Hi — I’m posting late on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning — my scanner at home is nearly dead, but I managed to get one more chapter out of it!
Our reading for Thursday night is the 2nd chapter of bell hooks’ recent book, belonging. I recommend having a glance at hooks’ wikipedia page; it’s not 100% up-to-date, but from that you can get a sense of her background.
She grew up in Kentucky, in the Appalachians, near the part of Virginia that Barbara Kingsolver moved to with her family. In this chapter we hear about how being from Kentucky felt complicated to her even though it continued to partly define her during all the decades she stayed away.
There’s a lot for us to discuss in this chapter, about race and class and gender. I’m looking forward to hearing your reactions to her biographical writing. Even though bell hooks is speaking in the first person, she’s talking about things that a lot of other people have experienced.
From what i got out of this chapter i think it is evident of the tone of the rest of the book. It seems like she will be touch on the complexities of home, of roots, of family, and ultimately of BELONGING. (hence the title) From her picture on wikipedia she is a african american woman.Reading this instantly started thinking about the politics of race and class. Sometimes we hate the place or home we group up at but we are unaware that it can shape us to be the people we become.
I agree with Alexis comments (the person who blogged on this before me). I think home shapes who we are. In both positive and negative ways. There are some things about how we grew up, that we should release, when they are no longer benefitial. For example if you grew up learning to hold grudges. This will not allow you to be versatile in the workplace and can be very limiting. I think we can take on new selves, a new persona which we find empowering, and still incorporate the positive aspects of our past / upbringing. This allows us to stay grounded.
Although I moved and lived to another state, I felt like to live in a different country. Since I lived in New York for half years, I realized how fast I changed to adapt to this state. When I came here for the first time, I didn’t really like it because people here are so mean and they are always in hurry. It’s very different from Seattle where people are always friendly, and they have time to enjoy thier lives. Until now, if I looked back my decision which state I live, I would choose New York. Now, this life made me more aggressive, and more active. For instance, when I tried to catch the train, I also run even though I didn’t know whether my train came. Going to school and work make me so busy that sometimes I don’t have time to relax as before. But, I like this busy life.
I have lived in New York the majority of my life and enjoyed the accessibility of the city. Although just travelling to upstate or outer parts of LI impresses me. I believe where you are from molds your view of the world allowing you to appreciate characteristics of different areas. When I visit family in Florida and experience the laid back once friendly attitude of the people (changed recently from the smiles and greetings from strangers as more New Yorkers relocate there), I witness the shift in the “belonging” state as people are less welcoming and less anxious to talk.
I believe that living in big and small cieties has its good and bad ways. When we live ina big city we have access to more opportunities but we give up our free time. Small places offer more relaxed and steady life style. So it is really up to us where we choose to live and what is best for us.
I sympathize with the author’s feeling regarding feeling alienated from a new place because of your looks, your beliefs, even the way you speak. It is a very difficult and life changing experience to move to another place when you are looked at as an outsider, a foreigner. I could only imagine how challenging and difficult it must’ve been for her to feel so discriminated and out of place wherever she went to the point that she had lost her identity and feeling of belonging anywhere. Even though race and gender is not such an expressive issue in our time as it was back then because of laws that prohibit such discrimination, the feelings and experiences that she went through are still undoubtly real for immigrants and foreigners that struggle through similar situations in our country.
I sympathize with the author about feeling alienated in a new place by the way you look, your beliefs and even the way you speak. I can only imagine how difficult it was for her to deal and cope with these circumstances to the point of losing her identity and feeling of belonging in a world where race and gender were not as open for tolerance and acceptance as it is now. Even though this kind of occurence is not as expressive now as it was back then due to the laws and regulations that protect us from this type of discrimation, what she experienced and struggled with is still very common and it’s part of the daily lives of people who migrate to our country in search of new and better possibilities at a better life.