Where We Stand Book Review

Where We Stand

Delilah Montecino
HD 361
Prof. Jarman
March 2, 2015

Where We Stand Book Review

Bell Hooks book, Where We Stand: Class Matters felt like it was
coming from a real place while I was reading it. She used examples
from her life experience to paint a picture of struggling with class, it
wasnt just theoretical knowledge that you could acquire from any
book. Just as Allan G. Johnson wrote in his book, Privilege, Power, and
Difference, Hooks writes that the isms are all interconnected, that one
cannot look at sexism and racism without also looking at class and the
profound impact that it has in shaping ones life. Hooks talks of the
shame associated with poverty, the lures of luxury and the struggle to
stay true to her working class upbringing and values. Where We Stand
was an honest account of the relevance of class in the United States
and the importance of better understanding the subject.
Consumer culture silences working people and the middle class
(Hooks 2000, p.6). Hooks talks of the lures of wanting to be rich and
how it has turned us into an individualistic culture. Sharing resources
is no longer deemed an important value by our citizens (Hooks 2000,
p. 43). When she wrote of her longing for beautiful clothes it reminded
me of when I was in high school. Like Hooks, I am from a working class
family and growing up money was always tight. Like Hooks, I learn to
ignore my desire for new clothes, toys and technological gadgets
because I knew that my family had no money for items such as those.
So, just like Hooks, I learned to be happy with my second hand clothes
and toys. In junior high my desires became harder to ignore and I

Where We Stand Book Review

would steal candy and small trinkets from stores because my

allowance of 50 cents a week, didnt go far. By high school my friends
and I developed a stealing habit and the skills to go with it. Similar to
the college friend that Hooks writes about, we would go into nice
stores and steal the expensive clothes and styles that we saw in
magazines/on our peers but we our selves could not afford. We used to
steal expensive make up and sell it back to our middle class peers at
half price, it was our way to make quick money. After getting caught for
stealing in my senior year of high school I stopped but I still yearned
for the beautiful clothes and fashionable styles that Hooks too longed
for. She wrote of her intimate understanding of the longings for
material objects and the effect it has on some individuals spirits in our
modern culture that tells us we are what we posses(Hooks 2000,
p.80).
Hooks also expressed a very interesting view about feminism
that I hadnt thought about before, she describes the feminist idea that
working outside the home/getting careers would liberate women was a
white woman thing (Hooks 2000 p. 107). Hooks explained that while
white middle class women were liberating themselves with careers
outside the home these same feminists exploited working class
minority females working as housekeepers by paying them miniscule
wages. This further illustrated her point that all of the isms are

Where We Stand Book Review

interconnected and that poverty should be the new civil rights (Hooks
2000, p.120).
Hooks quotes the book of Matthew saying, what good would it
be for a man if he gains the whole world but looses his soul? (Hooks
2000, p.44). In the last chapter of Where We Stand: Class Matters,
Hooks confesses that writing this book was emotionally taxing on her
and that she had a deep understanding of the human cost of class
mobility(Hooks 2000, p. 155). I thought that her book was thought
provoking and held a mirror to the ugly face of capitalism and its
dehumanizing effect on the human spirit.