Women’s History Month: Black feminism, misogynoir, and attempts to erase black women’s voices

“Black feminism is not white feminism in blackface.”

“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”

“Your silence will not protect you.”

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”

“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.”

Some of you know the author of these words. Others may have read or seen them somewhere, but do not know to whom they are attributed.

They are quotes from Audre Lorde.  

From her bio at the Poetry Foundation:

A self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” Audre Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Lorde was born in New York City to West Indian immigrant parents. She attended Catholic school and published her first poem in Seventeen magazine while still in high school. Of her poetic beginnings Lorde commented in Black Women Writers: “I used to speak in poetry. I would read poems, and I would memorize them. People would say, well what do you think, Audre. What happened to you yesterday? And I would recite a poem and somewhere in that poem would be a line or a feeling I would be sharing. In other words, I literally communicated through poetry. And when I couldn’t find the poems to express the things I was feeling, that’s what started me writing poetry, and that was when I was twelve or thirteen.”

Lorde earned her BA from Hunter College and MLS from Columbia University. She was a librarian in the New York public schools throughout the 1960s. She had two children with her husband, Edward Rollins, a white, gay man, before they divorced in 1970. In 1972, Lorde met her long-time partner, Frances Clayton. She also began teaching as poet-in-residence at Tougaloo College. Her experiences with teaching and pedagogy—as well as her place as a Black, queer woman in white academia—went on to inform her life and work. Indeed, Lorde’s contributions to feminist theory, critical race studies, and queer theory intertwine her personal experiences with broader political aims. Lorde articulated early on the intersections of race, class, and gender in canonical essays such as “The Master’s Tools Will Not Dismantle the Master’s House.”

As more and more language and theory birthed in feminism trickles into the mainstream, its birthplace in black feminism is often either overlooked or erased. And as more and more black women are asserting themselves and excelling in politics, the arts, sciences, the media, and sports, it is critical that people of all colors and genders familiarize themselves with the roots and theories of black feminism and the obstacles black women are forced to face—not only in the dominant culture, but also within our own communities.

from Daily Kos https://ift.tt/2TL21UU