Book Review: Hood Feminism

Image: The cover of the book is a white rectangle placed over top of a minimal illustration of several brown skinned women mostly made up of color blocks for hair, head, and body. Cut out of the white rectangle like stencils are the words "Hood Feminism" in large capital letters across the top half and the author's name in smaller cutouts across the bottom. In the center, in a capital letter written font is "notes from the women that the movement forgot."

Hood Feminism should be everyone's feminism. In reading this book, I can't see how anyone could think otherwise. Yet, Mikki Kendall's brilliant and accessible text had to be written for a reason. Mainstream feminism and/aka white feminism often focuses on a few key issues that affect white women while ignoring or even speaking against liberation around issues that disproportionately affect women of color and other marginalized people. Kendall explains that books like this are often written/published ABOUT women like her instead of BY women like her.

Kendall hits you hard from the start of the book with unapologetic story telling and historical analyses. She tells us she is "the feminist people call when being sweet is not enough." Some readers may remember some of the hashtags she started that stirred things up such as #solidarityisforwhitewomen. She tells us that this book will not be an easy read. She is not afraid to be blunt, direct, and passionate- something we need more of (and need more people to be open to.) Kendall also uses this book as a mini-memoir of sorts. She peppers little bits and pieces of her own lived experience throughout the text before moving on to the next big topic. There is a balance to this, she doesn't overdo it like some authors do, but the information she shares is intense. It seems like the book also may have been a vehicle to work out some of her own trauma. I think this adds to the book, making the abstract personal.

One of the best things about Kendall's text is that Hood Feminism is for ALL women and focuses on ALL of the Black women, other women of color, disabled people, trans people, and many other people forgotten or pushed to the side by mainstream feminism. This is not just a book for a single demographic who experiences one or two types of oppression but no others (a pretty small amount of people if you think about it.) In every section she brings up how not only cis het abled etc women of color are affected, but how disabled Black women, poor trans women, undocumented immigrant women, and so on are affected. If we focus on the issues that hit these people the hardest, it automatically trickles up to everyone else. As Kendall aptly states, "Black women are the canary* in the coal mine of oppression." 

In different sections of the book, Kendall details why and how feminists need to focus on a great many struggles that are often seen as part of other movements (or not seen at all.) Food security, housing security, gun violence, eating disorders, mental health, the inclusion of sexual harrassment and violence in police brutality resistance, healthcare outside of abortion- including the right to have children and not be sterilized, disability justice, trans liberation, and others. I have read a lot on these topics, but this book brought so much to the table. The way Kendall explains things truly puts them in perspective. For instance, I am a disabled transgender person who spends a lot of time at medical facilities. When the author discusses trans people in healthcare, she describes us as often being forced to provide "free education" to doctors on irrelevant topics to our visit, then WE are billed for it. Having it worded like this made me have so many feelings. "Yes! Why AM I not getting free healthcare if I am spending hours doing research and providing the doctor with college courses?!" She also elegantly discusses ableism in pro-choice movements. She urges people to never use eugenics and suggestions that disabled babies shouldn't exist in arguments for choice and instead encourages us to focus on bodily autonomy and resource access among other things. Now, Kendall knows she is not the first to say these things. Yet, she puts them together in very concise and accessible ways. The book is rather short for just how much is packed into it. I often only see discussions of ableism in pro-choice rhetoric in academia or the occasional obscure disability anthology. Kendall is bringing issues on the sidelines into the center. And that is what Hood Feminism is all about.

This was also posted to my goodreads.
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 *Y'all know I can't resist calling attention to animal analogies. RIP to all of the canaries that were forced to die of carbon monoxide poisoning in order to protect miners before humans came up with automation and better detection methods. They are of the many ignored members of the working class in history. If you think about it, though, it is a good analogy for groups of women that have been sacrificed for other women to get ahead in the name of stopping oppression and suffering.

Book Review: How We Fight for Our Lives

Image: The cover of the book is a background of what looks to me like mixed red and gold paint, unevenly swirled around in an oval. On top of that, in a black hand painted uppercase font is the title of the book which covers most of the cover. Below that, in the same but smaller font is "a memoir, Saeed Jones."

I have mentioned before that I don't really consider myself a memoir person, though that seems to be changing as more voices are published. Memoirs tend to have to meet a higher bar in order for me to truly enjoy them. Saeed Jones' short memoir, "How We Fight for Our Lives," definitely met that bar. Jones has a very accessible way of writing about things while also managing to capture the complexities of existing within multiple dimensions of oppression and liberation as a gender nonconforming gay Black man. Jones' skills as a poet also are reflected in his writing adding to it being entertaining and gripping the whole way through. I could have read hundreds more pages and didn't want the book to end.

What strikes me most about this memoir is its honesty. Jones gives us a transformation story rather than a revamped history that some memoir writers put out. One of the most obvious coming of age transformations in the book is how Jones overcomes the shame pounded into him by society for being a Black gay man. He captures what it is like to hold that shame, to give into it, and eventually to fight it and turn it into pride. He captures the complicated discomforts of being young and naive and to then be taken advantage of by adult closeted/downlow child abusers who are sometimes the closest that isolated queer youth can get to community. This is not a linear journey though. Long after being out, he discusses more ways that society attempts to shame Black gay men in particular- even from the nice, well meaning college liberals. 

What begins as a history of both generous family support coupled with awful religious oppression moves forward in a liberation story. His mother is a constant source of support and is able to overcome her own struggles despite being brought up in a strictly Christian household, with her own mother that later asks God to "curse" her for being a Buddhist and letting her son "become" gay. 

Jones also captures what life after violent traumas is like. It's not often that I read someone able to vocalize the loneliness that comes with some of the experiences he shares in such accurate and vivid ways. 

Don't go into this thinking it's a trauma porn fest though. While Jones definitely overcame a great many struggles, the memoir is balanced. It includes enjoyable parts of his life as well as the ones that were devastating. He uses great analogies and poetic humor all throughout the book. I was purposely vague in certain sections because the book is short and I didn't want to end up regurgitating his entire story in my review. I definitely recommend picking this one up, regardless of where you come from.

This was also posted to my goodreads.