Reading Notes

Killing Rage by bell hooks

Is there a scene or particular passage you would like to discuss? Indicate page nbrs. page 54, bottom right side. “They named it pathological,” and “did not...see black rage as something other than sickness”

Why? Many times in a quest to assimilate other cultures, a ‘superior’ culture will designate the inferior as possessing a sickness, making their position of trying to help (read: eliminate) the inferior’s culture, morally right. They did it to the Indians, calling them primitive and backwards, a different species of humanity, along with Blacks. Recent studies of how male brains differ from female brains are another ‘pathological’ excuse. They do it to Deaf culture as well, which is only further complicated in the fact that deafness can scientifically be viewed as pathological. Assimilation of Deaf Culture is played out the same way assimilation of other ‘inferior’ cultures: the suppression of language, traditions, and the medical alteration (and eventually genetic alteration) of bodies (just the same as some Asians have plastic surgery on their eyes to look more Caucasian, or the way Black people subject their hair to harsh chemicals to achieve “white” straight hair).

How does this passage relate to the reading assignment as a whole? Just a moment, let me get over my little bout of Deaf Rage. Okay, Bell Hooks is presenting another reason why people can dismiss the inherent racism against black people and the consequent ‘black rage’ with the excuse of it being merely ‘pathological,’ avoiding the root issue of the racism itself.

Discussion Provoking Question(s) How many people first assumed Bell Hooks grew up in South Africa, due to her childhood home as the “apartheid South?” And as she considered the whole day finding it “so full of racial incidents,” I wondered if the day had been particularly full of racism, or if she, in embracing her black rage, stopped the automatic glossing over of racism that she encountered throughout her daily life? And as I read the essay, feeling uncomfortable with the subject of ‘black rage’ against white people, I looked at other examples. White people may object to the ‘killing rage’ of black people but just how many white people would object to the ‘killing rage’ of Jewish people towards the Nazis? The ‘killing rage’ of hunted Native Americans against ruthless cowboys? The ‘killing rage’ of Mel Gibson’s bare-assed, blue-faced Scots against the invading English? It’s harder when the bad guy in general is you, isn’t it?

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