Belle Hook, The Imperialism of
Patriarchy.
It is Belle Hook's thesis that even in a racist society men
would rather unite against each other spiritually and
intellectually than identify with the women of any same race.
Hook says that black men and white men value their maleness as the
pinnacle of what is human about themselves and align themselves in
the subjugation of women as the unalienable privilege of all men
regardless of class or race.
Hook said that black leaders reinforced the views of the
white patriarchal society they were revolting against by choosing
as a primary mode of the exemplification of their new status the
subjugation of black women. In fact she suggested that for black
men there was even more status in subjugating a white woman because
the white women were the property of the white males.
Hook said that while it initially looks like society is less
prejudiced towards black women because they were traditionally given
jobs in white households the reverse is fact true, black women were given
the work that even white women did not want to perform and were not
considered a threat (where black men were considered a threat to
the white man's jobs and his household). Hook found it interesting how
black leaders concerned with the liberation of the black males
refused to see women as deserving equal rights as well. Hook says
"The strongest bonding element between militant black men and
white men was their shared sexism - they both believed in the
inherent inferiority of women and supported male dominance.
Another bonding element was the black male's acknowledgment that
he, like the white male accepted violence as a primary way to
assert power. White men reacted to black male violence with the
excitement and glee men have traditionally expressed when going to
war." She says that "Men of all races bond on the basis of their
common belief that a patriarchal social order is the only viable
foundation in society. Their patriarchal stance is not simply an
acceptance of the social etiquette based on discrimination
against women; it is a serious commitment to maintaining political
regimes throughout the United States and the world that are male
dominated. Male bonding is how they reinforce and a maintain that
power along with an elaborate set of behavioral codes of
gestures, speech, habits, and attitudes which effectively exclude
women from the society of men". Our mother's are powerless and we
are encouraged to hate women, the pill relegated all women to the
bad girl image because now that it's safe, the assumption is that
they are all doing it. White men display their hatred in
pornography and black men in increased domestic violence.
Hook says that the only way to really fight racism is to
provide a common front because there can be no freedom for
patriarchal men of all races as long as they advocate the
submission of women because as they control they must continue to
control and this exertion of power keeps them from being truly
free.
Perhaps it is because we acquire most of our information
processing through our eyes that we have such a tendency to
segregate things into a descending level of importance from what is
most similar to us to what is most different from us, and give
what is most similar to us the highest level of valuation.
Belle talks about sexism's impact on the black woman and how
this has afforded black women the lowest place on the totem pole.
She says that white feminists are busy with male\white-female
economic status as indicator of negative impact on sexism.
