i
BELL
HOOKS article by Heather Gordon, Good Five Cents Cigar "If you want to be
somebody, if
you want
somewhere, you better wake up and pay attention." The URI Gospel Choir guest
to go
speaker bell hooks words. Before
a
with these
profound
crowd of close to 600
bell hooks, author, educator, and feminist, delivered a lecture on
people,
"Multiculturalism in Higher Education." Her issues such as white
speech addressed
supremacy, racism, multiculturalism and
feminism.
Focusing primarily
white supremacy inherent within
on
and the attitudes that
are
ideology, hooks compelled students, teachers, faculty and guests to unite in collective solidarity. "The enemy is not white people, it is white supremacy," hooks said. She said that it is not only white people who take on the values of white supremacy, but minorities also internalize
these beliefs. She "think about how
dividing
urged the crowd to, people of color are
themselves
.
.
.
who does it serve?"
Discouraging exclusivity, hooks
emphasized
the need for cooperation
She continued her among all cultures discussion by distinguishing between the multiculturalism and the of reality .
.
instututionalization of diversity. "A lot of black
people
are
disturbed
multiculturalism, because
it
by institutional pushes them ou'
of the way for other minority groups," hooks said. She added that "Positively,
multiculturalism is
a
corrective to
a
Eurocentric vision of racism."
Following
her
speech,
hooks fielded
questions from members of the audience. student asked about the representations of people of color in one culture she answered with the popular following, "indeed people of color are When
one
misrepresented, however, our
power in
as consumers
we
to
culture. The
change accountability lies
and
our
do not
demand
use
more
responsibility
with all of us."