“Keeping Close To Home” by Bell Hooks

“Keeping Close To Home” was written by Bell Hooks. Bell hooks whose original name was Gloria Watkins was born in 1952. Hooks is one of the top leading cultural and educational theorists in America. In education she Hooks has received her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Ph.D. from Stanford University. In this essay hooks talk about her journey to educate herself and not losing her sense of where she came from as African-American woman from a working class background (Bell Hooks, Keeping close to home). In America society there are three different classes that people fall in. the rich, the working, and the poor class. Majority of America citizens fall in the working class and that’s where Hooks family is from. Unlike hooks, a lot of people leave there family and would be ashamed where they came from and who they are. The purpose of Hooks’s essay is to argue that student that comes from the working class should not be ashamed of where they come from and not to forget they’re family. Most kids know where they come from and except who they are, but some know little where they come from. When they go off to college they learn about whom they are and why the struggles they went to happen.

They would learn “To be ashamed of where we had come from, that they might never return home, or come back only to lord it over them” (Keeping Close To Home). A lot of parents got afraid to let their kids go off to college and learn more about the place where they came from and how the people they going to class with is from a wealthier place. Bell saw that she came from another background from everyone else. She did not want who she was holding her back from getting an education. Hooks try to tell students who come from the working class that if they believe in what they have learned and are learning at school or universities it separate you from your past. In most of the time this would happen. Hooks tell them if they “stay firm in the conviction that nothing can truly separate us from our pasts when we nurture and enrich connection” (Keeping Close To Home). The past is where you came from and you were given the opportunity to get a better life. You cannot be ashamed of somewhere you have come from and where family is still at. Going through life, someone is always going to have your back.

You cannot trust everybody but except your family. family is one the keys to a successful life and especially in your career. “maintaining connections with family and community across class boundaries demands more than just summary recall of where one’s roots are, where one comes from” (Keeping Close To Home). Keeping a good connection with family can get you connection with jobs. But Hooks was trying to explain to students that where they at right now are because of they’re family. “open honest communication is the most important way we maintain relationship with kin and community as out class experience and backgrounds change” (Keeping Close To Home). The purpose of Hooks’s essay is to argue that student that comes from the working class should not be ashamed of where they come from and not to forget they’re family. She explains why should not be ashamed of who you are because you find out where came from. She explains the important what class is all about not just about money but the values which showed and determined behavior. Keeping connection with family can get you connection with jobs or they might help you out in the future.