Racism & Feminism

The first reading that our class was assigned was an excerpt from the book "Ain't I a Woman" written by Bell Hooks. The section Racism and Feminism: The Issue of Accountability poses a question that has been asked for years and years. Why is there social injustice in the world? Bell Hook is an African-American woman who explains where our injustices stem from. I believe the main purpose of the writing was to decrease ignorance of social inequality. In our society the ignorant are the ones who are more likely to not be equal in their thoughts and actions. It is this learning and teaching that helps our society on a whole become more equal. Once the mis-education becomes apparent and people just accept things for what they are, everything becomes normalized; we live based on what we've always known. At times throughout history, there are crusaders that desire to make social change for the betterment of everyone, at least in the crusaders eyes.

Bell Hooks was fighting on more than one front so to speak. White women throughout recent history were fighting for their own equality. This was apparent through fighting to get the vote they so desired. This however was a double edged knife. White women were fighting for their own rights, and not for all women's rights. Bell hooks makes it known that the white women did not want the black women to get an upper hand when it comes to privileges. This is why the black women were fighting on a much larger front. They were fighting for the group of women, but they were also fighting for the rights of blacks as well. When slavery ended in the 1800's, many believed that this would end many of the social inequality's of the nation. This was not the case however. The end of slavery did not equal social equality. This still left the black women fighting more than one battle.

Bell Hooks does a great job of proving her theory and trying to explain her points of view. She covers many of her points with historic and factual information that cannot be disputed. She makes sure to cover all fronts by trying to paint a picture of what others were seeing. She also claims that racial imperialism supersedes gender imperialism. This makes sense even looking at today's world. There are many more races than their are genders, so it makes sense that complete racial equality would happen after gender equality in many views.

The main point behind this entire article was to give the reader a lesson or education and try to decrease the ignorance of social inequality that our society as a whole has. I had a hard time reading this excerpt. Not because it was bad, or i disagreed, but because I am not used to this type of reading. From my limited experience and knowledge of these types of issues, I thought that it was well written and really showed certain issues that we will discuss in class in the future. I look forward to expanding my knowledge on these issues so I'll have a greater understanding and not be ignorant.