell hooks” to honor her grandmother and to de-emphasize her own individuality. What? Who does that, who thinks like that? bell hooks. Anytime you use her name you must double check your auto-correct, so it does not “fix” her uncapitalized name. Her name does not need fixed. To state the obvious, there’s a lesson right there about self-definition. She was a public intellectual, a public scholar, a steady voice, a stalworth advocate motivated by love. bell hooks was a Black feminist when it was neither popular nor common. In her high pitched, soft-spoken tone (which may lull you into underestimating the power of her words) bell hooks told us that feminism is for everyone. She crossed boundaries, genres, disciplines, and others’ expectations. She was neither contained nor restricted, bell hooks spoke about and wrote about what she desired, in essays, poetry, interviews, texts, and children’s books. She was both criticized and revered; she was raw. There’s another lesson right here about self-determination. hooks’ (1994) book “Teaching to Trangress” had another big impact on me as a teacher, particularly in my view of myself and my role as an educator. Hooks’ writing is accessible, personal, and meaningful which allowed me as a reader to connect with her words and her ideas on a deeper level. Understanding the liberatory potential of education, changed my approach to the classroom. “It is not just about liberatory knowledge it is about liberatory practice” (hooks,1994, p. 147). I learned that it is not just what I say or the content that I present within the classroom that is important, how I teach, the atmosphere I cultivate, the relationships I develop with students contribute to an educational experience that is liberatory. Process and intention matter to hooks. “Our work is not merely to share information but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students” (hooks, p. 13). If education is key to liberation, then how we “do” education matters, how I interact and care for the students in the classroom makes all the difference. hooks’ book expanded how I approached teaching. I felt freed up to examine my classroom and my intentions. I utilize videos, music, cases, proverbs, debates, poetry, experiential exercises, and small group discussion to stimulate students' natural curiosity and enthusiasm. It is important to me that students learn about themselves as they master the course content. Therefore, it is necessary for me to create an atmosphere within the classroom where students can express themselves so they can learn from and with their peers. Like Paulo Friere, hooks encourages us to ask questions and question answers. So whether I am instructing in the classroom, providing clinical supervision, consulting on a research project, or mentoring, it is my obligation is to provide a supportive, open, collaborative, and challenging learning environment that engages and respects everyone. If I am committed to liberation, then I must be committed for my students and myself. “Liberatory education connects the will to know with the will to become” (hooks, p. 18-19). The ancient Egyptians believed that we are in a process of becoming of perfecting the self. Thus, I must be open to my own growth, to my own becoming if I intend to foster growth in students. hooks was committed to self-love, personal, and collective healing as necessary resistance strategies m, against oppression. There is a lesson here about radical self-love and transgressive self-care. bell hooks shared plenty of lessons through her work and her life. It is no exaggeration to say that bell hooks gave us life. If it wasn’t for bell hooks, I would not be a black feminist, like my mother. I am a black feminist, uncapitalized, bell hooks’ style. References hooks, b. (1981). “Ain’t I a woman? Black women and feminism. NY: Routledge. hooks, b. (1984). Feminist theory from margin to center. NY: Routledge. hooks, b. (1989). Talking back: Thinking feminist, thinking Black. NY: Routledge. hooks, b. (1993). Sisters of the Yam. NY: Routledge. hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. NY: Routledge. hooks, b. (2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. NY: Routledge. hooks, b. (2006). Outlaw culture: Resisting representations. NY: Routledge. Tags: bell hooks; counseling; leadership; reflections |
