Today we lost an icon, a Black Queen. Bell Hooks was a powerful social activist and scholar.
She taught us, she loved us and she made us think more deeply about our blackness and our own power. I appreciated her book "We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity". It allowed me to interrogate my own relationship with Hip Hop and my own Black Masculinity, in fact, her work informs my own research as a Black academic.
I especially love this quote from her, "Sometimes people try to destroy you, precisely because they recognize your power - not because they don't see it, but because they see it and they don't want it to exist."
In Honour of the late Ms. Hooks, let's remember not to internalize racism and instead unite, heal, love and draw upon our own privileges and strengths.
Kevin Ufoegbune