Belonging: A Culture of Place

In Belonging, hooks returns again and again to the ways race and geography shape one another, particularly in rural Kentucky. She interrogates how land, housing, and community are structured by the legacy of segregation, not only through overtly racist policies but also through the quiet persistence of exclusionary practices. For hooks, the “culture of place” is never neutral—it is shaped by who is allowed to belong, who is kept out, and what histories are remembered or erased. This theme becomes the lens through which she reflects on her own upbringing, her eventual return to Kentucky, and the systemic barriers that continue to separate Black and white rural lives.

Hooks uses personal narrative to show how rural communities can simultaneously nurture a sense of rootedness and enforce racial boundaries. In “Again—Segregation Must End,” she observes that while legal segregation has been dismantled, “neutral” mechanisms like zoning laws, real estate pricing, and white neighborhood preferences maintain racial separation. She notes the ideology that equates whiteness with safety and Blackness with disorder, a framing that continues to deny Black families access to land and housing in desirable areas. Even in places with progressive reputations, such as