65 pages • 2-hour read
Killing Rage: Ending Racism
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Index of Terms
Denial
A term that comes up frequently in Killing Rage is denial. This is a psychological, or psychoanalytical, term that refers to a defense mechanism. Sigmund Freud popularized the term, which refers to ignoring facts that are difficult to process. By avoiding reality, denial is a way of avoiding discomfort. hooks uses this term in a variety of ways to discuss privilege and/or racism. In one example, she discusses how white people deny the fact that they have never seen a Black person be violent in order to justify stereotypes that Black people are dangerous. In another example, she discusses how Black people deny their rage against white supremacy. Additionally, she discusses how some of her white Jewish college students deny that they have “any allegiance or participation in constructions of whiteness” (205). hooks also discusses how people are in denial about the relationships between Black and white women. In the final essay of the collection, hooks writes that “the first stage of anti-racist struggle has to be breaking that denial” (267), that is, white people’s denial that they are racist.
Assimilation
Another term that appears in several essays is assimilation. hooks uses the term to refer to Black people internalizing and perpetuating the values of white supremacy. Assimilation includes Black people changing their appearance because they have internalized the idea that Black is not beautiful: “[C]oncrete rewards for assimilation undermine subversive ways of seeing blackness” (123). Another example of assimilation is how the civil rights movement “assimilated the values of white privileged classes [as their idea of] freedom” (163). For hooks, the opposite of assimilation is decolonization.
Black Self-Determination
hooks also frequently uses the term Black self-determination, which comes from Black separatist nationalists and the Black power movement. Leaders such as Malcolm X popularized the term, which refers to the ability of Black people to determine their own fates. hooks says that “Black self-determination is that process by which we learn to radicalize our thinking and habits of being in ways that enhance the quality of our lives despite racist domination” (254-55). This includes Black people taking on new names (instead of names rooted in slavery), such as bell hooks, who was born Gloria Jean Watkins and adopted her pen name after her maternal great-grandmother. hooks believes that accountability, rather than victimization, is key to “black self-determination” (59). hooks rejects the idea that Black self-determination is synonymous with black capitalism and argues that eradication of sexism and classism within the movement is necessary for Black self-determination.
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