Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class

How does one’s race and class affect one’s experience of school? To what extent is modern education shaped by the unspoken norms connected to these two questions? Recounting her own experiences at one of America’s elite institutions of higher education, bell hooks examines some of the core assumptions, ideals, and double standards that go into scripting the ideal “minority” student. As a cultural critic, feminist theorist, poet, and writer, hooks focuses on the intersections of race, class, and gender. She is the author of over thirty books, including Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black {1989), Teaching to Transgress (1994), Rock My Soul: Black People and Self-Esteem (2002), and Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations (2006). hooks’s most recent book is Writing Beyond Race: Living Theory and Practice (2013). She was born Gloria Jean Watkins in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. In 2014, she founded the bell hooks Institute at Berea College. Currently, hooks is a Distinguished Professor of English at City College in New York. The following essay first appeared in the November 17, 2000, issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Before You Read

How wide is the racial and class divide among students on your campus? What ideas do you have about how this divide might be bridged?

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