Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics

by bell hooks

bell hook's fourth book crosses disciplinary boundaries in major debates on postmodern theory, cultural criticism, and the politics of race and gender. She values postmodernism's insights while warning that the fashionable infatuation with "discourse" about "difference" is dangerously detachable from the struggle we must all wage against racism, sexism, and cultural imperialism.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Race, Politics, Gender, Essays, Philosophy

248 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 1990

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

[Cam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just wanna sit down with bell hooks and ask her what she thinks about stuff

[Mai · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wonder why this collection of essays isn't more well-known. Reading bell hooks before 1998-99 is such a treat. The language does sound more objective and the arguments more nuanced than her later works, say "All about love" or "The will to change".

The collection suffers a bit from miscellaneousness: the two self-interviews at the end and the dialogue with Cornel West right before seem a bit random but will later become a stapel in her later books of this format.

The film critiques sound super fascinating but without having seen the movies I really can't tell how off or on point her critiques are, interesting nevertheless. Same with the essays on ethnography, Zora Neale Hurston and malcolm X, if you haven't read the works she discussed, it wouldn't be super engaging reads either.

The rest is great!

In the 3rd essay, bell hooks discusses postmodernism in academia at the time, its pitfalls and potential, how important it can be for anti-racist movements.

The 4th essay is about history, memory and black Americans' struggle. It does touch a bit on postmodernism again especially the postmodernists' tendency to dismiss normal black folks' conceptions of "black soul", "authenticity",... due to postmodernism's rejection of essentialism. Though constructing an idea of "the black experience/essence/soul/..." can be dangerous in her view (for example, labeling people as "not black enough", "oreo",... which bell hooks has seen first hand as a professor), there's a reason why this construction exists: the images people have about "authentic/real black life" are rooted in the history of Southern rural black folks - which should be regarded as a legacy and not as an essence, bell hooks said "We can value and cherish the “meaning” of this experience without essentializing it". She finds the contemptuous dismissal of this phenomenon to be disturbing, saying "Already coping with a sense of extreme fragmentation and alienation, black folks cannot afford the luxury of such dismissal". She goes on to talk a bit more about history, which I find to be pertinent.

The 5th essay (Homeplace: a site of resistance) is my favorite from this collection. bell hooks points out how the gigantic labor of black women in maintaining home (social reproduction, in short, even though she didn't once use this word or mention materialist feminists in this essay). She talks about the absolutely crucial role this labor plays in struggle against oppression and how it has been completely ignored by black men in the anti-racist movements.

There's many other interesting essays as well, especially the 10th one where the TEA IS PIPING HOT. bell hooks talks here about solidarity among feminists and recounts a very bad experience at a conference where a very prominent Third World feminist scholar, who's older than hooks and "whose work has received the most extensive legitimation in privileged white academic circles", basically trashed her in "very fancy terms". I couldn't find any info about this but something is telling me she was talking about Spivak... But I guess we'll never know, lol.

But yes, read this collection, and if possible watch the movies she critiqued first.

[Victoria Ferrari · Rating 4 out of 5]

perché non ho letto prima questo libro?!?!? grazie bell hooks per costituire un precedente imprescindibile in quanto ad “autorità dell’esperienza” e rendere alcuni testi femministi di tutto il mondo un po’ meno m3rd0s1

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elogio del margine è una raccolta di dieci saggi scritti da bell hooks (pseudonimo di Gloria Jean Watkins) che trattano i temi più disparati, ma che hanno in comune l'analisi critica dell'autrice rispetto a questioni come il razzismo e/o il sessismo.
Quello che mi ha colpita molto di questo saggio, oltre ai contenuti stimolanti, è stata la capacità di hooks di analizzare diverse tematiche da più punti di vista contemporaneamente: ella infatti riesce a delineare perfettamente l'influenza di razzismo, sessismo, capitalismo e suprematismo bianco in ogni campo. Ad esempio, quando cita il delitto di una donna bianca per mano di un gruppo di ragazzi neri, hooks illustra in che modo razzismo e sessismo siano coinvolti, sebbene molti personaggi importanti che discussero di ciò non avessero affatto accennato a questa dualità.
Il tipo di analisi dell'autrice di questi fenomeni sociali è anche l'esempio di come si possano apprezzare prodotti culturali che derivano dalla società capitalista e suprematista tramite uno sguardo critico, cosa che lei e molte persone nere (principalmente donne) hanno dovuto imparare a fare per non rifiutare ogni prodotto culturale derivante dalla "parte oppressiva".
Tutto ciò è inoltre descritto con una terminologia accessibile, sebbene alcuni saggi siano stati per me più difficili da afferrare e altri invece li ho trovati comprensibili e illuminanti.

Quello che mi è rimasto da questa lettura è sicuramente l'importanza dell'ascolto. Le persone marginalizzate (per razza, sesso, orientamento sessuale ecc.) lo sono perché non è concesso loro il giusto spazio e la giusta rappresentazione, di conseguenza non si conosce ciò che hanno da dire, che è in realtà il punto di partenza per un dialogo su di loro e soprattutto con loro. Questo breve saggio è davvero un libro da consultare e leggere più volte, perché contiene tanti spunti di riflessione e apre molto la mente. Se chiunque si prendesse poche ore della propria vita per leggerlo il mondo sarebbe indubbiamente un posto migliore.

[Annapurna Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely intelligent writing. Particularly interested in the idea of reclaiming the home, as an act of resistance. An innovative look at the issue of race.

[Anna C · Rating 5 out of 5]

bell hooks é tudo
primeiro livro que eu leio dela e estou apaixonada
pensando como não passaram nenhum texto dela na faculdade de ciências sociais

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suspect that this would be a tricky book to review at the best of times – and these are not the best of times for trying to appraise a radical black feminist writer talking about the system of white supremacy in the post-Civil-Rights United States of America. I recall that I purchased this book for a class around the time it was published, but didn’t wind up reading it until five or six years later (I think it wound up dropped from the class for time, not that I failed to do the assigned reading, but I can’t remember now). When I did read it, what I recall striking me was her descriptions of the “beautiful chocolate faces” of her family that appeared in some of the semi-autobiographical reflections. So far as I can recall, I had never seen non-white faces described with such affection, even in the writings of black authors, and that made an argument more powerful than some of her most articulate statements about the nature of racism in American culture.

This may also have been one of the first heavily theoretical postmodernist texts I read, and although it certainly confused me at times, I would have to say that it made a good introduction because hooks is always careful to link the theoretical approach she takes to practical solutions and the real lives of people. She brings herself to the text in a very profound way, as the above observations would suggest, always foregrounding her lived experiences in her analysis, and arguing that these “subjective biases” are precisely what gives her insights their validity. As such, it is inevitable that readers will disagree with at least some of what she says, but they will also have a chance to learn from the processes, especially about their own biases and lived experiences.

This book probably deserves a more careful re-read than I gave it in preparation for this review, but I will close by saying that each page I looked at was a delightful experience of re-discovery, that there are many things I had forgotten, and that the book contains the gamut of emotions for me, but first and foremost communicates the yearning of people to be allowed to be themselves without fear or shame.

[Bryan Cebulski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Academic writing that connects popular culture to critical theory is honestly my favorite form of writing. bell hooks offers some beautiful and profound material here.

[ink · Rating 4 out of 5]

ended on such a perfect note. i too am yearning to hear the voices of other women and know what they think about cultural issues

[Sarah Rendon]

i have a lot to say about this book but most of it is in my journal already! i think you should read this book and think deeply about what sharp feelings it brings up in your body

[K]

to quote a friend and a genius: “not bad for a landlord.” — still, I look forward to returning to this text in the future.

[Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A must-read for grad students and undergrads alike (doubly so for those in English, Black and/or African American studies programs, and in education programs).
Written from a critical lens that does an excellent job attending to the intersection of Blackness and femininity (or experiences linked to womanhood and gender overall) in U.S. (IMO, more historically than contemporarily). It reads at points like a memoir, but never loses its value as a critical lens, with each "chapter" being on a particular topic related to the experiences/perspectives of bell hooks.

Read this text in both a literature survey course focused on Black female writers (primarily U.S. writers) and in literary criticism (where it was under-utilized and/or not sufficiently used by instructor). Highly, highly recommend!

[Libri da Scoprire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il margine non come segregazione ma come spazio continuo di movimento e presa di coscienza politica. Sono tanti i temi affrontati: corpi neri, sessualità, arte e spazialità.

[cubbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

(san francisco public library copy)

"Such appropriation happens again and again. It takes the form of constructing African-American culture as though it exists solely to suggest new aesthetic and political directions white folks might move in."

&

"Until black men can face the reality that sexism empowers them despite the impact of racism in their lives, it will be difficult to engage in meaningful dialogue about gender. Listening to black men talk about their social reality, one often hears narratives of victimization. Even very successful black men will talk about their lives as though racism is denying them access to forms of power they cannot even describe, that seems almost mythic. Seeing themselves solely as victioms, or potential victims, they may be blind to all that they have accomplished. This is not unlike the self-perception of many privileged white women within feminist movement who were so determined to create awareness of the ways they were victimized that they could not accept any analysis of their experience that was more complex, that showed the forms of power they maintained even in the face of sexist exploitation-- class and race privilege."

&

"Contemporary intellectuals committed to progressive politics must be reminded again and again that the capacity to name something (particularly in writing terms like aesthetic, postmodernism, dconstruction, etc.) is not synonymous with creation or ownership of the condition or circumstance to which such terms may refer."

&

"Their responses raised again the issue of whether irony alone can be used to promote critical consciousness. It seems to pre-suppose a politically conscious viewer, one who can see both what is being shown and what is not."

****

i like bell hooks.

[BookChampions · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I had previously read a couple of these essays in anthologies before, the bulk of this book was new to me. And alas, it could be the consummate bell hooks experience. This is an extremely balanced collection of essays whose content was both affirming of many of the thoughts I'd already been harboring and challenging me to go even further. Yearning proves the extent bell hooks has had on me as an educator, a thinker, and a feminist.

I also strongly recommend hooks' video, Cultural Criticism and Transformation, which I remember watching so many years ago and now can be found on youtube.

Love her!

[Arda · Rating 4 out of 5]

hooks is awesome. Some notes from thesis:

Politics of location constrain people into distinct positions such as race, class, and gender, and politics of articulation, correspondingly, sets the ideology by which to function and recount alternative voices, and “negotiate one’s political self” (hooks, 1990, p. 191).

The positionality of being on the margin can therefore bring forth new alternatives – and can work toward shifting the status quo (hooks, 1990). It is in marginalization where diverse identities emerge; in moving from object and subject; from stable and moving – being on the margin, in other words, can bring forth new ways of imagining, and being (hooks, 1990).

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's astonishing, really, that I got to this point in my life without reading bell hooks. These essays are funny, incisive, and surprisingly timely for being twenty-five years old. I especially enjoyed her reflections on Malcolm X as specifically a religious seeker, which I'll assign whenever I next teach the Autobiography, and her critiques of Do The Right Thing and Der Himmel über Berlin, which I wish I'd read after I saw the movies in high school.

[TyeULTRA! · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of densely packed essays and interviews (the latter feeling slightly misplaced) by the revered Black feminist author, theorist, educator, social critic, and professor, bell hooks. hooks is an author I believe everyone has a moral obligation to read. That alone is sufficient as a review: Read more bell hooks. Full stop. There is no greater endorsement I can offer than that.

Anchored in lineage, literary foremothers such as Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich powerfully echo throughout these pages. Her reverence for Toni Morrison is only briefly acknowledged here, but it is a shared reverence I hold sacred. There are few authors as erudite, courageous, and poignant as bell hooks. Nevertheless, this collection,appearing in the latter part of her career,is among her more inaccessible works. It sits less familiarly alongside her celebrated cultural critique, All About Love, yet remains closer to that than to the abstract and conceptually dense Eating the Dark Other, which explored desirability politics.

Many of the texts and cultural works referenced here were unfamiliar to me, making it difficult to critically engage with the full depth of her arguments. Still, the moral gravity of her critiques and the loyalty she demonstrates to radical thought and community are never in doubt. Essay 5 (“Homeplace”) and Essay 10 (“Third World Diva Girls”) stand out as universally resonant,requiring no prior knowledge to appreciate their truths. In Essay 19, hooks describes seeing hope reflected in the vision of a truly “decolonized, liberated black mind”—a phrase that encapsulates her life’s devotion to liberation, dignity, and the sacred work of intersectional analysis. Her vision reflects loyalty to a moral and political tradition,echoing the Combahee River Collective’s doctrine of “interlocking oppressions”, and reminds us why her voice remains authoritative and essential.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have wanted to read Hooks at the recommendation of a co-worker and this was the only title available from my local library. It is the only book I've read by her, which might suggest I'm not the intended audience. Perhaps it is meant by those who have read all her other work and are looking for something more.

Having read most of the essays here, I don't have a very strong positive impression. These essays are all on different topics and all seem to have been provoked by some event in Hooks' life. Sometimes it might be an experience at a conference, or a conversation with a colleague, or a visit home, or the rejection of something she had written. Often she is calling for someone to give more consideration to an issue she has noticed.

Sometimes I found what she had to say interesting, especially when she spoke most personally or drew on her own experiences growing up. The bits about her quilt-making grandmother and growing up with six sisters were interesting.

But often I found her writing to be tiresomely mired in the rhetorical muck of academic progressives. Sentences like " Unless we remain ever vigilant about the ways representations of black womanhood (especially those of successful individuals) are appropriated and exploited in white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, we may find ourselves falling into traps set by the dominant culture" as she writes in "Third World Diva Girls". There is a lot of that sort of tiresome rhetoric that I remember so well from other texts read in grad school.

It may be that Hooks essays in this book, coming from decades ago, were influential and groundbreaking at the time, but they don't seem very essential now.

[Chelsea Knowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this was an interesting essay collection, it’s 4 stars and I have rated each essay individually. The only ones I felt could have been removed from this collection were the interviews at the end.

1. Liberation Scenes Speak this Yearning - 4.
2. the politics of radical black subjectivity - 3.5.
3. Postmodern Blackness - 3.5.
4. The Chitlin Circuit: On Black Community - 4.
5. Homeplace a Site of Resistance - 4.
6. Critical Interrogation Talking Race, Resisting Racism - 3.5.
7. Reflections on Race and Sex - 4.
8. Representations: Feminism and Black Masculinity - 4.
9. Sitting at the Feet of the Messenger: Remembering Malcolm X - 4.
10. Third World Diva Girls Politics of Feminist Solidarity - 4.
11. An Aesthetic of Blackness: Strange and Oppositional - 2.5.
12. Aesthetic Inheritances: History Worked by Hand - 3.
13. Culture to Culture: Ethnography and Cultural Studies as Critical Intervention - 3.
14. Saving Black Folk Culture: Zora Neale Hurston as Anthropologist and Writer - 4.
15. Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness - 4.
16. Stylish Nihilism Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies - 4.
17. Representing Whiteness: Seeing Wings of Desire - 3.5.
18. Counter-Hegemonic Art: Do the Right Thing - 3.5.
19. A Call for Militant Resistance - 4.
20. Seductive Sexualities Representing Blackness in Poetry and on Screen - 2.
21. Black Women and Men: Partnership in the 1990s - 3.
22. An Interview with Bell Hooks by Gloria Watkins: No, Not Talking Back to Myself, January 1989 - 3.
23. A Final Yearning: January 1990 - 3.

[Silvia Mosquera Lago · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Y, si creemos que no va a ser doloroso, nos equivocamos" (p. 252)

As teses de bell hooks poñen de manifesto as limitacións das análises feministas que prefiren ignorar a necesaria vinculación entre o capitalismo e o patriarcado supremacista branco. Igualmente, evidencian tamén a inutilidade de caer na xerarquización das opresións (a hooks cancelárona tanto por aparentemente "priorizar" a raza sobre o xénero, e viceversa): "quieren seguir fomentando la idea errónea de que la perpetuación del racismo no está relacionada con la perpetuación del sexismo" (p. 243). O simple feito de semellante contradicción por parte das súas críticas di todo o que hai que saber para desmontar estas en 0 coma.

Resulta moi interesante o seu estudo de diversos productos culturais, especialmente de películas, e as representacións da clase, do xénero e da raza das mesmas, e o que estas implican para o proletariado negro. Si que é certo que todos estes ensaios datan dos anos 90 ou de antes, e gustaríame ler algo máis actual da autora.

Está guai porque trata toda unha diversidade de temas ao longo de todos os capítulos, dende política cultural até relixión... aínda que debo dicir que neste último point perdeume un pouco e debo indagar máis para ter unha posición ao respecto.

Remato cunha cita sobre a necesidade da autocrítica e autocuestionamento constante:
"Cuando doy una charla y nadie plantea cuestiones que desafíen lo dicho me pregunto cómo me he presentado. Cuando doy charlas y la gente me dice que no soy como se habían imaginado que era, les pido que me lo expliquen" (p. 146-7)

[Çağla Mert · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the strengths of this book is its range. From critical takes on Spike Lee and Madonna to intimate reflections on longing, displacement, and home, hooks deftly weaves together popular culture and theory. Her writing is often lyrical and always impassioned, which makes even the more theoretical essays feel grounded and accessible. For readers interested in feminism, postcolonial theory, or Black cultural studies, Yearning is a foundational text.

What makes this collection stand out is hooks' refusal to simplify complex realities. She addresses the pain and contradictions of marginalization, and her yearning, for justice, for love, for a more inclusive future, resonates on every page. Her critiques are sharp, but they are also generative, inviting readers into dialogue rather than shutting it down.

The only drawback for some readers might be the unevenness across essays. Not every piece carries the same emotional weight or cohesion, and a few may feel more rooted in the cultural moment of the early 1990s than in the timeless analysis found elsewhere in the book. Still, this is a minor note in an otherwise essential and deeply affecting work.

In all, Yearning is a rich and provocative collection that exemplifies bell hooks’ unique ability to merge political theory with poetic insight. It is both a product of its time and a timeless invitation to reimagine the world through a lens of justice, resistance, and love.

[Emma]

it feels weird to rate this book because of how vast the subject matter is. but I did thoroughly enjoy my first ever bell hooks book. This book was written in the 90s, and the stuff she says is actually revolutionary. This book was really hard to get into, and took some big brain moments but it was worth it. Funnily enough a lot of what we went over in my AP Lit (Coleman) class she referenced, so I felt kinda smart. My fav essays included an interview w bell hooks by Gloria Watkins, a final yearning, black women and men, counter hegemonic: do the right thing, choosing the margin, an aesthetic of blackness, the chitlin circuit. Her critique of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing was super eye opening too,,
I could say more about it but I absolutely loved this intro to bell hooks

Okay wait I can say more, this was also my first real postmodernist book and it was super intriguing

[Spicy T AKA Mr. Tea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another wonderful anthology by bell hooks. I picked this one up originally because a) I hadn't read it and b) I needed a voice of wisdom and thoughtfulness at the time. It took me some time to get through it, but I did. Some of the essays I got right into and really spoke to me. Others I had a hard time with. Though, honestly, I don't think there's an essay in here without pencil marks. hooks always has keen insights into culture, politics, race, and feminism. She's a bedrock author for me. Her critical engagement on so many different topics, yet all related, is amazing. She is brilliant and you should read her.

[As3 Na70 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just feel like whatever discourse emerging these days are not something new. bell hooks’ essays in this book are the proofs for that. Say for example, in the current nihilism tied to climate change discourse mostly asserted by white people within their white privilege, bell hooks worded it as an “ignorance, such pervasive feelings of powerlessness which take away our power to protest, to organize.” While she did not write it as a response to climate change issues due to the era when she wrote this book, her critique of nihilism towards critical stance against the system is still somewhat valid. This is one of many reasons I will continue reading bell hooks.

[Syd Field · Rating 5 out of 5]

hooks never fails to disappoint. This books combines beautiful pieces of prose with deep pieces of post-modern theory and commentary. Her analytical frameworks for discussing Black women’s creation of the home was particularly beautiful to me. She calls upon all of us to look inward and move towards revolutionary change.

She deeply ties her experience growing up in a Black segregated neighborhood and uses this embodied knowledge as evidences for black futures. She also deeply analyzes culture, media, and art as a point of understanding Black revolutionary change and structural oppression.

[[ashes] · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially I picked this up for hooks’ thoughts on post-modernism and blackness. However, when I started, I couldn’t help but read the whole thing. The essays are solid and hook’s vision is style is clear and poignant. It reminded me of my time at the university: writing, reading and discussing essays.

A strong effort in general. Although the self-interviews at the end felt a little off, the repetition of her thoughts a bit too much, but it doesn’t diminish the collection’s power.

[sami freire · Rating 4 out of 5]

essa velha era meio doida queria morar dentro do cérebro dela minha figura materna. as vezes eu não fazia ideia do que ela tava falando ou pra onde ela ia ou de onde ela vinha mas eu adoro o quanto ela é não ironicamente uma diva decolonial nesse desprendimento dela de debater um tópico só, de uma forma só. não que ela fosse uma grande radical mas, pra mim, que sou da comunicação e gosto muito de crítica cultural, ela é o momento com o jeiro dela de escrever. minha diva kween shit 🤞🏼

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed so many essays and parts of this book, I was not expecting the amount of reviews and critiques of other pieces of media within it. I felt like I didn’t get much out of those parts if I hadn’t watched the movie, read the poems or so on.

I learned a lot from this book. I’m glad I read it. At times it was a bit dense or boring, but I wasn’t reading it to be entertained I was reading it for new perspective. I wish I could give it 3.5/5 but I can’t so I gave it 3.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a challenge book for me - I don't read a lot of longer form essays. I learned so much. I thank Angela Romero to recommending this to me. The struggles our society has put black women through. SMH. This was a non-fiction for me, with the fiction I am reading, from black women.