Reading Response #4-Hooks

I can relate to Hooks's experience when she first entered college. Hooks said she was shocked by the variety of value differences from her colleagues. In my high school, though we don't talk about our values that much, we all have a sense of the difference between us. Still, after coming to NYU, I noticed how some of my colleagues' perspective on studying versus life is entirely different from me. Hooks said she sometimes feels the shame of her background because of class differences, and in her student period, she differentiates classes by family background. Therefore sometimes, hatred and disgust emotions appear. Trying to assimilate is trying to get closer with the type of people you want to get more intimate with, but I think sometimes those kinds of extreme assimilation are unnecessary. For example, some people would spend money, and some would try to alter their hobbies to join a specific group. If that is what we call socialize, it is critically malformed. Like how Hooks said, she could recognize a difference between black people who attend Yale or not by merely looking at their dressing style. There is a class difference between Yale students/staff with people who live in nearby communities because of an academic superior. But that is not comparative because two groups do not belong to the same context. I really like how Hooks said at the end that "The most powerful resource any of us can have as we study and teach in the university setting is full understanding and appreciation of the richness, beauty, and primacy of our familial and community backgrounds." Why don't we discover the beauty and value of our current cultural status rather than fit into others?