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The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression.

bell hooks, Outlaw Culture

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The story behind the card

bell hooks was an American writer and teacher, born Gloria Jean Watkins in Kentucky in 1952. She wrote under her great-grandmother's name, kept deliberately in lower case so that readers would look at the argument rather than the author. The line comes from 'Love as the Practice of Freedom', an essay in Outlaw Culture, and the next sentence says that choosing love also means moving towards freedom. Love, in her books, is not a feeling that happens to you but something you do. She treated it as political work rather than private consolation, which is why the sentence puts choosing and resisting in the same breath.

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Sevmeyi seçtiğimiz anda tahakküme, baskıya karşı yürümeye başlarız.
bell hooks, Outlaw Culture

Gloria Jean Watkins adıyla 1952'de Kentucky'de doğan bell hooks, Amerikalı bir yazar ve eğitimciydi. Büyük büyükannesinin adını takma ad olarak aldı ve okur yazara değil savunduğu fikre baksın diye bu adı bilerek küçük harfle yazdı. Söz, Outlaw Culture'daki “Özgürlük Pratiği Olarak Sevgi” adlı denemeden; hemen ardından gelen cümle, sevmeyi seçmenin aynı zamanda özgürlüğe doğru yürümek olduğunu söyler. Onun kitaplarında sevgi, insanın başına gelen bir duygu değil, yaptığı bir iştir. Sevgiyi özel hayatta sığınılan bir teselli olarak değil, siyasi bir emek olarak gördü; cümlenin sevmeyi seçmekle direnmeyi aynı nefeste anmasının nedeni budur.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Bell hooks
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