Audre Lorde On Women Of Color

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The images depicting Woman of Color have arisen from a long history of the practice of dehumanizing them. Through this dehumanization, the dominant oppressive power (the white man) was able morally justify his abuse of power, and the asymmetry in power has developed into a hegemonic paradigm that persists today. This hegemony of racism is seen in the theory produced in dominant practice, creating a need for women of color to create their own theory which includes and benefits them. However, the differences that were once used by the White man to dehumanize Women of Color have now been reclaimed by Women of Color. By acknowledging differences and not fearing them, women of Color center their bodies, forming new thought and theories around their …show more content…
She further argues that feminists must advocate for all of these issues because female equality is no great achievement when women of color are not a part of that liberated group. Moving away from the Eurocentric white feminism means we will have to view the individual with all aspects of their identity, which is crucial for moving the field of feminist studies forward. Recognising intersectionality validates the experiences of women of color.
Participating in intersectionality requires that we recognize our differences, but it is crucial to not fear what makes us different. Lorde explains the lack of intersectionality in popular culture and how, “too often, we pour the energy needed for recognizing and exploring difference into pretending those differences are insurmountable barriers, or that they do not exist at all.” Once we can acknowledge that these differences are important, but not barriers, we can make space to center the brown body in theory and academia about …show more content…
Many of the works take the form of poetry or narratives. For example, Gloria Anzaldua in her piece, “Speaking in Tongues,” writes a love letter/poem/essay to third world women writers, writing in both spanish and english which is a radical act itself. Through this radical act of writing in both languages, Anzaldua is declaring that she is not separate from her experiences which in effect is centering the brown body. She encourages women of color and third world women to create their own theory, saying “we cannot allow ourselves to be tokenized. We must make our own writing and that of third world women the first priority.” She’s imploring women of color to create their own wk and value it. She ends her letter imploring women to “throw away abstraction and academic learning,” and instead create work with feeling. Most of the theory I’ve encountered as a white student has ben the academic theory that does not advantage women of color. This was my first time engaging with black feminist
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