In working on an essay recently about Wendell Berry and his book-length exploration of American racism, The Hidden Wound, I came upon a related collection of essays by bell hooks, belonging: a culture of place. In her book, hooks references Berry often and with deep respect. Turns out — though Berry is a white man and hooks a Black woman — they are both writers who share a number of core views that rise out of their childhoods in Kentucky, as well as their decisions as adults to return to live in the state. Their paths in academia, as students and professors, took them both to California, New York, and elsewhere. But in time, they felt the need to settle in Kentucky in order to reestablish a close connection to the land and to that all-important sense of community. This move also drove them both to write often about the link between environmental justice and racial justice.
Hooks’ essays in belonging: a culture of place were published in book form in 2009, though they were originally published at various points over the previous decade. In all, they are compelling, essential works for their insights into what it takes to build a racially just American society, as well as for their observations about the troubling impact of capitalism on our views of and connection to nature. As I read, I found myself jotting down numerous quotes and passages. One stood out for its direct link the work I do related to education — and that I know is in the hearts of all educators who are working for change in schools that will lead to more caring and engaged students and healthier communities.
In “Again — Segregation Must End,” hooks, who died in December 2021 at age 69, explains her return to Kentucky, particularly to the town of Berea, where she would eventually become a fixture in the community and serve on the faculty at Berea College. She admits she knew very little about Berea before her visit as a guest lecture years earlier. But she quickly embraced the town and university — which was founded in 1855 by John Fee, a white male abolitionist, and dedicated to the principles of antiracism. The work of antiracism is challenging everywhere in the nation today, of course, but the efforts being in made in Berea, and elsewhere, gave hooks the hope and energy that enabled her to dedicate her impressive life to this work.
In the end of the essay, hooks writes:
“Those of us who truly believe racism can end, that white supremist thought and action can be challenged and changed, understand that there is an element of risk as we work to build community across difference. The effort to build community in a social context of racial inequality (much of which is class-based) requires an ethic of relational reciprocity, one that is anti-domination. With reciprocity all things do not need to be equal in order for acceptance and mutuality to thrive. If equality is evoked as the only standard by which it is deemed acceptable for people to meet across boundaries and create community, then there is little hope. Fortunately, mutuality is a more constructive and positive foundation for the building of ties that allow for differences in status, position, power, and privilege whether determined by race, class, sexuality, religion, or nationality.”
My takeaway: When mutuality thrives, we thrive.