Much of hooks’ thesis is bound up with the title of her book Where We Stand: Class Matters, which is a book about class divisions specifically between white and black people in America. In the introduction, hooks explains that class issues are divisive and in order to “to work for change, we need to know where we stand.” (9). Challenging the misconception that America is a “classless society” and that it is nearly “impossible to change your class position” when you are a part of the working class or poor due to unjust structures is a major theme in this book (156). The first four chapters of hooks’ book serves as an autobiographical memoir of her personal struggle to successfully overcome this same difficulty. They set the stage for her to be an authority on the topic of classism by virtue of her life experience, her education, and her ability to become upwardly mobile. Out of her impoverished childhood in Kentucky, hooks rises to become a professor at Yale, a published author, and member of the upper class.
Where We Stand by bell hooks
Where We Stand by bell hooks
Where We Stand by bell hooks
Much of hooks’ thesis is bound up with the title of her book Where We Stand: Class Matters, which is a book about class divisions specifically between white and black people in America. In the introduction, hooks explains that class issues are divisive and in order to “to work for change, we need to know where we stand.” (9). Challenging the misconception that America is a “classless society” and that it is nearly “impossible to change your class position” when you are a part of the working class or poor due to unjust structures is a major theme in this book (156). The first four chapters of hooks’ book serves as an autobiographical memoir of her personal struggle to successfully overcome this same difficulty. They set the stage for her to be an authority on the topic of classism by virtue of her life experience, her education, and her ability to become upwardly mobile. Out of her impoverished childhood in Kentucky, hooks rises to become a professor at Yale, a published author, and member of the upper class.