Learning In The Shadow Of Race And Class Analysis

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The similarity between “Learning in the shadow of race and class” and “Fifteen Years on the Bottom Rung” is that both authors illustrated race and class are two of the main factors that keep people of this society from being united, and how the characters fight with the difficulties in order to succeed at the end. In these two essays, Hooks and Depalma both mentioned oppression that was caused by their race or class and the unfairness that they had to face since they were different compare to others. In the Hook’s essay, “Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class”, she expressed the oppression and self-abased that she experienced. She had to face the conflict of where she belongs, and forces herself to re-evaluate as she continues her …show more content…

Both men were immigrants striving for the same thing, but one was wise about his life, and the other seemed okay with being poor and illegal. DePalma summed these stories up by saying the biggest problem is the gap between Mexican and other emigrants, because the Mexican emigrants weren’t legal citizens. In the essay of “Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class”, Hooks illustrates her experiences of racism, oppression, and rejection during her college year due to the huge differences of her race and social class. She was isolated by her roommates at a local college. They trashed her room and would not communicate with her at all. However, she still stayed strong and believed in herself. She started making her way out. Finally, she got into Stanford where the place she thought it would let her get away from those immature whites girls, but it brought more problems. Bells experienced the same stereotype at Stanford that was caused by her race and social class. Hooks said, “Uncertain about whether I had managed to a make it through without giving up the best of myself, the best of values I had been raised to believe in—hard work, honesty, and respect for everyone no matter their class—I finished my education with my allegiance to the working class intact” (294). Since Bell Hooks grew up in a low income family, she was forced to live her life with less opportunities as others do. Under the finical pressures, she has to stop her desires of wanting things that are unable to possess. Even

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