Davis: OF LOVE AND LIBERATION: A REVIEW OF BREAKING BREAD OF LOVE AND LIBERATION: A REVIEW OF BREAKING BREAD Adrienne D. Davis*

The label "Black intellectual" may be either ox- Once modified as Black, the icon "intellectual" ymoronic or redundant, depending on the content one blurs. ascribes to the term and the historic context in which it The work of many "Black intellectuals"-produc- is situated. ing scholarship of relevance to communities of color, The unmodified intellectual, the white intellectual, often attempting to remain accessible to the semi-liter- has historically inhabited a narrow cell within society's ate and nonliterate majority of Americans-does not matrix. We generally cannot distill him (the gender match our initial vision of activity by the "unmodified male is also usually attributed absent specification) from intellectual." The racial modifier "Black" produces an 2 our vision of the academic.I Thus we identify the intel- image counter to our initial one. Even if confused, we lectual with ivy and Gothic imagery and all the tragedy incline not to reevaluate the content we initially ascribed and romanticism of isolation associated therein. He oc- to the word "intellectual." Rather, we find a new label cupies a space among our society's elites, grudgingly for the enterprise of the Black thinkers, and thus leave by the supposedly neutral welcomed to take his seat at the table beside the bankers them unreferenced3 and lawyers, the politicians and businessmen. His ideas "intellectual." are expected to be provocative rather than applicable, However, if we view our icon in a slightly different esoteric rather than accessible. light, we may perceive that to call someone Black and

* Assistant Professor, University of San Francisco School of and positioning which acknowledges the dangers of universal- Law. For asking the right questions and making excellent editing izing, but also underscores the need to speak of oppression in its suggestions, I thank Emmet Flood, Donna Hughes-Oldenburg, multiple forms. See Catharine A. MacKinnon, From Feminist Practice Jonathan Osder, Reginald Robinson, Catharine Wells, and Ste- to Theory, or What Is a l'hite Jloman Anyway?, 4 YALE J.L. & FEMI- phanie Wildman. I thank in particular Anthony K. "Van" Jones NISM 13 (1991) (Professor MacKinnon's article should be read for reading multiple drafts and listening to me talk my way within the context of a larger academic and feminist debate about through Breaking Bread and this review of it. anti-essentialism and relationships between white women and wo- 1. Academicism and intellectualism are, of course, two distinct men of color. In the piece, she rejects constructions of white wo- things. Intellectualism is a way of approaching one's life and the manhood. Many feminists (white and non-white) have objected to world, in a critically engaged and thoughtful way. Academicism her characterization, presentation, and seeming dismissal of criti- refers to the project of teaching, and usually writing, within an ques by women of color feminists and there will soon be many institutional context. Not all academics embrace intellectual activ- replies. However, MacKinnon's central point, that gender oppres- ity (it is not rare to hear academics condemn a colleague as "too sion affects all women albeit manifest in varying forms and to intellectual"), and many intellectuals are not academics, bell vastly varying degrees, should not be missed.) see also, MariJ. Mat- hooks and Cornel West discuss this phenomenon in BREAKING suda, Pragmatism Modified and the False Consciousness Problem, 63 S. BREAD, 28-29 (1991) [hereinafter cited by page number only]. CAL. L. REV. 1763 (1990). Moreover, there is a profound strain of anti-intellectualism Before essentialism had a name, bell hooks, and a number in American culture, somewhat paradoxical in light of the eco- of other women of color theorists, described this phenomenon. nomic market's professed valuation of higher degrees, seemingly See, e.g., BELL HOOKS, AIN'T I A WOMAN? (1981); BELL HOOKS, FEMI- associated with the process of learning and being intellectual. See, NIST THEORY FROM MARGIN TO CENTER (1984); BELL HOOKS, TALK- e.g., RICHARD HOFSTADTER, ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM IN AMERICAN ING BACK (1989); BELL HOOKS, YEARNING (1990); ALL THE WOMEN LIFE (1963); M.P. ROGIN, THE INTELLECTUALS AND MCCARTHY ARE WHITE, ALL THE BLACKS ARE MEN, BUT SOME OF Us ARE (1967). 1 thank Donna Hughes-Oldenburg for recommending BRAVE (Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott & Barbara Smith eds., these books. 1982). 2. The problems of deracination and assumption of whiteness 3. I am reminded of a teaching interview I had with a prestigi- (and maleness and certain other forms of privilege) as the norm ous law school. I made many faux-pas, but what stands out most have been taken up in much recent literature on essentialism. See, strongly in my mind is the way the interviewing committee became e.g., ELIZABETH SPELMAN, INESSENTIAL WOMAN (1988) (certain ra- cold and indifferent after I described (now-Congresswoman) Elea- cial and class characteristics are the assumed norm in discourse nor Holmes Norton as a role model. I told them how I wanted to about gender); Kimberl6 Crenshaw, Demarginalizing the Intersection teach, write, work in the community or in politics, and bring the of Race and Sex, 1989 U. CHI. LEGAL F. 139 (effects of assumed, experience of each endeavor to bear on the others. I was per- unarticulated standards on legal doctrine); Angela P. Harris, Race plexed by the shift in the atmosphere upon saying this. I was en- and Essentialism in Feminist Legal Theory, 42 STAN. L. REV. 581 (1990) lightened later by a female member of the committee who advised (pervasiveness of essentialism in legal feminist writing). However, me to keep my non-academic aspirations to myself if I wanted to at least two authors have recognized some of the dangers of the teach at an elite school. Eleanor was great, but not welcome anti-essentialism critique, taken to its most logical conclusion. there. Neither was her work. Neither were the people for whom They have moved to what I call post-essentialism, a methodology she did her work. Neither, clearly, was I.

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intellectual may be to restate the same fundamental ap- postindustrial, and increasingly postmodern Black proach to the world. community. Systemic oppression is institutionalized economic, hooks and West embody a rarity in our historic political, psychic, or physical subordination imple- moment: theorists willing to inhabit the ugly terrain of mented on the basis of, and often rationalized by, the postindustrial capitalism. They have embarked upon a mere presence of a characteristic shared by the targeted tripartite project of theory, practice, and love that leads group.4 In Western culture, there are a number of in- me to label them postmodern liberation theorists. They terlocking systems that subjugate people, usually based prompt us to see that the act of enlivened and enlight- on immutable characteristics. 5 For every group subju- ened critical conversation assists in building a mentality gated, at least one group is privileged; yet the dynamics of resistance. They remind us of the central role of pop- of these systems are such that the privileging itself be- ular culture in producing dialogues, antecedent to crys- comes unseeable. 6 For the subordinated, however, our tallized ideas, about liberation. They illuminate the stigmatized characteristic(s) dictate an on-going engage- destructiveness of an uncritical embrace of liberal capi- ment at the crux of the juxtaposition, an engagement talism, vividly revealing the addictive practices in which constantly exploring and examining the paradox of non- Blacks of all classes are absorbed. And they demon- ness (nonwhiteness, nonmaleness, nonChristian, etc.). strate through loving and affirming dialectic engage- We are locked in a ceaseless struggle over the power to 7 ment the way back to spiritual community and the fight define and categorize. against subordination. Breaking Bread focuses our gaze upon the icon of the intellectual yet again. The dialogue between hooks I. and West functions as a prism, casting a discerning light through the seemingly narrow image of the intellectual One of the most emancipatory messages in Break- ing Bread comes not from the printed words, but and enabling us to see that the term does include within from the act creating the book's structure. it those who bring a critical world view and a commit- hooks and West ment to oppressed communities. publish Breaking Bread in a series of dialogues and inter- views, exploding our traditional images of the alienated, Brilliant critics of pop culture themselves, hooks lonely theoretician.' 0 They thoroughly debunk this per- and West eschew traditional academic artistic elitism: in vasive and dangerous myth of the intellectual as a soli- their search for oppositional content, they obliterate the tary, asocial intellectual, isolated from community.'' I established hierarchies of artistic form. They note that label this mythology dangerous because adherence to it artists concerned with accessibility will employ styles creates vast schisms between those dedicated to the life and make choices of media long considered unworthy of of the mind and others interested in establishing com- academic criticism. Penetrating, visionary messages will munities of resistance. As history instructs, the creation come in multiple, unorthodox forms from those sensi- of ideas is a prerequisite for effective liberatory prac- tive to the manifold levels of literacy in our society.8 We tices. In structure and form, the co-authors prove and cannot dismiss or demean these decisions; the lovingly affirm the value of community in intellectual unorthodoxy may be working toward the subversive life, and in Black life more generally. purpose of engaging the audience as subjects. 9 We must support through our willingness to recognize Intra-academy conventions require much of the them, those artists committed to creating and imple- isolated activity associated with traditional images of in- tellectualism. These menting forms of communication predicated on recon- conventions privilege written texts over ceptualizing liberation for a postintegrationist, oral ones. The many hours someone in the acad- emy spends talking (over coffee, in offices, informally at conferences) have no value if not transformed into the

4. Although hooks and West speak specifically about the expe- 9. 1 am aware this word has somewhat of a taboo quality in rience of Black people in this nation, they both understand op- postmodern discourse. Still, I do not think the concept of "sub- pression as something far broader, which implicates imperialism jecthood" and its relationship to "object" can be excised from the and class subordination. Their critique of the role of the intellec- lexicon of liberation just yet. The subject/object distinction, tual in the Black American community has much to offer intellec- while theoretically passe, still describes a very real distinction be- tuals within other subordinated communities, inside and outside tween those who are privileged, and those who are subjugated, of the United States. those who participate in discourse, and those who are discussed. 5. See itfra notes 17, 35 and accompanying text. It is indeed a fluid concept: one who is a subject in one arena may 6. Crenshaw, supra note 2, at 150-51. The process by which be very much an object in another (a white woman, for instance). this simultaneous privileging and erasure take place is taken up in I, like hooks and West, think it is not for the privileged to reject a larger work-in-progress I am coauthoring with Trina Grillo and such a concept as "subject." See infra text accompanying notes 16- Stephanie Wildman. We explore the dynamics underlying the 17. current debates about intersectionality, see Crenshaw, supra note 2, 10. The last two pieces in the book are in solo, essay form. and essentialism, SPELMAN, supra note 2, and Harris, supra note 2. These are the weakest portions of the book, not for lack of insight, Adrienne 1). Davis, Trina Grillo & Stephanie M. Wildman, Inter- but rather because much of the book's energy and insight derives sections: Categories and Koosh Balls: Rendering Privilege Visi- from the reader's captivation by the interplay of these two voices. ble and Other Subversive Practices (September 14, 1992) (work- providing constant perspectival shifts. In comparison to the dia- in-progress, on file with author). logic material, the essays seem asynchronous and somewhat 7. P. 38 (noting current Black academic capitulation to white cursory. conceptions of Blackness); see also supra note 6. 11. See supra text accompanying note 9; infra notes 18-21 and 8. See infra note 26 and accompanying text. accompanying text.

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expected written format. Rarely are these critical con- are certainly negative media depictions of white Ameri- versations documented in the written work, apart from cans, these depictions are counterbalanced by an array the standard thank-you's. We are a part of a scholarly of other images; in effect, negative and positive images market in which rewards are given based on individual of whiteness are everywhere. However, images of worth; hiring and promotion are rarely done on a group Blackness are rarer and each, having little competition, or "team" basis. Adhering to academic dictates, partic- strikes us with greater force.' 5 Breaking Bread, of course, ularly for non-scientist theoreticians, means working can never compete with the popular visual media; no alone. scholarly work, or written work for that matter, could in hooks and West note academic communities need our current social context. Still, watching the hooks/ not be the sole judges of theoretical production. Non- West collaboration proves refreshing and reminds those academic intellectuals as well as the people being written of us who vacillate between multiple media that these about are also potential readers of our work. Expanding depictions often present distorted reflections of reality. our audiences in this way suggests the possibility for al- Reminding us our praxis need not be limited by existing ternative scholarly and intellectual methods and popular scholarship and culture, Breaking Bread issues a presentation. call to intellectuals to begin a redefinition of our com- The book establishes its dialogic foundations from mon endeavor, effort, and end. the beginning: the authors introduce each other and dis- cuss the significance of their decision to co-write in this II. particular dialectic form. Many academics who co-au- thor books write through "one" voice,12 but hooks and Sharing the word.- that which is most one's own. 16 At the West talk to each other as distinct voices. To read Break- beginning of her dialogue with West, hooks inscribes ing Bread is to witness the rich, personal process of the the power of their act. In case anyone misses the signifi- creation of theory. As they discuss their ideas about liv- cance of their colloquy, hooks specifies the centricity of ing a responsible and enriched life, we see the best of oratory and discussion for subordinated peoples. Sub- their cultural criticism, neomarxism, and feminism, ordination is predicated in part on discursive practices which they bring to bear on the dilemmas facing the which prevent the articulation of dissident voices within Black community. As they interview each other, we see structured spaces. A core element of systemic subordi- each embrace the role of enabler to provide the other nation is that the social structure itself does not allow with structured, supportive, yet critically engaged space dissident voices to speak or be heard. The act of sum- in which to grow. moning all of one's pieces into a being coherent enough Ultimately, we see a Black man and Black woman to sustain the expression of a thought, the act of speech, totally absorbed in each other as worthwhile subjects. is itself an act of dissidence. When one dares more, In today's Black world, we cannot underestimate the dares to approach and speak to another as a human sub- need for the creation of positive imagery of the Black ject, this explosion of oneself as other-defined is the community, particularly in the area of gender relation- genesis of real resistance. ships. Media images, produced by Black and white in- hooks challenges other critical theorists, namely terests, have portrayed the Black community as wasted marxists and feminists, and in doing so exposes an un- by the erosion of patriarchal values. 13 hooks and West witting elitism that pervades much of both ideologies as note that much of popular culture depicts Black men currently practiced. In marxism and feminism, labor and women at each other's throats.' 4 Although there and sexuality respectively (but not exclusively) are at the

12. I certainly am not trying to diminish the project of attempt- I was heartened to see a move away from this ideal in the ing to co-write in one voice. Reginald Robinson commented that recent movie lVhile Men Can 't Jump. Although there was much neg- for two people, writing as one voice may mean a sort of violence ative imagery in the movie, it attempted to portray a loving Black, or silencing is done to one (or both) voice(s) for the sake of univo- working-class couple, living without pathology and violence. At cality. This is a significant point. Yet, I have co-written one piece the end of the movie, Wesley Snipes, playing a construction con- and am in the process of doing another; my colleagues and I have tractor and sometime basketball hustler, realizes that for him and noted that our collective writing is richer, precisely because of this his wife to "make it," he will have to allow her to get a job. T'he struggle to meld and yet not overwhelm. As we sit together, talk- couple progresses to an understanding: if their mutual futures are ing through ideas or editing at the computer, we find that our in- to be secure, they must operate as partners, rejecting outmoded, dividual voices build on one another, much in the oral tradition of traditional notions of marriage and genler relationships. the Black church which utilizes call and response to include all 14. In the past year alone (1991-92), demeaning representa- members of the congregation in the process of creating and learn- tions of Black women and, more broadly, Black gender relation- ing the text. hooks and West repeatedly discuss the impact of the ships have flooded the media. Consider the imaging of African- church tradition on Black intellectual activity, emphasizing its leg- American women and our relationship to African-American men acy. Pp. 1-4, 30, 51-52 & 106. in cross-over rap music, the Mike Tyson trial, the Hill-Thomas Creating a truly singular voice out of multiple ones is a per- hearings, television shows such as In Living Color, and Spike Lee's sonally enriching process, not unlike the creation of single struc- Jungle Fever. The role of white audiences in popularizing, and en- tures in agrarian life (quilting, barnraising, etc) in which each trenching through their consumption, these types of images of individual's effort is distinct, and yet blends into and enhances the our community should not be overlooked. whole. hooks and West discuss gender relationships in the Black 13. hooks and West question our community's desperate quest community at pp. 3, 9, 56-57, 95-96, 98, 102, 106-07 & 114-29. to "regain" patriarchal family structures, even as white people 15. On the production and consumption of Blackness as a com- recognize the need for more egalitarian partnerships to survive modity, see infra note 40 and accompanying text. economically. Pp. 103-05. 16. P. 2.

Published by Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository, 1992 3 Yale Journal ofOf Law Love and and Liberation, Liberation Vol. 3 [1992], Iss. 1, Art. 5 core of repressive practices against which we must text in which they were situated. 2 ' If we approach the struggle. By definition, theoretical and activist followers project of liberation without crafting a profound cri- of these methodologies have predefined the source of tique of the world around us, we are bound to replicate exploitation. However, in redirecting our attention to past flaws-and subjugations. speech, hooks focuses our view on the production of di- To this end, hooks and West are troubled by the alogue, through which oppression is named and defined, current wave of Black neonationalism, wherein new con- and the terms of struggle are set. Those who cannot verts adopt 1920s and 1960s icons and ideas without speak, who have been taught not to speak, cannot then understanding the context in which they evolved. 22 Na- participate in this crucial definitional process. tionalism has come to be symbolized almost solely by an We then notice a pervasive silence in communities angry, pre-Mecca image of Malcolm X, which allows where people are without the language to describe their neonationalists to fall prey to the errors earlier national- circumstances. They accept other people's definitions ists, including Malcolm, worked through. 23 We must of the meaning of oppression; their ability to define for expand our conception of Black politics of indepen- themselves the meaning of liberation is thus dence beyond Malcolm X's early rhetoric, and indeed, circumscribed. beyond Malcolm himself. We cannot import 1960s Feminism and marxism are both predicated on a political theory into the 1990s without critically explor- group's ability to recognize and name gender and class ing the changes in our global situation. oppressions for what they are. 17 Without this first step Finally, hooks and West urge us to recognize and of envisioning their subordination, oppressed peoples appreciate articulation of the word in its myriad forms. cannot reach the goal of revisioning their oppression They remind us that verbal engagement with another in- into liberation, hooks and West compel us to realize the dividual in critically supportive communication occurs most effective methodology will be the one that gives most frequently in nonwritten texts. 24 American culture people the tools to name their oppression, and enables is increasingly iconographic, preferring symbolic and others to hear what they call it. filmic images rather than printed words. These icons Clearly, one of the most immediate and crucial are coded with a meaning so compact and yet singular tasks for the Black intellectual is to facilitate the empow- that there are multinational communities which under- erment of people to join the liberatory project, includ- stand them. Around these icons has been created "a ing the precedent act of participating in this naming global semiculture," a "single cultural zone" in which a process. The Black intellectual's task is to use theory to large portion of the world is literate in the "cultural fast give us a way of understanding our collective and indi- food" of American popular entertainment. 2 5 If our con- vidual tragedies, beyond the pure emotional feeling of cern is to encourage the production of progressive, re- them. 18 From this understanding, we can proceed to re- constructive imagery, then we must refocus our critical vision liberation. gaze to include the "lower" yet "hot" media. Frequently in Black (and other oppressed) commu- Thus, hooks and West caution the self-designated nities a tendency exists to trash theory as unhelpful, in- intellectual against traditional artistic elitism, and they accessible, and ultimately irrelevant. In some ways, this do not limit their own critiques, in typical academic disparagement of theory functions as a tool of empow- fashion, to "high" culture, hooks and West define as erment for communities to define their own project; but relevant and deserving of attention anything and every- it assumes that the process of liberation can proceed thing that affects the orientation and self-conceptualiza- without a goal and a defensible strategy, which must tion of our communities. In one dialogue, they discuss emerge from sustained community debate. West re- articles from popular and "literary" magazines; artistic minds us, "ideas are forms of power." Without historic European and commercial American filmmakers; popu- memory, '9 we forget that most of our revered freedom lar television shows; books authored by popular writers fighters were also deeply intellectual, spending their and academicians; political leaders and pundits; reli- lives building movements around carefully constructed gious leaders; stand-up comics; jazz musicians; and ideas. 20 Both authors warn of the danger of appropriat- modern day blues balladeers. What do all these things ing past liberatory strategies without incorporating an have in common? Each produces imagery which is po- 2- understanding of the particular historic or global con- tentially emancipatory (or damaging) in its content.

17. The inability to locate one form of oppression within a 19. hooks and West call this type of memory "subversive." P. broader context of interlocking and synergistic systems of subor- 58. dination has frustrated progressive movement. Communities of 20. West includes himself within this tradition of "intellectual color tend to be race-centric, privileged white feminist communi- freedom fighters." P. 27. ties tend to be gender-centric, and the recognition of class as an 21. P. 48. issue frequently is embedded in racist and sexist rhetoric. Thus, 22. Pp. 46-47, 93-94. the unification of all subordinated people against the interdepen- 23. P. 94. dent ideologies of capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy (includ- 24. P. 62. ing homophobia), and imperialism is prevented, hooks and West 25. Todd Gitlin, ll'orld Leaders: Mickev, el at., N.Y. TIMES, May 3, discuss the narrow focus of the Black community, in particular, on 1992, § 2, at 1; see also pp. 37-38. race to the exclusion of other subordinating dynamics within that 26. P. 45. Thus, by refusing to draw distinctions between aca- community at pp. 29-30, 43-44 & 48-49. demic criticism and the films of Spike Lee, they achieve their own 18. P. 34. goal of not privileging form over content. They send us a

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With an incisive sweep, hooks and West categorize This serves as a crystalline message that our fates as in- progressive works into two forms: thin and thick opposi- dividuals lie in our collective future. 3' One of the initial tional art. In response to hooks' question as to whether projects in fighting subjugation is to transcend the exal- Black culture radicalizes white American culture, West tation of the individual and of "privatism" 32 which per- says: vades Western, particularly American, culture. hooks and West conduct a powerful neomarxist It is oppositional, but there are different levels of critique of the effects on Black Americans of capitalism opposition. . . . Thin opposition is a critique of as an economic practice and classical liberal theory as a American society that does not talk about the need political ideology. The adoption of the economics of for a redistribution of wealth, resources, and capitalism and the politics of liberalism has had a devas- power. Thick opposition is an attempt to call into tating impact on many Black neighborhoods, transform- question the prevailing maldistribution of wealth ing them into "wasteland[s] and combat zone[s]" 33 in this society. . . . When you get something like brought about by despairing, desperate nihilism. reggae and rap, culturally they function in a thin The embrace of capitalism dulls, indeed empties, oppositional mode. They make gestures towards our ability to be critical of capitalism's interlocking sys- thick opposition-redistribution of wealth, but tems of patriarchy and white supremacy and imperial- there is no translation of reggae or rap into a polit- 2 7 ism. Thus, we find that once capitalism is accepted as ical movement. the appropriate economic and ideological form, participa- tion in it will also mean an embrace of commodification Having illustrated the need for more intense artistic cri- as a principle: judging things by their monetary value. tique and depictions of resistance, the authors subse- This has created a tendency in our society to view as quently envision the potentially pivotal role of "objects" that which can be sold 28 for profit. Thus we committed cultural workers in liberation movements. find commodification of sex, and a corresponding mon- 34 In focusing on the need for simultaneous "grassroots etary valuation, and human devaluation, of women. and televisual" movements, they again direct us to the Patriarchy and capitalism and white supremacy are importance of producing oppositional imagery through predicated on this objectifying and devaluing dynamic. artistic practices. 29 enlightened Within our community, attempting to reject white supremacy yet tolerate classism and actually emulate pa- III. triarchy has failed as a strategy. Paradoxically, many of us have come to equate our own agency with our ability Most fundamentally, Breaking Bread is about our 35 collective recovery, hooks and West issue a powerful to subordinate others. All too often, these others are exhortation for all communities, not just Black ones, to members of the Black community as well. recover our rapidly fading spiritual interconnection, to Liberalism exalts the cult of the individual; capital- revision what it means to be alive and potentially free. ismjudges his worth through his market value. It is not, The book opens with a substantive and formal in- however, capitalism itself that creates the problem; it is vocation of the metaphor of communion: the obsession with the individual. We frequently speak of Black people as poor, or not privileged, and thus [A] spirit of testimony is a very hard spirit to con- lacking power in market terms. What we lose sight of is vey in written text, so when I think about you and our collective control over billions of dollars, empower- me actually doing more dialogues together. . .it ing us as a community, if not as individuals. As West says: struck me that dialogue was one of the ways where that sense of mutual witness and testimony could We are enacting more and more a paradigm of be made manifest. I link that sense to regular com- market morality in which one understands oneself munion service.. .where we would often stand in a as living to consume, which in turn creates a mar- collective circle and sing .... I liked the combina- ket culture where one's communal and political tion of the notion of community which is about identity is shaped by the adoration and cultivation of images, celebrityhood, and visibility as opposed sharing and breaking bread together, of dialogue 36 as well as mercy because mercy speaks to the need to character, discipline, substantive struggle. we have for compassion, acceptance, understand- 3 0 ing, and empathy. We equate life and sensibility with physical stimulation.

message that all art (and artists) are worthy of our attention and 30. Pp. 2-3. criticism. 31. P. 9. 27. Pp. 39, 40. 32. P. 14. 28. In their own previous work, hooks and West have both been 33. P. 54, 107. instrumental in helping Black scholars to create counterimagery 34. Once viewed as economically accessible, women come to be of what it means to be an intellectual. They repeatedly demon- seen as objects - objects of male desire. See, e.g., Adrienne D. Da- strate that the philosophical ponderings of Black men and women, vis & Stephanie M. Wildman, The Legacy of Doubt: Treatment of Sex the critical eye turned to the anecdotal experience-this is schol- and Race in the Hill-Thomas Hearings, 65 S. CAL. L. REV. 1367, 1371- arship, and indeed, this is theory. See supra notes 8-9 and accom- 75 (1992). panying text. 35. P. 95. 29. P. 106. 36. P. 95.

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The one who is most stimulated is most alive.3 7 West with that privileging.:'!' Now, the Black economically notes: privileged classes increasingly see themselves as a com- munity apart, exempt from obligation beyond their self- A market culture will promote and promulgate an defined community of relevance. addiction to stimulation, it will put forward the Black people thus have a double-pronged concern. view that, in order to be alive, one needs stimula- First, we must be aware of addictive practices in our tion and he/she who is most alive is the person community: the consumption of goods to alleviate our who is most stimulated. You see bodily stimula- pain. These practices lead to sanctioning individual tion projected through the marketing of sexuality, consumption over collective enrichment, which may at the marketing of sexual stimulation as the major times depend on individual sacrifice. Second, we must means by which we construct desire. Along with be ever vigilant of being consumed ourselves. There is market forces there has also been a certain col- a vast and lucrative market in the consumption of Black- lapse of structures of meaning and structures of ness. hooks and West marvel at the ways in which Black feeling, reinforcing the sense that the meaning of bodies are simultaneously commodified and despised: life resides only in what you produce. But what an economic benefit redounds to the person who mar- you conceptualize yourself being able to produce kets Blackness (our fashion and music); yet the person is being shaped by market forces, namely through 3 8 who is Black still feels despised. Only under liberal capi- forms of stimulation. talism can Blackness be detached, commodified, and 4 0 marketed in this way. Thus our self-conceptualization is stunted by our participation in a Western cult of consumption and self- IV. commodification, cutting clearly across class lines. hooks and West expose the fallacy of the popular myth For a variety of reasons, some rooted in academic that pathology and suffering in Western culture are lim- norms and some in societal expectations, Breaking Bread ited to the poor, noting the many forms addictive prac- startles its reader. Those familiar with hooks and West's tice take in the Black (and nonBlack) economically previous works expect a sustained, self-reflective and in- privileged classes. Alienation, fear of success, erosion wardly focused critique; the authors instead present a of an ethic of service: all these confront the postmodern, series of interchanges, dialogues, combined recipes and postindustrial, postintegrationist Black community. thoughts on the current crises in Western civilization. They note that disconnectedness, aloneness, confusion, And like a joint recipe, Breaking Bread combines the best lead all of us to consume more, stimulate ourselves of two progressive, critical thinkers, deconstructing out- more, in search of release from the pain of the void. We moded icons and reminding us of the responsibility of have lost a critical "moment of accountability," regu- intellectuals to remain grounded in people's actual ex- larly encountered in predominantly Black institutions periences. They recreate in written, academic form, the such as the church, fraternal orders, and predominantly praxis of liberatory communities which derives from col- lective effort and endeavor and which leaves us with a Black colleges. At that moment, Black people were en- 4 1 couraged to recognize that "Black privilege is a result of workable, liveable model for intellectual engagement. Black struggle," creating responsibility commensurate

37. P. 95. 40. Pp. 87, 89. 38. P. 95-96, see also p. 84 (commodification of gender). 41. P. 109. 39. Pp. 15, 16.

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artist: Eve M. Fowler

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