Audre Lorde Essay Example

justify">This serves as a barrier to gender equality by hindering feminist progress and perpetuating inequality across racial and social boundaries. She suggests that we live in a world of opposition where difference is viewed as deviance. Those who are seen as deviating from “the norm” are those who are colored, poor, aged, or female or homosexual. Audre Lorde states that these groups are commonly viewed as inferior, and that these views are backed up by today’s “profit economy”.

Lorde suggests that recognizing the distortions surrounding views of innate superiority and inferiority, and accepting people as equals should be the ultimate goal of us all. We must tear down the walls built by our misunderstanding of difference, and utilize human diversity as stepping stones towards beneficial change. The development of compassion and understanding for each other may even ensure our very survival, given the present state of world affairs. In order to facilitate greater understanding, Lorde begins to outline distinctions based on age, race, class, and sex.

First, she covers the availability of women’s forms of expression depending on their financial situation. Lorde suggests that white women must learn to recognize the ways in which they are privileged simply because they are white. Pretending that differences do not exist negates unity and reduces the power of all women. She believes that the experience and literature of black women should be more extensively covered in scholarly studies so that all women can understand the black experience of oppression, which differs from the oppression of white women.

Lorde points out that white women have the ability to side with the oppressor; black women do not.

There are further things to consider because not only are black women subject to racism, they are subject to violence and aggression within their homes and communities as well. When Lorde adds a new element to the black experience, that of being a lesbian, then whole new oppressions emerge. Such an individual is ostracized because of her race by the white community, and ostracized by the black community because of her sexual orientation.

Lorde views the relationship of straight black women and homosexual black women as a division among “sisters”. Lorde states, “Some problems we share as women, some we do not”. Lorde states that black woman in the political, social and cultural fields, heterosexual black women often tend to ignore or discount the existence and work of black lesbians. She believes that part of the terror is due to the black male attack within the close confines of black society. Lorde states that black heterosexual believe that black lesbians are a threat to black nationhood, are consorting with the enemy, are basically "un-black".

This therefore, keeps a lot of black lesbians in hiding caught between the racism of white women and the homophobia of black women. The “mythical norm” that Audre Lorde speaks of is important. “Mythical norms allow power relations to stay in place. Many people such as myself often feel “lesser than” because they do not fit this so-called norm. Each individual is affected by socially constructed norms. These norms are what we must challenge. I too believe that such assumptions about what constitutes normal need to be addressed.

Human life is so diverse that nothing can truly be

classified as normal. A large chunk of the population is wasting enormous amounts of energy in the attempt to “fit in”. That energy could be better utilized in the acceptance and development of the true self. Human diversity must be acknowledged and encouraged. Audre Lorde speaks of when she writes, “As women, we must root out internalized patterns of oppression within ourselves if we are to move beyond the most superficial aspects of social change.

Now we must recognize difference among women who are our equals, neither inferior nor superior, and devise ways to use each others differences to enrich our joint visions and our joint struggles. ” Lorde believes in order for the survival of the earth women have to learn to identity and develop new definitions of power and new patterns of relating across difference instead of tearing each other apart with ignores. Women need to grow and change by sharing the struggle together and reaching a common goal together among black white, old, and young, lesbian and heterosexual women.