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Rock My Soul: Black People and Self-Esteem

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ROCK MY SOUL: BLACK PEOPLE AND SELF-ESTEEM By bell hooks

Lest we forget the importance of feeling good about ourselves, bell hooks, the quintessential black feminist writer has added yet another tome to the many outstanding references to the literary canon of African-American culture. Here, she gives us Rock My Soul: Black People and Self-Esteem. No less provocative, but ever so poignant, the panache is intact as she talks with passion on a highly debated topic that is always at the cutting edge of discussion in our communities. There's no book that this author has contributed that doesn't get the overall treatment with candid and insightful analogy. Self esteem and what it means to people of color will always be high profile and a force to be reckoned with due to the scars of slavery and unbalanced scales . Without self-esteem everyone loses his or her sense of meaning, purpose, and power. For too long, African Americans in particular have been unable to openly and honestly address the crisis of self-esteem and how it affects the way they perceive themselves and are perceived by others.

In her most challenging and provocative book to date, bell hooks gives voice to what many black people have thought and felt, but seldom articulated in a way where doubt would hold sway. She offers readers a clear, passionate examination of the role of projecting positive images and having the confidence to allow the playing field to be equaled to play in the African-American experience. This is essential in determining whether success is individual or collective. In gathering research for the project, the author delves into the methods and reasons why she used the paradigms to construct this project. She painstakingly listened to the stories of her students, peers, and people from different walks of life and heard the same arguments, including deep feelings of inadequacy and despair. With critical insight and a fervor bent on finding answers, the author exposes the underlying truth behind the crisis. In her estimation, it has been extremely difficult to create a culture that promotes and sustains a healthy sense of self-esteem in African-American communities...and this book gives all the reasons and supportive analogies thereof.

What I found interesting and gave me such a positive vein with this book, is how she rigorously examined and identified the barriers -- political and cultural -- that keep African Americans from emotional well-being and a sense of belonging. She looked at historical movements, the role the community plays in this issue, gave introspective analogy why self is just as important at arriving at conclusions, and how the family came to be so involved. She also discusses the revolutionary role preventative mental health care can play in promoting and maintaining self-esteem. The question will always be asked: Why is self-esteem so on the forefront of our societal emanation? This book does quite a bit to understand how racism has been abated, relative to how often-negative reaction to integration has crippled the black community leaving deep psychological scars and extremely low self-esteem as blacks compete by imitating whites. I recommend this book to give compelling arguments and subsequent solutions for a far better understanding of the issue than has been given to us up to now.

hooks continues her path down the self-help genre with this latest book about black people and self-esteem. hooks posits that for several decades black people have pointed to racism as their only barrier at the expense of examining personal matters like the loss of self-esteem. In this text, she tries to find a middle ground in which racism is acknowledged but low self-esteem is addressed. Unfortunately, assessing racism takes up so much of the text that many readers may completely forget the message about self-esteem. Further, while hooks affectively points to where black self-esteem is lacking, she says very little about how it can be regained.

In so many ways, hooks is beating a dying horse. Her book Salvation could have been attached to her book All about Love and Rock My Sould could have been attached to Salvation. Whereas in her love books, she clearly spells out the definition of love and emphasizes love in every chapter, here self-esteem gets lost in the mix and is given charecteristics but never concretely defined.

hooks loves patting herself on the back for being able to talk about race, class, and gender simultaneously. In this book, her love of male heroes Malcolm X and Dr. King shines through. Though consistently pro-black, in this book hooks actually praises whites for their resistance to sexism and rigid gender roles and condemns blacks for embracing those two oppressions. Still, hooks uses kid gloves when critiquing McWhorter and other black conservatives in contrast to her complete trashing of Wolf, Roiphe, and Paglia in her book Outlaw Culture.

hooks is great at summarizing black history. She re-illustrates how thoroughly and widely she reads.

Nevertheless, she quotes Nathaniel Branden so often, one wonders if she has just taken his book(s) and given it (them) a chocolate-y twist. If you've read her other books, so much of this book is repetitive. We already know she has conflicting feelings about rapper Foxxxy Brown and detests Sharazad Ali and "Waiting to Exhale." hook often mentions "terrorism" in this 911 era, but her use may seem pat and overblown to some readers. hooks has added "imperialism" to her mantra of "white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy"; this only begs the question more of why she can't use "heteropatriarchy" or explicitly state how homophobia is just as rampant in this society as other oppressions. Further, hooks has always declared that she adds bibliographies to her books to avoid user-unfriendly footnotes, yet this book cites many books and has no bibliography.

I'll still read anything that bell publishes, it's just that this book was not that great.

Lest we forget the importance of feeling good about ourselves, bell hooks, the quintessential black feminist writer has added yet another tome to the many outstanding references to the literary canon of African-American culture. Here, she gives us Rock My Soul: Black People and Self-Esteem. No less provocative, but ever so poignant, the panache is intact as she talks with passion on a highly debated topic that is always at the cutting edge of discussion in our communities. There's no book that this author has contributed that doesn't get the overall treatment with candid and insightful analogy. Self esteem and what it means to people of color will always be high profile and a force to be reckoned with due to the scars of slavery and unbalanced scales . Without self-esteem everyone loses his or her sense of meaning, purpose, and power. For too long, African Americans in particular have been unable to openly and honestly address the crisis of self-esteem and how it affects the way they perceive themselves and are perceived by others.

In her most challenging and provocative book to date, bell hooks gives voice to what many black people have thought and felt, but seldom articulated in a way where doubt would hold sway. She offers readers a clear, passionate examination of the role of projecting positive images and having the confidence to allow the playing field to be equaled to play in the African-American experience. This is essential in determining whether success is individual or collective. In gathering research for the project, the author delves into the methods and reasons why she used the paradigms to construct this project. She painstakingly listened to the stories of her students, peers, and people from different walks of life and heard the same arguments, including deep feelings of inadequacy and despair. With critical insight and a fervor bent on finding answers, the author exposes the underlying truth behind the crisis. In her estimation, it has been extremely difficult to create a culture that promotes and sustains a healthy sense of self-esteem in African-American communities...and this book gives all the reasons and supportive analogies thereof.

What I found interesting and gave me such a positive vein with this book, is how she rigorously examined and identified the barriers -- political and cultural -- that keep African Americans from emotional well-being and a sense of belonging. She looked at historical movements, the role the community plays in this issue, gave introspective analogy why self is just as important at arriving at conclusions, and how the family came to be so involved. She also discusses the revolutionary role preventative mental health care can play in promoting and maintaining self-esteem. The question will always be asked: Why is self-esteem so on the forefront of our societal emanation? This book does quite a bit to understand how racism has been abated, relative to how often-negative reaction to integration has crippled the black community leaving deep psychological scars and extremely low self-esteem as blacks compete by imitating whites. I recommend this book to give compelling arguments and subsequent solutions for a far better understanding of the issue than has been given to us up to now.

ROCK MY SOUL: BLACK PEOPLE AND SELF-ESTEEM by bell hooks is a detailed
analysis of self image issues in African-Americans. Ms. hooks examines the
dynamics which have oppressed the development of a healthy sense of self in
African-Americans. A history of enslavement, the belittling of racial worth,
and internalized racism were a few of the phenomenon cited by hooks as a cause
of the pervasive lack of self esteem in Black people.

While hooks provides interesting discourse on the subject matter, she often
comes off sounding like a text book in her discussion of the different sides
of this issue. As such, this is not a casual read or a self help book. It is
an informative, thought-provoking, volume with historical and psychological
references that provides food for thought and information for further study
among those interested in this subject matter.

Reviewed by Diane Marbury (HonestD)
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

I read this book and thought hooks touched on an untapped subject within the black community, which is our collective lost of healthy self-esteem. I do agree that blacks of all socioeconomic backgrounds in this country have been choking spiritually on the dominant white culture values. White culture values have now transcended race; it doesn't matter who is in collusion, it could be a white person, but lately it has been people of color who has perpetuated this poisoning mindset amongst our own.

What I disliked about the book is the self-righteous stance hooks tends to do in her writing as of late. She writes about in great length about the evils blacks have done to contribute to the white color caste society-light skin blacks privilege over darker skin blacks. While I wholeheartedly agree with her, it's funny how she never shares her privileges on being light-skinned herself. She never talks about the personal instances where she has gotten privilege over someone darker. She only goes on about light-skinned people in general. I think her message would have been more powerful if she also shares with the reader how she has been put in that privilege position, even if she rejected it and critiqued it. She only talks about the ills that have been done to her, but never the privileges.

Like the song says, "they call it stormy Monday but Tuesday's just as bad." You need to read this book after a week of being pushed up against the ropes. Then take a deep breath, go for a run, cook a gourmet meal, or hammer a do-it-yourself project.

Me...I wrapped mine in a non-threatening cover so that I can read it on my lunch break too. You don't want to tip off the "others" that you're trying to make a break for it...

Required reading for anyone interested in the issue of self-esteem under oppressive cultures. Her observations are wise. Her grasp of history is absolute. Her ideas stimulate intelligent and loving thought, conversation, and action. Read this book.

Though commentator Bell Hooks is well known for her works, this reviewer had no plans to read another culpability book whether the blame is on the white race or on the black race (the in thing flavor of the moment much to the glee of the present administration). However, Ms Hooks literally hooks her readers by turning upside down the basic premise made by many black conservatives whom blame African-Americans for the lack of significant social progress. Instead Ms. Hooks uses those same arguments to offer a different premise that the symptoms of failure are not recent phenomena having been around for quite a while, but now are being abetted and often encouraged by government neglect, de facto racism, and psychological trauma. As white racism has abated, the often-negative reaction to integrate has crippled the black community leaving deep psychological scars and extremely low self-esteem as blacks compete by imitating whites.

Though often repetitive, ROCK MY SOUL is well written and supported with documentation that supports the book's premise. Ms. Hooks makes the case that if there was less accusations and finger pointing and increased mental health approaches, it will ease much of the malaise that has led to low self-esteem and self-hate amongst many black women and the families they often raise alone.

Harriet Klausner