When I think about the auto-industry and how it was one of the industries that brought all of these black men from the South to Michigan and other places to make more money than they could ever make in the cotton fields or the agricultural world of the South... what's happening now is all of that is closing down, and we know that it's going to reopen in Southern places, focusing on Mexican and other migrant workers to come and work cheaply and get none of the benefits.
Bell HooksAbuse and neglect negate love. Care and affirmation, the opposite of abuse and humiliation, are the foundation of love. No one can rightfully claim to be loving when behaving abusively.
Bell HooksI want there to be a place in the world where people can engage in one anotherโs differences in a way that is redemptive, full of hope and possibility. Not this โIn order to love you, I must make you something elseโ. Thatโs what domination is all about, that in order to be close to you, I must possess you, remake and recast you.
Bell HooksI still think it's important for people to have a sharp, ongoing critique of marriage in patriarchal society โ because once you marry within a society that remains patriarchal, no matter how alternative you want to be within your unit, there is still a culture outside you that will impose many, many values on you whether you want them to or not.
Bell HooksFeminism as a theoretical enterprise is approached differently by Black women depending on where we are. There are more reformist Black women who tend to use the phrase "Black feminism".
Bell HooksBlack males who refuse categorization are rare, for the price of visibility in the contemporary world of white supremacy is that black identity be defined in relation to the stereotype whether by embodying it or seeking to be other than itโฆNegative stereotypes about the nature of black masculinity continue to overdetermine the identities black males are allowed to fashion for themselves.
Bell Hooks