Death is with you all the time; you get deeper in it as you move towards it, but it's not unfamiliar to you. It's always been there, so what becomes unfamiliar to you when you pass away from the moment is really life.
Bell HooksSexism has always been a political stance mediating social domination, enabling white men and black men to share a common sensibility about sex roles and the importance of male domination.
Bell HooksSadly, at a time when so much sophisticated cultural criticism by hip intellectuals from diverse locations extols a vision of cultural hybridity, border crossing, subjectivity constructed out of plurality, the vast majority of folks in this society still believe in a notion of identity that is rooted in a sense of essential traits and characteristics that are fixed and static.
Bell HooksNone of us should be ashamed to speak of our class power or lack of it. Overcoming fear, even the fear of being immodest, and acting courageously to bring issues of class- especially radical standpoints โ into the discourse of blackness is a gesture of militant defiance, one that runs counter to bourgeois insistence that we think of โmoneyโ in particular and class in general as private matters.
Bell HooksBecause we have learned to believe negativity is more realistic, it appears more real than any positive voice.
Bell HooksFame is fun, money is useful, celebrity can be exciting, but finally life is about optimal well-being and how we achieve that in dominator culture, in a greedy culture, in a culture that uses so much of the worldโs resources. How do men and women, boys and girls, live lives of compassion, justice and love? And I think thatโs the visionary challenge for feminism and all other progressive movements for social change.
Bell Hooks