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A Review Essay on the Books of bell hooks: Organizational Diversity Lessons from a Thoughtful Race and Gender Heretic1
After reading the works of cultural studies scholar bell hooks, OB and OD scholars might wonder, "Is OB's treatment of organizational diversity off track for failing to deal with the complexity of identity politics?" In hooks' thinking, yes. Cox and Nkomo's (1990) literature review tracked race in 201 articles on topics including test validation, job satisfaction, job attitudes and motivation, and performance evaluation. In keeping with the American taboo, racism was and is not dealt with. hooks contends that this omission preserves the status quo of "white supremacist capitalist patriarchal values." Although women-in-management research has become mainstream, other diversity issues are almost entirely ignored, particularly racism, patriarchy, class, heterosexism, sexuality, sexual identity, religion, postcolonial issues, physical ability, and so on.
The goal of hooks' (1995a: 185-188) criticism is to decolonize the mind of the dominant group's "white supremacist capitalist patriarchal values." The colonized mind is self-oppressing, viewing the minority group's sex, gender expression, race, culture, sexual identity, class, and so on, as inferior, and the dominant group's characteristics as an ideal to emulate. Dominant group members (e.g., Euro-American males and diverse peoples with colonized minds) cannot see their own class privilege, power, and dominance; therefore, they cannot critique and learn from it (Calvert & Ramsey, 1996) in order to bring about a multicultural organization, profession (e.g., the Academy of Management), and teaching.
In this review essay I summarize the major reoccurring themes of bell hooks' work, which currently consists of 14 books (not counting a book of poetry; see bibliography) and relate them to the study of organizational diversity, and the identity politics thereof. I summarize how hooks' work has attempted to diversify diversity itself, and then analyze her method, and change theory, and draw implications for the organizational diversity discourse. To preserve the integrity of her work, I have used hooks' terms rather than less direct terms. hooks' provocative and confrontational language is not used to shock but to deal frankly with the undiscussible elements of our nature and discourse.
THE IDENTITY POLITICS OF REDUCTIONISM AND HERESY hooks would believe the OB diversity discourse political in its reductionism, for it typically emphasizes a single characteristic...