Who is Bell Hooks
Bell Hooks, whose government name is Gloria Watkins is a author, cultural critic, and feminist theorist that hails from Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Over the past decade she has written plenty of novels that aroused the souls of many African-Americans. Salvation: black people in love is one of her most recent attempts to educate black people on the importance of love, which she claims is what black people today are missing. I can see that her views are well respected, by all of the positive criticism she receives from people like Maya Angelou and magazines like Essence and the Black Issues Book Review. Moreover, in this novel she makes a lot of claims and most hold to be true. But one significant claim that is made by Hooks is that Tupac Amaru Shakur was and still is a negative influence on young black males today. In this essay I will challenge that claim. I believe that Tupac Amaru Shakur has had a positive influence on young black males today because through his music and writings he was able to teach young black males to respect people like they would want to be respected, to constantly search for knowledge, and to always have self-esteem. Bell Hooks, as well as the mass media portray to us that black people are not lov
In conclusion I would hope this essay would train a person to not go by what the media says, and to not ever think one dimensionally when it comes to judging one of your own kind. I believe that Tupac Amaru Shakur has had a positive influence on myself and young black males today because through his music and writings he was able to teach young black males to respect people like they would want to be respected, to constantly search for knowledge, and to always have self-esteem. I am a young black male. I am between the ages ten and twenty. And, I am positively inspired by Tupac Shakur, what he did in his lifetime helps motivate me for my life. To Bell Hooks these three traits would categorize me as someone who is trying to be "hard", or someone who is trying to play a role. I am neither of those and neither was Tupac Shakur. A point that Hooks failed to research or mention is that 90% of the young black males that" lives behind the image" actually live that life. She forgets that most young black men who lived the city life, like Shakur, do endure a great amount of stress, struggle, and hurt. They have been through way more drastic situations then what most people see in their lifetime by the age of sixteen. The whole chapter on self-love was explained one dimensionally, and in a feminine aspect, especially when she refers to young black males impersonating Mr. Shakur. How can somebody who lived in the country, been sheltered her whole life, and is a feminist theorist explain anything on a typical black man caught in the city struggle? She only knew Tupac but what the media made him out to be. She didn't know him as an activist or a teacher or a savior. Hooks knew Tupac Shakur as hard-nosed thug, who was always in trouble, and didn't give damn about society. Bell Hooks mentions that once they have taken on this role of being "hard" they then proceed to devalue and destroy relationships. So when Tupac welcomed his mother back into his life after her addiction to drugs, he was beginning to devalue their relationship. When Tupac took his little sister in, when his mother couldn't care for her he was destroying the bond that they had between each other. That night in Los Angeles wh
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Approximate Word count = 1481
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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