Vocabulary Discussion of "Talking Back"

-WASP: White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
Denotative Meaning: sociological and cultural ethnonym that originated in the United States.
Connotative Meaning: the same as the denotative meaning, except more specific. bell hooks means "white Anglo-Saxon Protestant women."
Origins: The term originated in reference to White Americans of Anglo-Saxon descent, who were Protestant in religious affiliation. However, the term does not have a precise definition, and can be used to describe greatly differing groups. It initially applied to people with histories in the upper class Northeastern establishment, who were alleged to form a powerful elite. Working class whites in the U.S. are generally not referred to as "WASPs", even if they are Protestants of Anglo-Saxon descent. The word white is redundant, since Anglo-Saxons — whether in the strict or popular sense of the term — are always white.
Meaning/Association: Currently, the definition of WASP has been expanded to mean anyone who is white and Christian. Personally, I see it as another racial slur that needs to be removed from the English language.

-Soliloquy:
Denotative Meaning: an utterance or discourse by a person who is talking to himself or herself or is disregardful of or oblivious to any hearers present.
Connotative Meaning: speech that was disregarded by men (the powerful).
Origins: 1595–1605; < LL sōliloquium a talking to oneself, soliloquy, equiv. to sōli- SOLI-1 + loqu(ī) to speak + -ium -IUM.
Meaning/Association: In the context that the word was written, soliloquy represents the forced silence of not only children but of women. The mothers that enforced the same sexist silence on their children were only doing what they had been brought up to do, almost as if they were punishing their children for what was done to them.

-Lo:
Denotative Meaning: look! see!
Connotative Meaning: When used in the sentence, I think it means the obvious neccessity to break the author's spirit.
Origins: bef. 900; ME; conflation of lo exclamation of surprise, grief, or joy, O! (OE lā; see LA2) and lo, shortened form of loke (OE lōca), impv. of loken to LOOK.
Meaning/Association: In the context "...neccessity LO of breaking my spirit," it would literally mean "the neccessity, see! of breaking my spirit." It is almost a question, as if the parents were saying "Don't you see how important it is to break your spirit?"

-Paucity:
Denotative Meaning: smallness of quantity; scarcity; scantiness.
Connotative Meaning: the scarce amount of feminist writing by black women.
Origins: 1375–1425; late ME paucite < L paucitās fewness, deriv. of paucus few; see -ITY.
Meaning/Association: In the context, the author is disgusted with how black women have been silenced in the feminist movement.