Where We Stand: Class Matters

Religion recurs throughout Where We Stand as both a source of empowerment and an ideological mechanism that justifies economic oppression. Growing up, hooks was taught that the poor were “God’s chosen people” and that poverty was not a reason for shame but for spiritual pride. However, she later recognizes how these religious narratives were also used to pacify the poor, discouraging them from questioning systemic inequality or seeking radical change.

At the same time, hooks acknowledges the positive role of faith-based communities in providing emotional and material support. Historically, Black churches have been centers of collective resistance, mutual aid, and social justice activism, demonstrating how religious values can be leveraged to either uphold or challenge oppressive systems. This motif underscores the idea that the ways people are taught to think about class—whether through religion, education, or culture—can either empower or disempower them.

Throughout the book, hooks explores the cultural obsession with status symbols—clothing, cars, homes—as a way of performing class identity. Capitalism conditions people to measure self-worth through material possessions, a phenomenon that affects both the wealthy and the poor. She describes how individuals in poverty often feel compelled to display markers of affluence, such as designer clothes or luxury items, to mask their economic struggles. Meanwhile, the rich use these same symbols to reinforce their own exclusivity and dominance.

For hooks, status symbols function as a trap, keeping individuals focused on the illusion of class mobility rather than the reality of economic inequality. She critiques the way consumer capitalism exploits this desire for validation, ensuring that even those without wealth continue to participate in a system that ultimately keeps them powerless. The recurring discussions of status symbols ties into the larger critique of hedonistic consumerism, showing how capitalism convinces people that buying is a substitute for actual economic security.

hooks presents the media as one of the most powerful tools of capitalist indoctrination, shaping how people perceive class, success, and self-worth. She critiques the omnipresence of advertising and consumer culture, arguing that media sustains economic inequality by convincing individuals that material goods define their value. She describes advertising as manipulative, writing that “it constructs a fictive Unites States where everyone has access to everything” (80). This false promise of limitless opportunity obscures the realities of poverty and class oppression, making it seem as though anyone can succeed if they just work hard enough.

The media also manipulates narratives about the poor, often portraying them as lazy, immoral, or criminal while glorifying the wealthy as deserving of their success. Through this motif, hooks exposes how mass culture reinforces class hierarchies, ensuring that economic structures remain unchallenged.