Race and the divide between the races

Hooks notes how race is used not merely to discriminate against one group or another but to make that group discriminate against itself:

Though systems of domination, imperialism, colonialism, racism, actively coerce black folks to internalize negative perceptions of blackness, to be self-hating, and many of us succumb, blacks who imitate whites (adopting their values, speech, habits of being, etc.) continue to regard whiteness with suspicion, fear, and even hatred (Hooks 338).

Hooks sees blacks as beset by the contradictory longing to possess the reality of the Other, in this case the other race, even if that reality is one that wounds and negates. As Hooks describes it, racial division produces in a given racial group a sense of otherness, that there are real differences between the realities of themselves and the differing racial group. Similarities between grou

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en have been accomplices in their own degradation, carrying on relationships with married men and other men they know are not going to be committed to them for any length of time. As shown in the film, women are second-class citizens in part because they have allowed themselves to be so regarded, and they will not change this situation until they take control of their lives and assert their humanity loudly and directly. The four women are Savannah, Bernadine, Gloria, and Robin, and the four come together in the urban and suburban world of Phoenix, Arizona. Savannah worked as a broadcast executive in Denver, and at the beginning of the movie she is moving to Phoenix. Her life has been a series of sexual encounters and relationships, including a recent one with a married man. Once in Phoenix, she continues in the same form with that married man in her new home. He has long been stating that he is about to leave his wife, though it should be clear by now that he is not doing anything of the sort. Savannah also has three girl friends in Phoenix. Bernadine has a husband who is about to leave her for his white secretary; Gloria has abandoned men for the most part and has lived for her son, but in the process she has grown heavy
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1650
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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