Killing Rage - (Owl Book) by Bell Hooks (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"hooks's books help us not only to decolonize our minds, souls, and bodies; on a deeper level, they touch our lives." --Cornel West

More than two decades before Black Lives Matter and the #MeToo movement roiled America, bell hooks was declaring that abolishing racism and eradicating sexism must go hand in hand. In Killing Rage, one of our premier cultural and social critics brings the Black feminist's voice to bear on this country's public discourse on race, redressing the historical shunting of women's writing in this sphere to the side.

In incisive essays, hooks addresses the wide spectrum of topics dealing with race and racism in the United States: friendship between Black women and white women; psychological trauma among African Americans; and internalized racism in movies and the media. hooks tackles the bitter difficulties of racism by envisioning a world without it, sharing a vision where "killing rage"--the fierce anger of Black people stung by repeated instances of everyday racism--offers not only a wellspring of love and strength, but also a realistic catalyst for positive change.

This seminal book is one Americans need today if we're to remain united tomorrow.

"An angry book that pulls no punches.... Her frankness and willingness to face up to the divisive issues that refuse to go away make her a voice to be reckoned with in the debate on race in America." --The New York Review of Books

Review Quotes

"Her books help us not only to decolonize our minds, souls, and bodies; on a deeper level, they touch our lives." --Cornel West

"Almost everyone's assumptions about race will be challenged in this volume . . . Anyone who is not in denial about racism will be motivated to work for its demise after reading Killing Rage." --Emerge

". . . Anyone who is not in denial about racism will be motivated to work for its demise after reading Killing Rage." --Emerge

"An angry book that pulls no punches . . . Her frankness and willingness to face up to the divisive issues that refuse to go away make her a voice to be reckoned with in the debate on race in America." --The New York Review of Books

About the Author

bell hooks (Gloria Jean Watkins, 1952-2021) was a pioneering feminist whose writings revealed how the specific life experiences of Black women were marginalized by the idea that feminism represented all women equally. A professor of English, African and Afro-American studies, American literature, and women's studies, she taught at the University of Southern California, Yale, Oberlin College, City College of New York, and Kentucky's Berea College, which established the bell hooks Institute for her work.

The author of more than thirty books of literary criticism, children's fiction, poetry, and autobiography, including Killing Rage: Ending Racism, Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood, Wounds of Passion: A Writing Life, and Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work, hooks was nominated for the NAACP Image Award, won an American Book Award, and was named one of Time's 100 Women of the Year in 2020.