Audrey Lorde - A Brief Biography
Lorde was born to Caribbean parents in Harlem in 1934, and faced oppression on all sides. Her parents companies were failing thanks to the Great Depression, so she faced coldness from her parents; she was black living in New York; and she was so nearsighted that she was almost considered legally blind. She would also face a specific form of prejudice often overlooked called colourism. Due to white and imperialist beauty standards people of colour with darker skin have often seen further prejudice compared to people of colour with lighter skin - even among their own communities. Lorde's mother had Spanish heritage so had lighter skin, and this affected how she raised her daughters, who all had darker skin. According to Lorde, her mother distrusted African-Americans with darker skin, and raised her daughters, consequently, by strict 'tough love'. Through all of this she had trouble communicating, but she found an outlet through poetry - something which would influence a name change. In Zami: A New Spelling of My Name she explains that is poetry which influenced her to change her name from 'Audrey' to 'Audre' due to the artistic symmetry of having names ending with the same letter. Aged 12 she felt that she was an outcast so wrote poetry to cope with it - she would later realise that she was a lesbian. She engaged with Harlem's poetry scene during her teenage years, but she was often treated as an inferior because she was 'crazy and queer' that she 'would grow out of'. However, when she started attending the National University of Mexico in 1954 she became freed. She managed to engage in LGBTQ+ and black culture, and realised that it was okay to be 'crazy and queer'. In particular, she became immersed in the LGBTQ+ culture at Greenwich Village in New York, the area which would later see the Stonewall Riot.
From entering university until she passed Lorde wrote poetry and literature, and with feminist, LGBTQ+, and black activism. She and author Alice Walker, famous for The Color Purple, helped develop the idea of 'womanism' - they viewed feminism as being too dominated by white, middle-class women which neglected the experiences of other women. Meanwhile, she also criticised the black rights movement for being dominated by men who would use homophobia to silence black women's complaints of misogyny. She would become part of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press to help link women's communication in 1977; tried to form a black studies department at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice; in 1981 helped found the Women's Coalition of St. Croix to help women suffering from sexual abuse; and helped found the Sisterhood in Support of Sisters which aimed to help black South African women suffering under Apartheid. In 1984 she began teaching in West Berlin where some of her best known activism occurred - it was even subject to a 2012 documentary by Dagmar Schultz. Germany's Afro-German population has often been forgotten and have always faced prejudice - many, named the 'Rhineland Bastards' were sterilised during the Holocaust. Lorde helped Afro-German women articulate their intersectional oppression, and use language to challenge this oppression. During her political activism she continued writing throughout releasing some of her best known poems, writings on LGBTQ+ identity, and even discussed with Afro-Cuban poets if the revolution had changed racism and homophobia in Cuban society. She was also interested in aiding gay and women's rights in the so-called Third World. She vocally opposed the homogenising and 'othering' of women in the global south, and, inspired by internationalism, hoped to create international understanding. At the 1983 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom she said:
I Am Your Sister
Lorde wrote I Am Your Sister in 1985 with the intention of challenging homophobia and sexism within both the black rights movement, and the women's rights movement. Civil rights movements had a tendency of focusing on one form of oppression of a minority group - there had always been exceptions to this, as exemplified by the Black Panther Party who combined class liberation with black liberation. Thanks to this, forms of oppression seeped into rights movements - homophobia and sexism are prime examples. It was common for black feminists to be criticised as being lesbians by male activists when they pointed out sexism. Lorde aimed to challenge this. She said that 'Black women are not one great vat of homogenized chocolate milk. We have many different faces, and we do not have to become each other in order to work together...and until you can hear me as a Black Lesbian feminist, our strengths will not be be truly available to each other as black women'. Lorde identifies two key forms of prejudice preventing the acceptance of black, lesbian women: heterosexism (the idea that one form of love is superior to the rest) and homophobia ('A terror surrounding feelings of love for members of the same sex and thereby a hatred of those feelings in others'). She links this to the classic 'I can't be racist, I have non-white friends' - white liberals wore dashikis and even married African-Americans but never questioned the bedrock of society supporting white dominance. For example, band-aids and plasters match paler skins and not darker ones. Lorde states that it is the same with homophobia and heterosexism - straight allies never questioned the bedrock of straight supremacy.
'I have heard it said - usually behind my back - that Black Lesbians are not normal. But what is normal in this deranged society by which we are all trapped? I remember, and so do many of you, when being black was NOT NORMAL'. Reading this it reminds you that the way society is shaped can be changed, as new identities try to fight for rights other earlier movements become a 'norm' used to discredit the newer movements. Lorde describes common arguments against black lesbians - like they are 'destroying the family' and 'destroying the race' - are nothing but fear mongering. For one, she mentions how her own son and daughter disprove this. She argues that when women are accused of being lesbian it should not be something to be ashamed - 'If someone says you're a Russian and you know you're not, you don't collapse into stunned silence...But let anyone, particularly a Black man, accuse a straight Black woman of being a Black Lesbian, and right away that sister becomes immobilized, as if that is the most horrible thing that she could be, and must at all costs be proven false. That is homophobia.' Lorde explains how Black women and Black Lesbians should be proud. She cites her own extensive political activism - ranging from marching with Martin Luther King at Washington to helping students occupy buildings - as not diminishing her identity, 'I was a Black Lesbian' accompanies it.
Lorde ends the text, it's less than ten pages, with a final, assertive statement. Homophobic stereotypes were, and are, the problems of straight communities just as racism was the issue of white people. If equality was to come straight people had to acknowledge their own biases. Lorde concludes referencing a white produced poster from the 1960s which said 'He's not black he's my brother', which she critiqued as implying they were mutually exclusive. So she says 'I am a Black Lesbian, and I am Your Sister'.
Legacy
Lorde's manifesto shows how intersectionality works in practice. Quite often it has been misrepresented and strawmanned, but Lorde shows how intersectionality both works and is needed. Treating communities as independent, mutually exclusive categories, but were deeply connected touching many lives. Her work has gone on to inspire leftists, anti-racists, and feminists continuously, including Kimberle Crenshaw who coined the idea of intersectionality. Her words still remain vitally important today. These ones from her essay The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House:
-Audre Lorde, I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities, (New York: 1985)
-Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, (New York: 1983)
-Rudolph Byrd, I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde, (Oxford: 2009)
-Audre Lorde, The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House, Collective Liberation, [Accessed 05/09/2019]
Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For other Left-Wing and Other History posts we have our link here. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.
From entering university until she passed Lorde wrote poetry and literature, and with feminist, LGBTQ+, and black activism. She and author Alice Walker, famous for The Color Purple, helped develop the idea of 'womanism' - they viewed feminism as being too dominated by white, middle-class women which neglected the experiences of other women. Meanwhile, she also criticised the black rights movement for being dominated by men who would use homophobia to silence black women's complaints of misogyny. She would become part of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press to help link women's communication in 1977; tried to form a black studies department at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice; in 1981 helped found the Women's Coalition of St. Croix to help women suffering from sexual abuse; and helped found the Sisterhood in Support of Sisters which aimed to help black South African women suffering under Apartheid. In 1984 she began teaching in West Berlin where some of her best known activism occurred - it was even subject to a 2012 documentary by Dagmar Schultz. Germany's Afro-German population has often been forgotten and have always faced prejudice - many, named the 'Rhineland Bastards' were sterilised during the Holocaust. Lorde helped Afro-German women articulate their intersectional oppression, and use language to challenge this oppression. During her political activism she continued writing throughout releasing some of her best known poems, writings on LGBTQ+ identity, and even discussed with Afro-Cuban poets if the revolution had changed racism and homophobia in Cuban society. She was also interested in aiding gay and women's rights in the so-called Third World. She vocally opposed the homogenising and 'othering' of women in the global south, and, inspired by internationalism, hoped to create international understanding. At the 1983 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom she said:
Today we march,” she said, “lesbians and gay men and our children, standing in our own names together with all our struggling sisters and brothers here and around the world, in the Middle East, in Central America, in the Caribbean and South Africa, sharing our commitment to work for a joint livable future. We know we do not have to become copies of each other in order to be able to work together. We know that when we join hands across the table of our difference, our diversity gives us great power. When we can arm ourselves with the strength and vision from all of our diverse communities, then we will in truth all be free at last.Tragically, Lorde would be diagnosed with breast cancer in 1978, and would later be diagnosed with liver cancer in 1984. Despite this she persisted on - one of her greatest works The Cancer Journals (1981) won the Gay Caucus Book of the Year. She managed to become New York's poet laureate in 1991 before tragically passing the next year. On her death she took a naming ceremony from Nigeria, where she met her partner Dr. Gloria Joseph, adopting the name Gamba Adisa meaning 'Warrior: She Who Makes her Name Known'.
I Am Your Sister
Lorde wrote I Am Your Sister in 1985 with the intention of challenging homophobia and sexism within both the black rights movement, and the women's rights movement. Civil rights movements had a tendency of focusing on one form of oppression of a minority group - there had always been exceptions to this, as exemplified by the Black Panther Party who combined class liberation with black liberation. Thanks to this, forms of oppression seeped into rights movements - homophobia and sexism are prime examples. It was common for black feminists to be criticised as being lesbians by male activists when they pointed out sexism. Lorde aimed to challenge this. She said that 'Black women are not one great vat of homogenized chocolate milk. We have many different faces, and we do not have to become each other in order to work together...and until you can hear me as a Black Lesbian feminist, our strengths will not be be truly available to each other as black women'. Lorde identifies two key forms of prejudice preventing the acceptance of black, lesbian women: heterosexism (the idea that one form of love is superior to the rest) and homophobia ('A terror surrounding feelings of love for members of the same sex and thereby a hatred of those feelings in others'). She links this to the classic 'I can't be racist, I have non-white friends' - white liberals wore dashikis and even married African-Americans but never questioned the bedrock of society supporting white dominance. For example, band-aids and plasters match paler skins and not darker ones. Lorde states that it is the same with homophobia and heterosexism - straight allies never questioned the bedrock of straight supremacy.
'I have heard it said - usually behind my back - that Black Lesbians are not normal. But what is normal in this deranged society by which we are all trapped? I remember, and so do many of you, when being black was NOT NORMAL'. Reading this it reminds you that the way society is shaped can be changed, as new identities try to fight for rights other earlier movements become a 'norm' used to discredit the newer movements. Lorde describes common arguments against black lesbians - like they are 'destroying the family' and 'destroying the race' - are nothing but fear mongering. For one, she mentions how her own son and daughter disprove this. She argues that when women are accused of being lesbian it should not be something to be ashamed - 'If someone says you're a Russian and you know you're not, you don't collapse into stunned silence...But let anyone, particularly a Black man, accuse a straight Black woman of being a Black Lesbian, and right away that sister becomes immobilized, as if that is the most horrible thing that she could be, and must at all costs be proven false. That is homophobia.' Lorde explains how Black women and Black Lesbians should be proud. She cites her own extensive political activism - ranging from marching with Martin Luther King at Washington to helping students occupy buildings - as not diminishing her identity, 'I was a Black Lesbian' accompanies it.
Lorde ends the text, it's less than ten pages, with a final, assertive statement. Homophobic stereotypes were, and are, the problems of straight communities just as racism was the issue of white people. If equality was to come straight people had to acknowledge their own biases. Lorde concludes referencing a white produced poster from the 1960s which said 'He's not black he's my brother', which she critiqued as implying they were mutually exclusive. So she says 'I am a Black Lesbian, and I am Your Sister'.
Legacy
Lorde's manifesto shows how intersectionality works in practice. Quite often it has been misrepresented and strawmanned, but Lorde shows how intersectionality both works and is needed. Treating communities as independent, mutually exclusive categories, but were deeply connected touching many lives. Her work has gone on to inspire leftists, anti-racists, and feminists continuously, including Kimberle Crenshaw who coined the idea of intersectionality. Her words still remain vitally important today. These ones from her essay The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House:
those of us who stand outside the circle of this society's definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference – those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older – know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define the master's house as their only source of support.The sources I have used are as follows:
-Audre Lorde, I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities, (New York: 1985)
-Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, (New York: 1983)
-Rudolph Byrd, I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde, (Oxford: 2009)
-Audre Lorde, The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House, Collective Liberation, [Accessed 05/09/2019]
Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For other Left-Wing and Other History posts we have our link here. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.
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