DNF at 55%

So the essays/chapters in this book were hit or miss for me. I connected more with some than others. I enjoyed the discussions of self love & community. And one of the essays really helped me have a revelation about self love and the way I treat myself & it is something that will impact me positively forever. There were multiple beautiful quotes. And even though I was connecting with some essays more than others, I was still enjoying the novel. Until I started Chapter 7: Greed: Simply Love…

My first problem with this chapter was that she begins the chapter talking about how she’s disappointed that these days people will kill you for a designer coat or tennis shoes, and then she continues on to say this: 

“Whether poor or rich, in the mid-fifties most citizens in our nation felt it was the best place in the world to live because it was a democracy, a place where human rights mattered.”

How can you, as a Black person, say that human rights mattered in the 50’s? Whose human rights mattered??? Certainly not ours. Yes the fact that someone will kill you for a designer coat is terrible, but in the 50’s they killed us just because they felt like it, so how is that better??? I genuinely hoped that later in the chapter she would combat this thought of the 50’s being better, but she never did. She let it stand. (Unless she did in the last couple of pages, because I did not finish this essay)

And my second problem with this essay is the condescension that was radiating from the page. I cannot stand people who say “money can’t buy you happiness”. Those are usually people who have never been poor enough to miss out on basic necessities that everyone should have. And I felt the most condescension when she was talking about Lil Kim and Monica Lewinsky. Like she was looking down on them & making assumptions about them for valuing money. And I also have a feeling that bell hooks knew nothing of Lil Kim outside of the interview she mentioned having with her (which I haven’t seen, I’ve only seen it referenced in this chapter). Kim did value love, she just might not have valued it the way bell hooks finds relatable. 

I just felt a huge sense of condescension from this whole chapter and I have no desire to continue reading. (Plus, I don’t know why I thought I would enjoy this anyway. I’m very antisocial and misanthropic, I do not like people lmao)