I 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 HooksYou must have courage to love, you have to have a profound will to do what is right to love, and it does not come easy.
Bell HooksKnowing love or the hope of knowing love is the anchor that keeps us from falling into that sea of despair.
Bell HooksFor most people, what is so painful about reading is that you read something and you don't have anybody to share it with. In part what the book club opens up is that people can read a book and then have someone else to talk about it with. Then they see that a book can lead to the pleasure of conversation, that the solitary act of reading can actually be a part of the path to communion and community.
Bell HooksDominator culture has tried to keep us all afraid, to make us choose safety instead of risk, sameness instead of diversity. Moving through that fear, finding out what connects us, revelling in our differences; this is the process that brings us closer, that gives us a world of shared values, of meaningful community.
Bell HooksIt was the world of Southern, rural, black growing up, of folks sitting on porches day and night, of folks calling your mama, 'cause you walked by and didn't speak, and of the switch waiting when you got home so that you could be taught some manners. It was a world of single black older women schoolteachers, dedicated, tough; they had taught your mama, her sisters, and her friends. They knew your people in ways that you never would and shared their insight, keeping us in touch with generations. It was a world where we had a history.
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