Language can bring along change.
Poem “Power” by Audre Lorde
Language can bring to light what needs to change, enact emotions within people, break barriers, create new barriers, and continue to rebuild barriers fighting to be broken. The poem “Power” written by Audre Lorde will help to depict the power of language. Andre Lorde was a Black queer woman born on February 18th, 1934, in Harlem, New York. During this time the Great Depression had just started whereas racial and gender discrimination continued as a social deprivation. Through the poem, “Power” Audre Lorde brings to light the need for change against racial discrimination. In her work and in this piece, she challenges social standards and uses her expressive way with language to inspire change within her audience.
She was the youngest of three sisters, and her parents originally migrated from Grenada. She started writing poetry at the age of twelve. However, in high school, she drafted a poem as a class assignment which was rejected but later on she submitted it to “Seventeen Magazine,” this became her very first professional publication. As she continued her education at Hunter College, she graduated with her BA in 1959, she then attained a master’s degree in liberal science from Columbia University in 1961, where she worked as a Librarian throughout the 1960s. Following the 1960s, she married Edward Rollins and had two children but got divorced in 1970. On the other hand, she met her longtime partner, Frances Clayton. To continue, around 1977, she was diagnosed with cancer but that never ended her passion to continue to be an activist to share her experience with the world. She continued to publish regularly in magazines and anthologies and participated in the women’s rights movement, civil rights, and LBGT rights. As she continued her journey, she found a love for teaching and started her career as a professor of poetry which further helped to develop her identity, her character, and her perception.
In the poem “Power,” Audre Lorde uses vivid imagery with her words to express how she feels about the incident that took place in 1973. The poem reveals thoughts about a ten-year-old boy who lived in Queens who got shot by a white police officer. Her statement is conveyed in (lines 21-27), “A policeman who shot down a ten-year-old in Queens stood over the boy with his cop shoes in childish blood and a voice said, “Die you little motherfucker” and there are tapes to prove it. At his trial, this policeman said in his own defense “I didn’t notice the size nor nothing else only the color.” A 10-year-old child was killed by a white police officer and his color contributed to his death. Such was racial discrimination during the time which Audre Lorde conveys with anger and grief. She uses the strategy of Pathos in her writing to express her grief and to connect with other African Americans. However, she depicts anger and feelings of unfairness towards her aimed audience, the racial oppressors.
Another approach strategy that Andre Lorde uses is persuasion along with Pathos to pass her message onto her audience. This piece paints the picture of how White Americans were treated compared to African Americans and Lorde shows how poorly African Americans were viewed, “I will take my teenaged plug and connect it to the nearest socket raping an 85-year-old white woman who is somebody’s mother and as I beat her senseless and set a torch to her bed a Greek chorus will be singing in 3/4 time “Poor thing. She never hurt a soul. What beasts they are.” If an African American were to inflict pain or destruction in some way on a White American, then the consequences would have varied. She uses “poor thing” and “what beasts they are” to emphasize how the point of view would have changed to describe an African American. Based on this context, she insights an inspiration for change with her way of language by showing how social implication caused a disadvantage in racial equality. To shape and influence the world around her, she herself had to embrace every part of herself. Although she was not accepted by her own people or society, she saw a way through with language. She used language to create a pathway for herself and the future generation. She continued to explore; race, gender, and social class which led her to find her own identity that she embraced with full acceptance.
However, after she was diagnosed with cancer around 1977, she became aware of how difficult and poorly the process was for queer women to get treated for breast cancer. The point of view of women was changed, their bodies changed yet they were the ones being shamed. They had no models to look at to educate themselves on how to deal with cancer and mastectomy. Once again, Audre Lorde saw an opportunity for change. She broke the silence for others who remained in the circumstance. A supporting detail from “The Cancer Journal”, (Pg 16) is “When other one-breasted women hide behind the mask of prosthesis or the dangerous fantasy of reconstruction, I find little support in the broader female environment for my rejection of what feels like a cosmetic sham. But I believe that sonically sanctioned prosthesis is merely another way of keeping women with breast cancer silent and separate from each other. For instance, what would happen if an army of one-breasted women descended upon Congress and demanded that the use of carcinogenic, fat-stored hormones in beef feed be outlawed?” After receiving the mastectomy, her body, and society’s views of her changed and it happened to other Black women as well. They received less treatment and help than they should have received. She also states that though they were all women not even other white women assisted to help. The doctors and society looked down upon women who had suffered from a change such as mastectomy, they were viewed as unattractive and no longer as a “woman” especially lesbians; they suffered silently. They were kept from confronting the loss of breasts/former healthier selves while entrapped in silent loneliness. Another piece of evidence from “The Cancer Journal” (Pg 16) that shows her change of point view of cancer is “How do I give voice to my quests so that other women can take what they need from my experiences? How do my experiences with cancer fit into the larger tapestry of my work as a Black woman, into the history of all women? And most of all, how do I fight the despair born of fear and anger and powerlessness which is my greatest internal enemy?” Despite being a Black queer cancer patient who suffered more than she should have due to social and racial discrimination, her purpose never changed. She used her experience to bring about change for other Black women who suffered silently and helped to create a space for their voices to be heard.
Audre Lorde challenged social class, social standards, and society’s perspective on race, gender, and identity with the struggles she faced which she expressed through her language. That is the power of language. The obstacles she faced helped her to open a space for acceptance not only for other women but mostly for other queer African American women to accept and embrace themselves and allow themselves to freely be who they are regardless of the set social standard. Learning about Audre Lorde’s life showed how character and identity affected her writing and the language she used to create change beyond what others thought of her and regardless of whom supported her. By embracing the color of her skin, her gender, and the way she perceived the world she was able to allow others to be different while accepting it.
References:
https://newrepublic.com/article/161595/audre-lorde-warrior-poet-cancer-journals
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/audre-lorde
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53918/power-56d233adafeb3
