Currently, I am digesting bell hooks’s work Rock My Soul: Black People And Self-Esteem and am taking in the nutrients contained in each chapter and using them to feed my desire for information on how to integrate theory with practice in order to liberate the people from the external controls of the small ruling class. In this post, I will attempt to show how I am going about this in my life.

(On a side note, I know that the masses of the blogging world do not care or do not even wish to read writings of my kind- for it forces them to challenge themselves on their own classism, racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, etc. and that is the scariest thing to do- to acknowledge that you yourself have actually contributed to the oppression of certain social groups, based on the premise of social constructs. But I wish to write anyways because technology will be the tool used to transform current social conditions because all things are in a state of transformation due to external contradictions. more on that later)

hooks’ basic premise is that building healthy self-esteem is essential to creating community and movement within the disenfranchised, working class black community.

‘Self-esteem, fully realized, is the experience that we are appropriate

to life and to the requirements of life… Self-esteem is confidence in

our ability to think; confidence in our ability to cope with the basic

challenges of life; confidence in our right to be successful and happy;

the feeling of being worthy, deserving, entitled to assert our needs

and wants, achieve our values, and enjoy the fruits of our efforts.

Without self-esteem people begin to lose their sense of agency.

….When the seventies ended, it was popularly accepted that material

goods and the acquisition of power within the existing power structure

of our society was more attainable than freedom from it. And if one

could not attain power and privilege, one eased the pain with addictions:

drugs, alcohol, food, sex, shopping…..Rather than worry our minds and

hearts about social justice, antiracist struggle, women’s lib, the plight

of the poor, etc, black people were urged to see consumption as the

way to define success and well-being. ‘
From observing my fellow black co-workers, while working as a delivery biker, and taking in their political, economic, and social conditions into account, I have come to the conclusion that a majority of working class and non working class black americans have a damaged sense of self-esteem due to the long lasting traumas of slavery that have yet to be psychologically dealt with. For example, my co-workers constantly create drama amongst themselves by spreading gossip as means to distract themselves from their social, economic and political plights as well as set out on a quest for material goods. I witnessed this in the form of Nike’s, 27’’ rims, play stations, etc. These material goods are used as means to trick ourselves into believing that we posses power, when in reality we possess very little power within the existing power structure of this society. If we cannot attain those material goods, we turn to alternative means of sustainability: jobs or addictions such as drug dealing, alcohol, sex, shopping, or food.

hooks also states that ‘no black person in the US can have any measure of self-esteem if they have not cultivated the capacity to be a critical thinker, to live consciously.’

In order to integrate theory with practice, I began to foster critical thinking amongst my co-workers by having dialogue with them about the current conditions of poor people of color. However, they took on an apathetic standpoint, stating that ‘yes, racism exists, but there is nothing we can do about. so fuck it.’ this is exactly what bell hooks is trying to point out that people, especially black people, with low-self esteem feel powerless and have lost their sense of agency for creating change. if we do not consciously acknowledge that poor people in the US and around the world share a common enemy, the United States Empire, then we cannot begin the path towards liberation and we cannot begin to live consciously without critically thinking. therefore, black people, Latino, Indigenous people have to begin to build healthy self-esteem by acknowledging our painful histories- that we have been traumatized over and over again by the same enemy.

I have also come to conclude that I need to meet people who are critically thinking in the present. I am alone in my quest for liberation where I work and there is power in numbers. I wish for anyone to contact me with information or to continue this dialogue.

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