"
A distinction must be made between the power of viewers to interpret a film in ways that make it palatable for the everyday world they live in and the particular persuasive strategies films deploy to impress a particular vision on our psyches. The fact that some folks may attend films as “resisting spectators” does not really change the reality that most of us, no matter how sophisticated our strategies of critique and intervention, are usually seduced, at last for a time, by the images we see on the screen. They have power over us and we have no power over them.

Whether we call it “willing suspension of disbelief” or just plain submission, in the darkness of the theater most audiences choose to give themselves over, if only for a time to the images depicted and the imaginations that have created those images. It is that moment of submission, of overt or covert seduction that fascinates me as a critic. I want to critically understand and “read” what is happening in that moment, what the film tries to do to us.
"
-
Reel to Real: Race, Sex and Class at the Movies, bell hooks

(“Introduction: Making Movie Magic”)

"
Students who considered themselves socialists were not so
much interested in the poor as they were desirous of leading
the poor, of being their guides and saviors. It was just this
paternalism toward the poor that the vision of solidarity I had
learned in religious settings was meant to challenge. From a
spiritual perspective, the poor were there to guide and lead the
rest of us by example if not by outright action and testimony.
As a student I read Marx, Gramsci, and a host of other male
thinkers on the subject of class. These works provided
theoretical paradigms but rarely offered tools for confronting
the complexity of class in daily life. […]

[W]hen I told friends and colleagues that I was resigning from my academic job to focus on writing, I was warned that I was making a dangerous mistake, that I could not possibly live on an income that was between twenty and thirty thousand dollars a year. When I pointed to the reality that families of four and more live on such an income, the response would be “that’s different”; the difference being, of course, one of class. The poor are expected to live with less and are socialized to accept less (badly made clothing, products, food, etc.), whereas the well-off are socialized to believe it is both a right and a necessity for us to have more, to have exactly what we want when we want it.
"
- bell hooks, where we stand: Class Matters, chapter 4 (via snailfan)

"Revolutionary feminism embraces men who are able to change, who are capable of responding mutually in a subject-to-subject encounter where desire and fulfillment are in no way linked to coercive subjugation. This feminist vision of the sexual imaginary is the space few men seem able to enter."
- Bell Hooks, Talking Sex (via fourwindsshotgun)

"Patriarchal masculinity teaches men that their sense of self and identity, their reason for being, resides in their capacity to dominate others. To change this males must critique and challenge male domination of the planet, of less powerful men, of women and children."
- bell hooks (via wretchedoftheearth)

"Most people in the United States think of feminism or the most commonly used term “women’s lib” as a movement that aims to make women the social equals of men. This broad definition, popularized by the media and mainstream segments of the movement, raises problematic questions. Since men are not equals in white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal class structure, which men do women want to be equal to? Do women share a common vision of what equality means? Implicit in this simplistic definition of women’s liberation is a dismissal of race and class as factors that, in conjunction with sexism, determine the extent to which an individual will be discriminated against, exploited, or oppressed."
-

bell hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center

(via aatmma)

"It has become more fashionable, and at times more profitable, for white folks in academic environments to think and write about race. It is as though the very act of thinking about the nature of race and racism is still seen as “dirty” work best suited for black folks and other people of color or a form of privileged “acting out” for anti-racist white folks. Black folks/people of color who talk too much about race are often represented by the racist mindset as “playing the race card” (note how this very expression trivializes discussion of racism, implying it’s all just a game), or as simply insane. White folks who talk race, however, are often represented as patrons , as superior civilized beings. Yet their actions are just another indication of white-supremacist power, as in “we are so much more civilized and intelligent than black folks/people of color that we know better than they do all that can be understood about race."
- bell hooks, Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope (via loveyourchaos)

"While I think it is a meaningful gesture for young white women in a white-supremacist culture to seek to hear from black women, to wish to listen and learn from black women, I cautioned them against turning the spheres of discussion on racial topics (or in this case, black women’s writing) into yet another arena where we as black people are called upon to take primary responsibility for sharing experiences, ideas, and information. Such a gesture places black people once again in a service position, meeting the needs of whites."
-
bell hooks

This reminds me of the people who will pop into blogs that are popular and run by PoC and feel entitled to answers

(via wretchedoftheearth)

"As privileged women gained greater access to economic power with privileged class men, feminist discussions of class were no longer commonplace. Instead, women were encouraged to see the economic gains of affluent females as a positive sign for all women. In actuality, these gains rarely changed the lot of poor and working-class women. And since privileged class men did not become caretakers in the domestic household, the freedom of privileged class women of all races required the sustained subordination of working-class women. When privileged women left the home to work, someone had to stay in the home and do the dirty work."
- bell hooks, Class Matters (via bloodbonesandfeminism)
This describes perfectly and accurately the current situation in Saudi and other countries. (via mantu-o-formosa)

"There will be no mass-based feminist movement as long as feminist ideas are understood only by a well-educated few."
- bell hooks, “Educating Women: A Feminist Agenda” (via feministstine)

"A vision of cultural homogeneity that seeks to deflect attention away from or even excuse the oppressive, dehumanizing impact of white supremacy on the lives of black people by suggesting black people are racist too indicates that the culture remains ignorant of what racism really is and how it works. It shows that people are in denial.

Why is it so difficult for many white folks to understand that racism is oppressive not because white folks have prejudicial feelings about blacks (they could have such feelings and leave us alone) but because it is a system that promotes domination and subjugation? The prejudicial feelings some blacks may express about whites are in no way linked to a system of domination that affords us any power to coercively control the lives and well-being of white folks. That needs to be understood.

Concurrently, all social manifestations of black separatism are often seen by whites as a sign of anti-white racism, when they usually represent an attempt by black people to construct places of political sanctuary where we can escape, if only for a time, white domination."
-
bell hooks

Relevant every single day to every derailing person who screams “reverse racism”

(via wretchedoftheearth)