Annaiswriting, hooks, 11/17

        In the essay, Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance by bell hooks, hooks writes about the way people in a society filled with ideals of white supremacy view Black people as “other.” Hooks begins this essay by writing about an experience she had while teaching at Yale. She was walking behind a group of male college students and overheard them talking about wanting to have sex with many women of color as if they were targets rather than actual human beings. Hooks reflects on this racist and misogynistic conversation with “I found that it was commonly accepted that one ‘shopped’ for sexual partners in the same way one ‘shopped’ for courses at Yale, and that race and ethnicity was a serious category on which selections were based” (Kellner, Durham, 2012, p.309). Although Yale is such a prestigious school that offers an excellent education, some men who attend that school still have ignorant biases towards Black women, as they see them as sexual objects. Even at one of the best universities in America, students failed to understand their role in a racist society. Hooks then writes about how these men do not see themselves as racist because of these sexual desires towards Black women, and that if they were racist they would have those desires towards white women. She writes about how these men go after Black women because they want something “different” or something “other.” However, these types of attitudes lead to the intense sexualization of Black women in our society.

        The article “A New Report Shows How Racism and Bias Deny Black Girls Their Childhood” by P.R. Lockhart, demonstrates the way in which society sexualizes Black women from a young age. Lockhart writes, “The National Women’s Law Center noted in a 2018 report that black girls are more likely to be penalized for wearing the same things as other girls, and their bodies are often sexualized by teachers and school authority figures, who then punish them for minuscule or nonexistent clothing infractions” (Lockhart 2019). The dress code negatively impacts all girls in school as it implies that their clothes distract the boys and that it is more important for girls to carefully choose what they wear to school so that the boys can concentrate, rather than teaching the boys to not view the girls as sexual objects. However, the dress code especially harms Black women, as school authorities are more likely to punish them for what they are wearing. This relates back to the conversation hooks heard because these men perpetuate the idea of Black women as sexual objects. Although these men do not see their racism, they are maintaining the cultural norm of white supremacy, as they view Black women as “other,” rather than as equal humans.

References: 

Kellner, D. M., Durham, M. G., (2012). Media and Cultural Studies Keyworks. Wiley-Blackwell.

Lockhart, P. R. (2019). A new report shows how racism and bias deny black girls their

    childhoods. Vox. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/5/16/18624683/black-girls-

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