Are Black men cool, or are they despised? This text goes beyond the usual analysis of the black male to ask questions which other books are unwilling to address. Highlighting the value of a feminist approach to understanding black masculinity, hooks looks at the way patriarchal thought and action undermine black male self-esteem.

1. Preface: about black men: don't believe the hype2. chapter 1: plantation patriarchy3. chapter 2: gangsta culture: a piece of the action4. chapter 3: schooling black men5. chapter 4: don't make me hurt you: black male violence6. chapter 5: it's a dick thing: beyond sexual acting out7. chapter 6: from angry boys to angry me8. chapter 7: waiting for daddy to come home9. chapter 8: doing the love do10. chapter 9: healing the hurt11. chapter 10: the coolness of being real

"We Real Cool is a slim book, but it's fat (or phat) with ideas on how to encourage black men to be their real selves in the truest sense of the word." -- Karen Grigsby Bates, Ms. Winter"I read the first page of the preface holding my nose because I am sick of listening to others tell me who I am. I am out of patience with being the topic of someone's ill-informed master's thesis, dissertation, newspaper feature and magazine article. As I read on, though, Hooks put me at ease with her insight, honesty and clear prose...hooks writes to bring attention to the crossroads at which the black male stands. On one side is his very survival and perhaps his redemption. On the other is his enduring marginalization and even extinction." -- Bill Maxwell, St. Petersburg Times"The black American feminist writer-critic and social commentator bell hooks is strong meat. Take the way she spells her name, militantly lower case. She uses terms that can scare the horses: imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy. It can never be said of this writer that she doesn't set her shop-stall up right from the beginning. In her latest work, We Real Cool: BlackMen and Masculinity, hooks states in the preface that these incendiary terms are her terms of reference." -- The Independent