What a purposeful life, well lived.
A self-named bell with armed with mighty hooks and a penchant for powerful words. They will speak of you as a feminist author and scholar. But I, we, us will forever salute you for being so much more . . .
I, we, us will honor you for your unapologetic Black, woman, freedom loving, frontline warrior unafraid to address race, class, history, gender, and to so beautifully frame education as the practice of freedom and the classroom (particularly the pre-integration learning space), as a sacred place within which to radicalize our righteous revolutionary cause – against the boredom , lowered expectations and miseducation of the post-integration immersion into a seemingly inescapable system of white supremacy.
She, you who gave us the language which reminds us of the interlocking systems of domination which are always functioning, simultaneously, to maintain our oppression. Not racism said bell hooks, but white supremacy, and acknowledging that there’s power in calling a thing what it is. Because racism is insufficient to allow for a discourse of colonization , decolonization and the vestiges of internalized oppression which wield an indelible impact upon us today.
You, she who reminded us that we should place the ownership at the feet of the racial apartheid and color caste system of white supremacy and insisted that we remove whiteness and white people from the center of our discussions.
Because of you and your selfless knowledge sharing, we/us have inherited a more powerful language with which to embrace love, reject white supremacist imperialism and acknowledge that we could, should and must dismantle the institutional constructs of white supremacist oppression.
From you we learned, not conformity to and/or through the white gaze. Not classroom rules, silence and obedience to authority. Not a starkly traumatic and oppressive, white space which exists as an extension of white supremacy. But an antiracist, revolutionary dialogue between students and teachers. Yes, a wholly transgressive approach which rejects the boundaries and brainwashing inherent in this foul system.
You, she bell hooks, propelled our activism for freedom and justice beyond the narrow constructs of this country to a global stage.
Asé honored ancestor, thank you for your revolutionary service on our collective behalf. We are eternally grateful for your liberation legacy.