"It might seem strange for a regular white guy like me to want to mark the passing of bell hooks, a black feminist icon. It might even seem inappropriate, because ostensibly her work is not about me, or my kind of experience."

-- I can relate to this hesitation, and I in fact had a bell hooks passage I wanted to post on Facebook and I didn't do it, because I actually feared someone would attack me for, as a cishet white male, "curating" her. I literally feared that! I probably shouldn't have. However, I feel like there was a time when it was taken for granted that an open-minded, curious person who cares about other people would read all kinds of writers and actively and unabashedly comment on them. I think bell hooks, herself, would be disturbed by the way we now separate ourselves into identity blocks, each having permission to think and discuss certain topics but no others.

When I read one of her books (don't remember the title) in the 90s, I just thought "these ideas make sense" and "she's a great writer" and "it's comforting to engage with the intellectual and emotional world of someone who is very smart, competent, and caring." It never crossed my mind – back then – that her work wasn't for me.

So, thank you for writing this piece!