bell hooks is one of the most influential black feminists of our lifetime. Her poetic yet critical narratives - eloquent and articulate - have always amazed me. The video below is one of the best critiques of rap/hip-hop music you'll ever find. Note what she says at around 6 minutes in the video - her observation exemplifies feminist deconstruction.
Edit: I could not resist adding another video from the series (this one's on Spike Lee)
* - I recommend you click on the video and watch the entire series in youtube (split into parts)
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4 comments:
Hi Suresh,
Sorry to have pronounced her name wrongly. I said Mel Hooks or something like that right?
Anyway, thanks for posting this video here. I hope that more such videos by Bell Hooks are available in youtube. She is very good in criticising such hiphop and rap music. In fact, if you ask me, I have never liked such music.
But at the same time, I have never realised that such music was racist, misogynist, sexist and even colorist(if there is such a word)! I've never shown much interest to Mtv and other western music channels as what they mostly show is 'porn' stuff. I don't know why so many people would want to buy such stupid videos. But I guess they are mostly teenagers/youths who buy them.
Actually, you can see such portrayal of black women even in english movies, right? Look at our own Tamil movies. Most of the actresses are 'fair'-skinned, either very thin or glamourous, must have a cute face, etc. For actors, nothing really matters except for good acting and style maybe. But such categorization can actually be seen even in our own Tamil movies.
It is so saddening that we differentiate people into categories when we first see them. Sometimes we are racist, because we have not attained an awareness. Like what Bell Hooks (what a weird name?!) says, we have to learn to embrace the consequences.
And like what you always say, racism is a social construction, which can be deconstructed:)
Priya
Look at this video. She makes a 'strong case' for creationism. haha..
http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=4856860000642941137&q=darwin
@ Priya - you're welcome.
@ anon - thala suthi vaandhi varudhu pa!
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