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Assignment #06

In “Eating The Other”, Bell Hooks uses the term “the other” as the race which you are not.  The other is basically about people who are not white because the term was used mostly by white people who are looking down other races as inferior. In this piece, she explains the relationship between white people and “the other”. To begin with, she brings up white boys who had sexual interaction with non white girls, but they are interacted by them just because they are not white. White people were thought to be absolutely superior to the others at that time.  For them, they were thought to be inferior, but they thought it would be a different and interesting experience. This is because the boys thought they are more sexually active and experienced just because of non white people’s culture are though to be behind and they were looking for excitement with the others that white girls don’t have. It was obviously just for fun, but as the more they intact with non white girls, the more they understand non white cultures and they started thinking as the old norm, that white people have interaction with white people, is old and few steps behind to them. In this case, she thinks it is a productive relationship to “Otherness” because they went over the racial boundary because they used to think non white people are superior to “the other”, but it was an opportunity for them to think about racial equality. It was not the idea that could threaten white supremacy, but it could add “flavor” to the idea of diversity. I think why she called it productive is even though the first intention was irrelevant which they thought sexual interaction with non white females would be better because they should be more experienced, the outcome of that action was positive because they no longer see them as inferior.