Available:*
Material Type | Library | Call Number | Item Barcode | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | Searching... Lowell - Pollard Memorial Library | 158.1089 HOO | 31481003633869 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Westford - J.V. Fletcher Library | 158.1 HOO | 31990002469059 | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
World-renowned scholar and visionary bell hooks takes an in-depth look at one of the most critical issues of our time, the impact of low self-esteem on the lives of black people.Without self-esteem everyone loses his or her sense of meaning, purpose, and power. For too long, African Americans in particular have been unable to openly and honestly address the crisis of self-esteem and how it affects the way they perceive themselves and are perceived by others.In her most challenging and provocative book to date, bell hooks gives voice to what many black people have thought and felt, but seldom articulated. She offers readers a clear, passionate examination of the role self-esteem plays in the African-American experience in determining whether individuals or groups succeed or self-sabotage. She considers the reasons why even among "the best and brightest" students at Ivy League institutions "there were young men and women beset by deep feelings of unworthiness, of ugliness inside and outside."She listened to the stories of her students and her peers -- baby boomers who had excelled -- and heard the same sentiments, including deep feelings of inadequacy. With critical insight, hooks exposes the underlying truth behind the crisis: it has been extremely difficult to create a culture that promotes and sustains a healthy sense of self-esteem in African-American communities. With true brilliance, she rigorously examines and identifies the barriers -- political and cultural -- that keep African Americans from emotional well-being. She looks at historical movements as well as parenting and how we make and sustain community. She discusses the revolutionary role preventative mental health care can play in promoting and maintaining self-esteem.Blending keen intellectual insight and practical wisdom, Rock My Soul provides a blueprint for healing a people and a nation.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Prolific cultural commentator hooks (Communion) returns with another timely, provocative book on a thorny issue currently being debated in the black community. While popular books by black conservatives place the lack of significant social progress squarely on the shoulders of African-Americans, hooks cleverly repositions the argument, stating articulately that the symptoms of the stagnation (e.g., violence, self-sabotage, malaise and symbolic suicide) are old challenges only intensified by ongoing government neglect, racism, psychological trauma and patriarchy. In typical hooks fashion, she employs diverse sources to provide support for her penetrating, frank views on the troubles that often block blacks from achieving healthy self-esteem. While she admits the power of white racism has lessened, she believes the transition from rigid segregation toward full integration has resulted in crippling emotional and psychological trauma, breeding fear, paranoia, self-hatred, self-doubt and addiction as blacks try to emulate whites and compete in the workplace. Her take on how revised mental health approaches can ease some of these ills is worthwhile and informative. Despite a tendency to repeat some key points, hooks is especially effective when she addresses the devastating toll of low self-esteem and self-hate on black women and families, linking much of the damage to traditional and religious values. With each new book, hooks is deeply exploring the inner terrain of the black community, calling for a return to sound values, self-love and commonsense solutions while seeking new ways to cope with a modern world gone slightly mad. Overall, this is one of hooks's best efforts in recent years. (Jan. 1) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
As astute, intrepid cultural critic hooks so eloquently observes, the inner lives of African Americans have been given short shrift in the annals of psychology. Up to now, there have been no accessible studies of the traumas of slavery or integration, a necessary move toward equality that destabilized the soul-nurturing realm of black culture. These persistent wounds to the collective spirit have long occupied hooks, inspiring a series of groundbreaking books about the formidable challenges of black American life, including Salvation [BKL F 15 01]. Here hooks traces the roots of the pervasive low self-esteem, debilitating feelings of inadequacy and inferiority, that burden even the best and brightest African Americans. As she explicates the complex psychological consequences of racism and the successes and failures of the black pride movements of the past, she points the way to a future in which African Americans are able to replace "chronic emotional pain" with healthy self-esteem. So cogent is hooks' thinking, so clarifying her language, that to read her is to set out on the path toward healing. --Donna Seaman
Library Journal Review
Cultural critic hooks (Communion) is clearly on a mission-to end racism and sexism, heal wounded hearts, and have everyone practicing love. In her latest work, she examines the serious crisis of low self-esteem in the black community, maintaining that African Americans have dealt with this issue since the days of slavery. Her goal is to provide an antidote to a problem she feels has grown to epidemic proportions. In the early 1960s, it was assumed that racism was the primary factor creating low self-esteem, so positive images were created; the slogan "black is beautiful" and natural hairstyles became popular. Hooks begins with a discussion of a system called "shaming," which was imposed on those with dark skin by white Christians, undermining their self-esteem to this day. She also details how religion has played a crucial role in the historical development of self-esteem among African Americans, how addiction (to sugar, alcohol, tobacco, drugs, etc.) destroys it, and how chronic emotional pain prevents healthy self-esteem. Hooks concludes that blacks are experiencing a spiritual crisis and need a spiritual revolution to "reclaim the power of soul." This is an important and interesting topic, but the approach is too scholarly for the average reader. Recommended primarily for academic collections.-Ann Burns, "Library Journal" (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Preface The Inside Part: Self-Esteem Today |
| 1 Healing Wounded Hearts |
| 2 Lasting Trauma |
| 3 Ending the Shame That Binds |
| 4 Living with Integrity |
| 5 Refusing to Be a Victim |
| 6 Thinking Critically |
| 7 Teaching Values |
| 8 Spiritual Redemption |
| 9 Searching at the Source |
| 10 Easing the Pain: Addiction |
| 11 Inner Wounds: Abuse and Abandonment |
| 12 Tearing Out the Root: Self-Hatred |
| 13 Seeking Salvation |
| 14 A Revolution of Values |
| 15 Recovery: A Labor of Love |
| 16 Restoring Our Souls |
| Touch me on the inside part and call me my name... |
| Toni Morrison, Beloved |