2474 I STEVEN KNAPP AND WALTER BENN MICHAELS

found"j imerpretation "is not the art of construi ng but the art of construct-
ing" (pp. 33 J, 327). Once he arrives at epistemological idealism, Fish's meth-
odological payoff immediately follows. Knowing that "interpreters do not
decode poems" but "make them/' uwe are free to consider the various forms
the literary institution has taken and to uncover the interpretative strategies
by which its canons have been produced and understood!> (pp. 327,368). By
thinking of the critic as an idealist instead of a realist, Fish is able to place
literary criticism at the very center of all literary practice:
No longer is the critic the humbl e servant of texts whose glories exist
independently of anything he might do; it is what he does, within the
constraints embedded in the literary institution, that brings texts into
being and makes them available for analysis and appreciation. The prac-
tice of literary criticism is not something one must apologize for; it is
absolutely essential not only to the maintenance of, but to the very pro-
duction of, the objects of its attention. [po368]
We began this section by noting that Fish, like us, thinks that no general
account of belief can have practical consequences . But , as we have just seen,
his account turns out to have consequences after all. Why, then, is Fish led
both to assert that his argument has no practical consequences and to pro-
claim its importance in providing a new model for cri tical practice? The
answer is that, despite his explicit disclaimers, he thinks a true account of
belief must be a theory about belief, whereas we think a true account of
belief can only be a belief about belief.3 The difference between these two
senses of what it means to have a true account of something is the difference
between theory and the kind of pragmatist argument we are presenting here.
These two kinds of positions conceive their inconsequentiali ty in two utterl y
different ways. A belief about the nature of beliefs is inconsequential because
it merely tells you what beliefs are) not whether they are true or false in
particular or in general. From this point of view, knowing the truth about
belief will no more help you in acquiring true beliefs than knowing that
meaning is intentional will heJp you find correct meanings. This is not in the
least to say that you can't have tcue beliefs, onl y that you can' t get them by
having a good account of what beliefs are.
Fi sh's theory about beliefs, on the other hand, strives to achieve inconse-
quentiality by standing outside all the practical commitments that belief
entail s. It is perfectly true that one can achieve inconsequentiality by going
outside beliefs but only because, as Fish himself insists, to be outside beliefs
is to be nowhere at all. But of course Fish doesn't think that his theory about
beliefs leaves him nowhere at all; he thinks instead that it gives him a way
of arriving at truth, not by choosing some beliefs over others but by choosing
beli efl ess knowledge over all beliefs. The truth of knowledge, according to
Fish, is that no beliefs are, in the long run, truer than others; all beliefs, in
the long run, are equal. But, as we have noted, it is only from the standpoint
of a theory about belief which is not itself a belief that this truth can be seen.
Hence the descent from "theoretical reasoning" ahout our beliefs to the
actual practice of believing-from neutrality to commitment-demands that
3. Fish calls his account a "genera! or belief" (Is The,.ea Text in ThIS Class? p. 359, cf. pp. 368-
70) [Knapp and Michaels's notel.
BELL HOOKS / 2475
we forget the truth theory has told us. Unlike the ordinary methodologist,
Fish wants to repudiate the attempt to derive practice from theory, insisting
that the world of practice must be founded not on theoretical truth hut on
the repression of theoretical truth. But the sense that practice can only begin
with the repression of theory already amounts to a methodological
tion: when confronted with beliefs, forget that they are not really true. This
prescription gives Fish everything theory always wants: knowledge of the
truth-value of beliefs and instructions on what to do with
We can now see why Fish, in the first passage quoted, says that his position
is Hnot one that you (or anyone else) could live by ... even if you [were]
persuaded" by it. Theory, he thinks, can have no practical consequences; it
cannot be lived because theory and practice-the truth about belief and
belief itself-can never in principle be united. In our view, however, the only
relevant truth about belief is that you can' t go outside it, and, far from being
unlivable, this is a truth you can' t help but live. h has no practical conse-
quences not because it can never be u.nited with practice but because it can
never be 5eparated from practice.
The theoretical impulse, as we have described it, always involves the
attempt to separate things that should not be separated: on the ontological
side, meaning from intention, language from speech acts; on the epistemo-
logical side, knowledge from true belief. Our point has been that the sepa-
rated terms are in fact inseparable. It is tempting to end by saying that theol)'
and practice too are inseparable. But this would be a mi stake. Not because
theory and practice (unlike the other terms) really are separate but because
theory is nothing else but the attempt to escape practice. Meaning is just
another name for expressed intention, knowledge just another name for Lrue
belief, but theory is not just another name for practice. It is the name for aU
the ways people have tried to stand outside practice in order to govern prac-
tice from without. Our thesis has been that no one can reach a position
outside practice, that theorists should stop trying, and that the theoretical
enterprise should therefore come to an end.
1982
4. In one respect Fish's prescription is unusual: it what is true and how to behave-but not how to
sepllrDtes the two theoretical goals of grounding behave in order to find out what is t rue [Knapp
and reaching object ive truth, It tells us and Michaels's note].
BELL HOOKS
b. Gloria Jean Watkins, 1952
bell hooks first emerged in the 1980s as a trenchant critical voice among African
American int ellect uals . Her wide-ranging essays about American culture offer cri-
tiques on issues ranging from the academy to the enviTOnmental crisis, from the media
co masculinity, from rac ism 0 sexism, while explOring the unique problems and per-
spectives of black women and the underprivileged. Within feminism, much of her
writing has been devoted to articulating the intersections of race, class, and gender
2476 I BELL HOOKS
BELL HOOKS 2477
oppression. In FeministTheory: From MgrgintoCenter( 1984) shewrites,"Feminism
ernism to the intellectual elites. She identifies [he intersection of "identi typolitics"
is the struggle [Q end sexist oppression. Its aim is notto benefl t solel yanyspecific
group ofwomen,any particularraceorclass ofwomen. It does not privilege women
and the postmodern critique ofhuman essence as a part icular.ly Significant site of
struggJefor African Americans, who, sheargues, need to resisloutmoded notionsof
overmen.It has the powerlO transform in a meaningfulway allourli ves."
essentialblackness in much thesame way as feministcriticshavecontestedtheidea
Bornintoaruralblackworking-classfamil yin Hopkinsvill e, Kentucky, GloriaJean
Watkins suffereda turbulentchildhoodbutfound inspiration in booksandsolacein
oftheessentiallyfemal e (seeJUDITH BVTLER, MONIQUEwrrnc,andJULIA KRfSTEVA).
imagination.When,asanadult, shetookthename"bell hooks,"it was to honorher
hooks is criticalofthe conceptofessentialblacknesswhetherimposedfromwithout
as racist stereotype orfrom within as prescription for an "authenticblackidentity,"
outspoken great-grandmotherandthe legacyofherpast. hooks receivedaB.A. from
StanfordUniversity in 1973,an M.A. from theUniversityofWisconsinin 1976,and,
anidentitythatrefusestorecognizethemultiplicitiesof black experiencesthatground
"diverse cultural productions."At thesame time, hooks argues, the post modern cri-
in 1983,a Ph. D. from the UniverSityof California, Santa Cru2. She taughtAfrican
American studies at Yale University and English and women's studies at Oberlin
tique ofessence oughtnotto beusedtodismiss blackand feminist identitypolitics.
hooks worries about the pote ntial wi thin poslmodernist discourse to denya critical
College from 1988 untiJ 1993.Since1993she hastaughtin theEngli shdepartment
ofthe City University ofNewYork GraduateCenter.
voice to those who have been "subjected to" colonization ordomination.She is sus-
picious that the postmodern call to dismantle identitycomes ata historical moment
hooks gained prominence as a social critic with the publication ofherfirst book,
Ain't I a Woman: Black Women gnd Feminism (198 1), begun when she was only
whensubjugatedpeople arebeginningtoasserttheirown identityand toactcollec-
tively in its name. hooks' ssolution is to embrace the postmodern critiqueofessen-
nineteen and publishedwhileshewas stillagraduate student. An extremelyprolific
tialism whileemphaSizingthe traditional humanistic"authorityofexperience. "
writer,she haspublished morethan8 dozen bookssince then on topics as variedas
feminis t theory. racism, film, art, spirituali ty, and .cultural studies. With the publi-
Thedangers hooks exposes in the discourseofpostmodernism arereal , though it
cationofBone Black.: Memofiesof Girlhood( 1996)andWoundsofPassion:AWriting
is worth noti ng thathooks here treats "postmodernism" as a single setofmonologlc
Life( 1997),sheturnedtothegenreofautobiographytoexploremorefull yherinterest
discourses that mean the same thing to everyone. Postmodern theory is a wide-
ranginganddiverse setofpractices, texts, anddiscoursesno moreeasilyreducibleto
in capturing"theauthorityofexperience"thatshe examinesin ourselection,"Post-
modem Blackness." Like Cornel West, with whom she coll aborated on Breaking
onesetofessentialmeanings than is "blackness." Bothtermsin hooks'stitlemustbe
Bread: Insurgent Black.Intellectual Life(I 991), hookshassoughta nicheasapublic
seenasequallyunderinterrogation,andmuchworkremainstobedonetounderstand
the relations between them. Greaterprecision about the compl ex meanings vtithin
intellectual on the Left, at tempting to reach a wider audience outside ofacademia
for her cultural criticism while remaining connected to her underclass blackcom-
postmodern discourse of such terms as identity, subjec'-ivity, and experience might
breaktheimpasse she describes betweenadesire toreclaimacommon blackhistory,
munity. As an essayist , she follows in the rich tradition oftwentieth-centuryblack
intell ectuals such as w. E. B. DU BOIS, C. L. R. James and ZORA NEALE HURSTON,
culture, and experience and the need to avoid imposing restrictive and damaging
stereotypes ondi verseexperiences. hooks isinagreementwith thebest"oppositional
althoughdoubtlesshookswouldalsoincludeinanyli stofintellectualforebearsearlier
black women suchas Anna Cooper (the nineteenth-centuryauthorofA Voicefro
n
,
practices"ofpostmodemism, however, whenshe suggests thatit is in thegaps. rup-
tures,andcontradictionsof Westernmasternarrativesthatthestrugglesforliberation
the bya BlacftWomanofthe South) and SojournerTruth .
In "Postmodern Blackness," which appears in her Yearning: Race, Gender, and
and for coali tion politicswill discovereffective forms ofresistanceand newformsof
community.
CulturalPolitics (1990),hooks asks whyAfricanAmericans shouldhave anyinterest
in"postmoderntheory."Sheappliesthislabeltothephilosophiccri tiqueof modernity
thatcelebratesdifferenceandotherness,thatadvocatesradicalliberationandpolitical
BIBLIOCRAPHY
equality, that finds fault with rigid concepts ofidentity, and that cri ticizes socalled
masternarratives (forexample,thoseaboutthe inevitableprogressofhumanreason,
hooks's critical writing, mainlyessaycollections, include,on feminist theory,Ain't I
the eventualtriumphoftheproletariat,ortheendingoftheworldonJudgmentDay).
" Woman: Black Women gnd Femiuism (198 1), Femi.nist Theory:FrO'tt' Mgrgin to
Center (1984),Talki.ng Back:Thiuking Feminis', ThinkingBlack( 1989) ,andSisters
Forhooksandotherculturalcritics,postmodemityalsoevokeslate-twentieth-century
postindustrial society with itsjob restructuring, ubiquitous media and popularcul-
of the Yam: BtackWomenandSelf-Recovery( 1993);on race,Breaking Bread: Insur-
gent Black Intellectual Life (with Cornel West, 1991), Black Looks: Race and Rep-
ture, and new socialmovementsandprotestgroups. Like BARBAMCHRISTIAN, hooks
resentation (I 992), and Killing Rage: Ending Racism(I 995); on teaching, Teaching
believes that theabstract philosophical discourse ofpostmodernism- asdefined by
toTransgress: EducationasthePracticeofFreeClcm(1994);onfilm.ReeltoReal: Race.
FrenchtheoristssuchasJACQUES DERR1DA, LYOTARD, andJEANBAUD-
RILLARD- is dominated by white male intellectuals. These academicelites speakto
Sex, andClassattheMovies(1996);andonculturalstudies,Yearning: Race, Gender,
one another, oblivious to rhe concerns of black people. Despite its invocation of
and Cultural Politics (I990) . OutlawCHlture: Resisting Representation ( 1994), and
Art on My Mind: Vistlal Politics (1995). Her memoirs-BoneBlack: Memories of
"difference,"sheargues.postmodernismis exclusionary:while usingtheconceptsof
Girl/load (1996), WoundsofPtlSSion:A Writing Life ( 1997), and Remembering Rap-
differenceandmarginalitytolegitimateitselfin thefaceof accusationsof irrelevance,
it seems unwillingtoengage theexperiences orwritings ofthe trul ymarginalized-
tu.re: T1t.e Wri teratWork ( J999)- aregoodsources ofinformati onon her life. Fora
blackwomen, for example. In its celebration ofindeterminacyandfree play in lan-
biographicalsketch,see Lara Dieckmann's entry in Significant.ContemporaryAmer-
icanFeminists: A BiographicglSourcebook(1999).
guage andin itsfocusondeconstructingidentity, postmodernismfails toofferuseful
A few critical articles on hooks have appeared. Ofmost interest to students of
analyses of the power relations that shape discourse. Without "adequate concrete
literary cri ticism are Cassie Premo, "When the Difference Becomes Too Great:
knowledge" ofandcontactwith oppressed and marginalizedgroups, whi te theorists
Imagesofthe Selfand Survivalin aPostmodernWorld,"Genre28 ( 1995),and Clive
risk impedingratherthan supporting"radicalliberationstruggle."
Becauseshediscerns in thosesilencedby rhe "masternarrati ves" ofWestern cul-
Thomson,"Culture, Identity, and Dialogue: bell hooks andGayatriChakravortySpi-
vak," in Dialogism and Cri ti cism (ed. Thomson and Hans Raj Dau, 1995).
tureayeaming"- whatshedescribesasa forcriticalvoice"-hooks,unl ike
Christian and some other minorityintellectuals, is not willingtoabandon postmod-
hooks'sessays about teachinghavealsobeenofinterestto cri tics, includingTomFox,
"LiteracyandActivi sm:A Responseto bell hooks."JournalofAdvancedComposition
2478 / BELL HOOKS
14 (1994) ; Joyce Irene Middleton, "bell hooks on Literacy and Teaching: A
Response," Journal of Advanced Composition 14 (1994); and Gary Olson and Eliw-
beth Hirsh, "Feminist Praxis and the Politics of Literacy; A Conversation with bell
hooks," in Writing Culture <ed. Olson and Hirsch, 1995). Bibliographical
information on hooks may be found in Genevieve Fabre's "Selected Bibliography of
Essays on Black Women and Black Feminist Criticism," R.evue d'Etudes
Americaines 24 (1986), as well as in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Studies' Bibliographic Guide to Black Studies ( 1995).
Postmodern Blackness
Postmodemist discourses are often exclusionary even as they can attention
to, appropriate even, the experience of Hdjfference" and "Otherness
u
Lo pro-
vide oppositional political meaning, legitimacy, and immediacy when they
are accused of lacking concrete relevance. Very few African-American intel-
lectuals have talked or \-witten about postmodernism. At a dinner party I
talked about trying to grapple with the significance of post moderni sm for
contemporary black experience. It was one of those social gatherings where
only one other black person was present. The setting quickly became a field
of contestation. I was told by the other black person that I was wasting my
time, that !lthis stuff does not relate in any way to what's happening with
black people." Speaking in the presence of a group of white onlookers, staring
at us as though this encounter were staged for their benefit, we engaged in
a passionate discussion about black experience. ApparentlYI no one sympa-
thized with my insistence that racism is perpetuated when blackness is asso-
ciated solely 'With concrete gut level experience conceived as either opposing
or having no connection to abstract thinking and the production of critical
theory. The idea that there is no meaningful connection between black expe-
rience and critical thinking about aesthetics or culture must be continually
interrogated.
My defense of postmodernism and its relevance to black folks sounded
good
l
but I worried that I lacked conviction I largely because I approach the
subject cautiously and with suspicion.
Disturbed not so much by the "sense
u
of postmodernism but by the con-
ventionallanguage used when it is Mitten or talked about and by those who
speak it
l
I find myself on the outside of the discourse looking in. As a dis-
cursive practice it is dominated primarily by the voices of white mal e intel-
lectuals andlor academic elites who speak to and about one another with
coded familiarity. Reading and studying their writing to understand post-
modernism in its multiple manifestations, I appreciate it but feel little incli -
nation to ally myself with the academic hierarchy and exclusivity pervasi ve
in the movement today.
Critical of most writing on postmodernism, I perhaps am more conscious
of the way in which the focus on "Otherness and difference" that is often
alluded to in these works seems to have little concrete impact as an analysis
or standpoint that mi ght change the nature and direction of postmodemist
theory. Since much of this theory has been constructed in reaction to and
against high modernism
l
there is seldom any mention of black experience or
writings by black people in this work
l
specifically black women (though in
POSTMODERN BLACKN ESS / 2479
more recent work one may see a reference to Cornel West, the black male
scholar who has most engaged postmodernist di scourse). Even if an aspect
of black culture is the subject of postmodern critical writing, the works cited
will usually be those of black men. A work that comes immediately to mind
is Andrew Ross's chapter "Hipl and the Long Front of Color" in No Respect:
Intellectuals and Popular Culturej' while it is an interesting reading, it con-
structs black culture as though black women have had no rol e in black
cultural production. At the end of Meaghan Morris' discussion of postmod-
ern ism in her collection of essays The Pirate's FiancAe: Fetllinism, Reading,
Postnwdernism
l
she provides a bibliography of works by women, identifying
them as important contributions to a discourse on postmodernism that offer
new insight as well as challenging male theoretical hegemony.l Even though
many of the works do not directly address postmodernism, they address sim
ilar concerns. There are no references to by black women.
The failure to recognize a critical black presence in the culture and in
most scholarship and writing on postmodernism compels a bl ack reader ,
particularly a black femal e reader
l
to interrogate her interest in a subject
where those who discuss and write about it seem not to know black women
exist or even to consider the possibility that we might be somewhere writing
or saying something that should be listened to, or producing art that should
be seen, heard, approached with intellectual seriousness . This is especially
the case with works that go on and on about the way in which postmodernist
discourse has opened up a theoretical terrain where "difference and Other-
ness" can be considered legi timate issues in the academy. Confronting both
the absence of recognition of black female presence that much postmodem-
ist theory re-inscribes and the resistance on the part of most black folks to
hearing about real connection becween postmodernism and black e>.'Peri-
ence
l
I enter a discourse
l
a practice, where there may be no ready audience
for my words, no clear listener, uncertain then, that my voice can or will be
heard.
During the sixties, the black power movement was influenced by perspec-
tives that c9uJd easily be labeled modernist . Certainly many of the ways black
folks addressed issues of identity conformed to a modernist universalizing
agenda. There was tittle critique of patriarchy as a master narrative among
black militants. Despite the fact that black power ideology reflected a mod-
ernist sensibility, these elements were soon rendered irrelevant as militant
protest was stifled by a powerful , repressive postmodern state. The period
directly after the black power movement was a time when major news mag-
azines carried articles with cocky headlines like "Whatever Ha.ppened to
Black America?" This response was an ironic repl y to the aggressive, unmet
demand by decentered, marginalized black subjects who had at least
tarily successfully demanded a hearing
l
who had made it possible for black
liberation to be on the national political agenda. In the wake of the black
power movement, after so many rebels were slaughtered and lost
l
many of
these voices were silenced by a repressive state; others became inarticulate.
It has become necessary to find new avenues to transmit the messages of
black liberation struggle, new ways to talk about racism and other politics of
I. Andrew Ron. No Ruplel: !,tu ll,cIUD/.s and nis ... , Rending, Poslmod.mism (lood<m: Verso,
Popular Guill/r. (New York: ROIJlledge, 1989). 1988).
2. Meaghan Moms, Th, Pirou s Fio'leu: F,tni
2480 j BELL HOOKS
domination. Radical postmodernist practice, most powerfultyconceptualized
as a "politi cs of difference," should incorporate the voices of displaced,
ginalized, exploited, and oppressed black people. I t is sadly ironic that the
contemporary discourse which talks the most about heterogeneity, the
decentered subject, declaring breakthroughs that allow recognition of Oth
erness, still directs its critical voice primarily to a specialized audience that
shares a common language rooted in the very master narratives it claims to
challenge. If radical postmodernist thinking is to have a transformative
impact, then a critical break with the notion of "authority" as "mastery over"
must not simply be a rhetorical device. It must be reAected in habits of being,
including styles of writing as well as chosen subject matter. Third world
nationals, elites, and white critics who passively absorb white supremacist
thinking, and therefore never notice or look at black people on the streets or
at their jobs, who render us invisible with their gaz.e in all areas of daily life,
are not likely to produce liberatory theory that will challenge racist
nation, or promote a breakdown in traditional ways of seeing and thinking
about reality, ways of constructing aesthetic theory and practice. From a
different standpoint, Robert Storr makes a similar critique in the global issue
of Art in America when he asserts:
To be sure, much postmodernist critical inquiry has centered precisely
on the issues of fldifference" and "Otherness." On the purely theoretical
plane the exploration of these concepts has produced some important
results, but in the absence of any sust ained research into what artists of
color and others outside the mainstream might be up to, such
sions become rootless instead of radical. Endless second guessing about
the latent imperiali sm of intruding upon other cultures only
pounded matters, preventing or excusing these theori sts from investi-
gating what black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American artists were
actually doing.)
Without adequate concrete knowledge of and contact with the non-white
"Other," white theorists may move in discursive theoreti cal directions that
are threatening and potentially di sruptive of that critical practice which
would support radical liberation struggle.
The postmodern critique of "i dentity," though relevant for renewed black
liberation struggle, is often posed in ways that are problematic. Given a
vasive politic of white supremacy which seeks to prevent the formation of
radical black subjectivity, we cannot cavali erly dismiss a concern with iden
ticy polities. Any critic exploring the radical potential of postmodernism as it
relates to racial difference and racial domination would need to consider the
implications of a critique of identity for oppressed groups. Many of us are
struggling to find new strategies of resistance. We must engage
tion as a critical practice if we are to have meaningful chances of survival
even as we must simultaneously cope with the loss of political grounding
which made radical activism more possible. I am thinking here about the
postmodernist critique of essentialism as it pertains to the construction of
Uidentity" as one example.
3 Robert Slorr. "1lIe Globa! Issue: A Art in .... '... r(1'I 77 \ 1989).88.
POSTMODERN BLACKNESS j 2481
Post modern theory that is not seeki ng to simpl y appropriate the experience
of "Otherness" to enhance the discourse or to be radically chic should not
separate the "politics of difference" from the politics of racism. To take
racism seriously one must consider the plight of underclass people of color,
a vast majority of whom are black. For our collecc.ive
condition prior to the advent of and perhaps more tragically
expressed under current postmodern conditions has been and is character
ired by continued displacement, profound alienation, and despair. Writing
about blacks and postmodemism, Cornel West describes our collective
plight,
There is increasing class division and differentiation, creating on the
one hand a significant black highly anxiety-ridden,
cure, wi lling to be and incorporated into the powers that be,
concerned wi th racism to the degree that it poses contraints on upward
social mobility; and, on the other, a vast and growing black underdass,
an underdass that embodies a kind of walking nihilism of pervasive drug
addiction, pervasive alcoholism, pervasive homicide, and an exponential
rise in suicide. Now because of the deindustrialization, we also have a
devastated black industrial working class. We are talking here about
tremendous hopelessness.
Thi s hopelessness creates longing for insight and strategies for change
that can renew spirits and reconstruct grounds for collective black
ti on struggl e. The overall impact of post modernism is that many other
groups now share with black folks a sense of deep alienation, despair,
uncertainty, loss of a sense of grounding even if it is not informed by
shared circumstance. Radical postmodernism call s attention to those
shared sensibilities which cross the boundaries of class, gender, race, etc.,
that could be fertile ground for the construction of empathy-ties that
would promote recognition of common commitments, and serve as a base
for solidarity and coalition.
Yearning is the word that best describes a common psychological state
shared by many of us, cutting across boundaries of race, class, gender, and
sexual practice. Specifically, in relation to the deconstruction
of "master" narratives, the yearning that well s in the hearts and minds of
those whom such narratives have silenced is the longing for critical voice. It
is no accident that "rap" has usurped the primary position of rhythm and
blues music among young black folks as the most desired sound or that it
began as a form of "testimony" for the underclass. It has enabled underclass
black youth to devel op a critical voice, as a group of young black men told
me, a "common literacy." Rap projects a critical voice, explaining, demand-
ing, urging. Working with this insight in his essay "Pulting the Pop Back into
Postmodernism," Lawrence Grossberg comments :
The postmodem sensibility appropriates practices as boasts that an
nounce their own-and consequently our own-existence, like a rap
song boasting of the imaginary (or real-it makes no difference) accom-
plishments of the rappe.r, They offer fonus of empowerment not only in
the fac e of nihilism but precisely through the forms of nihilism itself:
2482 / BELL H OOKS
anempoweringnihilism,amomentofpositivitythroughtheproduction
and structuringofaffective relations."
Considering that it is as subject one comes to voice, then the postmod.
ernistfocuson thecritiqueofidentityappearsatfirstglanceto threatenand
close down the possibility that this discourse andpractice will allow those
who have suffered the crippling effects ofcolonization and domination to
gain orregain a hearing. Even if this sense ofthreat and the fear it evokes
arebasedonamisunderstandingofthepostmodernistpoliticalproject,they
nevertheless shaperesponses.Itneversurprisesmewhenblackfolksrespond
to thecritiqueofessentialism, especiallywhenitdeniesthevalidityofiden
tity politics bysaying, l'Yeah, it'seasytogive upidentity,whenyougotone."
Shouldwe notbesuspicious ofpostmodern critiques ofthe "subject"when
theysurfaceatahistoricalmomentwhenmanysubjugatedpeoplefeelthem
selves coming to voice for the first time? Though an apt and oftentimes
appropriatecomeback,itdoes notreaHy intervene in thediscourseinaway
thatalters and transforms.
Criticisms of directions in postmodern thinking should not obscure
insights it may offer that open up our understanding ofMricanAmerican
experience. The critique of essentialism encouraged by postrnodernist
thought is useful for AfricanAmericans concernedwithreformulatingout-
modednotionsofidentity.Wehavetoolonghadimposeduponusfromboth
the outside andthe inside a narrow, constrictingnotionofblackness. Post
moderncritiquesofessentialismwhichchallengenotionsofuniversalityand
static over-determinedidentitywithinmasscultureandmassconsciousness
canopen up newpossibilities for the construction ofselfandthe assertion
ofagency.
Employing a critique of essentialism allows African-Americans to
acknowledge the way in which class mobility has altered collective black
experience so that racism does not necessarily have the same impact on
our lives. Such a critique allows us to affirm multipl e blackidentities, var
ied black experience. It also cr-allenges colonial imperialist paradigms of
black identity which represent blackness one-dimensionally in ways that
reinforce and sustain white supremacy. This discourse created the idea of
the uprimitive"and promoted the notion ofan f(authentic"experience, see
ing as "natural" those expressions ofblack life which conformed to a pre
existing pattern or stereotype. Abandoningessentialist notions would bea
serious challenge to racism. Contemporary AfricanAmerican resistance
struggle must be rooted in a process of decolonization that continually
opposes re.inscribing notions of lIauthentic" black identity. This critique
I
should not be made synonymous with a dismissal of the struggle of
oppressed and exploited peoples to make ourselves subjects. Nor shouldit
deny that in certain circumstances this experience affords us a privileged
critical location from which to speak. This is not a re-inscription ofmod-
I
ernist master narratives ofauthority which privilege some voices by deny-
ingvoice to others. Part ofourstruggle for radical blacksubjectivityis the
quest to find ways to construct selfand identity that are oppositional and I
neapolis:UniversityofMinnesota Press, 1988) ,p.
4. Lawrence Grossberg. "Putting the Pop Back
into Postmodernism:'in UnivelSll Abandon: The
18I.
Politics of PO>l!!lQderrlism, ed. Andrew Ross{Min
POSTMODERN BLACKNESS / 2483
liberatory. The unwillingness to critique essentialism on the part ofmany
AfricanAmericans is rooted in the fear thatit will causefolks to lose sight
ofthe specifichistoryand experienceofA&icanAmericans andtheunique
sensibilities and culture that arise from that experience. An adequate
response to this concern is to critique essentialism while emphasizing the
significance of"the authority ofexperience.", There is a radical difference
between a repudiation ofthe idea that there is a black "essence" and rec
ognition ofthe way black identity has been specifically constituted in the
experience ofexile and struggle.
When black folks critique essentialism, we are empowered to recognize
multiple experiences of black identity that are the lived conditions which
make diverse culturalproductions possible.When this diversity is ignored,
itis easy to seeblackfolks as falling into two categories: nationalistorassi
mil ationist, blackidentified or whiteidentified, Coming,to terms with the
impactofpostmodernismforblackexperience,particularlyasitchangesour
sense ofidentity, means that we must and can rearticulate the basis for
collective bonding. Given the various crisesfacingAfricanAmedcans (eeo
nomic, spiritual, escalating racial violence, etc.), we are compelled by cir
cumstance to reassess our relationship to popular culture and resistance
struggle. Many of us are as reluctant to face this taskas many non-black
postmodernthinkerswhofocus theoreticallyon theissueof"difference"are
toconfronttheissueofraceandracism.
Musicis theculturalproductcreatedbyAfri canAmericansthathas most
attracted postmodern theorists. It is rarely acknowledged that there is far
greater censorship and restriction ofother forms ofculturalproduction by
blackfolks-literary,criticalwriting, etc.Attemptsonthepartofeditorsand
publishing houses to control and manipulate the representation of black
culture, as well as the desire to promote the creation ofproducts that will
attract thewidestaudience, limit in a cripplingand stiflingway thekindof
work many black folks feel we can do and still receive. recognition. Using
myselfas an e.;xample,that 'creative "vriting Ido which Iconsiderto bemost
refle ctiveofapostmodernoppositionalsensibility,workthatis abstract,frag-
mented, non-linearnarrative, is constantly rejected byeditors andpublish
ers.It doesnotconformto thetypeofwritingtheythinkblackwomenshould
bedoingorthetype ofwritingtheybelievewill sell. Certainly Idonotthink
I am the only blackperson engaged in forms ofcultural production, espe-
cially experimental ones,who is constrained bythe lackofan audience for
certain kinds ofwork. It is importantfor postmodern thinkersandtheorists
toconstitutethemselves as an audiencefor suchwork. Todo this theymust
assertpowerandprivilegewithin thespaceofcriticalwritingtoopenup the
fi eld so thatitwiIl bemoreinclusive.Tochangetheexclusionarypracticeof
postmoderncriticaldiscourseistoenactapostmodernismofresistance.Part
ofthisintervention entailsblackintellectualparticipationinthediscourse.
In his essay HPostmodemism and BlackAmerica," Cornel Westsuggests
that black inteIlectuals are marginal-usuallylanguishing at the interface
ofBlackandwhite cultures orthoroughlyensconcedinEuroAmericanset
tings. " He cannotsee this group as potentialproducers ofradical postmod
S. The l ille ofa 1977 colleclion ofessays offeminist critici ,m, edited by Arlyn Diamond and Lee R.
Edwards.
1
~
2484 I BELL HOOKS
ernist thought. While I generally agree with this assessment, black
intellectuals must proceed with the understanding that we are not con
demned to the margins. The way we work and what we do can determine
whether or not what we produce will be meaningful to a wider audience, one
that includes all classes of black people. West suggests that black intellec-
tuals lack "any organic link with most of Black life" and that this "dimi nishes
their value to Black resistance. " This statement bears traces of essentialism.
Perhaps we need to focus more on those black intellectuals, however rare
our presence, who do not feel this lack and whose work is primarily directed
towards the enhancement of black critical consciousness and the strength
eni ng of our collective capacity to engage in meaningful resistance struggle.
Theoretical ideas and critical thinking need not be transmitted solely in writ-
ten work or solely in the academy. While I work in a predominantly white
institution, I remain intimately and passionately engaged IJ.Iith black com
munity. It 's not like I'm going to talk about WTiting and thinking about post-
modernism with other academics andl or intellectuals and not discuss these
ideas with underclass nonacademic black folks who are family, friends, and
comrades. Since I have not broken the ties that bind me to underclass poor
black community, I have seen that knowledge, especially that which
enhances daily life and strengthens our capacity to survive, can be shared.
It means that critics, writers, and academics have to give the same critical
attention to nurturing and cultivating our ties to black community (hat we
give to writing articles, teaching, and lecturing. Here again I am really talking
about cultivating habits of being that reinforce awareness that knowledge
can be disseminated and shared on a number of fronts. The extent to which
knowledge is made available, accessible, etc. depends on the nature of one's
political commitments.
Postmodern culture with its decentered subject can be the space where
ties are severed or it can provide the occasion for new and varied forms of
bonding. To some extent, ruptures, surfaces, contextuality, and a host of
other happenings create gaps (hat make space for oppositional practices
which no longer require intellectuals to be confined by narrow separate
spheres with no meaningful connection to the world of the everyday. Much
postmodern engagement with culture emerges from the yearning to do intel
lectual work that connects with habits of being, forms of artistic expression,
and aesthetics that inform the daily life of wri ters and scholars as a well as
a mass population. On the terrain of culture, one can participate in critical
dialogue with the uneducated poor, the black underclass who are thinking
about aesthetics. One can talk about what we are seeing, thinking, or listen-
ing to; a space is there for critical exchange. It's exciting to think, write, talk
about, and create art that reflects passionate engagement with popular cui
ture, because trus may very well be li the" central future location of resistance
struggle, a meeting place where new a.nd radical happenings can occur.
1990