“keeping close to home: class and education”
bell hooks
Perhaps it is because I have no personal connection or emotional bond to the subject of the essay, but I thought this essay was difficult to comprehend. I couldn’t make sense of what the author was trying to say. I caught bits and pieces about how her family didn’t acknowledge the importance of her education, how academic African Americans feel like they must disown their slang to be intelligent, and how she still greets black people on the streets because she feels a connection to them. All of these components did not form a solid message for me. What am I supposed to get out of this essay? Can I not understand it because it is written to an African-American audience?
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Megan, I had little clue of what was going on also. I tried to understand where the author was coming from, yet I felt completely lost. I shared little connection with the essay. I was able to relate to having different worlds in which to live, one educated and one not. My parents and my siblings are all college educated or in the process currently. Yet, my parents attended technical colleges and are only trained in particular areas. My siblings are similarly trained. I am one of two siblings who are attending a liberal arts university. There are subjects which I have understanding of that even my college educated parents have no clue of. It is sometimes a frustrating issue to work through. Yet, I have never had this complete feeling of separation like the author, bell hooks, has had. I have found ways to live, be successful and happy in both worlds. I imagine this essay was written for a specific audience, one I am not part of. This is the most likely reason I have had trouble relating.
I have to say that Hooks’ style of writing caught my attention extremely fast. More than once she lost me mid-sentence and I had to focus my mind enough to comprehend the meaning behind her words and phrases. As to what she is writing of, I feel that the teachers she has encountered do a great disservice to students when their standards are different based on race and not academic performance. I can see clearly the problem she is doing her best to present, but I am afraid I fail to see, beyond the efforts of her writing, what she wants to happen in the academic community.
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