top of page
Search

A Letter to bell hooks: Seeking Community Through Critical Literacy

  • Writer: Tabar Smith
    Tabar Smith
  • Nov 9, 2025
  • 9 min read

Updated: Dec 8, 2025

"Dominator culture has tried to keep us all afraid, to make us choose safety instead of risk, sameness instead of diversity. Moving through that fear, finding out what connects us, revelling in our differences; this is the process that brings us closer, that gives us a world of shared values, of meaningful community." 
— bell hooks, Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope. New York: Routledge, 2003.

bell hooks,


When I was thirteen, I traveled with my family to Mesa, AZ, to celebrate my oldest brother’s engagement to a beautiful, kind, and loving woman from a Czech-Mexican-American heritage. I adored Steph and was so excited to call her my sister. After the engagement party, I was invited to tag along with Steph’s niece and sister, then fifteen and sixteen. We piled into a car with some other girls and drove out of their neighborhood into a more rundown part of the city. We met up with some of their friends, all boys of similar ages. The boys spotted me and immediately wanted to know “who’s that white chica in the back seat.” I can’t remember what else was said, but I do remember comments and laughter at my expense because I was the “white chica.” I felt threatened and targeted because I was different — not from the barrio. I was uncomfortable, embarrassed because I didn’t know how to respond, and scared. I couldn’t wait to leave the situation. My naive thirteen-year-old self didn’t know what to do with that experience, other than to internalize it as fear of not belonging. I was angry at Steph’s niece and sister, and unfairly, I was angry with Steph. I blamed her for placing me in that situation. 


I am white, female, and from a middle-class family. I understand that I am fortunate to be born into my life. But as a thirteen-year-old, in a new place, with new people, I didn’t understand how they perceived me and the complexity of their resentment towards me. 


“I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else’s whim or to someone else’s ignorance.” 

I grew up in Southern Colorado, in a small town with a large Mexican-American population. Growing up, many of my friends were Mexican-American. They usually came from working-class families, often times living in poverty. My best friend in high school came from this life. Her mom didn’t like me, which she never tried to hide, because I was white and middle-class. I resented her feelings towards me. In my mind, I was a good kid and deserved to be seen as such. But when she looked at me, I wonder if all she saw was…


Her very humble home, where five people crowded into a house the size of my parents’ kitchen and living area, where my friend’s bed was a mattress on the floor. 


Her physically demanding, underpaid working-class job as a CNA. My parents’ intellectually demanding, but fairly paid, middle-class jobs. 


Her inability to give her daughter a car for her sixteenth birthday, let alone food without assistance from the government. My used Hyundai XL and guaranteed access to a fully-stocked refrigerator and pantry. 


“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” 

I spent the first half of my adult life knowing I was fortunate to be a white female from a middle-class family. Yet, I also had a felt-sense that racism was a two-way street, and that I could be a victim, that I, too, could be a target of racial hate. I stood self-righteous in this belief, and wanted the world to acknowledge that the oppressed could also be oppressors. But as the racial crimes against Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor occurred, igniting and fueling the Black Lives Matter movement, I began to question my self-righteousness. At first, I was resistant. Yes, I came from privilege, but that wasn’t my fault. I saw the humanity in everyone I interacted with. Why couldn’t they see the humanity in me? Rather than staying unwavering in my self-righteousness, however, I decided it was time to truly understand their experiences and resulting perspectives. I struggled to know their lived experiences, but slowly, I became aware of how my daily existence was truly privileged as compared to theirs.


I occasionally faced unfair assumptions, biases, and microaggressions, but not daily.


“Because I am a black man, I am assumed to be dangerous.”


I never experienced the impact of systemic barriers.


“Because I attend high school in inner city Chicago, my school is old and run down, my teachers are underqualified, and I don’t have guaranteed access to the Internet.”


I don’t live in daily fear of losing my freedom.


“Because I am a Hispanic man with an accent who works as a laborer, I am scared that ICE will arrest me.”


I could be angry with the bidirectional paradigm of racism, but this anger didn’t consume me.


“Just because you are a woman does not mean we are sisters. You are white. I am not. You are from a middle-class upbringing. I grew up in poverty. You belong almost everywhere you go. I have to prove that I am valid and worthy almost everywhere I go. We are different, and until you recognize my experience as different from yours, until you see your privilege and my oppression, we will never be sisters.”


“Commitment to truth telling lays the groundwork for the openness and honesty that is the heartbeat of love.”

I am now more fully aware of my privilege, and I am grateful for it. It has made many things in my life easier. But I still know what it’s like to struggle and to fear.


As a woman, I have faced challenges in proving myself intellectually, professionally, and physically.


As a woman, I have to be careful about walking to my car alone in a parking garage, running or hiking alone, or being in any situation where a man could physically overpower me.


As a woman, I barely balance working full-time in a demanding job, pursuing my master’s degree, being a mom of two young men, a wife of twenty-three years, a daughter, and a sister. 


As a human being, I worry about the state of society and our planet. To me, it seems that we are in a downward tailspin, too burdened, too overwhelmed, too ill-equipped to know what to do about it. I fear that we allow ourselves to be swept up by rhetoric that places blame on those who are different. It’s easier to blindly agree with loud voices than to think critically for ourselves, seek to understand, participate in respectful dialogue, and appreciate differences. 


I struggle to know how to fight for healing rather than hurt, to build connection rather than division, to help anyone in need, and to build true community. I want to exist in a world that celebrates the beauty in our differences instead of being fearful or disdainful of them.


"The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom."
— bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York, Routledge, 1994

So, you see, bell hooks, I want to carry your torch to empower the oppressed, to build connection and community, and to heal our divide. I see education, and especially critical literacy in its various forms, as a necessary path forward. I recently read an academic paper, “The Council of Youth Research: Critical Literacy and Civic Agency in the Digital Age,” about how teachers used critical literacy to empower inner-city youth in fighting for social justice. According to the authors, Garcia et al., critical literacy theorists believe that:


The ultimate goal in this model of literacy is not just comprehension, or even interpretation and critical analysis of texts, but social transformation… a form of creative dialogue with the world that has the potential to effect political change. (154)


From their perspective, critical literacy can provide a platform to engage fully with different ideas, participate in honest and respectful dialogue, discover new perspectives, develop authentic voices, and convey ideas with passion and compassion, all in an effort to incite social change. Through the productive struggle required to become critically literate, we build skills in discovering, respecting, and appreciating our shared human experiences in spite of our differences. And through this process, there is the beautiful possibility of building compassionate connection. 


But how do we accomplish this as educators? In a class post, I proposed the idea that literacy educators and practitioners can use the Council of Youth program’s model to empower their students. With this model, students can learn to tell their unique stories using various forms of media. As storytellers, our youth can learn to speak from their authentic perspectives with awareness and respect for the diverse experiences and opinions of their audience. They can learn to speak from a place of empowerment: “this is how I experience, and my experience is valid and worthy of respect,” and to respectfully acknowledge, “I understand that you may experience differently, and that your experience is valid and worthy of respect.” In doing so, the council creates a space of collaborative, open dialogue.


This model also requires a captive audience, one in which we are responsible for fully engaging with these stories, critically considering and analyzing each authentic perspective, and revising our own interpretations of otherness. If we are successful in implementing such a critical literacy platform, we can then more fully and skillfully engage with social justice experiences across the world. Along with the students, we can learn to see our shared human experiences despite our differences, respecting and accepting our differences, and connecting as a community. Going further, we can expand our critical social justice skills beyond human social justice to more-than-human justice, to address global challenges, such as the climate crisis, as a collaborative community. 


"Beloved community is formed not by the eradication of difference but by its affirmation, by each of us claiming the identities and cultural legacies that shape who we are and how we live in the world." 

bell hooks, as I read your essays in Teaching to Transgress, I feared that you perpetuated the division of race. I interpreted your words to blame white women for the struggles of black women. Your statements targeted at white women hurt. I wanted to scream at you for fueling further division:


White women were more willing to “hear” another white woman talk about racism, yet it is their inability to listen to black women that impedes feminist progress. (102)


We felt betrayed; white women had not fulfilled the promise of sisterhood. (103)  


Now black women are placed in the position of serving white female desire to know more about race and racism, to “master” the subject. (103)


… that they [white female professors and students] talked about the status and experiences of “women” when they were only referring to white women. (120).


But then I read this:


black female students from working-class backgrounds… arrived hoping I would use my professional power to decenter the voices of privileged white students in nonconstructive ways so that those students would experience what it is like to be an outsider. (188)


At this moment, I fully connected with your ideas. I understood that you weren’t seeking division. You were telling your authentic story so that we could perceive your pain. You were also building a communal space where we could be free to tell our stories in an effort to connect with others as humans, both different and the same. I returned to your previous essays and found evidence of your work in building community:


Concurrently, black women need to explore our collective attachment to rage and hostility towards white women. (109)


When we create this woman space where we can value difference and complexity, sisterhood based on political solidarity will emerge. (110)


To engage in dialogue is one of the simplest ways we can begin as teachers, scholars, and critical thinkers to cross boundaries, the barriers that may or may not be erected by race, gender, class, professional standing, and a host of other differences. (130)


bell hooks, I want to help build a platform for open dialogue that allows us to say, 


“This is how I experience, and my experience is valid and worthy of respect.” 


And to acknowledge, 


“I understand that you may experience differently, but that your experience is valid and worthy of respect.” 


I want to build a platform that we can stand upon by fully engaging with others’ stories. I want to make space to critically consider and see others’ authentic perspectives, and to be willing to revise our own interpretations of otherness. Such a platform might allow us to value otherness and to perceive our shared humanness. And in my mind, this platform is built upon skillful, critical literacy. 


"I dreamed about a culture of belonging. I still dream that dream. I contemplate what our lives would be like if we knew how to cultivate awareness, to live mindfully, peacefully; if we learned habits of being that would bring us closer together, that would help us build beloved community." 

Sources

Hooks, Bell. Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope. Routledge, 2003.


Hooks, Bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge, 1994.

‌

Garcia, Antero, et al. “The Council of Youth Research: Critical Literacy and Civic Agency in the Digital Age.” Reading & Writing Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 2, Jan. 2015, pp. 151–67, https://doi.org/10.1080/10573569.2014.962203.


Harvey, Branden. “54 Best Bell Hooks Quotes on Love, Change, and Community.” Goodgoodgood.co, 4 Mar. 2024, www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/bell-hooks-quotes. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.


“The 50 [BEST] Quotes on Respect (in 2022).” Upjourney.com, 6 Jan. 2021, upjourney.com/respect-quotes.


“Top 500 Bell Hooks Quotes (2024 Update) - QuoteFancy.” Quotefancy.com, quotefancy.com/bell-hooks-quotes.

‌


Comments

bottom of page