Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference
Historical Conditioning and the Creation of Difference
Western European History and Simplistic Oppositions: Much of Western European history conditions individuals to perceive human differences through simplistic, binary oppositions, including: - Dominant vs. Subordinate - Good vs. Bad - Up vs. Down - Superior vs. Inferior
The Profit-Based Economy: In a society where "good" is defined by profit rather than human need, there is a systemic requirement for certain groups to be oppressed. These groups are made to feel "surplus" and are forced to occupy the status of the dehumanized inferior. These groups include: - Black and Third World people - Working-class people - Older people - Women
The Author's Identity and the Concept of "Other": Audre Lorde describes herself as a -year-old Black lesbian feminist socialist mother of two (including one son) and a member of an interracial couple. Based on these identifiers, she frequently finds herself categorized as "other," "deviant," "inferior," or "wrong."
The Burden of Education: In American society, members of oppressed and objectified groups are expected to "stretch out and bridge the gap" between their lives and the consciousness of the oppressor. This manifests in several ways: - The oppressed are expected to teach the oppressors their mistakes. - Lorde is responsible for educating teachers who dismiss her children's culture. - Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people regarding their humanity. - Women are expected to educate men. - Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world.
The Energy Drain: This constant demand for education serves as a drain of energy that could otherwise be used for self-redefinition and the construction of realistic scenarios for the future. It allows oppressors to maintain their positions and evade responsibility for their actions.
Institutional Rejection of Difference and the Three Responses
Necessity of Rejection: Institutionalized rejection of difference is considered a necessity in a profit-driven economy that requires "outsiders" to serve as surplus people.
Programmed Responses to Difference: Members of this economy are programmed to respond to human differences with fear and loathing. Lorde identifies three specific ways difference is traditionally handled: 1. Ignore it: Pretend the difference does not exist. 2. Copy it: If the difference is perceived as dominant, attempt to emulate it. 3. Destroy it: If the difference is perceived as subordinate, attempt to eliminate it.
The Lack of Egalitarian Patterns: Society lacks established patterns for relating across human differences as equals. Consequently, differences are misnamed and misused to foster separation and confusion.
The Refusal to Recognize Difference: Lorde asserts that it is not the differences of race, age, and sex themselves that separate people, but rather the refusal to recognize those differences and examine the distortions resulting from misnaming them.
Definitions of Systemic Oppression
Racism: The belief in the inherent superiority of one race over all others and thereby the right to dominance.
Sexism: The belief in the inherent superiority of one sex over the other and thereby the right to dominance.
Additional Distortions: Other forms of systemic distortion include ageism, heterosexism, elitism, and classism.
The Goal of Recognition: It is a lifetime pursuit to extract these distortions from one's life while simultaneously recognizing, reclaiming, and defining the actual differences upon which these distortions are imposed.
Human Deviance vs. Human Difference: Instead of exploring difference as a springboard for creative change, society labels it as "human deviance," leading to voluntary isolation or false/treacherous connections.
The Mythical Norm and the Women's Movement
The Mythical Norm: Lorde identifies a standard existing on the edge of consciousness that power resides within. In America, this norm is defined as: - White - Thin - Male - Young - Heterosexual - Christian - Financially secure
The Trap of Single-Issue Oppression: Those outside of power often identify one single way they are different and assume that specific difference is the primary cause of all oppression. This leads people to ignore other distortions they themselves might be practicing.
Homogeneity in the Women's Movement: Current white women in the movement often focus on their oppression as women while ignoring differences in race, sexual preference, class, and age. This creates a pretense of homogeneity under the word "sisterhood" that does not reflect reality.
Class Differences and the Economics of Art
Unacknowledged Class Differences: Class differences often rob women of shared energy and creative insight.
The Example of Poetry vs. Prose: A women's magazine collective recently decided to print only prose, claiming poetry was a less "rigorous" art form. Lorde argues that the form creativity takes is often a class issue: - Poetry: The most economical art form. It requires the least physical labor and material. It can be written between work shifts, in hospital pantries, on the subway, or on scraps of surplus paper. It has been the major voice of poor, working-class, and women of Color. - Prose: Requires "a room of one's own," reams of paper, a typewriter, and significant amounts of time.
Visual Arts and Material Costs: In an era of inflated prices, the ability to practice as a sculptor, painter, or photographer is largely determined by class and the availability of economic resources for supplies.
Ageism and the Tool of the Generation Gap
Historical Amnesia: Ignoring the past encourages the repetition of mistakes. Lorde identifies the "generation gap" as a critical tool for any repressive society.
The Impact of Dismissing Elders: If the youth view the older members of a community as contemptible, suspect, or excess, they cannot examine the "living memories" of the community or ask the fundamental question, "Why?"
Invention of the Wheel: Failing to pass on lessons leads to historical amnesia, forcing each generation to "invent the wheel every time we have to go to the store for bread."
Modern Examples: Lorde notes instances where younger generations allow their bodies to be restricted by garments like girdles, high heels, and hobble skirts, repeating the mistakes of former generations because they do not listen to or inherit lessons from their mothers.
The Threat of Ignoring Race and White Privilege
Race as a Threat to Joint Power: Ignoring race between women is the most serious threat to the mobilization of their joint power.
Defining "Woman" by White Experience: When white women define womanhood solely through their own experiences, women of Color become the "other" or "alien."
Marginalization in Women's Studies: Literature by women of Color is often excluded from Women's Studies curricula. Excuses given by white women include: - It can only be taught by women of Color. - It is too difficult to understand. - The experiences are "too different" for the class to engage with.
The Shakespeare Comparison: Lorde points out the hypocrisy of women who claim they cannot understand Black women's literature but have no trouble teaching the work of Shakespeare, Molière, Dostoyevsky, or Aristophanes.
The Guilt of Difference: White women often resist seeing Black women as whole, complex individuals because doing so requires acknowledging differences. In a system where difference implies inferiority, recognizing it generates guilt for those who benefit from the status quo.
Differing Entrapments: Black Women vs. White Women
Patriarchal Power Propped by Whiteness: In a patriarchal system, "whiteskin privilege" is a major support, meaning the tactics used to neutralize Black and white women are different.
Usage Against Men: Black women can be used by the power structure against Black men because both are Black. Black women must separate the needs of the oppressor from the legitimate conflicts within their communities.
Shared Oppression: Black women and men share racist oppression, creating joint defenses and vulnerabilities not found in white communities (with the exception of Jewish communities).
The Seduction of Power for White Women: White women face the pitfall of being seduced into joining the oppressor with the pretense of sharing power. Women of Color do not have this option; they are offered "tokenism," but their "racial otherness" prevents them from truly joining patriarchal power.
Danger of Compliance: The defeat of the ERA and the tightening economy make it tempting for white women to believe the fantasy that being "good enough, pretty enough, sweet enough, [and] quiet enough" will allow them to coexist with patriarchy in peace.
The Daily Reality of Violence
Violence as a Constant for Black Women: For Black women and their children, there is no rest from dehumanization. Violence is not just at picket lines or in dark alleys; it is woven into daily life in: - The supermarket - The classroom - The elevator - The clinic and schoolyard - Interactions with plumbers, bakers, saleswomen, bus drivers, bank tellers, and waitresses.
Contrasting Fears for Children: - White women: Fear their children will grow up to join the patriarchy and testify against them. - Black women: Fear their children will be "dragged from a car and shot down in the street" while the world turns its back on the reasons for their deaths.
Differences Within Black Communities
The Trap of Homogeneity: The need for unity is often mistaken for a need for homogeneity. Black feminist visions are sometimes mislabeled as a betrayal of common interests.
Sexual Hostility and Manliness: Because of the shared battle against racial erasure, some Black women refuse to acknowledge their oppression as women. Violence against Black women is sometimes used as a standard by which "manliness" is measured within the community.
Abuse and Economic Realities: Women of Color are the lowest-paid wage earners in America. They are the primary targets of abortion and sterilization abuse globally.
Female Circumcision: Lorde cites the practice of sewing girls shut in parts of Africa for men's pleasure. She explicitly rejects the late Jomo Kenyatta's claim that this is a "cultural affair," labeling it instead as a crime against Black women.
Rape as Sexualized Aggression: Lorde quotes Kalamu ya Salaam to explain that rape is not aggressive sexuality, but sexualized aggression. It will exist as long as male domination exists.
Integration of Self vs. Fragmentation
The Destructive Nature of Plucking Out Identity: Lorde argues against the pressure to present only one aspect of her identity (e.g., just Black, just woman, just lesbian) as the whole self.
Integration and Energy: The fullest concentration of energy is only available when all parts of the identity are integrated. Power flows back and forth between different selves without externally imposed definitions.
Heterosexism and Homophobia: Many Black women have been led to testify against themselves due to fear of being labeled a lesbian. This leads to destructive alliances or isolation.
Heterosexism in White vs. Black Communities: - White communities: Often reflects identification with white patriarchy or a belief in the "protective coloration" of heterosexual relationships. - Black communities: Rooted in terror of Black male attack and the threat that woman-identified women pose to social self-definition.
Erasure of Black Lesbians: Many Black women label lesbianism as "un-Black" or a threat to nationhood. This results in the work of Black lesbians being ignored or trivialized (e.g., Angelina Grimke, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Lorraine Hansberry).
Historical Precedents of Woman-Bonding: Lorde notes that women-bonded women have always been part of Black community power, citing unmarried aunts and the "amazons of Dahomey."
Redefining Power and the Path Forward
Tools of Social Control: Women have been taught to recognize only the difference between men and women as legitimate, often negotiating this difference in a dominant/subordinate mode to survive.
Relating within Equality: Future survival depends on the ability to relate within equality and root out internalized patterns of oppression.
"The Master's Tools": Lorde famously states that the "master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." Old patterns—even when rearranged—only lead to repetitive cycles of guilt, hatred, and suspicion.
The Pedagogy of the Oppressed: Citing Paulo Freire (), Lorde emphasizes that revolutionary change requires addressing the "piece of the oppressor" planted deep within everyone.
The Necessity of Growth: Growth can be painful but is achieved by exposing the self in struggle with those defined as different but share the same goals.
Concluding Vision: Survival involves identifying new definitions of power and patterns of relating across difference, as expressed in Lorde's poem "Outlines": - "we seek beyond history / for a new and more possible meeting."
Specific Details and Data Retention
Date of Paper: Delivered at the Copeland Colloquium, Amherst College, April .
Specific Statistics: Mention of unsolved murders of Black women in Boston during the spring of .
Author's Age: years old.
Key Literary/Cultural References: - Sister Outsider (Collection title) - The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire (Seabury Press, New York, ) - "Rape: A Radical Analysis, An African-American Perspective" by Kalamu ya Salaam in Black Books Bulletin, vol. , no. () - Names of Black women authors whose work was trivialized: Angelina Grimke, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Lorraine Hansberry.