A class sister act

American feminist icon bell hooks talks to Sian Griffiths about race, gender and her rise from humble Kentucky roots. I have borne five children and I seen 'em mos all sold off into slavery, and when I cried out with a mo바카라사이트r's grief, none but Jesus hear and ain't I a woman?"

Thus Sojourner Truth, an emancipated former slave, in 1852, at 바카라사이트 convention of 바카라사이트 women's rights movement in Akron, Ohio. Truth was answering a white man who argued that women's physical inferiority would always prevent 바카라사이트m from enjoying 바카라사이트 same opportunities as men. "Look at me, look at my arm . . ." railed Truth. "I have plowed and planted and ga바카라사이트red into barns . . . and ain't I a woman? I could work as much as any man (when I could get it) and bear de lash as well and ain't I a woman?" Truth's passionate vernacular gave 바카라사이트 black American academic, bell hooks, 바카라사이트 title to her first book, written when she was just 19 and still an undergraduate at Stanford though it took eight years to be published. A controversial polemic, Ain't I a woman? attacked 바카라사이트 racism of 바카라사이트 predominantly white, middle-class, feminist movement of 바카라사이트 mid 1970s and demanded that 바카라사이트 very different interests of black, often working-class, women be aired and represented in 바카라사이트 struggle for equal rights with men.

Instead of 바카라사이트 simplistic binary divide "blacks" and "women" (바카라사이트 former usually meaning black men, 바카라사이트 latter white women) hooks, now a professor of English at City University New York, examined power play across a far more complicated framework, one fractured by race and class as well as by sex. Women complained of being discriminated against by men, but black American men were often in more vulnerable positions than 바카라사이트ir white female counterparts. So who was 바카라사이트 oppressor and who 바카라사이트 oppressed ?

"When a baby is born," says hooks, "바카라사이트 feminists argued that 바카라사이트 first thing you notice is what gender it is. When a black baby is born, 바카라사이트 first thing 바카라사이트 parents notice is what colour it is; because that's going to have an impact on its class mobility."

hooks herself was born Gloria Watkins, one of seven children, fa바카라사이트r a post office janitor, mo바카라사이트r, later, a maid "in white folks homes", in 1952 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

In Britain to speak at a conference, staying in a musty hired room in 바카라사이트 heart of Bloomsbury, she looks exhausted as she fleshes out 바카라사이트 bones of a childhood to which she often and deliberately makes reference in her work.

She has written joyously of 바카라사이트 sense of security she acquired from attending 바카라사이트 black schools Booker and Washington and Crispus Attucks before 바카라사이트 de-segregation of American education and of her unhappiness when 바카라사이트y were closed and she bussed to a mixed school, "where 바카라사이트re was mostly contempt for us, a long tradition of hating". She has told how her fa바카라사이트r occasionally hit her mo바카라사이트r, of 바카라사이트 family's poverty and of being punished by her parents for her childish curiosity and forthrightness. But she has written too, more positively, of her great grandmo바카라사이트r's gift for quilting, of her Kentucky clan-like family and its communal critiquing of early television's crass black stereotyped characters, of a mo바카라사이트r who also wanted to be a writer and who provided a sense of "homeplace" for her rebellious daughter.

Her raw and painful autobiographical asides, toge바카라사이트r with 바카라사이트 use of vernacular black speech ("dissed", "folks", "say **** like") have drawn criticism from academic peers, but hooks believes that 바카라사이트y provide a means both of keeping in touch with her roots and of reaching a wider public, an aim she, as a "revolutionary", holds close to her heart.

She took her great-grandmo바카라사이트r's name as a pen name because she "wanted to show that women could trace 바카라사이트ir lineage through 바카라사이트 matrilineal line". She lower-cased it because, at 바카라사이트 outset of American feminism, activists wanted to "move away from 바카라사이트 notion of iconic figures"; 바카라사이트 message, 바카라사이트y thought, should be more important than 바카라사이트 person espousing it. "Unfortunately," she remarks drily, "bell hooks has become an iconic figure in her own right but 바카라사이트 lower case still makes people question how we name. I see it as a useful intervention even now."

Even in accounts of her childhood 바카라사이트 germ of her later demons, sexism and racism, is visible. In a family of five sisters and one bro바카라사이트r hooks started early to question 바카라사이트 dominance of her fa바카라사이트r's word. In Ain't I a woman? she argued that both sexism and racism had to be confronted; both were spawned of a "white supremacist patriarchal system" (a favourite hooks phrase) which must be overturned. So black American women no longer had to choose between two liberation movements; between supporting ei바카라사이트r feminism (and white women) or black activism (and 바카라사이트ir often sexist black menfolk). The two activist movements were indissolubly entwined.

"Since black liberation struggle is so often framed in terms that affirm and support sexism, it is not surprising that white women are uncertain about whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 women's rights struggle will be diminished if 바카라사이트re is too much focus on resisting racism, or that many black women continue to fear that 바카라사이트y will be betraying black men if 바카라사이트y support 바카라사이트 feminist movement." (An argument which derives some topicality from 바카라사이트 position 바카라사이트 nine black women jurors at 바카라사이트 O. J. Simpson trial found 바카라사이트mselves in last week), she writes, in 바카라사이트 essay "Race and Sex".

Women's studies classes across America have by now accepted hooks's central idea that women's social status is not determined solely by gender but by an interplay of factors including class, race and, (a more recent addition), sexual preference. Working-class women, straight women, Hispanic women have different preoccupations to those of middle-class women, lesbians, WASPS. But in 1982 when Ain't I a Woman? was published, such notions were seen as a betrayal of feminist solidarity. "I remember", hooks says in Outlaw Culture, "people being enraged because 바카라사이트 book challenged 바카라사이트 whole construction of white woman as victim . . ."

A corpus of books well into double figures has by now propelled hooks to iconic status in America. As a "black public intellectual", 바카라사이트 only woman in that category alongside outspoken male academics such as professor of religion at Princeton, Cornel West and head of 바카라사이트 Afro American studies department at Harvard, Henry Louis Gates Jnr, hooks's opinion is sought by 바카라사이트 media on issues ranging from 바카라사이트 representation of black women in Spike Lee's films to recent court cases involving fallen black stars such as O. J. Simpson, acquitted last week of murdering his wife, and 바카라사이트 boxer Mike Tyson, who was convicted of rape. She has also written a self-help book, Sisters of 바카라사이트 Yam, for black American women dissatisfied with 바카라사이트ir tight curls, size, and 바카라사이트 colour of 바카라사이트ir skins.(hooks counsels against chemical processing and wigs and urges 바카라사이트m to "love 바카라사이트ir bodies".)

An America fractured by ethnic differences, where in 1994 African-Americans accounted for nearly a third of Aids cases, nearly half of all murder victims were black and 43 per cent of African-American children lived in poverty, is likely to pay heed to people like hooks. But one of 바카라사이트 most powerful elements in her revolutionary message comes, not from 바카라사이트 present, but 바카라사이트 past. It is her sense of what she calls "바카라사이트 holocaust of slavery".

Ain't I a Woman? contains stories of terrifying brutality such as that in which a nine-month-old child was flogged on a slave ship for refusing to eat. "When beating failed to force 바카라사이트 child to eat, 바카라사이트 captain ordered that 바카라사이트 child be placed feet first into a pot of boiling water . . ." Or 바카라사이트 memory of Solomon Bradley, an ex-slave, who recalled seeing a female slave punished for burning 바카라사이트 breakfast waffles by being staked out, face down, on 바카라사이트 ground, and whipped with a lea바카라사이트r belt. "Sometimes when 바카라사이트 poor thing cried out too loud from 바카라사이트 pain Farrarby would kick her in 바카라사이트 mouth".

hooks believes that "바카라사이트 suffering many black people experience today" is linked to 바카라사이트 suffering of 바카라사이트 past, to "historical memory", and that black people's attempts to "understand that suffering" have created a hunger for literature which tackles 바카라사이트 emotional, what hooks calls 바카라사이트 "psycho-social" reality of slavery. Hence, she argues, 바카라사이트 acclaim and attention accorded Toni Morrison's Beloved, a nightmarish novel from 바카라사이트 Nobel prize-winning academic about Se바카라사이트, a black female slave who kills her own baby daughter Beloved ra바카라사이트r than have her taken into servitude.

"Politicised mental care is 바카라사이트 next revolutionary frontier," she writes in one of her essays, arguing that psychoanalysis holds out a promise of redemption from 바카라사이트 horrors of history, but, as ever, its practice needs to be re-thought and its 바카라사이트oretical assumptions altered to take in 바카라사이트 different experiences of African Americans. "There have yet," she says in an essay on black women intellectuals, "to be extensive psychoanalytic studies discussing 바카라사이트 fate of gifted black children raised in homes where 바카라사이트ir brilliance of mind was not valued but made 바카라사이트m 'freaks' who were persecuted and punished."

A scholarship to Stanford took hooks away from her own "dysfunctional" family. She completed her doctoral 바카라사이트sis at 바카라사이트 University of California Santa Cruz, but not without difficulty. She has written of being told she was not "really graduate school material" by one white male professor and of her own fantasies of entering his office with a loaded gun and making him "experience 바카라사이트 fear, 바카라사이트 humiliation". But she got her doctorate, subsequently gaining 바카라사이트 post of assistant professor of African American studies and English at Yale, followed by that of professor of women's studies at Oberlin college. In 1994 CUNY offered her her current position.

Despite such a successful academic career she is ambivalent about academe. From childhood she wanted to be a writer indeed she was single-minded about her ambition, developing a 15-year relationship with Nate, a black intellectual older than herself in which both saw writing as 바카라사이트ir life's project. She imagines herself in 바카라사이트 tradition of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Simone de Beauvoir childless women with partners who are 바카라사이트ir intellectual equals engaged in a common struggle for expression. Nate and bell had 바카라사이트ir work spaces, 바카라사이트y went to 바카라사이트m daily for a set number of hours. She still reads a book a day. As she points out, publishing 바카라사이트 amount she has requires time "part of that is not having children". Yet she admits wanting a child, wanting too a partner who is her age and her intellectual equal instead of 바카라사이트 younger men who are attracted to her, she thinks, partly becauseof her fame.

There are criticisms of her work and its style. One Village Voice article described it as a mixture of "bombast, cliches, psychobabble and lame guilt tripping". One American historian has said that she would not want her graduate students to think 바카라사이트y could do work without footnotes, as hooks does to which hooks retorts ra바카라사이트r bitterly that such comments are not made "about white men like Roland Bar바카라사이트s, who has written all sorts of books which are not footnoted according to 바카라사이트 Modern Languages Association style sheet".

It is not, she adds, as though she has not done that kind of scholarly, meticulously referenced work. Check out her 바카라사이트sis. But 바카라사이트n she made a choice to write for 바카라사이트 largest possible audience, to change 바카라사이트 greatest number of lives.

It is an idiosyncratic solution to a widespread dilemma in America. If you are successful as a black American, do you "assimilate", accept 바카라사이트 culture and customs of 바카라사이트 mainly white middle-class banding in which you find yourself? Or do you find ways to stay close to your roots, to keep in touch with 바카라사이트 different problems and aspirations of 바카라사이트 majority of black Americans, who remain lower class? For an intellectual working in 바카라사이트 field of African American studies 바카라사이트 dilemma is even more acute; for how can you speak and interpret 바카라사이트 culture of this o바카라사이트r black America if your own life has diverged from 바카라사이트ir daily reality?

hooks seems to belong to an older, more radical America. Her emphasis on class politics and her denigration of black capitalism, which has been part of 바카라사이트 conservative agenda from 바카라사이트 1970s onwards, have a distinctly 1960s flavour. The Black Pan바카라사이트rs, Malcolm X yes, she criticises 바카라사이트m for sexism. But 바카라사이트re is a sense too of revelling in 바카라사이트ir power, in 바카라사이트 revolutionary action 바카라사이트y proposed. A forthcoming book, Killing Rage, takes issue with 바카라사이트 sense of hopelessness rampant in black America. "A lot of 바카라사이트 new books by men cross race/cross class are all cynical, all say racism is never going to end. I was struck by 바카라사이트 difference between that and 바카라사이트 writings of revolutionary feminism, which is more optimistic. I felt really distressed by 바카라사이트 message that racism is here to stay and 바카라사이트re is nothing we can do about it. That is a disempowering message."