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Where’s The Rage?

By Matt Margolis | October 31, 2002

Most people are surprised after talking with me about politics that I was not a political science major. I am actually a student of architecture, currently working towards getting my Masters of Architecture degree. I never studied politics in a campus setting (which is probably a good thing) but on my own, I learned about the issues of the day, I paid attention to what was going on in the world, and I ultimately became quite politically aware. I still learn new things all the time regarding politics. I notice things, that I wouldn�t have noticed years or even months past.

During my four years at the University of Hartford, where I got my undergraduate degree, I never really was in a position to be exposed to political bias on my campus. I learned about the concept of political bias from sources such as the Media Research Center, Accuracy in Academia, and books by David Horowitz, amongst others. I found myself equally appalled by incidents reported through these sources, as well as energized to do what I could to fight bias on my campus or anywhere I had to be. As an architecture student there wasn�t many opportunities to do so because my classes generally consisted of math and physics courses, and architectural design studios � not exactly subjects where politics would even come up.

I belonged to a relatively politically inactive campus compared to the Berkeleys and UMass-Amherst types out there. My most recent first hand experience of political bias occurred recently during a class I am taking at graduate school. The class in question is not really about architecture, it is a class where the students are asked to read handouts (essays, articles, etc.) and exercised and activities would be done in the following class, which would connect to the readings.

The readings in this class have varied in subjects. I�ve never had any issues with the content of what we had to read (excluding my occasional complaint that the reading was not interesting) except for now � when I discovered one of the readings my class had been asked to read was an essay by Bell Hooks.

Bell Hooks is a respected black �intellectual� who is also a feminist and an anti-white racist. I had never heard of her before until I read David Horowitz�s book �Hating Whitey and Other Progressive Causes.� I recognized her name when it was mentioned in a recent class, and then I recalled Horowitz�s description of her essay �Killing Rage.� After returning from class, I chose to find the essay on the internet to refresh my memory on the hateful racist essay which she had named a book of hers after. In her essay �Killing Rage� she graphically details her contempt for a white passenger on plane she was on, and her contempt became a desire to kill the white man. She wrote: “Had I killed the white man whose behavior evoked the rage, I feel that it would have been caused by the madness engendered by a pathological context.”

Worse yet, she practically advocates the murdering of whites by her fellow members of the black community, even stigmatizing those blacks that don�t have it in their ability to do so. She states: “Blacks who lack a proper killing rage are merely victims.”

Her response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 also shows the detestable disposition of this so-called intellectual. �Many Americans experienced for the first time a moment of clarity when they knew without a doubt that to choose life, we must stand against violence, we must choose peace. And yet that moment of collective clarity was soon obscured by the imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal hunger to show the planet our nation’s force, to show that this nation would commit absolute acts of violence that will wipe out whole nations and worlds. The world was held spellbound by our government’s declaration of its commitment to violence, to death.”

These words by Bell Hooks are extremely disturbing. I was disturbed by the fact that my class had been asked to read one of her essays (which just so happens to be about architecture) as an assignment. Granted, the content of the essay is not nearly as offensive as the words quoted above. But I still have questions as to the choice of her essay to be used as educational content.

Obviously, someone had to know who she was in order to come across her essay. Is it possible one could be unaware of other words she�s written, or spoken in the past? Maybe so. But, considering Bell Hooks� past words, I find it troubling that not enough people have spoken against her and her politics to the point where her name is recognizable where those responsible for choosing the readings for this class couldn�t have said �Let�s not go there.�

I submitted these and other quotes to one the professors of my class, explaining my concern. Although troubled by what I had showed him he also stated �The kind of talk you quote definitely yanks my chain, but then I wonder if that�s not why she’s writing those harsh words. I mean, on the one hand she has not killed anybody, but on the other hand, people have been put under FBI surveillance for less. I am unable to judge from the quotes � whether Bell Hooks has lost her mind, or worse, discovered that if she wants attention as an author (at least from the places you have seen her quoted), she must resort to hateful language. The assigned reading is by contrast harmless in tone, and useful enough.�

If Bell Hooks was white and she had spoken of her rage for killing a black man, would this ever have been an issue? No, Hooks would not be the �intellectual� she is for hating black people, it�s only �intellectual� to hate white people. People don�t get labeled as intellectuals for writing absurdities to get attention.

It is one thing to disagree with a person�s politics, but I doubt my class will ever be assigned �Mein Kampf� by Adolf Hitler anytime soon. I don�t believe he ever personally killed any of the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust, but he used his power and ability to influence to make others do so. Is that not similar to Bell Hooks� victimizing her fellow blacks who lack the �proper killing rage� to murder whites?

The essay by Bell Hooks that was assigned may be lacking the hate and racism shown in the examples I showed my professor, but that does not explain why educational institutions have not heard any outrage regarding her words, which I am sure have been used in other classes, assigned by other professors, in many other universities. Where’s the rage? Why is hate by black “intellectuals” such as Bell Hooks so tolerable, when such sentiments should be rejected by all of us who want to live in a world without hatred?