Salvation: Black People and Love

Love Trilogy

by bell hooks

“A manual for fixing our culture…In writing that is elegant and penetratingly simple, [hooks] gives voice to some things we may know in our hearts but need an interpreter like her to process.”—Black Issues Book Review

Bestselling author, acclaimed visionary and cultural critic bell hooks continues her exploration of the meaning of love in contemporary American society, offering groundbreaking, critical insight about Black people and love.

Written from both historical and cultural perspectives, Salvation takes an incisive look at the transformative power of love in the lives of African Americans. Whether talking about the legacy of slavery, relationships and marriage in Black life, the prose and poetry of Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, and Maya Angelou, the liberation movements of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, or hip hop and gangsta rap culture, hooks lets us know what love’s got to do with it.

Combining the passionate politics of W.E.B. DuBois with fresh, contemporary insights, hooks brilliantly offers new visions that will heal our nation’s wounds from a culture of lovelessness. Her writings on love and its impact on race, class, family, history, and popular culture raise all the relevant issues. This is work that helps us heal. Salvation shows us how to create beloved American communities.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Race, Essays, Love, Philosophy, Social Justice

225 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 2001

About the author

bell hooks (deliberately in lower-case; born Gloria Jean Watkins) was an African-American author, feminist, and social activist. Her writing focused on the interconnectivity of race, class, and gender and their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and domination. She published over thirty books and numerous scholarly and mainstream articles, appeared in several documentary films and participated in various public lectures. Primarily through a postmodern female perspective, she addressed race, class, and gender in education, art, history, sexuality, mass media and feminism.

Reviews

[Smileitsjoy (JoyMelody) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am on a mission to read everything bell hooks has written and just when i think the last book i read by them is the book that is my favorite, I read another and love it just as much if not more.

This book was eye opening and I took a lot of notes.
I think this is a must read for people who are trying to understand the way love works and how it is plays a role in the Black community

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

bell hooks was especially prolific in the early part of this century, publishing sometimes two books a year. This book, published in 2001, has two epigraphs to set the tone.

“Salvation is being on the right road, not having reached a destination.” —MLK, Jr.

“…to be aware of who we are, what we are, what we are doing, what we are thinking, seems to be a very easy thing to do—and yet it is the most important thing; to remember—the starting point of the salvation of oneself.” —Thich Nhat Hanh in The Raft is Not the Shore

This is another of hooks' conversational books, not so academic that we stumble on the words or the concepts, but with clear sentences. Perhaps one day, with all the struggle for fairness, justice, and rights, black people will lead the nation and show the world how to resist domination. She quotes Lorraine Hansberry, the playwright who died so tragically young and who will nonetheless never be forgotten for her timeless play, Raisin in the Sun:

‘Perhaps we shall be the teachers when it is done. Out of the depths of pain we have thought to be our sole heritage for this world—O we know about love’

hooks points out that “Baldwin and Hansberry believed that black identity was forged in triumphant struggle to resist dehumanization, that the choice to love was a necessary dimension of liberation.”

In Chapter One, hooks lays out a spiritual crisis—an emotional and material crisis—in the black community, members of which are experiencing lovelessness. hooks wrote this is 2001, but it is something we can see clear as day in our society right now.

“As long as black folks normalize loss and abandonment, acting as though is an easy feat to overcome the psychological wounds this pain inflicts, we will not lay the groundwork for emotional well being that makes love possible.”

That just makes so much sense to me, and it is clear that some white and black folks don’t expect love from anyone, and they don’t know how to share it, either. Love does not play a part in their lives at all. hooks’ chapter headings in this book give us some idea of where she is going with the thinking in this book:

The Issue of Self-Love
Valuing Ourselves Rightly
Moving Beyond Shame
Mama Love
Cherishing Single Mothers
Loving Black Masculinity
Heterosexual Love
Union & Reunion
Embracing Gayness
Unbroken Circles
Loving Justice

On this 50th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, it is appropriate for bell hooks to praise what MLK got entirely right: that his love ethic is central to any meaningful challenge to domination. But what he missed, hooks says, is that although MLK addressed the need for black folk to love their enemies and oppressors, but he did not address enough the need for black folk to love themselves.

hooks tells us that MLK and Malcom X were both assassinated just when they’d begun to hone a truly revolutionary vision of liberation, one rooted both in a love ethic and a willingness to resist domination in all its forms. But we’re still here, and we need that vision more than ever in this world of haves and have-nots. We are all foot soldiers in this battle for right.

[zaynab · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book at AMC 2015 and decided after a healing session on Wednesday that I should pick it up and read it. I think if I had read it the year I bought it, my perspective would be completely different. Yet 5 years of rigorous reading allows me to appreciate the heartfelt wisdom of hook's writing while at the same time believing the archive of Black cultural production she mines could be more expansive than it is. I also say this well aware that I am not her target audience: I am not a Black heterosexual, nor am I a believer in the "progressive" movement for reasons that are too numerous for a goodreads book review.

So, with this in mind, I think her book offers a lot of helpful insights to Black cisgender heterosexual men and women who are aiming to be in relationship with each other. Since I am a black genderqueer femme dyke, reading her treatment of how to heal these relationships is effectively like watching a documentary. I am an outsider looking in at relationship that I effectively have no desire to have.

With that being said, I couldn't help but wonder some things:

-Her pathologization of Black militancy as "unloving" in comparison to the civil rights movement marked by King seemed like a comparison rooted in the very logic of white supremacy that she seeks to undo. I don't know how you talk about the civil rights movement without talking about how respectability and church culture sets the stage for the reinforcement of lateral/domestic violence of its own kind, and does little to intervene. The entire time I kept wondering how you write about Black militancy without writing about Assata Shakur, who literally penned poems about her love of people while exiled in Cuba. Or Mumia Abu-Jamal, who continues to write and educate from death row. Or the MOVE 9 who literally continue to express the sort of love I think hooks attempts to scratch at here. I think the CRM and the BPM had different definitions of love that can't easily be compared to each other, but both can be mined for the lessons learned and the things not to be repeated.

- If you're going to anchor Christianity as the place where the majority of Black people learn about love, then you need to not only address the spiritual trauma that the Black church inflicts on its parishioners as well as non-Christian Black people, but you need to talk about why Black liberation theology, particularly womanism and Black queer theology, became necessary to counteract the damage of spiritual trauma. Similarly, I disagree with her contention that the panopticon of religions she mentions in her chapter on religion share a common notion of love. They don't, and that's honestly okay. Maybe what's more important is that different theologies of love move the world in different ways, all of which bend towards the arc of justice.

- I didn't care for her chapter on how Black heterosexual people need to accept that gay people are part of the fabric of black community. If hook's oeuvre is predicated upon asking people to divest from patriarchy, it would do wise to ask Black cishet people to divest from cisheteropatriarchy, not simply "accept" that Black gay people exist. I don't need "acceptance" from people whose relationships are so dysfunctional that they warrant the writing of a series on Black love and relationships in the first place. I also think its interesting that Cheryl Clarke called her out on her inattention to Black lesbians ages ago and she doesn't acknowledge that in this chapter. I wonder why...

- In a book about Black love, I didn't care to hear about white allyship, even as a form of analogy. Her love and desire to talk about the merits of white anti-racist allyship while addressing Black people is something I don't share or care for.

-How might her definition about love be different if it went outside the romantic? Again taking a page from Hartman's Wayward Lives. How might her own exceptionally Black heterosexist frame been expanded by thinking of the decolonization of relations and kinship outside of the romantic? How might it be different to talk about a poetics of relation like Glissant?

Ultimately, I think my readings of Christina Sharpe and Saidiya Hartman alert me to the fact that the archive of Black life needs to be read in careful ways. hook's style of cultural criticism worked for a particular era of Black thinkers. But it's also important to avail ourselves of the new ideas and ways of thinking that are made available. I wonder how might this book be re-written in light of Wayward Lives, Lose Your Mother, the work of Dionne Brand, Hortense Spillers, Sylvia Wynter, etc.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this book, but some of the views were so seasoned by a child of the fifties that it was ever so slightly difficult to translate those views to modern day. Sometimes hooks presents examples too much to one extreme, making it difficult for those who not accustomed to her sometimes sarcastic but straight-forward nature to be put off by such "radical" thinking. But the book is a well-articulated commentary on the way the history of African Americans, especially those in poverty to middle classes, have shaped their views on love, and why exactly it is "we" love the way "we" do, why "good" black men seem to be fewer and fewer, and why "strong" black women seem to face the same scarcity. It also provides a message of hope supported by Christian and American ideals.

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant read expanding on hooks' thinking in all about love, the first book in her love trilogy. in each chapter, hooks lays out amazing insights about love in different contexts. hooks weaves together of other intelligent thinkers, historical contexts, and personal insights in a way that produces incredible instruction for how to actually make progress as individuals, groups, and societies. she points out that, without a love ethic, our social movements are bound to recreate the same problematic structures that generated the need for the movements in the first place.

[Ahndrea Sprattling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like I said before, Bell's writing is poetically beautiful and tells the truth. I always have to have a pen and paper to jot down quotes from Hooks. This is my 8th book I had read from Bell Hooks.

[Beverlee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Usually reading a bell hooks book is an enlightening experience where it’s the norm for me to have commented in agreement all over the pages. This time I still have my pen and I still wrote though not always in agreement. And I realize that’s not a bad thing to disagree with a writer. I still believe one indicator of a good book is if I disagree with the writer’s perspective but I continue reading just because I’m interested in the message.
Salvation is the second book in a love trilogy. The meaning of salvation is “preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss” (Oxford dictionary). In the introduction, hooks reminds the reader of a question that has been debated for hundreds of years- are Black people capable of feeling and expressing love? This book is written as an affirmative response, but only if certain steps are taken, namely to remember that we are a naturally loving people and to exercise the ways of our elders-unwavering commitment to family and community-rather than adopting the way of society-looking out for self first. “To give ourselves to love, to love blackness, is to restore the true meaning of freedom, hope, and possibility in all of our lives” (xxiv).
Why the side eye- I think hooks tends to think of the past in general and her childhood experience as the norm and paints it as the gold standard for the Black experience. She speaks eloquently about long lasting marriage and strong morals passed down from one generation to the next...essentially a household with the husband as leader and the wife deferring to the husband. In the next breath, she speaks out against patriarchy...correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t a fundamentalist Christian household one and the same as a patriarchy? The second side eye is the continual reference of men as male and women as females. To me, this is distasteful, borderline dehumanizing because it doesn’t acknowledge a person and makes the assumption that all people are gender binary. A third side eye comes from the assumption that Black people don’t read and that tv is root of the lack love in Black communities. “Black consumers have become complacent. A movie or book that has black characters is often hailed and celebrated no matter its quality. Trashy work by the McMillan sisters or male author Omar Tyree are often wrongly viewed as serious literary work” (186). A bit elitist and stuck in the ivory tower too long maybe?? I’m all for people reading for leisure and that should be a matter of preference, be it a so-called respectable book or not. The point is that people read and not everyone has a major platform to share their critique...but that doesn’t mean it never happens. Maybe a better solution is to continually create images that affirm our humanity and show us as a loving people instead of simply turning off the tv, no longer watch movies, or read “trashy novels”. What I liked-I agree with hooks that a love ethic is needed and that domination and love cannot coexist. That positive and loving images of Black love are needed and should be the norm-this should be present in reality first. Media should never be upheld as an accurate portrayal of African American culture. Decolonization of the mind is a phrase hooks uses throughout the text and I take it to me seeking the truth rather than believing without question what’s told or stated. This is crucial to loving self and others.
Passages to think about:
“The transformative power of love is the foundation of all meaningful social change. Without love our lives are without meaning. Love is the heart of the matter. When all else has fallen away, love sustains” (17).
“Too much focus on ‘realistic’ images has led the mass media to identify black experience solely with that which is most violently depraved, impoverished, and brutal. Yet these images are only one aspect of black life. Even if they constitute the norm in underclass neighborhoods, they do not represent the true reality of black experience, which is complex, multidimensional, and diverse” (48).
“When any black female acts out in a manner that is in keeping with negative stereotypes, there is more room for her in the existing social structure than there is for decolonized black women who challenge the status quo”(106).
“Patriarchal thinking certainly does not encourage men to be self-loving. Instead, it encourages them to believe power is more important than love, particularly the power to dominate and control others” (145).
“Making the choice to love can heal our wounded spirits and our body politic. It is the deepest revolution, the turning away from the world as we know it, toward the world we must make if we are to be one with the planet-one healing heart giving and sustaining life. Love is our hope and our salvation” (225).

[McKenzie Watson-Fore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm embarrassed to admit this is my first whole book by bell hooks. I'd heard of her before in general sweeps of feminist thinkers and Black woman authors, and knew enough to lump her with Audre Lorde, but I would consider it a lamentable condition of my homogenous upbringing that it took me so long to finally encounter hooks' work on its own terms.
[The stage I'm at with my own writing and exploring tools for personal revelation means that these reviews are often going to be more about me and why I read a particular book than the book itself, providing a sort of travel log for my literary explorations.]

In early May, bell hooks paid a few days' visit to my work at Project Row Houses, and I got to not only meet but also spend time alone with her - AMAZING. That drove me to finally check out about four of her books from the public library, to continue the suspended conversation of learning from her.

bell is remarkable as a cultural critic, weaving in film references and intellectual and systemic development, clarifying major societal shifts and making the sweep of the cultural pendulum totally obvious. Salvation looks critically at the absolute necessity of a love ethic to undergird decolonization. In that sense, Salvation reminded me of Howard Thurman's Jesus and the Disinherited. hooks recognizes that books seeking to contribute to the literature of love as revolution are scarce, and she laments the lack of substantial scholarship throughout.

She writes with such distilled focus that everything she says seems instantly self-evident, though the entire time I was also conscious of being brought into deeper perception than I would be able to construct for myself. The way that she explores love, in readable, succinct chapters organized by specific categories, dislodges it from the realm of impractical, intangible goodwill and firmly situates it at the heart of a movement towards decolonization. She illustrates the ways that colonization continues to determine the mindset and lifestyles of people living with white supremacist capitalist patriarchy and skillfully exposes the way that certain developments in the civil rights movement (particularly, black male leaders who began seeking how to 'win at' the current system rather than subvert and reimagine the system as a whole) planted a fiercely sexist and homophobic patriarchy within black culture.

The book was easily readable, far more accessible than Howard Thurman's work, straightforward and digestible. If anything, the prose was less poetic than I might have anticipated, but it still read with the velocity of a story, because I was so engaged with her historic retelling of the roots and the development of our current cultural situation.

I think bell hooks is wonderful and this book expresses it, as well as a lot of vital lessons for a culture in a crisis of love.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Bell Hooks: Self-Love – On Origin and Justice" is an in-depth exploration of how self-love, especially within oppressed communities, can act as a form of political resilience. Bell Hooks, known for her incisive analyses of race, gender, and class, uses the concept of "self-love" to describe a form of personal and collective empowerment that stems from understanding and accepting one’s identity and origins.

In this work, Hooks argues that self-love should not be viewed merely as an individual pursuit of self-acceptance in a social and political context but as a fundamental component for achieving justice and societal change. By engaging with one’s history and culture, individuals can develop a type of love and acceptance for themselves that empowers them and enables resistance against forces of oppression and discrimination.

Hooks posits that without deep, rooted self-love, the fight for justice and equality is often overshadowed by hatred and bitterness, which ultimately proves less effective. She emphasizes that true self-love also involves understanding and acknowledging one’s vulnerabilities and weaknesses and turning them into strengths.

The book is an invitation to explore oneself more deeply and to view self-love as a revolutionary act that can promote both individual and collective liberation.

[Jennifer Fearon · Rating 5 out of 5]

bell hooks never disappoints me. This book is a triumph. It is cathartic, illuminating and transforming. I feel as if my soul has been prised open and put back together again. Love really is the salvation we need as a race of Black people hooks outlines that in this book. She writes about how the lack of love amongst Black people in our communities has left us desolate. The lies spread through patriarchy, racism and white supremacy has left our communities barren and broken from lack of knowledge on the art of loving but this book can help us to discover the healing power of love and reunite all facets of our people putting what’s broken back together again. I loved this book it touched me deeply, it was like a lesson in the Japanese art of Kintsugi.

[Vern · Rating 5 out of 5]

She NEVER misses.

[Clay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I discuss Salvation, love, and the Obamas here:

morethanaweekend.com

or continue reading below.


Salvation of the Black Family (?)

In the world of an Obama presidency, race relations in this country have never been more confusing. After the election, CNN conducted a poll asking both African Americans and European Americans if Martin Luther King's Dream has come true on January 19, 2009. The results, I believe, are astonishing. A full %69 of African Americans believe that his Dream has been fulfilled, compared to %46 of European Americans. Is anyone else shocked by this? Maybe I am just cynical. Or maybe I am scared that by declaring King's Dream fulfilled, whites will write off Obama's election as the end of racial turmoil, especially if blacks begin to believe that King's Dream has been fulfilled. Race still matters.

I've had the privilege to get a liberal arts education, and I'd like to think that I have encountered (and am still encountering) a vast array of American and foreign voices in my college experience, whether in literature, art, or film, or in person. I am currently in the middle of bell hooks'Salvation, a national bestseller about "black people and love." So far, it has been eye-opening. Now, I am not even going to pretend like this superficial taste of the African experience in America has "enlightened me" or whatever, but it has given me a sense of the immense decolonization that African Americans have had to undergo and are still undergoing. Does Obama's election mean that blacks are "decolonized?"

hooks writes about love in black families, and all of the obstacles of love, beginning with slavery and its effects to problems that face every American family like addiction (food, drugs, alcohol), materialism, and patriarchy. One or her main arguments--and something that really clicked for me--is our nation's treatment of the black single mother, and the treatment of single parents no matter what their race. She writes, "many of the men, black and nonblack, who have become important leaders in our society, men of wisdom, integrity, and right action, were raised by single mothers" (122). Immediately, Barack Obama comes to mind.

Barack Obama, in actuality was raised a great deal by his grandparents. And, of course, Obama's mother was white, and he spent most of his adolescence in Indonesia and Hawaii. Did Obama escape the cycles that many others of his generation did not? hooks writes (of her brother): "He wanted life to be easy. When it was not, he and the males of his generation looked for someone to blame. Our father and the black men of his generation always knew white supremacy was the problem, not black women. When the younger generation of black males could not blame everything on white racism, they targeted black women" (135). hooks elaborates on the absence of explicit white racism that contributed to the "lovelessness" within some black families. She seems to argue that it is the patriarchal power dynamics between the black man and black woman that have led to both the stereotypes and realities of black American families.

Of course, every family has problems, and bell hooks spends a great deal of time affirming the amount of love that can be found between black mothers and their sons and daughters, and the love between father and children. She eloquently (and stereotype-breakingly) expands on the intense love between the African American single mother and her children. In the end, despite the feelings of hopelessness, love can be a beautiful thing.

Speaking of love, I think that's why America is so head over heels for the Obamas. While, yes, it all reaffirms the nuclear family, the obvious love that fills the Obama family is so gushy and intense that it literally gives me that warm fuzzy feeling. My perceptions of the family paint Obama and Michelle as absolute equals. He is not the patriarch that hooks discusses, and it's clear that he fulfills his daughters emotional needs just as Michelle does. Michelle is also not one of the "black women [who:] raise their daughters and love their sons" (108). This family is full of love.

Now, this isn't only refreshing because the Obamas are a positive portrayal of a (black) family, but also because of the youth and love they bring to the White House--feelings that have been absent for decades. And, while King's Dream may not be realized, I think bell hooks would agree with me that the Obamas have brought us one step closer. And so would the %80 of African Americans who admit that his election is a "dream come true."

[Chr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Große Empfehlung. Regt zum Nachdenken über sich selbst, die Menschen um einen, eigene und fremde Handlungen, historische Ereignisse und gesellschaftliche Strukturen an.
Gibt's zum Hören auf Spotify. Beim Haushalt machen hört es sich gut.

[Zainab · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published in 2001, this book is an intimate social commentary and history-conscious media analysis, orchestrated in the immersive accessible style that bell hooks is known for. It’s personal, it’s open, it’s honest. It makes important distinctions between giving care, giving discipline and giving love. It feels ahead of its time in its critique of understandings of black masculinity – and bell hooks really tries to unpack where these understandings come from.

You’ll find a plethora of film, music and literature influences discussed – with clues about a few of those personalities who’ve now been further exposed (e.g. R. Kelly). No black male activists are spared criticism either: she discusses colourism, misogyny and infidelity among the ranks of Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, with a focus on how sexism operates at home. In fact, perhaps the text is most relatable in its exposure of politically progressive males in the public sphere who behave regressively in the private sphere. I enjoyed how hooks moves smoothly between community introspection and interrogating the colonial/institutional projects that led us here.

The only clear downside is that there are a lot of sweeping generalisations and speculative conclusions based on anecdotal evidence and conversations. By the book’s own admission, there haven’t been many studies that investigate the social problems that bell hooks is pointing to. I wasn’t convinced with some of the arguments precisely because the finer details were not well-evidenced. For instance, she leaves out Malcolm’s famous “who taught you to hate yourself” speech in a chapter which argues that black leaders didn’t address self-hatred.

With this in mind, I still feel the book is invaluable for black males, black couples and black parents – but also for immigrant families more generally, as it provides the tools to assess our practices and assumptions, and to re-centre a love ethic in the home.

I picked this up at random from the library, but really enjoyed it. I hadn’t realised this book was part of a ‘trilogy’ on love, but it certainly works as a standalone book. I’m really curious to see what she thinks of contemporary developments, including the adaptation of Baldwin’s ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ directed by Barry Jenkins, Stormzy’s lyrics and videos, or the upcoming Queen & Slim movie. In short, I look forward to reading more of hooks’ work.

[Ife · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

The more freedom became synonymous with gaining equal rights within the existing social structure, the less love was a part of the equation

Despite the popularity of All About Love: New Visions and its reinvigoration, many people will never get to Salvation: Black People and Love third in the trilogy. Salvation is challenging to read in the many ways bell hooks texts often are: the lack of citations, the authoritative tone devoid of the academic hedging, what often feels like hasty generalisations, the odd emphasis on spirituality at times. Unfortunately here, the transformative critique was just a little bit less capable of apologising for these factors than in AAL.

Often times bell hooks in this collection makes uncited historical claims only substantiated by her childhood. Especially her points about the way certain shifts regarding love ethics in the Black community happened which a lot of the first essays in the book were hinged on, I felt I needed more to be convinced of these phenomena she was pointing to. Often times a lot of the essay titles are misleading like Mama Love which talks about representations of Black women rather than what one would expect which is Black people's relationships with our mothers.

I think the redeeming quality of this book is how ahead of her time bell hooks was and I also like how her essays encapsulate the feeling of the time and use examples that broaden my cultural knowledge. For example, I knew about Angela Davis on the cover of Out Magazine but didn't know about the cultural reception of this until reading bell hook's response to it.

Regardless of its highly opinionated style, which mattered less when bell hooks was talking about love in the first book versus making semi-empirical claims about black people moving towards different arrangements of love and care, I still think this is a solid follow up to its predecessor and it should be read cautiously as most theory should anyway.

[Frehiwet A · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this trilogy because I was so in love with hooks’ All About Love when I first read it in 2021. By the time I got to this here third book, I wasn’t sure what more there was to say but I was committed. Ultimately, I wouldn’t recommend this book because it really felt too anecdotal, and while hooks would label her lived experiences as such…she still made parallels to the Black experience that didn’t feel like enough. She was offering lessons to be learned, to be heeded—based on personal accounts—and I wanted a bit more. It was also hard to appreciate some of the content because it felt a bit dated; it was first published in 2001 and I, myself, am 27yo for reference. Specifically, the chapters “Heterosexual Love—Union and Reunion” followed by “Embracing Gayness—Unbroken Circles” earned an initial eye roll from me but what can you do.

In the end, reading this felt like a chore and it may be better suited for those not familiar with America’s history of the -isms and injustices as related to Black folks.

[Lauren Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book due to the fact that it helped bring to focus the loving, kindness that has enriched the history of the Black community. hooks makes it clear in each chapter, that a love ethic is needed to heal the wounds of black people left by the ills of white supremacy, capitalism, sexism, etc.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spiritual sequel to All About Love, hooks does it again in this engrossing book about all different facets of love, specifically in the African American community. She clearly outlines how the intersectionality of race, gender and sexuality affects how we love ourselves and others. A definite must read for those who want to nourish their souls.

[Jonathan David Pope · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It is always the love, whether we look in the spirit of Fannie Lou Hamer or the spirit of Agostinho Neto, it is always the love that will carry the action into positive new places." — June Jordan, Where Is The Love

Written in 2001 as a follow up to her acclaimed All About Love, Salvation focuses on Black life. This is one small critique I had about the first volume on, talking about love is a bit more simple when you're not factoring in race, class, and the lasting effects of chattel slavery, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration. hooks definitely tackles all of this in Salvation. The points and critiques she makes often feel uncomfortable, but they're necessary. I find hooks in-text citations to be some of the most compelling aspects of her works. She pulls from the words of Martin Luther King Jr., Toni Cade Bambara, James Baldwin, Essex Hemphill, Audre Lorde, and truly integrates their thoughts and history to discuss the relationship between Black people and love. What is harming us, and where do we go from here? She tackles the media representation of Black love, demonization of single mothers, homophobia in the Black community, shame, self-love, motherhood, black masculinity, and you begin to see how the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy has hurt us all. Moving towards establishing a love ethic in all of our lives is necessary.

"Love remains for black people a crucial path to healing... It is not to late for black people to return to love, to ask again the metaphysical questions commonly raised by black artists and thinkers during the heyday of freedom struggles, questions about the relationship between dehumanization and our capacity to love, questions about internalized racism and self-hatred." (14)

[Zack Ashkar]

(Don’t know why it took me this long to finish, I was on track to finish the book in a week then stopped before the last two chapters n didn’t revisit till two months later 😂) But such an insightful read, preferred this one more than all about love. We definitely have very similar outlooks on the world which is why I appreciate bell hooks’ writing so much but also probably why I feel like I don’t takeaway that much from it sometimes (ex. all about love). This read however had more new ideas to me which I really liked and I will definitely be pondering abt them for some time 😊. I do think she tends to simplify complex topics here n there and repeats some of the same points a lot but like the points she was making need to be repeated so I get it! Feels wrong for me to rank this book lolz but I still definitely recommend. A love ethic will change the world..🫶

[Madison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m glad this book has been adapted to audio. It is great to see people still connecting with bell hooks’ work. The narrator, January LaVoy, did a great job portraying hooks’ confidence and clarity, and her skill in emphasizing certain words and phrases kept my attention.

As for the book itself, I do not think this is bell hooks’ strongest work. Granted, I have not read the preceding books in this series, but while I agree that “love” is a powerful tool for antiracist change, I felt that it was used vaguely in this book. It was difficult for me to buy in at times because hooks does not back up her claims about the past. I understand that not all of these phenomena about loving relationships and communities would be observable/concrete, but I preferred the moments in this book where hooks analyzed pieces of literature or studies by other critics.

Thank you to NetGalley & HarperAudio for the eAudiobook!

[Aaron Riobe · Rating 5 out of 5]

with this, I have finished the love trilogy! bell hooks' commentary on a variety of topics I have many personal experiences with--black apathy, black materialism, patriarchal black men valuing power and domination over love, misogyny in black families and spaces, black self-hatred, and religion-based homophobia, among numerous others--as always has provided deep insight into my own life and the experiences of myself and others in my family.

men and masculinity taught me just how damaging the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy is, as well as how deeply embedded into our society it remains.

all about love taught me the importance of bringing and having love in everything we do: in our relationships (romantic or not) in our work, in our belief in ourselves, in the way we move through the world. it also taught me how devastating a life without love can be.

communion taught me about the challenges that women face when it comes to love, particularly due to the internalized sexism that comes with traditional gender roles, and male (and female!) discomfort with female leadership, agency, and woek.

and last but not least, salvation helped me connect the dots between black lovelessness and the present day struggles we still contend with as it relates to racism and prejudice in America, while also exemplifying all the ways this lovelessness has perpetrated and played out in my own life.

it really is all about love!! can't recommend this trilogy enough!!

[Bêrî · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolute herzensempfehlung!

[sully · Rating 5 out of 5]

her writing is just so simple and eloquent and it's hard to tell if that's because her ideas feel like they should be obvious but clearly aren't anyway moving with love

[Allie Sanford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damn. I need to read more bell hooks- STAT.

[Corri Latapy · Rating 4 out of 5]

a succinct take on black people and black love

I like how the book was segregated into chapters that dissected the nuances of black people and black love in America. This dissection critically assessed the factors that contributed to the present day version of black people and love.

I enjoyed that bell hooks looked passed just present day and examined the historical factors that not only influenced present day, but historical versions of positive black love that has been usurped by other I’ll intentioned movements: patriarchy, sexism and homophobia to name a few.

In some instances I felt like the references offered were too shallow, or depended on assumed knowledge that a reader may not have. For example where movies or books which showed anti black love, a reader that hasn’t seen the movie or read the book may not be able to fully grasp the intention of the analogy.

All in all, I really enjoyed the range of the book.

[Xavier · Rating 2 out of 5]

I cannot begin to describe my disappointment with this book. I found myself writing retorts and responses to some of the claims here not because the latter was a series of inconvenient truths but because it suffered from a peculiar form of condescending romanticism of the past that was jarring to say the least given hooks' approach to the first book, All About Love. She makes claims such as black people don't know what it's like to get lynched in modern America, the previous generation of black people knew how to love, and even blames black parents for teaching children to hate formal education. Indeed, all of these claims were made without institutional analysis and the claim on previous generations of black love recant some of her points in her first book as she seems to idolize her father here. It is an off-putting following up that is all critique without the critical lens.

[J Percell Lakin · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started this book in 2021 bell hooks was still with us. This book was deeply challenging and deeply beautiful. It reminds me of what James Baldwin wrote: “Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.”

This was an invitation to grow up. I found myself reading and then going to the people I love and journey with to process and reflect on what I was discovering. This offer of love brought a measure of healing to my life. A great read that I will come back to again. To quote the last sentence of the book, “love is our hope and our salvation. Although she is no longer with us, her words and her memory will forever be a blessing.

[Raquel Figuesans ❾¾ · Rating 4 out of 5]

En general me ha gustado mucho. Bell hooks vuelve a demostrar su capacidad para abrir debates profundos y necesarios sobre el amor, la cultura y la resistencia, con un estilo directo y “sin pelos en la lengua”, que brilla por su honestidad, aunque me faltó un análisis más extenso sobre como percibe y se enseña el amor la cultura africana (que es lo que se espera con el título del libro)

💫 lo que me encantó
En cuánto a la pluma de Hooks, escribe con una voz crítica y apasionada, pero también compasiva. Su prosa es clara y accesible, con momentos de gran fuerza poética. El tono combina rigor intelectual con un llamado emocional, lo que convierte la lectura en un ejercicio tanto reflexivo como movilizador.

Coincido con la autora en la reflexión al señalar que el recelo a hablar de lo íntimo —esa resistencia a mostrar experiencias personales o a exteriorizar sentimientos— ha generado un vacío de referentes. La ausencia de modelos en la televisión, en la literatura o en otros espacios culturales impide que exista una crítica más amplia sobre cómo se viven y se perciben las relaciones, lo que a su vez dificulta cualquier avance real en la comprensión del amor en la sociedad africana.

💫 Porqué no 5 ⭐?
Aunque el análisis es sólido, se percibe una insistencia marcada en responsabilizar a la cultura blanca de ciertos patrones en la vida afectiva de las personas negras. Si bien estas críticas son legítimas y considero ciertas, el énfasis constante me dió la sensación de que se dejan en segundo plano otros aspectos igualmente interesantes, y sobre los que me hubiera gustado leer como la enseñanza del amor dentro de la propia cultura africana y afroamericana, sus expresiones sociales, el impacto social y cultural y las opiniones culturales al respecto.

Se limita a invitar a cuestionar lo que damos por sentado en el amor y a imaginar nuevas formas de amar en un mundo atravesado por desigualdades, pero no abre un debate de como llegar a ellos, por lo que me faltaron ejemplos prácticos o propuestas más concretas sobre cómo transformar está visión del amor.

Por último, he vuelto a percibir en las páginas de hooks una tensión constante: por un lado, la autora se muestra idealista, con un deseo profundo de transformar las relaciones y dignificar el amor; por otro, aflora una decepción palpable, una especie de desencanto por parte de hooks con el amor.

[Kari B · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the many bell hooks’ books that she’s written has surfaced again, in light of the subject of Black Family Studies. A cultural critic and feminist, bell hooks takes on issues of the decolonization of black folks, urbanization, ghettoization, poverty, the system of black male patriarchy, queerness, subordination, denigration of non-nuclear families (single mothers, neglectful fathers), rap culture and misogyny, self-love/self-hatred, normalized violence of black bodies (specifically black women), and white supremacy. The significance of this book brings about the discourse necessary to move America into a more positive direction by eliminating systems of oppression that target black folks—while our non-black folks tend to think we live in a post-racial, post-sexist society. The perspective of bell hooks’ analysis of white supremacist, imperialist, colonialist patriarchal culture and politics as a black heterosexual woman offers a critical feminist lens towards the issues that surround women, facing discrimination by white women and males, black males, and even black women with their internalized misogyny. bell hooks is currently a professor of English at CUNY-Hunter College and has taught as Yale University—her writings with black intellectuals of our time deeply highlight her importance to discourse about race, gender, and sexuality in America.
This book had 11 chapters, of which were marked “love is our hope”, “the heart of the matter”, we wear the mask”, “the issue of self-love”, “valuing ourselves rightly”, “moving beyond shame”, “mama love”, “cherishing single mothers”, “loving black masculinity—fathers, lovers, friends”, “heterosexual love—union and reunion”, “embracing gayness—unbroken circles”, and “loving justice.” All of these chapters, in the end, summarized the importance of revolution and resistance, solidarity, communalism, and self-love. While America thinks we live in a post-racial, post-sexist society, more and more of our white allies have turned the other cheek when racism or sexism comes up—to them it seems as if the struggles of African Americans in America have been diminished. What this book does, is revolutionalize the idea of black love as it pertains to colorism in African American and white culture, beauty standards, and determining the worth of black bodies based off of how light/dark they are, among other things.
The only short-comings that this book had, for me at least, would be the discussion of loving justice. A direct quote from this chapter follows: “This generation is often rightfully angry because its members do not have equal access to the top spheres of power and privilege—to the best, highest-paying jobs. But they have no lived experience of what is like to be unable to find work no matter what your level of intelligence, skill, or need” (hooks 212). My annotation on the side column was, ‘times have changed. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we still can’t be mad at the system that institutionally makes things harder for POC on an everyday basis. Job discrimination is still prevalent, even though it may not be as blunt.’ Another short-coming from the book in which I thought was valuable to bring up was the lack of discussion of POC-inclusive feminist spaces in the 60’s—the feminist movement that created 2nd-wave feminism was centralized around white straight and gay women dismantling patriarchy whereas our fellow POC and trans* brothers and sisters were casted aside, constantly having their issues of delegitimization of trying to uphold masculinity to appease straight macho males, femininity, and whiteness that was indicative to the struggles of POC at that time. Other than that, my annotations for this book consisted of thick, multiple underlines, all-caps “YES!!!” and points of resonation as my struggle with being a queer person of color.
As a person who has intensely implemented critical race and feminist theory onto daily life, this book didn’t change my ideologies; though I did learn a lot more about black masculinity and the movements that ensued in the 60’s by our beloved black leaders, it still brought to light that there is still work to be done, and the issue of self-love remains prevalent to any person of color that lives within the racial binary system (darkness vs. lightness determining your worth). Personal experiences that have been reflected from this book has, in part, been associated to my identity as a person of color and as a pursuing radical pedagogy thinker and teacher. It is incredibly critical of me to read theory and legitimize experiences that exist out of my own realm of understanding in order for me to create and facilitate a welcoming environment for my students once I enter this field—the only thing working against me is combating textbooks and instilled ideologies that reinforce patriarchy, white supremacy, and colonialism—but reading Salvation: Black Love and People, it makes me all the more aware of the solidarity that other people of color communities should extend to their colored folk. We all live in America, and we have all been told that our skin color determines our worth, that our identity and sense of self will ever only be validated by how well we can speak English and how well we can assimilate to white culture—which is why bell hooks calls for an act of resistance that not only speaks to diverse black communities, but also reaches out to our Latin@, Asian, Middle-Eastern, Native folks to stand against whiteness and love ourselves for enduring ongoing oppression and institutionalized racism, sexism, classicism, heteronormativity, cissexism, homophobia, etc. Now is not the time for neglection of our bodies, our minds, or our politics—it’s a time for revolutionary self-love and solidarity. The only way we can achieve that, as bell hooks has reiterated all throughout the book, is through education, positive reinforcement in families, acceptance of all shapes and forms, rejection of patriarchal and sexist thinking, and rejection of the white supremacist norms that have been forced on them as Black folk and as people of color. Black is beautiful, and it is time for radical self-love.