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Assignment 6

The “Other”, as describe by Hooks, are all people that are not White. The “Other” is so different than Whites that they take on a mystical quality that Whites want to secretly come in contact with.   Examples of “Others” mentioned by Hooks are Blacks, Native Americans, and Asians.

White males want to come in contact but not because they see them as equal but because the “Others” offer pleasure that they cannot receive in their world. Moreover, conquering “Others” also served as a rite of passage. Hooks describe this in the passage where she overheard white college males. They felt that coming into contact with the “Other” would transform them.

Hooks characterizes the relationship to “Otherness” as productive because it is used as a commodity. Hooks describes how stereotypes are used in advertising when Whites encounters “ Others”. There is a fantasy image to encounter “others” in plays, movies, music, and fashion advertisement. Each commercialized venue tends to connect this encounter with “others” with an encounter with the “primitive”. According to Hooks, the intention is not to show domination as in the past, but highlight a desire to be connected.

One example of the relationship of “Otherness” as described by Hooks is in the movie “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover”. Here one White man dominates black males. The connection with “others’ serves as a metaphor for pleasure and death. Here by eating black food supposedly one achieves power and privileges in the imagination of whites.

Another commodity of “otherness’ is seen through the advertisement ads of “Tweeds” magazine. Here the models are photographed in Egypt. Egypt and its people are not highlighted. According to Hooks, what is highlighted is the ability for Whites to travel around the world with the desire to come in contact with “others”. Furthermore, this connection shows that Whites have freedom, unlike “others”.

By using this desire to connect with “others”, Hooks implies that Black Nationalism becomes powerless. Racial stereotypes used in commodities further serve as a disadvantage and not a helpful method to providing unity between people from different racial groups.