hooks

I've been in a lot of the situations that hooks talks about in these articles. For my BFA and my MFA, I went to a predominantly white, upper-class liberal arts college. I can count on my hand the other minorities that have been in my classes during my time there, and not until my very last semester was there another African-American person. I've been the “native informant” many times (once very vivid memory of this is during a literature course talking about W.E.B. DuBois The Souls of Black Folk. A student didn't understand the idea of double-consciousness, and argued that because she had black friends and didn't see their color, then the concept of double-consciousness didn't exist now in today's world. The teacher then asked me my opinion), I've been asked on numerous occasions (more so in undergrad) if I was there on scholarship, and I've been in classes where the reading was all homogenous. Once the instructor was called upon because his reading list was all canonical white male writers, he replied by saying how he “didn't feel the need to include anyone else.”

All of these experiences led me to feel as if I didn't have a voice. They contributed to my own sense of self-hate over being a minority, of being different (both from a class and race standpoint) and so I never spoke in class. I cringe when the inevitable ethnic class comes up in the semester, the time when the instructor throws in a token minority story/novel to discuss in workshop/literature courses, but like hooks, I feel that on the other hand, it is important to include diverse voices, to get students to see other sides and hear other stories. The point I believe hooks is trying to make is that instructors should be cognizant of their students and in bringing diverse materials into the classroom, but at the same time, to not let whatever reading (or video, or article or whatever) become defined by the race, or gender, or class upbringing of its author.