It's interesting--the way in which one has to balance life--because you have to know when to let go and when to pull back.... There's always some liminal (as opposed to subliminal) space in between which is harder to inhabit because it never feels as safe as moving from one extreme to another.
Bell Hooksโฆโwhite supremacyโ is a much more useful term for understanding the complicity of people of color in upholding and maintaining racial hierarchies that do not involve force (i.e slavery, apartheid) than the term โinternalized racismโ- a term most often used to suggest that black people have absorbed negative feelings and attitudes about blackness. The term โwhite supremacyโ enables us to recognize not only that black people are socialized to embody the values and attitudes of white supremacy, but we can exercise โwhite supremacist controlโ over other black people.
Bell HooksKnowledge rooted in experience shapes what we value and as a consequence how we know what we know as well as how we use what we know.
Bell HooksThe notion that black folks have nothing to learn from scholarship that may reflect racial or racist biases is dangerous. It promotes closed-mindedness and a narrow understanding of knowledge to hold that "race" is such an overwhelming concept that it negates the validity of any insights contained in a work that may have some racist or sexist aspects.
Bell HooksWe are rarely able to interact only with folks like ourselves, who think as we do. No matter how much some of us deny this reality and long for the safety and familiarity of sameness, inclusive ways of knowing and living offer us the only true way to emancipate ourselves from the divisions that limit our minds and imaginations.
Bell Hooks