Maya Angelou And Lorde Analysis

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In 2011 Melissa Harris-Perry, a well-known author, political-commentator and professor of feminist, black and American politics, wrote in her novel, Sister Citizen, “Sisters are more than the sum of their relative disadvantages: they are active agents who craft meaning out of their circumstances and do so in complicated and diverse ways.” (263) This quote reaffirms the ideas of those who have come before her, that the issues black women face are equally different and difficult from one to the next, but that each example of how these women have overcome and prospered and made meaning out of their struggle inspires others in the same position to overcome and do the same. Jordan, Angelou and Lorde were all authors and poets who spent much of their …show more content…

Lorde establishes this binary in the very first line in saying “For those of us”, which immediately sets up the structure of “us” vs. “them”, with the “us” being the speaker as well as minorities, and the “them” seeming to be society in general and anyone who works towards the marginalization of minorities. Lorde discusses some of the problems which being part of the “us” entails, including not being able to “indulge in the passing dreams of choice” as the “they” in the poem can, presumably because they enjoy privileges not afforded to minorities and will not face criticism for their indulgence, and the fear that they have been “imprinted” with since they were children. While these seem to merely be examples of why the “us” in the poem should just give in and accept the little that the “they” have given them and continue to “seek a now that can breed futures” for their children rather than take things for themselves, Lorde argues that these are the exact reasons why those who are marginalized and discriminated against should fight back against the “they” who fight to keep them in the same place of fear and hopelessness. Lorde asserts that since those who are marginalized are already living in fear and live a life in which they cannot do the things they wish to do, they should fight back and find their power in the fact that they “were never meant to survive” (24) in the first place. Since the “us” in the poem is already living in constant fear, Lorde contests that they can only be freed from this fear through speaking up and living their lives the way they want, since things can’t get worse for them and the “they” already have placed confines on what they can and cannot do. Lorde argues that through their weaknesses, those who are

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