Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by Hooks Bell

Author:Hooks, Bell [Hooks, Bell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: feminism, Philosophy, Politics, Sociology
ISBN: 9780415908085
Amazon: 0415908086
Goodreads: 27091
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1994-09-12T07:00:00+00:00

8

Feminist Thinking

In the Classroom Right Now

Teaching women’s studies classes for more than ten years, I’ve seen exciting changes. Right now teachers and students face new challenges in the feminist classroom. Our students are no longer necessarily already committed to or interested in feminist politics (which means we are not just sharing the “good news” with the converted ). They are no longer predominantly white or female. They are no longer solely citizens of the United States. When I was a young graduate student teaching feminist courses, I taught them in Black Studies. At that time, women’s studies programs were not ready to accept a focus on race and gender. Any curriculum focusing specifically on black women was seen as “suspect,” and no one was yet using the catch-all phrase “women of color.” In those days, the students in my feminist classrooms were almost all black. They were fundamentally skeptical about the importance of feminist thinking or feminist movement to any discussion of race and racism, to any analysis of black experience and black liberation struggle. Over time, that skepticism has deepened. Black students, female and male, continually interrogate this issue. Whether in the classroom or while giving a public lecture, I am continually asked whether or not black concern with the struggle to end racism precludes involvement with feminist movement. “Don’t you think black women, as a race, are more oppressed than women?” “Isn’t the women’s movement really for white women?” or “Haven’t black women always been liberated?” tend to be the norm. Striving to answer questions like these has led to shifts in my ways of thinking and writing. As a feminist teacher, theorist, and activist, I am deeply committed to black liberation struggle and want to play a major role in re-articulating the theoretical politics of this movement so that the issue of gender will be addressed, and feminist struggle to end sexism will be considered a necessary component of our revolutionary agenda.

Commitment to feminist politics and black liberation struggle means that I must be able to confront issues of race and gender in a black context, providing meaningful answers to problematic questions as well as appropriate accessible ways to communicate them. The feminist classroom and lecture hall that I am speaking in most often today is rarely all black. Though the politically progressive clam or is for “diversity,” there is little realistic understanding of the ways feminist scholars must change ways of seeing, talking, and thinking if we are to speak to the various audiences, the “different” subjects who may be present in one location. How many feminist scholars can respond effectively when faced with a racially and ethnically diverse audience who may not share similar class backgrounds, language, levels of understanding, communication skills, and concerns? As a black woman professor in the feminist classroom teaching women’s studies classes, these issues surface daily for me. My joint appointment in English, African American Studies, and Women’s Studies as well as other disciplines usually means that I

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