Bell Hooks, the influential writer of Ain't I A Woman?, offers a black and feminist perspective on the issue of race in America. Throughout the 23 essays, Hooks seeks a way out of the cycle of racism. A provocative voice seeking wisdom in the din, she boldly asserts "this nation can be transformed... we can resist racism and in the act of resistance recover ourselves and be renewed."


From Publishers Weekly
If cultural critic hooks (Black Looks), distinguished professor of English at New York's City College, doesn't have a comprehensive plan for achieving her subtitle's promise, her sensitivity to the intersection of race, class and gender infuses many of these essays, written during the past 20 years, with challenges to conventional and liberal wisdom. Deeming her own rage "constructive," she urges that collective black rage be linked to a passion for justice, even as she warns that privileged blacks' "narcissistic rage" leads to public trivialization of poor blacks' real grievances. Though her declaration that contemporary feminism has done little to help blacks seems sweeping, hooks rightly argues that white defenders of Anita Hill have done little for poor black women, and that whites who deny that they are racist must engage in regular interaction with black folk. The author discerns that the recent wave of black self-help books ignores the link between personal and political change, and rues that contemporary black activists have forgotten the "profound critique of capitalism" their forebears raised in the 1960s. Also, she wisely warns against turning Afro-centrism into utopianism and wrenching multiculturalism into narrow nationalism. Author tour. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In 23 mostly new essays, distinguished social critic hooks discusses the legacy of racism in America.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Hooks is in a rage about race and racism, and she brings to bear on the subject black woman and feminist perspectives. Some of the essays in the collection have been published before, but the majority of the pieces are new. The lead essay, "Killing Rage," sets the tone, and its meaning carries throughout the rest of the book, giving it coherence and power. Hooks contends that racism in the U.S. is as virulent as it has ever been, but that there is a systematic effort, with the media fully engaged, to deny it and to claim equality in our economic and cultural endeavors. Further, those middle-class blacks who go along with such claims do so because they are reaping the benefits of color blindness. Conservatism is the order of things recently because it serves to keep the lid on recognizing racism. As hooks sees it, the answer is rage, for the pain and destructiveness of racism must be acknowledged. But this rage should be channeled to constructive ends (unlike the rage expressed by so many of the boys in the 'hood) and thereby rid the country of racism and usher in hooks' "beloved community." Tough antidote. Bonnie Smothers


Midwest Book Review
It's unusual and refreshing to find a black female voice speaking out against American racism: these essays examine issues of black rage, feminism and white supremacy, pointing out where black males can change their behavior toward women and drawing some important connections between mental illness and racist attitudes. Black rage is most effective when linked to a drive for justice, she advises here.


Review
“Her books help us not only to decolonize our minds, souls, and bodies; on a deeper level, they touch our lives.”—Cornel West

“Almost everyone’s assumptions about race will be challenged in this volume
. . . Anyone who is not in denial about racism will be motivated to work for its demise after reading Killing Rage.”—Emerge

“An angry book that pulls no punches . . . Her frankness and willingness to face up to the divisive issues that refuse to go away make her a voice to be reckoned with in the debate on race in America.”—The New York Review of Books



Review
“Her books help us not only to decolonize our minds, souls, and bodies; on a deeper level, they touch our lives.”—Cornel West

“Almost everyone’s assumptions about race will be challenged in this volume
. . . Anyone who is not in denial about racism will be motivated to work for its demise after reading Killing Rage.”—Emerge

“An angry book that pulls no punches . . . Her frankness and willingness to face up to the divisive issues that refuse to go away make her a voice to be reckoned with in the debate on race in America.”—The New York Review of Books



Review
“Her books help us not only to decolonize our minds, souls, and bodies; on a deeper level, they touch our lives.”—Cornel West

“Almost everyone’s assumptions about race will be challenged in this volume
. . . Anyone who is not in denial about racism will be motivated to work for its demise after reading Killing Rage.”—Emerge

“An angry book that pulls no punches . . . Her frankness and willingness to face up to the divisive issues that refuse to go away make her a voice to be reckoned with in the debate on race in America.”—The New York Review of Books



Book Description
One of our country’s premier cultural and social critics, bell hooks has always maintained that eradicating racism and eradicating sexism must go hand in hand. But whereas many women have been recognized for their writing on gender politics, the female voice has been all but locked out of the public discourse on race.

Killing Rage speaks to this imbalance. These twenty-three essays are written from a black and feminist perspective, and they tackle the bitter difficulties of racism by envisioning a world without it. They address a spectrum of topics having to do with race and racism in the United States: psychological trauma among African Americans; friendship between black women and white women; anti-Semitism and racism; and internalized racism in movies and the media. And in the title essay, hooks writes about the “killing rage”—the fierce anger of black people stung by repeated instances of everyday racism—finding in that rage a healing source of love and strength and a catalyst for positive change.

bell hooks is Distinguished Professor of English at City College of New York. She is the author of the memoir Bone Black as well as eleven other books. She lives in New York City.



About the Author
bell hooks is Distinguished Professor of English at City College of New York. She is the author of the memoir Bone Black as well as eleven other books. She lives in New York City.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

One of our country's premier cultural and social critics, the author of such powerful and influential books as Ain't I a Woman and Black Looks, Bell Hooks has always maintained that eradicating racism and eradicating sexism must be achieved hand in hand. But whereas many women have been recognized for their writing on gender politics, the female voice has been all but locked out of the public discourse on race. Killing Rage speaks to this imbalance. These twenty-three essays, most of them new works, are written from a black and feminist perspective, and they tackle the bitter difficulties of racism by envisioning a world without it. Hooks defiantly creates positive plans for the future rather than dwell in theories of a crisis beyond repair. The essays here address a spectrum of topics to do with race and racism in the United States: psychological trauma among African Americans; friendship between black women and white women; anti-Semitism and racism; internalized racism in the movies and media. Hooks presents a challenge to the patriarchal family model, explaining how it perpetuates sexism and oppression in black life. She calls out the tendency of much of mainstream America to conflate "black rage" with murderous, pathological impulses, rather than seeing it as a positive state of being. And in the title essay she writes about the "killing rage" - the fierce anger of black people stung by repeated instances of everyday racism - finding in that rage a healing source of love and strength, and a catalyst for productive change. Her analysis is rigorous and her language unsparingly critical, but Hooks writes with a common touch that has made her a favorite of readers far from universities. Bell Hooks's work contains multitudes; she is a feminist who includes and celebrates men, a critic of racism who is not separatist or Afrocentric, an academic who cares about popular culture.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

If cultural critic hooks (Black Looks), distinguished professor of English at New York's City College, doesn't have a comprehensive plan for achieving her subtitle's promise, her sensitivity to the intersection of race, class and gender infuses many of these essays, written during the past 20 years, with challenges to conventional and liberal wisdom. Deeming her own rage ``constructive,'' she urges that collective black rage be linked to a passion for justice, even as she warns that privileged blacks' ``narcissistic rage'' leads to public trivialization of poor blacks' real grievances. Though her declaration that contemporary feminism has done little to help blacks seems sweeping, hooks rightly argues that white defenders of Anita Hill have done little for poor black women, and that whites who deny that they are racist must engage in regular interaction with black folk. The author discerns that the recent wave of black self-help books ignores the link between personal and political change, and rues that contemporary black activists have forgotten the ``profound critique of capitalism'' their forebears raised in the 1960s. Also, she wisely warns against turning Afro-centrism into utopianism and wrenching multiculturalism into narrow nationalism. Author tour. (Sept.)

Library Journal