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From: ChallengingMedia
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  • Your video went viral on Chile

  • Your vid went viral on South Africa

  • We all need to wake up. We need to do good. Talk good. Feel good. Think good.

    I have no respect for a female like this who is anti-men. Her anti-patriarchal teachings are just treason against family and society.

    There will be no 'Cultural Transformation' unless we all play our roles. Mothers, fathers, sons, daughters.

    If we just keep on with all this wise ass 'Cultural Transformation'' crapola; we are going to choke on our own sewage. In fact if you look real hard; it's happening now.

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  • Using media to enhance understanding and critical thinking skills for students is a great idea. I wish my teachers would do that more often, it would make class so much more interesting! She also said the goal at the Harlem school was to just give students the tools for survival, not critical thinking skills. I think both are necessary, and should be taught at all schools.

  • Bell Hooks,qouting her own book, explains the importance and strength of popluar culture, like movies, musics and television shows. More and more people give up reading instead of popular ways to gain imformation. The phenomenon hases not show anything stops or slows down that change. People, especially young people might lose critical thinking in that way, which would be a terrible lost.

  • Bell hooks mentioned the impact about critical thinking, like she gave an example about students who are studying in Yale University. They believe their future is successful, and then they can get the goal. It is nothing about the knowledge, but the important part of critical thinking.

  • I agreed with her perspectives in this talk. She declared that popular culture had such a power to affect people’s personal lives and she gave an example about that. She told us that when she was teaching various students she felt that if she showed them a movie in class and let them share their ideas, they felt much more excited and interested. I had similar experience. I would pay more attention if my teacher showed some funny videos or photos in class.

  • Critical thinking about popular culture is very important. TV shows can go into your understanding of the world. Popular culture can change your worldview a lot, popular culture has a big influence to people. That is not good for people. People need to think about these things critically, and should concentrate more traditional literacy.

  • By the way, is it true to learn about popular culture by watch hollywood movies?

  • In the short video, professor Bell Hooks mentioned that critical thinking is very hard to everyone, and she believe that people who think critically can find a to transform their life. I think it is because people with critical thinking skills can find disadvantages in their life and try their best to correct or avoid it. They can make their life in a more meaning for way, because they can resolve easily. As a result they may find a better way to change their condition.

  • I’m quite interesting of her way to let students got know about the popular culture. It is apparently that people need face more different culture than before.

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  • Bell hooks talks about on two very interesting aspects of society that not many people think about. People may know that the media affects almost everyone, but they may not know to what extent. We learn from what we observe and it becomes the "norm." I also like her take on critical thinking because it is unique due to how she applies it to the empowerment of our lives and how critical thinking can affect not only how we see ourselves, but how we view the world around us.

  • In this video, she explained the power of popular culture. Especially nowadays, fewer people tend to read books. Then the influence of popular culture seems to be bigger than before. Also, she mentioned about critical thinking. This skill seems to be quite important in our lives. As a college student, I use this skill to write papers.

  • I wish there were more of the cultural criticism. I can't get enough of this discussion.

  • @presence08 Does anyone know whether there are any more recent talks recorded by hooks on YouTube?

  • BrandonEM09's comment: you're talking to yourself now, cause it would make you a hypocrite if you were to be doing nothing in your own life to challenge these systems of oppression and or doing something that is ultimately trite and ineffectual because you don't know enough about what you're actually dealing with...My response: I DO deal with it, plain and simple. I don't bitch and complain, sitting in a chair. Get off that chair and deal with reality: Nietzsche , Machiavelli and Ayn Rand.

  • you sound like a moron now, what is your ultimate point? you don't do anything to in your actual life to fight back against these systems of oppression, but yet you still somehow think you have a valid opinion on a topic you don't really care about or doing anything to change?

  • and are not doing anything to change*

  • your pitifully resigned outlook on the problem shows that you're both uninformed and cowardly, while I can't do anything for the latter hooks can do something for the former...

  • Im hardly the coward. Preaching and finger-wagging is hardly a "solution" to anything. Good luck with solving problems with merely criticizing them.

  • @MacoutesGabber you don't understand the intention of literary/cultural/political/so­cial criticism if you think it is just pointing out problems in the world.

  • @politicaldebauchery so what the hell are they criticizing?Non-existent problems that AREN'T in the world? WTF?

  • Let me point out for the third time: your defnition of "whining" writes off social psychology and sociology, among many other things.

    In my opinion, a good first step of ending racism and hatred is exploring it, through social psychology, sociology, and critical media studies. And the work that hooks has been doing is an example of it.

    Don't like it? Don't read it.

  • Oh, not to mention that black civil rights falls under the category of "whining" according to your definition, also the suffrage movement, etc.

    It sure sounds like a lot of "whining" for basic human rights.

  • what it's doing is expecting the world to be perfectly free of hatred

    has never, will never happen

    time for pragmatism, the only ism worth it's salt.

  • Not perfectly free. Just better. It's time for the next step in human evolution.

  • Gimme a BREAK! bell hooks is an author, feminist, and social activist. She is NEITHER a social psychologist, NOR a sociologist!

    In REALITY, racism is still going on. And instead of dreaming about it's absolute demise, you can stop WHINING, BITCHING and COMPLAINING about it, and face it, head on, as it comes, like other "threats" we all face. Get real!

    Don't like it? DON'T DO IT!!!!

  • You said that bell hooks is just whining by pointing out racism, but social psychology, for example, deals with this, too.

    So when social psychologists do it, it's okay, but when hooks does it, it's whining?

    And I'll ask you a third time: how do we confront racism?

  • Social psychologists don't clam to solve racism, they simply study it. You can "confront" racism, all you want, it's not going to disappear. A calling to arms isn't enough. bell hooks wasn't in the 60's civil rights movement. But at least King DID something about it, not sit there and whine.

  • This shows how little you know about social psychology. They do, in fact, study ways to lessen racism. My professor did this for a while before teaching. And often enough, examining how and why we are racist is the first step.

    But nice try.

  • I'm not "trying" anything. This only shows your obvious ignorance about research methods, evidence, and epistemology. Social psychology does not "lessen" racism, any more than bell hooks does, because racism ISN'T QUANTIFIABLE! Gimme a break, please!

  • Wrong again.

    Search up "The subtlety of white racism, arousal, and helping behaviour"

    From the journal of Social Psychology, 1977

    This is one of the MANY social psychology experiments done involving racism. And there are many on how to eliminate it.

  • YOU'RE wrong AGAIN. Explaining "how to eliminate it" doesn't guarantee it will end. It's WAY too abstract from some experiments to "solve" racism. You don't apparently don't live in reality. You live in a classroom. Get real!

  • You clearly said: "social psychologists don't claim to study racism, they simply study it".

    Google, "The Robbers Cave Experiment"

  • Sorry, don't claim to solve racism, they simply study it

  • I never argued with you whether or not they CAN, the argument was over whether social psychologist attempt to end or reduce/lessen racism, which I just prove that at least in one occasion, they have.

    Clearly you aren't well read upon the topic. Since this type of work in psychology falls into "whining" for you, I'm interesting to see what else you think is "whining".

  • even King was dissatisfied with the progress he made toward combating racial oppression, you would know this if you actually looked at Kings later speeches and work...but that's beside the point, the effectiveness of any attempt to change the world is TOTALLY DEPENDENT on how accurate your interpretation of the world is, social-psych and cultural critique are tow of the most powerful tools to obtain this...

  • Regardless, the fact still remains: bell hooks didn't accomplish what King did. Talking is one thing, walking is another.

  • and walking is MEANINGLESS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING...

  • just like hooks...

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  • you're talking to yourself now, cause it would make you a hypocrite if you were to be doing nothing in your own life to challenge these systems of oppression and or doing something that is ultimately trite and ineffectual because you don't know enough about what you're actually dealing with...

  • i see you're still fighting the fight on youtube racism

  • Do you think that's going to hold up?

    Ignore them?

  • oh yes, if everyone woke up and bought only products by true companies, that would work . vote with your dollar as they say. (although an idealistic goal)

    yes, bigots and racists are being ignored by leaps and bounds these days. why do you think Barack was elected?

    I don't know one single white person who hates blacks, do you?

    However me and my friends are mighty pissed at wymyn. :D <3

  • You don't have to openly "hate" someone to be racist, wolf.

    People can be unconscious of their racism, this called implicit racism. It shows up in your behaviour. It can change the way you behave, but you're unconscious of it.

    It doesn't mean you can't BECOME conscious of it, though.

    Google "project implicit". It's really, really, fascinating.

  • she is buying into the assumption that "popular" culture is something meant to purely entertain you.

    NO it is meant to control your worldview, and get you obsessed with buying more shit you don't need.

    also meant to spread division and hatred of oneself and others, all the while the ruling class continues to rob their underlings.

    If you fuckers can't wake up to this by now, I have no pity on you.

    go ahead, eat more processed food and argue, plebs. :D

  • @wolfhalen this comment expresses one tenet of the arguments against mainstream media, but does not represent a deeply critical understanding of all the social problems that result from it. hooks is not buying into any ideas that suggest popular culture is meant for entertainment; rather, what she provides is a new approach to analyzing complex rhetorical theories on cultrual criticism through the use of popular film and media.

  • @politicaldebauchery YES I agree with you 100%.

  • @wolfhalen i'm under the impression you didn't watch this interview in its entirety..this is only a 6min portion of it. she does go over every point you brought up (division/manipulation.etc)

  • @Creatiopoetic Thank you.

    

  • @wolfhalen Seguro que no conoces para nada el trabajo de Bell Hooks, sus posiciones politicas, su trabajo teorico... Y tal vez tampoco viste el video completo para luego empezar a "teorizar" sobre lo obvio. Por cierto... y antes de que digas otra estupidez: si no me entiendes, trata con Google Translate...o vete a aprender español. Saludos.

  • @wolfhalen I believe if you were to watch the interview in its entirety you would realize that Hooks actually agrees with your synopsis. If you were to follow her teachings more closely, what she would convey through intellect to you is that she is an active advocate/teacher and finds it necessary to use the media as a tool to compare fact from fiction to her students. She enlightens her students and readers with logic, history, truth, and idealism.

  • @wolfhalen thank you hun!!!1 Preach!

    I'm glad someone else sees this!!!! people need to wake up!

  • You have a clear bias against her. She obviously is trying to confront racism, I'm not sure what else she is "trying to do". She's a cultural critic, and she analyzes the media. You have fail to really explain why that's "whining". Nietzsche was critical of many things, but to you, that's not whining.

    And analyzing racist media according to your logic is just "whining". It's not worthy of being studied according to you.

    That's really dangerous.

  • We MUST analyze historical representations of minorities. I think it's really important. If we don't look at how racism looked a hundred years ago, there's no hope of framing racism and finding a solution for it now. But I guess you don't need to worry about that.

    Because it's "whining".

    So I guess a hell of a lot of sociology and social psychology is just a bunch of "whining" too. You've just written off so much that you've lost your credibility.

  • Let me ask you this, then: how do we confront racism without "whining" about it?

  • She's involved in anti-racist work, Macoutes.

    Even if you don't like her, try to be objective. You seem to be a-ok with MRA, the majority of whom don't write books or deal with sexism face-first, but sit and "whine" about it.

    Why don't you go criticize that, too?

    Oh wait.

    That would be whining.

  • And clearly you've never taken a cultural studies course or a course in media literacy because it's not about "racism is wrong". It's about what images say and how they say it.

  • She's actually not into morals or ethics at all. It's about racism and construction of reality. You said it yourself. I don't see what this has to do with morals at all. She's not saying what is and isn't wrong, she's a CULTURAL CRITIC. You're not SUPPOSED to use a critic's words as a moral compass, the whole point of critical thinking is to be critical!

    But nice try on throwing in a badly understood half-copied version of what Nietzsche said. I'm sure he'd like that.

  • And if you think racism is always something EXPLICIT, out in the open, you are dead wrong.

  • A lot of things are threats. Half of the things we come in contact with are carcinogenic, but we still come into contact with them. The sun, starlight, and exhaust fumes to name a few.

    You seem to think that just because it's everywhere, it can't possibly be a threat. That just because it doesn't physically harm you, it's not worth studying. It's not that simple. Racist imagery was the norm in advertising a few decades ago. But I guess that isn't a threat either, right?

    It's just "whining".

  • A good example of what I mean: studies show that after looking at popular magazines bearing women, women tend to feel that they are heavier than they actually are. A threat?

    I think, yes.

  • Your definition of "threat" is very narrow.

  • Things like discrimination are a threat, and they are found in pop culture. It's reality. The very commong negative portrayal of minorities is a threat. The use of a seventeen year old's body for a jean ad is a threat.

    And like I said before, I don't have a choice if I "buy into it or not". It's going to confront me, and I have a right to confront it.

    But you don't have to buy into bell hooks, now do you? That's, oh what was it? "Weak-minded." That's right.

  • And let me point out that critical thinking about popular culture is very, very, important. TV shows can "leak" into your understanding of the world. They can change your perception indirectly, and often unconsciously. That is SCARY. People need to think about these things critically, and be able to decipher the narratives-- explicit and implicit, that we see everyday.

  • I didn't say that. I didn't say I was somehow omitted from the effects of the media.

    But I think people can become more aware about what they're watching, and be less affected by it unconsciously. I think it's really important to critically analyze popular media. I think if you're aware of what it is you're watching, you're less likely to be influenced by it. And I think it's a very important skill. It's a shame that only a little bit of it is taught in high school English.

  • It just needs to funded more in public schools. Critical thinking needs to be a basic tool that high school students acquire, just like math or reading. It's very important. We all need to be smart consumers.

  • They may there for the purpose of entertaining, but I think they do a lot more than that. I don't have a CHOICE. When I'm shopping for eggs, Taylor Swift is singing about her boyfriend. On my way home from school, advertisements lay out underweight seventeen year old girls on 15 foot billboards, and a YTV ad dominates every bus I take home. It's impossible to escape it unless we all go live in a forest.

    We have to directly analyze these things. It isn't just "if you don't like it, suck it

  • up."

    The line between public and private space is beginning to blur, and the narratives that are placed in those areas need to be investigated. If you don't find it, it will find you.

    But then again, if you don't like what she has to say, you don't have to watch this video.

    Right?

  • Whatever.

    You think she doesn't offer solutions? Read that book. That's all.

  • I suggest reading "Killing Rage-Ending Racism".

  • Or just believe what you want without understanding what it is that's she's actually saying. That's easy, too.

  • Just because she has "resentment" that doesn't mean she "whining". You just assume those two are exactly the same thing. That's your opinion, fine. But don't parade Nietzsche around it. He criticized a lot of people in his time. Was that whining? I don't know. You figure it out for yourself.

    You could argue that revolutions starts with "whining" with your logic. You don't draw a distinction.

    So why don't you tell me what's "WHINING" and just plain being "PISSED OFF"?

  • And no, you don't speak for these people. Speak for yourself. If you have a problem with her, go do something about it. Write a book or something. Because right now, you're doing exactly what you accuse her of.

  • It's not a "problem" so much as hilarious entertainment.

  • And as for your theory of change, you don't know what Nietzsche meant by that. Maybe Ms.Hooks is causing social change. At what point does "resentment" become action? Who gets to say?

  • You don't know if Nietzsche would think that of bell hooks. Stop using it is a thinly veiled justification for your criticism of her.

    You don't know if she has "resentment". Maybe she's just a critic. Like Nietzsche was.

    Speak for yourself. And yourself only.

  • My point was that various people took the lion out of context to mean different things when it suited them. It doesn't mean any of these things.

    And don't speak for a dead man.

  • [facepalm]

    Neo-nazis make this mistake all the time, and it part, it's because of Nietzsche's darling sister.

    Do you know what he meant by "the splendid blonde beast"? He was referring to lions, not the Aryan race.

    In fact, Nietzsche thought anti-Semitism was retarded. He called anti-semites "sick".

    Do a little research next time, please.

  • I would recommend reading A. Shahid Stover his book: Hip Hop Intellectual Resistance. It deals with a lot of the similar themes.

  • To MrLycanthropy:

    I would like to point out (after having just finished taking Theory for Social Work course) that your idea about feminism being solely anti-men or 'man bashing' is way off course. The fact that you hold the belief--though you are entitled to it--that men are more powerful, stronger and more dominant than women contributes to the disempowerment and oppression that women face.

    The feminist movement is the search for equality for all people regardless of class, race or gender.

  • But a lot of cultures have violated that norm. And they did fine.

    And a lot of cultures accept that norm. And they do horribly.

  • Idk if its to me or apexpark but yeah ive read part of that ook actually.

  • if you believe that racism and sexism are simply individualistic issues in which white men oppress women and people of color, then you will always find the liberation of white men to be ridiculous. However, if you view racism and sexism as systems of oppression in which privilege is an illusion that keeps agents of oppression from reevaluating their relationships with oppressed groups by promising things that will never be emotionally fulfilling (sex, money, power), then you can understand it.

  • Now its cleared up, much better.

  • ;-)

  • plz explain how the creator is dead

  • I totally agree with her. Survival skills without critical thinking simply allow successful adaptation to a warped social system. With critical thinking you can see how to fill your needs without taking on the rat-race values of consumer culture. You can escape the prison of media-defined reality to a broader perspective.

  • I read outlaw culture and am an activist for certain things but I dont like bell hooks

  • I love what she says at 5:18 - 5:22.

  • I am a white male..... I cannot begin to be worthy... apparently.

  • If that is what you got out of htis, than you are absolutely right.

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  • the "intellectuals" on here will disagree but Ive read her books and I feel she is simply a reverse racist. I am a social activist myself (animal rights, poverty, homosexual etc.)

  • no feminist worth half her salt will ever say that. The liberation of white men is essential to the fight against sexist and racism, two of the worst oppressions plaguing this planet. Feminists need, love, and cherish men.

  • Still, no "solutuions." What are the Yale students supposed to do? Go out and live in the woods?

    Critical thinking (more like Bell's own rhetoric) isn't going to necessarily going to give you better future. "Enhancing one's life" as she puts is also based on the economy, not just how one thinks. Bad argument, try again.

  • bell hooks is one of the brilliant human being on Earth.

  • 2landscapes, you dismiss bell hooks theories as crap, crap & more crap but you don't offer up any reasons why. You are 'glad to be over this crap' & criticise your friends for taking 'everything so seriously'. Have you given up critical thinking to take everything frivolously? If you consider that studying postmodernism & literary theory is 'wasted time' then best you just obey, consume, conform for the rest of your life - just like the establishment wants you to. Go on, take that blue pill...

  • Oooohhh sweetheart! You just fell right into it didn't you? Now who's taking everything so seriously, getting hurt & offended so easily? Did you think you could post your ill thought out, dismal & pointless rhetoric without somebody ripping you for it? Wake up & smell what you're shovelling. Take a laxative & get rid. Leave bell hooks, postmodernism & literary theory aside for the moment - at least until you get over being 'unfortunately' rejected by your friends. Good bye, you're boring me now.

  • I'll give a reason why SOME of her ideas are crap.

    First of all she doesnt know what its like to be white yet she thinks she has the position to criticize white people, men (of course) specifically. Bell hooks is a reaction to an ugly situation, therefore her ideas will share part, if not all, of the ignorance it criticizes. I am quite sure miss hooks has muttered about the white man..blaming him for things that arent actually his fault.

    She trades in bigotry,

  • it isn't a criticism of men, it is a criticism of masculinity, the kind of masculinity that supports getting sex by force and anxiously proving one's strength by hurting others. check out any porn if you'd like to see the denigration of women by this illusion of masculinity.

  • Oh, please. What "solutions" does Bell Hooks have? Silly, idiosyncratic nuances like spelling her name in lowercase, because of "ego," or finger-wagging at Madonna for not being PC enough? Thank God for Nietzsche.....

  • Don't you mean thank Nietzsche for God?

    ;)

  • Nietzsche has nothing to do with this.

    He was extremely critical of his contemporary artistic and musical environment. He thought all passion was gone. He once said, "only sick music makes money these days."

    Existentialism as a whole plays a huge part in third-wave feminism.

  • Graduating and going to college catapulted me into another world... one in which I was very much alone and having to face myself.. the busyness alone was not going to cut it. I'm rambling a little now, sorry, but basically... her views on critical thinking and feelings of meaningful agency resonate deeply with me... I think, at least in my personal community/circle of people, the emphasis on getting a degree far outweighs the emphasis on cultivating the ability to critically think.. 's a shame.

  • its soo funny that i'm seeing this vide now and hearing what ms hooks is saying about critical thinking. For the past ten years since graduating high school ive been attempting to finish college and move up and on in life... my challenge has been, i realize now, understanding the importance of critically thinking and of engaging fully in the pursuit of "higher education" vs. just "getting an education" (read "getting a degree"). In hs, I was busy.. active..feeling productive.

  • I am asking this question as a part of my research in graduate school on Bell Hook's theory on pop-culture. Does anyone reading this feel that film teaches its viewers how to see others. For example, if you saw a movie that portrayed the robber as a black man, would you be more likely to think of all black men as robbers? Do you read into films the way that Bell Hooks does? Please get back to me on this, and thanks for your time everyone.

  • Think of broader ? & break it down into a different smaller ?-Does watching pornography change peoples sexual behaviour? Do junk food ads make kids pester parents for a Hershey's bar? Do portrayals of drug users in media impact how people value the lives of drug users in real life? Do portrayals of female fashion models in magazines effect how men think of women & how women think of themselves? I think so. Symbolism has value. We all need positive portrayals that we identify with.

  • You've asked some very loaded and heavy questions. There are many kinds of images out there, and some more than others intend to provoke reactions. Fashion models sell style. Junk food sells satisfaction. Symbolism is as valuable as the power to which we attribute it with. From what you wrote, images in the mainstream have a powerful impact on how the masses both obtain and process visual information. What are the positive images do you identify with?

  • Sorry, my spelling is off. I mean, what are the positive images that you identify with?

  • I asked heavy questions? Ha ha! I'm gonna have to think about yours a bit. Do you mean media narratives or symbolic moments or...?

  • well think about the films director and his/hers vision and how to portray or characterize a robber; then think about the writer of the film and their characterization of the robber. Afterwards, ask the question of where they got their ideas and notions of what constitutes a 'believable' robber. Then you can understand hooks more clearly.

  • I most definitely DO read into movies and pretty much anything I see and hear... everything comes from somewhere... some consciousness... some perspective that is inherently biased... so it's necessary to analayze what youre seeing and at least question where its coming from and what the objective is or might be in its presentation.. sometimes I think I'm paranoid to think as I do.. to be so critical... but in a very basic sense.. as a nonwhite.. in america.. you'd be crazy NOT to be critical.

  • Well, America has come half way now.

  • If Americas are half way there, where have we come from and where is the other half leading us?

  • Good question. The 'half' is not mathematical, but symbolic I guess. America may not be 'half way there' in more scientific or realistic 'measures'. And while symbolism may not always create change, I think it impacts how people react to change.

    Where we have come from is to some extent clear, the appalling treatment of Native Americans, African Americans, women, gay men and women & everyone before, during & after speaks volumes. Where are we going? That's a big question to ask on YouTube!

  • Thank for getting back to me. It is a big question to ask on YouTube, but what you've said is very smart. Your right, I don't think that we can pin-point where America is. It has been said that the only thing sure in life is that it keeps going. I am certain of nothing, except this: change comes. It is inevitable. It is the form that this change will take that I ask you about. What we have experienced is a defining moment in history. Everything from this point in time, and on, is affected.

  • that is so true about Ivy-leaguers having a sense of entitlement to having better lives and people who are educated in urban college settings without all that Ivy-league hype, downplay their possibilities after graduation. She's amazing.

  • Wow! I did a search for bell hooks and thought I'd watch this video that came up, and I can't believe all the hate comments! Not only do I think this woman is amazing, and doing some of the more important work in this country that needs to be done—trying to illuminate some of the workings behind hateful and oppressive power structures—but, also I feel that this video is extremely tame, friendly, and, nearly, benign.

  • But, apparently not! I don't have the patience to go back through and read the comments, since most of the haters are absurd (I don't mean in the good way like a surrealist, I mean more like ignorant, dumb, and incoherent) or self-delusional in their contradictions, but some of the more recent ones have made me realize how important cultural studies is, with an emphasis on education and critique.

  • It seems like the haters support imperialist systems, where everything is black or white, us or them, rulers or subjects, people who succeed or people who fail... It seems like they put financial interest higher then humanity, and adopt a view that can keep them in control of an economic system, and so are racist, sexist, and classist (and probably have no animal rights or ecological concerns either). They come on with superiority complexes and join-or-die chants.

  • The worst kind of people to me are the ones who: a) split the one race of human beings into two groups according to narrow ideas of their own identity; and then: b) hate on the group they deem as "the other" and try to suppress and marginalize them (out of fear of growing, expanding, seeing the world in a different way, etcetera). The ignorant, narrow-minded, scared haters, those are the worst.

  • So, I want to resist playing that silly, self-serving game, and instead declare my Love, my Love for bell hooks, for women, for the marginalized perspectives, and for all the people truly concerned with democracy and liberty, who seek to make our world and future a better environment for all of us, with less imperialist, controlling regimes, with their tactics of fear and violence, and more love, curiosity, respect, understanding, and openness.

  • Fantastic! Shows you how black politics and feminist politics - and critical thinking as such - can help you see what you didnt even notice was in front of you.

  • This woman is a titan.

  • I hope you die :)

  • Yes very, very slowly

  • please excuse my spelling of women! :-)

  • The honourable Bell Hooks has a wonderfully soft manner of speaking. Her insights are wonderful, and clarifying. I have especially learnt to look at women differently since reading her. I find her approach to feminism is not those of other feminists I have read. Whereas they tend to accuse, scold and even demean men, Hon. Hooks calls for dialogue. We love you! We love womne, for they are our mothers, sisters and co-builders of a fairer society!

  • You are clueless. Bell Hooks wrote about how she relished the idea of killing a white man who sat beside her on a plane just because bell's lesbian friend was sitting in his seat and he made her move and he was white. Does that sound like dialogue to you??? Do you think it's ok to want to kill someone just b/c he's white??

  • And...?

  • All of my comments were replies to other comments others have made; I have no idea why YouTube sucks at formatting them the right way...

  • okay, LOL... sorry about that.  well, utube are being bombarded with videos everyday... it's understandable!

  • bell hooks rocks! we need her passion for social justice!

  • Maybe YOU need her passion for social justice, most of us get along fine without her trying to change everything under the sun. You folks are a bunch of losers who just can't cut it in the real world without help and hand outs.

  • bell hooks sucks.

  • have any of you individuals taken a class about bell hooks? because i think you just have proven her point.

  • See, there you go again with that "should" mentality. That word doesn't apply to REAL WORLD. When you're hungry, it's not a matter of "I should eat" It's more like I'm GOING to eat, or I'll die. Point blank. hooks speak of critical thinking, but when someone actually does it, she get offended because it's not HER thinking. Fuck all that. I'm not offended, 'cause I just don't GIVE a shit what the media says. I form my OWN values. How's that for "critical thinking?"

  • Well its great that you came here to voice your opinion about this intellectual... at least some of your people are paying attention.

  • Alright time out what about the whole point of her rhetoric, which is to understand and thereby resist the essentialist 'othering?' I think it applies to any context, and bashing one another is not getting anywhere...

    shit though, it's hard not to other,

    because it's hard to really listen to anybody

    you disagree with.

  • When I first saw this film on FSTV (Free speech tv) a few years back, I knew, immediately, that that's the type of women I wanna marry. That's the kind of woman I need by my side, helping me raise my future children.

  • hooks is amazing all right. How she is given a forum for spewing so much sheer hate is amazing. "Racism hurts" indeed! She is saying that if she'd only had a gun she would have committed murder. We all experience 'dissing' no matter what color we are - but her every experience is seen through the prism of her race, gender and sexual orientation. I ruly believe that this woman is psychotic and frightening. I tried reading her book, but it made me ill. It was like trying to eat rotten food.

  • I am curious to how you have come to these conconclusions, "sportgal22"? First of all, you don't have to agree with every single thing that an author or teacher or person says, that's just the oppostite of learning how to think critically! Second, it makes me wonder what kind of lense you are living your life through? Everything in life is filtered through discourses of sex, gender, race and class.

  • Hahaha, "Discourses of sex, gender, race and class" indeed. What kind of sicko are you that you could write that and take yourself seriously? Anyone who lives his/her life with that outlook is certifiably delusional. Read the psychiatric diagnostic manual, it's right under the discussions of paranoia, low self-worth, and insecurity.

  • Hiding behind a book, makes it ok, huh? So what's the criticism for then, if it's JUST the media? Her media is ok, but not "popular media?" That's hypocrisy. Idiots indeed.

  • Really, is that what she is saying? That, "her media" is okay? Think! Dominant cultural views are represeted through cutlural texts, such as films...these views change over time. Our current cultural experiences are interrelated to those represented through media etc. If we want to keep moving towards a more positive representation and set of truths, then it is our duty to examine critically elements of our culture!

  • Hooks is well aware of her interrelatedness in popular media, we all are! But, it's through pop culture that we can examine parts of ourselves, our ways of thinking and doing. Read Foucault and Raymond Williams, or any other cultural theorist, maybe take some schooling in it. I think some of you need to understand the basics of cultural theory and culture before making very ignorant statemens as these posted on this site. Hooks promotes education: a tool towards transgression!