hooks 'em horns (get it?)

            Reading bell hooks’ book this past few weeks has been a challenging but enjoyable experience, and it is a book that I definitely recommend to anyone who is interested in issues of race, identity, and the politics of education (especially higher education). The book in a lot of ways has been a roller coaster ride of emotions, and it was not really what I expected when I chose to read it. There were many conversations in this book that challenged my preexisting beliefs about race and education, there were also some ideas that I directly disagreed with, and to be perfectly honest there were a few chapters that felt entirely out of place and unnecessary. It is also important to note that this book did not focus on secondary education at all, serving instead as a rather strong critique of higher education and what I would call “liberal escapism.” Regardless, I think this book has changed my perception on racism and how the forces of domination are held in place within our national structure.

            Throughout our program, we have spent a lot of time discussing racism as a “structure of oppression,” but I think this book has moved me beyond this idea of racism as a structure and has broadened my perspective to view racism instead as a pervasive culture. I appreciate this idea of a culture of racism because racism as a system can be problematic, as it implies that the oppression that comes with racism was actively and consciously established by a small select group of people, and that it is held in place by a small group of conscious decision makers. Not only does this idea let a lot of people off the hook, but also I think it does a great disservice to the magnitude of issues surrounding American racism. White people in general–as hooks would likely agree–tend to oversimplify the issues of racism in order to wash their hands of its harsh consequences, but to approach racism within the context of its vast complications is to give it the respect it deserves. With that in mind, the idea of racism as a system tends to pawn the problem off onto a mysterious group of conscious racists, as opposed to acknowledging that the dominant majority culture within this country is itself a function and facilitator for our mainstream oppressive values.
              Acknowledging that racism is not simply a concocted system but a historical culture allows us to view the idea of "national racial consciousness" (meaning the awareness of racism and appreciation of its complexity within our country) not as something to be conquered but rather as something to be sought out. This can be a rather confrontational idea, however, as it asks members of the dominant society to view their own complicitness (whether active or passive, conscious or unconscious) as problematic. Again, this is often controversial, as bell hooks cites Coco Fusco, saying, “to raise the specter of racism in the here and now, to suggest that despite their political beliefs and sexual preferences, white people operate within, and benefit from, white supremacist social structures is still tantamount to a declaration of war” (35). The provocation that comes from promoting this idea of racism as a culture, in my opinion, is that it forces us to acknowledge that racism is present here, now, and everywhere. Beyond that, it is to acknowledge that by focusing our selective blame on small group of old-white-tea-party pioneers is to deny the pervasive reality of racism within our country. White people can not simply point to other white people as the problem, in hopes of disassociating themselves with the consequences (and benefits) of our racialized culture. 

            Long story short, this book left me with a lot more questions than answers…but when dealing with issues of race and racism I think this is often the case, as racism is not something to be simply “solved.”