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Assignment 06

In Bell Hook’s chapter, “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance”, she talks about “the other”. The other is pretty much everyone that isn’t white, you can be anything from Asian to Hispanic and you would be classified as “the other”. Hook talks about how people had an ethnocentric mindset judging the culture of the others based on what he or she believes is right. From the eyes of the white, the other are inferior yet exotic being able to bring a little spice into their lives. Hook brings up the example of three white boys who intends on having an sexual interaction with as many other girls as possible, thinking that by doing so it would make make their life a little less boring and a little bit better. These boys had the mindset that having sex with a non white girl would be a different experience. They assumed that it was going to be magical and extremely pleasurable as oppose to having sex with a white girl. Hook explains how by interacting with the other, they can also in a way demonstrate and assert their  power over the minorities.

The idea of the other or otherness is in a way considered a good thing by Hooks as she explains that the way the otherness is shown, it sheds light on different cultures making them much more appealing to the whites. People are led by their curiosity to learn more about the other and understand their ways. They also get a sense of pleasure in knowing and understanding the cultures of the other. I think Hook is trying to say that by adding a bit of the other it makes the whole better. Hook brings up white two rappers who understand what the African American community has gone through ans urges them to move forward with understanding and without hate.