When Hooker was a girl, her family moved from the Afro-Caribbean coast of Nicaragua to its capital and largest city, Managua.

[2] In addition to book chapters as well as journal articles in outlets like Political Theory[3] and the Journal of Latin American Studies,[4] Hooker has written three books: Race and the Politics of Solidarity (2009), Theorizing Race in the Americas: Douglass, Sarmiento, Du Bois, and Vasconcelos (2017), and Black Grief/White Grievance (2023).

[5] The book uses Government of Nicaragua policies promoting multiculturalism as a case to argue that racial categories are unignorable in any theory of justice which can successfully challenge white supremacy.

Du Bois, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, and José Vasconcelos, in order to study the political theory of race in the Americas.

[7][8] The philosopher Andrea J. Pitts wrote that, "while the book itself offers a compelling set of analyses regarding race, national and pan-national identities, and democratic theory, it is Hooker's scope, methodological innovativeness, and theoretical complexity that make the work exceptional.