bell hooks is for everyone

I have recently finished bell hooks' Feminism is for Everybody and am currently finishing Feminist Theory from Margin to Center. This is by no means a complete review, as there is much to be gained from a second or even a third reading, but these are just some thoughts on these books.

Feminism is for Everybody is an excellent Feminism 101 book. It is written in high-school level prose with minimal academic jargon. The books is divided into short chapters, each focusing on a different feminist issue eg. race and gender, feminist parenting, or ending violence. The book itself is only about 120 pages long, so it is an easy read for anyone on a long commute or after work. I found this book very engaging to read, and easy to understand. It affirms hooks' own principle of making feminist materials accessible to non-academics, which she discusses in Feminist Theory from Margin to Center.

Feminist Theory from Margin to Center is a more challenging read. It contains more theory than Feminism is for Everybody, and is written at a college level. It contains many of the same ideas as Feminism is for Everybody, but they are considerably more fleshed out. It also contains strong, thoughtful critiques of the mainstream feminist movement. This book was written in 1984, while Feminism is for Everybody was written in 2000. Nevertheless, the critiques in this book still stand, and white middle-class feminists could always benefit from a critique and examination of their privilege. This book is an excellent text for those who want to expand upon their 101 learning.

My main issue with hooks' arguments is that she consistently uses the Marxist terminology of bourgeois (not so much the word proletarian) and advocates socialism, or something that looks very much like socialism, for a feminist economic system. This to me simplifies class hierarchy and struggle. There are more than two socio-economic classes, there are many. Furthermore, socialism as it has been executed worldwide has many flaws. Even in communist societies, there are class hierarchies and sexism. While I agree with hooks that feminist revolutionists need to find an alternative to capitalism (which is exploitative and often degrading), I don't think socialism is the answer. I will not attempt to posit a feminist economic system here because I am not educated enough in economics.

These books are also very Western or US-centric, so readers who are looking for a discussion of global feminism may want to look elsewhere.

I highly recommend these books to anyone who is a budding feminist, is interested in feminism, or is looking to deepen their understanding of feminism.

Anti-Racist Thought Bubble: Kids and Costumes

A post on anti-racism remains incomplete if I do not mention that it is the 14th Amendment's birthday today! Happy birthday, #14!

I work as a substitute teacher at a large day-care center near my university. This day-care center is one of the best in the area and I love working there. Yesterday, something happened that caught my attention, but I was surprised that no other caregivers noticed.

The children were having their faces painted in the afternoon by one of the afternoon TAs. I was attending to other things, so I only saw them after their faces were all painted. One boy, age 4, was going around telling the parents as he arrived that he was an "Indian Tiger". He has a Latina mother, but he appears white. His face was painted in white, orange, yellow, green, and black stripes. Other kids were also tigers with traditional orange and black stripes. The parents were all saying things like, "Yeah!" or "Cool." Some of the other children started repeating this: "He's an Indian tiger." Each time, the parents provided some kind of non-committal positive response.

My initial response was, "Oh no, we have inadvertently taught this child that a racial identity is something you can put on and take off!" After speaking with my friend who is Native American last night, and my co-teachers this morning, I have a few more thoughts in my head:

1) Indian tigers are a real animal. They are tigers that live in India. It is possible that this is what the child was thinking of.

2) The TA who painted the faces does not have a higher education. It is possible that she projected her stereotype onto this child.

3) The child may not be old enough to understand how dressing up as someone of another race or ethnicity is racist.

So what to do?

The other teachers and I came up with the following ideas:

1) Ask the children to clarify their pretend play. Are they only being animals, or are they actually pretending to be Native Americans?If the former, focus on the animal aspect of the play to keep it neutral. If the latter, explain that we don't play that in this classroom.

2) Make Native American people concrete instead of abstract by doing a project about them, e.g. building canoes out of paper and learning about how they were made in real life (this was my friend's suggestion).

I'm still worried about the possibility of a child dressing up as an Indian come Halloween, but I figure that bridge can be crossed when we come to it. The classroom is very diverse for a small town (about half the children are non-white), and there have been no or very few racialized incidents as far as I know. My biggest concern is that as a (white) educator in a white supremacist society, how I can convey anti-racist thought/education to the children without appearing PC or hoity-toity. Most of the other staff are from white working-class backgrounds, and I do not want to alienate them. I am still going to try my best to stay true to my anti-oppression politics in the classroom while teaching and caring for these kids to the best of my ability, because I really love them all, and I want their minds and bodies to be free.