bell hooks: Cultural Criticism & Transformation

www.mediaed.org
bell hooks is one of America's most accessible public intellectuals. In this two-part video, extensively illustrated with many of the images under analysis, she makes a compelling argument for the transformative power of cultural criticism.
In Part One, hooks discusses the theoretical foundations and positions that inform her work (such as the motives behind representations, as well as their power in social and cultural life). hooks also explains why she insists on using the phrase "white supremacist capitalist patriarchy" to describe the interlocking systems of domination that define our reality.
In Part Two, she domonstrates the value of cultural studies in concrete analysis through such subjects as the OJ Simpson case, Madonna, Spike Lee, and Gangsta rap. The aim of cultural analysis, she argues, should be the production of enlightened witnesses - audiences who engaged with the representations of cultural life knowledgeably and vigilantly.
"The issue is not freeing ourselves from representations. It's really about being enlightened witnesses when we watch representations." -bell hooks

[@juanitagangle]

Wow. Cannot believe we lost her. Re-watching this today in her honour.

[@BillyMHonor]

The message of education for the purpose of life empowerment and enhancing, and not just survival is extremely important in urban educational institutions. Thank God Dr. Hooks has the courage to speak this truth.

[@MsGoody24]

Her brilliance shines throughout this interview, however when she talks about the differences among students in Ivy league and urban colleges, she articulates the obvious disparities in such an eloquent way. She was a gift to humanity!

[@L.Ayad16]

Thankyou so much for posting this! Bell hooks speaks the truth, I have read her book Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center and I love her direct and simple style of getting her point across and yet being so profound in her words.

[@billzhang822]

Bell hooks mentioned the impact about critical thinking, like she gave an example about students who are studying in Yale University. They believe their future is successful, and then they can get the goal. It is nothing about the knowledge, but the important part of critical thinking.

[@anweshakar146]

Her voice is so calming.

[@Sri-wg3ne]

She speaks like a Buddha

[@shengxuezhi]

Professor bell hooks mentioned that critical thinking is a useful skill to everyone in this short video. Thinking creatively can change people’s life. If you always think that you could be success, you will soon or late get to your goal. However, if you always think you will fail or do not think anything, you will receive nothing in the future. So, to be a person who can think creatively will lead you to success.

[@JasmineJ-SuDirector]

Wow!! Can’t believe I found this. My professor had us watch this in college for Mass Media & Society. Great Stuff ❤️

[@normbear]

I totally agree with her. Survival skills without critical thinking simply allow successful adaptation to a warped social system. With critical thinking you can see how to fill your needs without taking on the rat-race values of consumer culture. You can escape the prison of media-defined reality to a broader perspective.

[@MrBrindleStyle]

ah target audience... I see...

[@BonMache123]

I highly recommend Deep Glance by Anthony P. Ismael. It's a story of friendship, love and politics.

[@hoperoberts8817]

bell hooks out here reppin for visual learners

[@MrAnimebuster]

Wow I love her vision about critical thinking, she right !

[@presence08]

I wish there were more of the cultural criticism. I can't get enough of this discussion.

[@MrBrindleStyle]

there is the whole talk is up...

[@lauriehaanschoten8410]

does someone know what year this video essay came out??

[@whyff8]

I’m quite interesting of her way to let students got know about the popular culture. It is apparently that people need face more different culture than before.

[@BrandonEM09]

even King was dissatisfied with the progress he made toward combating racial oppression, you would know this if you actually looked at Kings later speeches and work...but that's beside the point, the effectiveness of any attempt to change the world is TOTALLY DEPENDENT on how accurate your interpretation of the world is, social-psych and cultural critique are tow of the most powerful tools to obtain this...

[@Creatiopoetic]

@wolfhalen i'm under the impression you didn't watch this interview in its entirety..this is only a 6min portion of it. she does go over every point you brought up (division/manipulation.etc)

[@greymolly2]

@presence08 Does anyone know whether there are any more recent talks recorded by hooks on KZbin?

[@MrBrindleStyle]

in the search engine...

[@greys_area]

miss you, bell.

[@politicaldebauchery]

@wolfhalen this comment expresses one tenet of the arguments against mainstream media, but does not represent a deeply critical understanding of all the social problems that result from it. hooks is not buying into any ideas that suggest popular culture is meant for entertainment; rather, what she provides is a new approach to analyzing complex rhetorical theories on cultrual criticism through the use of popular film and media.

[@whyff8]

By the way, is it true to learn about popular culture by watch hollywood movies?

[@artsygirlnessa]

being born in middle class gives you the opportunity to be born in a different set of expectations and an educational system that promotes critical thinking. The education systems in places like Harlem gear themselves more toward modes of survival, as bell hooks says, and not as much toward intellectual stimulation. Of course every individual is different, so maybe that's why u completely stepped over bh's whole point and made a comment about "magic" instead.

[@YumiKatokato]

bell hooks is one of the brilliant human being on Earth.

[@babs22hh]

@wolfhalen thank you hun!!!1 Preach! I'm glad someone else sees this!!!! people need to wake up!

[@MrBrindleStyle]

the 'other'?

[@gretanygaard6474]

Rest in paradise 💖 sending love

[@politicaldebauchery]

@MacoutesGabber you don't understand the intention of literary/cultural/political/social criticism if you think it is just pointing out problems in the world.

[@eustatic]

Bell Hooks is my fantasy activist grandma. she loves us.

[@illchillwill1]

Bell Hooks,qouting her own book, explains the importance and strength of popluar culture, like movies, musics and television shows. More and more people give up reading instead of popular ways to gain imformation. The phenomenon hases not show anything stops or slows down that change. People, especially young people might lose critical thinking in that way, which would be a terrible lost.

[@cassandraholt1216]

R. I. P.

[@Johnnyboy818]

Idk if its to me or apexpark but yeah ive read part of that ook actually.

[@KeniArts]

bell hooks touches on the effects of having a 'sense of entitlement'. Certainly many people who graduate from Ivy league schools have that. One reason blacks achieved against all odds was not by their school or family pedigree, but by their spiritual upbringing. One main reason you don't see order in the classroom is that it was not modeled at home. Even if there was not order at home, there usually is at church.

[@wonkydonkey8349]

interesting

[@stinkinfishguts]

This woman is a titan.

[@shoegazingnudiscoer]

yay, peter gabriel!

[@alegna688]

Of course there are universities in Harlem. I went to one....

[@pushnevahda]

well think about the films director and his/hers vision and how to portray or characterize a robber; then think about the writer of the film and their characterization of the robber. Afterwards, ask the question of where they got their ideas and notions of what constitutes a 'believable' robber. Then you can understand hooks more clearly.

[@BrandonEM09]

and walking is MEANINGLESS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING...

[@MrBrindleStyle]

No it isn't. You makes it so with perceptions, beliefs, presence or absence of presence, judgement. Are we even Going anywhere but the one destination?

[@Ecite]

@politicaldebauchery YES I agree with you 100%.

[@rickv404]

I agree, like Cornel West or Michael Dyson.

[@makezmuzic]

If that is what you got out of htis, than you are absolutely right.

[@Johnnyboy818]

Now its cleared up, much better.

[@VoluntraryismNottheState]

Then what's the use of criticizing if there's nothing that she's "trying to do?" It's whining, especially since nothing is done about it. Everybody goes to one of her silly lectures, and says "we need to do such and such a thing," and then everybody goes home and says how great the lecture was, and NOT MUCH ELSE. So much for "cultural transformation." Racism can be dangerous, as opposed to BITCHING about it. We don't need her to tell us how "racism is dangerous," as patronizing as that is.

[@brotherfuture]

It's so interesting to hear this during this time of Obama and this time that we find ourselves as Americans.

[@MrBrindleStyle]

wow 12 years ago and the time of trumpery

[@cheers6043]

@@MrBrindleStyle a year later and now we got yet another man holdin up the status quo

[@evelsteev]

I was quoting one of the comments oh here.

[@MrLycanthropy]

I have read Bell Hook's book and Jessica Valenti's, Hooks is a brilliant woman with views i do not agree with, but she's a respectable individual who gives you something to think about. Valenti is a shock and awe Howard Stern of the feminist movement, the idea that people will listen to what she has to say shows that any feminist movement credibility is really in danger. If feminists want a movement pushed take idiots like this out of the process. Hooks, you have this anti-feminists respect.

[@MrBrindleStyle]

GEE it all seems so foreign from here... Aotearoa 2020

[@MrBrindleStyle]

I see... it needs the rest of the parts to fill out with context

[@NobodyHasToAgreeAllTheTime]

Never forget when bell hooks said sleeping with students wasn’t that bad

[@CristinaPaolaThen]

@wolfhalen Seguro que no conoces para nada el trabajo de Bell Hooks, sus posiciones politicas, su trabajo teorico... Y tal vez tampoco viste el video completo para luego empezar a "teorizar" sobre lo obvio. Por cierto... y antes de que digas otra estupidez: si no me entiendes, trata con Google Translate...o vete a aprender español. Saludos.

[@evelsteev]

Who said I quoted "Killing Rage" (AKA "Killing Whitey?") I'm talking about the video. Did you not read my last comment? If you're slow I can repeat it again :)

[@VoluntraryismNottheState]

It's not a "problem" so much as hilarious entertainment.

[@wolfhalen69]

what it's doing is expecting the world to be perfectly free of hatred has never, will never happen time for pragmatism, the only ism worth it's salt.

[@VoluntraryismNottheState]

Regardless, the fact still remains: bell hooks didn't accomplish what King did. Talking is one thing, walking is another.

[@BrandonEM09]

and are not doing anything to change*

[@VoluntraryismNottheState]

BrandonEM09's comment: you're talking to yourself now, cause it would make you a hypocrite if you were to be doing nothing in your own life to challenge these systems of oppression and or doing something that is ultimately trite and ineffectual because you don't know enough about what you're actually dealing with...My response: I DO deal with it, plain and simple. I don't bitch and complain, sitting in a chair. Get off that chair and deal with reality: Nietzsche , Machiavelli and Ayn Rand.

[@swoordaku]

Communist claptrap is communist claptrap no matter how you frame it

[@belizat]

bell hooks!!!!

[@VoluntraryismNottheState]

@politicaldebauchery so what the hell are they criticizing?Non-existent problems that AREN'T in the world? WTF?

[@evelsteev]

I quoted someone else, numbnuts. But my emphasis is on this VIDEO.Now who's special????-

[@evelsteev]

I'm commenting on what she says in this VIDEO. (you know, the "comments" section of youtube, where they comment on VIDEOS :) Last time I checked, her entire works weren't posted here, save for this stupid video. Is THAT hard to comprehend? Apparently so, my "irrationally" affect one.

[@VoluntraryismNottheState]

just like hooks...

[@VoluntraryismNottheState]

Nietzsche is addressing the herd mentality in it's resentment towards the noble class, who are usually in power. What masquerades as the herd's notion of "justice" is more like revenge. Hilarious.

[@qpeluso]

Me me big boy

[@evelsteev]

So what's HE supposed to do? Grovel on the ground and ask forgiveness for his "insulting" white existence????? Please. Egalitarianism doesn't solve everything.

[@BrandonEM09]

you're talking to yourself now, cause it would make you a hypocrite if you were to be doing nothing in your own life to challenge these systems of oppression and or doing something that is ultimately trite and ineffectual because you don't know enough about what you're actually dealing with...

[@evelsteev]

"and as I watched this video I would say to her "your progressive/anarchist fantasy world hurts even more, since it's noting but slogans of revenge and lashing out"

[@VoluntraryismNottheState]

Still, no "solutuions." What are the Yale students supposed to do? Go out and live in the woods? Critical thinking (more like Bell's own rhetoric) isn't going to necessarily going to give you better future. "Enhancing one's life" as she puts is also based on the economy, not just how one thinks. Bad argument, try again.

[@VoluntraryismNottheState]

I'm not "trying" anything. This only shows your obvious ignorance about research methods, evidence, and epistemology. Social psychology does not "lessen" racism, any more than bell hooks does, because racism ISN'T QUANTIFIABLE! Gimme a break, please!

[@evelsteev]

So, what are Europeans supposed to do? Grovel at her feet? Disappear? No solution, just whining. Please. Nietzsche wasn't a Nihilist. Do some research.

[@evelsteev]

First of all, I'm Hispanic. Second, inequality is part of life, as "ugly" as it is to you. Actual "equality" is an ideal. You progressive/ anarchist/ liberal types live in a dream world world where "should be's and ought to be's reign supreme, instead of the way the world REALLY is. Speak of things that actually exist, and the way things ARE instead of the things "ought" to be. Please speak with some real-life understanding, and real-worldness. You need to further your EXPERIENCE.

[@evelsteev]

Hiding behind a book, makes it ok, huh? So what's the criticism for then, if it's JUST the media? Her media is ok, but not "popular media?" That's hypocrisy. Idiots indeed.

[@VoluntraryismNottheState]

I don't need a fuckin' cultural studies course to know racism is wrong! YOU need bell hooks to guide your morality, not me. I think for myself, unlike bell hooks who's appointed herself the litmus test for what's racist, and what isn't. Racism is about what (racism) not "how" (movies,images). Gimme a break.

[@sportigal22]

hooks is amazing all right. How she is given a forum for spewing so much sheer hate is amazing. "Racism hurts" indeed! She is saying that if she'd only had a gun she would have committed murder. We all experience 'dissing' no matter what color we are - but her every experience is seen through the prism of her race, gender and sexual orientation. I ruly believe that this woman is psychotic and frightening. I tried reading her book, but it made me ill. It was like trying to eat rotten food.

[@neveyo1]

I utterly love her work. She makes perfect sense to me. From what I have read of hers, and what I hear her saying, her message is more about dignity and love.

[@VoluntraryismNottheState]

Social psychologists don't clam to solve racism, they simply study it. You can "confront" racism, all you want, it's not going to disappear. A calling to arms isn't enough. bell hooks wasn't in the 60's civil rights movement. But at least King DID something about it, not sit there and whine.

[@VoluntraryismNottheState]

Im hardly the coward. Preaching and finger-wagging is hardly a "solution" to anything. Good luck with solving problems with merely criticizing them.

[@VoluntraryismNottheState]

Oh, please. What "solutions" does Bell Hooks have? Silly, idiosyncratic nuances like spelling her name in lowercase, because of "ego," or finger-wagging at Madonna for not being PC enough? Thank God for Nietzsche.....

[@evelsteev]

Who cares? If people are stupid enough not to think critically and not take it with a grain of salt, that's THEIR problem, not mine. I frankly don't give a shit what the media "tells" me to do, or how to think, or what to buy, and therefore does not "formulate" my thinking process. Please, give credit to subjective analysis and decision-making. By the way,you're insulting the people who watch this crap by blaming the media instead of the active viewer.

[@jamesleranearthistrollingi6010]

SJW

[@sirazazeloflowkey6424]

Critical thinking.....yeah I critically thought about it. And since my basic understanding of sociology and politics allows me to see many flaws in her sadly rather narrow minded glass is half empty worldview. I applied critical thinking and it led me to believe she has misguided herself and with her potentially many others.

[@ikeepmoving]

+Sir Azazel of Lowkey Are you by any chance caucasian?

[@sirazazeloflowkey6424]

Ahh, ye too has the narrow minded world view in which only the color of skin is decisive? Not realizing there is about 17 kinds of Asian, 10 types of white, or as you place it Caucasian, 16 or so black and then likewise a multitude of brown and red-skinned people out there. All technically of different races, if you want to go there. (Yes, not all black people are one race, not all white people are one race either etc.) But I shall indulge your thus far seemingly narrow mind with an answer. According to your very basic classification of people, yes, I would fall into the Caucasian category. My question to you is this; what does that tell you about me, other than perhaps my color of skin? Let me guess, in your mind it invalidates my opinion somehow?

[@ikeepmoving]

you're answer to the question is yes, a male-caucasian; the power source of the American puritan paradigm does not care to understand the air he breathes. it is merely natural, not political in his faux-intellectual mind. The suburbs and those hands must be extremely soft for your arrogance to flourish.

[@BlockyBookworm]

ikeepmovingTV 'You're a f______ white male!' The American Puritan paradigm is dead, the Constitution a secular document, white men more oppressed than blacks by popular opinion. When a white person does something bad, it's The Man. When a black person does something bad, it's not the activists who incite this by repeating cop-killing rhetorics. When a woman does something bad, it's not the misandrists who say that men don't have the right to explain and that men are lesser than the dirt beneath their feet who have created this illogical beast that once hid in the depths of our bowels. It's the men, and when one man rapes, he is held as the standard. When a woman prevents a man speaking freely, she is an idol. The standards are doubled, those who walk on eggshells don't even know it, and doublethink is more prevalent than ever. You might want to practice some of Kant's moral philosophy with your logic.

[@billzhang822]

Bell hooks mentioned the impact about critical thinking, like she gave an example about students who are studying in Yale University. They believe their future is successful, and then they can get the goal. It is nothing about the knowledge, but the important part of critical thinking.