Belonging: A Culture of Place

Reflecting on her childhood home in the Kentucky hills, hooks describes the systemic degradation of poor white people, which resembles racism in its dehumanizing and derogatory nature. Through this degradation, Black communities were taught to look down upon poor whites, viewing them “as an example of what not to be and become” (54). Referencing one of her earlier works, Where We Stand: Class Matters, hooks reflects on a poor white student who was bullied by Black students on her school bus. She feels empathy for both the bullies and the bullied girl, arguing the bullying occurred because of internalized racism.

Hooks argues that not enough research has been conducted on the “psychohistory” of racism in the US. She notes the hypocrisy of her siblings, who were worried about hooks’s living near poor white individuals when she moved back to Kentucky even though those siblings lived in dangerous city environments. While hooks denies fear, she does acknowledge that there are white people in that area who likely do “resent” her presence; however, such racism is not constrained to only poor white communities. An excerpt from Yusuf Komunyakaa’s “Dark Waters” supports hooks’s arguments, as he reflects on the racial distrust he witnessed.