Customer Reviews

Salvation: Black People and Love

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In "Salvation: Black People and Love," cultural critic bell hooks explores the significance of love in African-American culture. The book combines autobiographical material with reflections on literature, film, music, and history. hooks declares, "The denigration of love in black experience, across classes, has been the breeding ground for nihilism, for despair, for ongoing terroristic violence and predatory opportunism." Ultimately, she envisions a rekindling of "the flame of liberation struggle rooted in a love ethic" and reaffirms Martin Luther King's vsion of "a beloved community."

In the book's introduction, hooks is clearly positioning herself in the great tradition of African-American literature and cultural activism: she makes reference to Lorraine Hansberry, Zora Neale Hurston, Ann Petry, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, June Jordan, and, of course, King. Later in the book she goes on to reference many other comparable figures: Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Paul Laurence Dunbar, etc. Among the topics she addresses are the following: images of African-Americans in the media, single mothers, black masculinity, the role of gay men and women in the black community, etc.

hooks' project is admirable, and her prose is engaging. Despite the book's strengths, however, I did not find it wholly satisfying. hooks has an annoying habit of citing her own books too much; I know she is a prolific author, but I find too much self-citation quite unappealing. Some of her critiques are questionable; I was particularly disturbed by her harsh assessments of Betty Shabazz and Coretta Scott King. And frankly, hooks cites so many different people and cultural phenomena that the book often feels rushed and shallow. Toni Morrison's "Sula," rapper Lil' Kim, the film "Soul Food," "The Cosby Show," Oprah Winfrey, Spike Lee, W.E.B. Du Bois, Clarence Thomas: the names fly by at a dizzying rate.

Still, there is much to admire in "Salvation." I was particularly impressed by her large-spirited celebration of black gay men and lesbians; she mentions such important figures as Audre Lorde and Joseph Beam, and offers an intriguing glimpse at the hidden history of black gay people. Many of her autobiographical passages also have the ring of power and honesty. Overall, "Salvation" is well worth reading, especially for those with an interest in African-American studies.

Since I "discovered" bell hooks in college (sound familar?) I continually find myself enaged and impressed with her writing style, view poing, un-embellished intellectual discourse, and use of common language to put voice to some difficult and sensitive topics. hooks is a careful observer, who manages to avoid pointing fingers and "taking sides," instead focusing on the way systems -- not individuals -- create situations by which we are all trapped in roles. Salvation is no different. I found it a thorough and thought provoking exploration of the notiton of love in a historically fractured community. As a black woman, it would have been easy to fall into who's *fault* it is that love is an endangered species in black culture. I've read the blame of black men, other black women, white men, mammas, stereotypes ect...but what hooks does differently, and with the gentle grace of an explorer trying to understand without categorically defineing a large topic, is simply examine.

she offers up theory, evidence and most of all a solution and a call to action for us ALL to affect the way love exists in black community. What Salvation leaves is an uplifiting message that while we come from the fractures and fissures left by forced relocation, slavery and dehumanization, love is not an impossibility or a fairytale, but a real necessity in our lives. I also appreciated how hooks addressed not just issues of romantic love but parental affection and the need of a "love ethic" within the black community that will be our salvation.
hooks has done it again, and with every book she lays the map of the black experience from the eyes of a scholar, a woman and a black person. She does it so clearly, and honestly, without guile or resentment, that even non-black scholars can appreciate her viewpoint without feeling alienated -- my roomate and I talked about this book for days after I (initially hesitating for fear she wouldn't 'get it') shared it with her. Its nice to be wrong about some things :)

This is one of the most thought-provoking books I have read in a while. Though I purchased this book a few years ago, I only recently picked it up to read. And what a read it was....
bell hooks brilliantly explores and exposes many of the fundamental causes at the root of our society's, particularly the black community's, moral decay and self-deformation. Though written for and to African-Americans, hooks does not exclude non-African-Americans from the "call" to embrace and build a love ethic. She has certainly done her research and her book has encouraged me to do more of my own. I enjoyed this book from beginning to end and particularly enjoyed the way she ended with a chapter entitled "love justice". I believe love is the most transformative power we have and in this book bell hooks tells us how and why.

Being an avid reader of hooks' works, I didn't find much new in "Salvation,"; however, I agree strongly with her thesis that much more needs to be said and explored about Black people loving Black people. The poet Nikki Giovanni once wrote that Black love is Black wealth, but it seems that since the Black is Beautiful sixties, many Black people have been led away from the notions of love for one another to a concentration of materialism and/or sheer survival in the 90s. Hooks' newest work raises how images of Black love are absent in popular culture and everyday life. She maintains that even the historical struggle for civil rights and Black Power often overlooked the need for African people in this country to love one another in ways that were empowering. The emphasis--though extremely important--was on fighting White racial injustice but not enough about loving ourselves and our children. We are still challenged, hooks argues, by White racist images of who we are. We must continue to decolonalize racist ways we think about one another and create beloved communities..

An excellent book that every black person should read at least twice a year or more.
This book made me realise my own precious sense of self as a black woman.
The awfulness of how negative and damaging a childhood black people can have.
It can ruin self-esteem making a lot of us feel angry, critical negative
and constantly putting ourselves down or dissing other black people all the time.
I can relate to all the many years of damage that black fathers especially can do.
They descend on the home like a great black cloud or an ogre with their controlling ways, negativity, and various forms of abuse. A black child can feel such and despair struggling to appeal to often disinterested parents who are usually at loggerheads themselves. Where your best just isn't good enough and often our own black relatives are our worst enemies. Constantly finding fault instead of a balance of praise and constructive criticism.

It made me especially upset to read about the guy in prison who suddenly found compassion for his other inmates.
but is trapped on death row.

But there is great hope. We have to look in the mirror and constantly remind ourselves of our own magnificence and
Firmly keep our goals in sight and achieve them as quickly as possible at times keeping them to ourselves until they materialise.
Relate to friends and family who accentuate the positive in you and steer clear from those who don't.
Be firm and take no nonsense from relatives who always seek to be critical and damaging in their influence and
often expecting you to explain yourself. WHAT FOR????
Flee from relationships where the other person tries to press your buttons all the time. This is neither respect or real love!!
As black people we should read more and be much more pro-active in what we wish to achieve and want our lives to reflect.
God Willing.

In this second volume of the love trilogy, hooks has absolutely touched upon all of the issues that eat away at black love in our modern, successful nation. I remain amazed at bell's marriage to truth-telling in the name of improving our collective lot. As a New Yorker, however, I can't help but wonder why there is such an enormous focus on the imagined 'black community' and a presentation time and again of a world that is only populated by blacks and whites. And I was particularly saddened by the lack of discussion of non-African American blacks, a growing number of the black people in this country. I don't believe that any of bell's insights or strategies presented in this work are necessarily peculiar to black people--they are all brilliant and could apply to all peoples. And brava for devoting an entire chapter to discussing the acceptance of gayness in black life!

I could relate to this book in many ways. Being a new Mom and in the process of formulating, challenging and re-writing everything I have believed about motherhood and family life, hooks completes many of the thoughts I have been thinking but too afraid to say. I appreicate her discussions about folks providing material security for their families but not nurturing the emotional. This situation has been something I have had to confront about about my own life, come to terms with and decide how I will "provide" for my son. In many ways its a painful journey, especially when having to challenge familial behaviors that have been passed on for generations, but reading Salvation has helped me through the process and gave me the courage to see that what I decided to do as a Mom was not wrong. And that as children we can ask for more from our parents beyond material. Its such a basic concept, but somewhere along the way, I think our society repressed the need to nourish our souls.

After reading hooks' "All About Love", I had to pick this one up and I am SO glad I did. I picked it up and couldn't put in down. In fact, every male friend (to include the one to whom I am most endeared)has either received this book from me as a gift or was strongly encouraged to buy it. bell hooks tells it like it is in a powerful, intriguing, captivating, intellectual, sensual, passionate, thought-provoking, mind-blowing excursion toward the revealment of love (or the lack thereof) in the African American community. She's telling truths that need to be re-told (over and over again), she's exposing lies, both political and social, she's revaling half-truths and other mindless deceptions, and she's doing it all in love. Everybody --- Black or white, straight or gay, male and female, young and old, free or bonded, abused or loved --- needs to read this book like the body needs water, like the lungs need air. If we could get to the place where we understand love the way bell is conveying her message of love, then many of us would be a lot less confused and a lot more hopeful. Read the book, read the book, read the book! If you're a historian, read the book. If you're an educator, read the book. If you're a politician, read the book. I strongly recommend it for anyone who dares to open their minds just a little further.

What can I say? bell hooks does it again and if the issue of black love is holding you back from buying this book please reconsider. This book speaks to everyone.

Perhaps moreso than her other books, Salvation speaks directly to men with both love and honesty. bell hooks is, as always, respectful without sugarcoating hard truths. This is another must-have for African-American family bookshelves and for singles alike. Particularly refreshing is her refusal to discuss romantic love separately from the needs for both self-love and racial uplift.

Her observations are wise. Her grasp of history is absolute. Her ideas stimulate intelligent and loving thought, conversation, and action. Read this book.