4.59 AVERAGE

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A life changing experience for the second time around! 
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Reading this made me wish I could have seen Lorde speak live. The essays and speeches were sometimes devastating and sometimes inspiring, and I think they would have been amazing to hear when they were given.

audre lorde. audre lorde. audre lorde.
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It’s actually quite discouraging how relevant and applicable Lorde’s writing still is today:

Raising a Black son in America; how the oppressed bare the responsibility of educating their oppressors on their mistakes (maintaining the power imbalance & absolving oppressors of responsibility & accountability); the poison of white feminism; the erasure of queer and bipoc voices in activist spaces & liberation movements; imperial violence and media lies & propaganda, etc

A collection of essays and speeches by Audre Lorde. In these works, she shares her philosophies and opinions regarding race, sex and gender, sexuality, class, politics, oppression, and love. Lorde's writing is powerful and heart-wrenching, but it also calls us all to action to help everyone who faces oppression. While this book is centered on the experience of black women, anyone who reads it can learn something.
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“Some problems we share as women, some we do not. You fear your children will grow up and join the patriarchy and testify against you, we fear our children will be dragged from a car and shot down in the street, and you will turn your backs upon the reasons they are dying.”
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This was very interesting to read so soon after reading Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall, because it was clear that many of the topics Lorde is addressing have still gone unattended and unresolved, despite clear awareness they exist. 

The exhaustion conveyed around having to handhold and teach white people the nature and impact of their harm was really clear. So too were the consistent micro-aggressions (and larger) that Lorde experienced in what were supposed to be progressive and inclusive spaces.

Her essay on raising a man felt so honest and insightful, and reminded me of the movie with Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning (20th Century Women). Additionally, she made such a strong point about how the master’s tools won’t dismantle the master’s structures. There is no way to enact lasting change when you attempt to use the tools of the oppressor to do so.

I felt a little adrift with the first essay about Russia. I did find the citizen‘s incredulity that people in the US would die if they couldn’t pay for healthcare so sad, because it is the world we still live in today.
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a brilliant woman w a brilliant mind. so proud to be attending audre lorde's alma mater <3