bell hooks' Culture to Culture

“The Danger of Falsely Assuming Familiarity”

hooks uses an analogy of a puppy passed on to her by her grandmother. If you let a dog get close enough, in its eagerness to be close to you, it will lick you in the face. This, to hooks, symbolizes multiple levels for the need for distance. Reading on you will see that, essentially, she is comparing people to dogs. And, not just “people,” but white people. So, what’s her purpose for this analogy? On one hand, if you get too close, the dog will take your closeness as a sign of comfort, openness, and familiarity, which is good on a humanistic level. On the other hand, if you, as a person of color, allow white people to assume this level of intimacy, you have forfeited your own right to personal space. The sanctity of your person is now sullied.

Why have a statement like this at the beginning of her article? Because it effectively encompasses the main point hooks is making: just because you feel you’re in a position to take a liberty (“dogs/white people” in relation to the invasion of personal space) doesn’t mean that your target intended to relinquish such control to you.

This will make more sense later.

After this analogy, hooks goes on to describe her grandmother’s relationship with the white women who attempted to befriend her. hooks’ grandmother felt it was important to keep things in context. Although the white women in her life wanted to be her friend, she remembered that they were still capable of causing her great harm. She always knew to “keep a distance.”

Relating this back to the study of rhetoric, hooks finally begins her critique of the state of cultural studies. Her intent here is to bring to light the trend of white scholars taking it upon themselves to speak on behalf of “colored people.” She disproves of the “position of familiarity” she feels white scholars have adopted as they foray more willingly into ethnography and cultural studies. Her position is that people of color should be allowed to tell their own stories in their own way. It is counter-productive to have white people (with their cloak of supremacy) re-inscribing racial domination by maintaining their limiting standards of western intellectual tradition over the study of other cultures.

Ultimately, I feel that hooks’ is saying that white people can’t speak for people of color. She appears to be saying that things aren’t necessarily changing in academia just because black topics are now being considered. I think she feels that black topics need to be considered by BLACK people. In short, white people still insist on being the “teacher” even though they can’t possibly be authorities on a topic they can never fully understand.

“Academic Legitimacy”

The popularity of cultural studies has opened the door for intellectuals to discuss ethnic and feminist topics. However, hooks argues that Black Studies and women’s studies are more than adequate by themselves for providing a discourse for these complex topics. She argues that integrating then under the umbrella of “cultural studies” diminishes the authority of the black and the female scholars who are the real experts in these fields and re being disregarded by the acceptably traditional (white male) authorities.

“Who is the Audience for this Book?”

When anticipating an audience for your discourse, hooks thinks it’s important to evaluate/reevaluate, consider, and honestly ask yourself, “who am I talking to?” we’re not supposed to stay holed up in the “white tower,” but many writers of cultural studies act like their intended audience is only other intellectuals. This is an ideology that promotes a “falsified structure of domination.” Are you (the dominating culture) actually trying to LEARN about the things you once ignored, or are you just trying to come up with something “new” to talk about? It’s not fair to use the minds, work, and works of blacks and women to create your theories while maintaining that THEIR OWN presentation of the same material is inadequate, inappropriate and/or improper. It makes your “studies” all the more insincere and it alienates the very people you supposedly to have an “interest” in.


Here’s a link to an interview with bell hooks where she discuses many contemporary topics in cultural studies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLM0TAVR8sU
(Interview with Charlie Rose)