Belonging: A Culture of Place
Language: English
Pages: 240
ISBN: 041596816X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
What does it mean to call a place home? Who is allowed to become a member of a community? When can we say that we truly belong?
These are some of the questions of place and belonging that renowned cultural critic bell hooks examines in her new book, Belonging: A Culture of Place. Traversing past and present, Belonging charts a cyclical journey in which hooks moves from place to place, from country to city and back again, only to end where she began--her old Kentucky home.
hooks has written provocatively about race, gender, and class; and in this book she turns her attention to focus on issues of land and land ownership. Reflecting on the fact that 90% of all black people lived in the agrarian South before mass migration to northern cities in the early 1900s, she writes about black farmers, about black folks who have been committed both in the past and in the present to local food production, to being organic, and to finding solace in nature. Naturally, it would be impossible to contemplate these issues without thinking about the politics of race and class. Reflecting on the racism that continues to find expression in the world of real estate, she writes about segregation in housing and economic racialized zoning. In these critical essays, hooks finds surprising connections that link of the environment and sustainability to the politics of race and class that reach far beyond Kentucky.
With characteristic insight and honesty, Belonging offers a remarkable vision of a world where all people--wherever they may call home--can live fully and well, where everyone can belong.
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because he is in many ways representative of the ordinary citizen who is called to political action because of their love of the land and community. In recent times the Appalachian Studies program at Berea College makes certain that the faculty and staff, especially those who are new, take the Appalachian tour so that they may better understand our region, and have an opportunity to meet this amazing man of integrity who stands for all that is right and wonderful in a democratic country. Taking
nothin else but the farm so it was happy and we was happy … We couldn’t do anything else but be happy. We accept the days as they come and as they were. Day by day until you couldn’t say there was any great hard time. We overlooked it. We didn’t think nothin about it. We just went along. We had what it takes to make a good livin and go about it. Living in modern society, without a sense of history, it has been easy for folks to forget that black people were first and foremost a people of the
path of resistance wherein he stands outside is the true meaning of solidarity. And it is the enactment of such solidarity that is racism’s undoing. No doubt that is why Wendell can testify that at that moment: “I was full of a sense of loyalty and love that clarified me to myself as nothing ever had before.” When teaching The Hidden Wound, I ask students to think about how this simple story, the gesture of friendship, works to humanize both individuals whom the enacted practice of racism would
stereotype is the only way of knowing and relating to the “other” that most use. We saw this during the Katrina catastrophe. When the amazing culture black people, especially the poor, helped create in New Orleans is not acknowledged. And the poor are just represented in the media as helpless victims or defeated predators. WB: Well, the catastrophe seemed to be an ideal platform for stereotypes rather than actual people. BH: Whether we are talking about disenfranchised poor black folks or
owning one’s land was all that made self-determination possible. Although their lives were fraught with difficulties, especially as they daily encountered a world where their values had little meaning, the essence of all they were teaching and being holds true. All the elders in my life growing up, whether they were family or chosen kin, believed it was essential for us to have a spiritual foundation. While Christianity was given pride of place in the quest for religious allegiance, my paternal
