Before reading the article "Essentialism and Experience" I thought it would be best to know what essentialism was. The definition of essentialism quoted from the oxford dictionary is "The belief in real essences of things, esp. the view that the task of science and philosophy is to discover these and express them in definitions." In other words it means that science and philosophy are meant to discover things or beings and define them into categories. As I began to read, it became clear to me that the author felt that essentialism was not good, or that it was not being used in a good way. She felt that Fuss used essentialism to categorize many black writers in a negative way. In order to prove Fuss was wrong Hooks showed that Fuss did not know what she was talking about because she only read a few works of black writers and grouped them as one.
Experience: In this Hooks says that experience in the classroom is good and necessary. She states "Our collective listening to one another affirms the value and uniqueness of each voice." She believes that experience from diverse groups will make the classroom better. It is better to hear multiple views then just one. This is something that Fuss does not agree with.
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