bell hooks:

            This week I was responsible for a chapter from the bell hooks reading titled “it’s a dick thing: beyond sexually acting out”.  I have taken a class on Black Diaspora with Professor Moody-freeman where this book was one of our textbooks we read over the coarse of fall quarter.  In this class we discussed the social economic and political attributes that contribute to black male’s current situation.  We discussed the cycle that black males go through with regards to sexuality and the concept argued by bell hooks called black male feminism.  The evidence argues that black male feminism is essentially impossible because black males are constantly feeling the pressures of our society to over compensate with regards to their masculinity.  Therefore it is extremely difficult for them to have feminist tendencies.  Furthermore, many black males experience physical and sexual abuse during their lifetime.  These forms of abuse are used by black males in order to have a sense of power over another person.  Black males especially fall victim to this form of struggle for power because black men lack power over their own lives due to white patriarchy.  Black men feel powerless in their lives.  The only way black men are able to exercise power is through sexual abuse, particularly to their significant other.   In addition to this abuse, black males have a thirst for love by women.  In order to gain love from another they feel that the only way they can achieve this is through sex.   Black males often fall victim to this vicious cycle between abuse and sex because they feel powerless in their social and economic society.