Quote
April 23, 2013
69 notes
"The true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us, and which knows only the oppressors’ tactics, the oppressors’ relationships."

— Audre Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” (via amazonfeminist)

(via flamingculture)

Tags: Audre Lorde radical women of color lesbian feminism oppression internalized oppression

Quote
February 03, 2013
5,745 notes
"You cannot use someone else’s fire; you can only use your own. And in order to do that, you must first be willing to believe you have it."

— Audre Lorde (via onlinecounsellingcollege)

(via cuntofdoom)

Tags: Audre Lorde feminism radical women of color black feminism

Quote
January 31, 2013
956 notes
"Whenever the need for some pretence of communication arises, those who profit from our oppression call upon us to share our knowledge with them. In other words, it is the responsibility of the oppressed to teach the oppressors their mistakes. I am responsible for educating teachers who dismiss my children’s culture in school. Black and third world people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future."

— Audre Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”, in Sister Outsider, page 114-115. (via fucknokyriarchy)

(via hciwrc)

Tags: Audre Lorde radical women of color black feminism intersectionality

Quote
December 04, 2012
59 notes
"Change means growth, and growth can be painful"

— Audre Lorde (via @Anti_Intellect on twitter) 

(Source: twitter.com)

Tags: Audre Lorde radical women of color black feminism

Quote
December 04, 2012
2,474 notes
"

Some women wait for themselves
Around the next corner
And call the empty spot peace
But the opposite of living
Is only not living
And the stars do not care.

Some women wait for something
To change and nothing
Does change
So they change

Themselves.

"

— Audre Lorde (via nezua)

(Source: jadalyric, via thatneedstogo)

Tags: Audre Lorde feminist poetry radical women of color black feminism

Quote
December 02, 2012
559 notes
"There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives."

— Audre Lorde (via womens-words)

(via feministisnotadirtyword)

Tags: Audre Lorde feminism radical women of color black feminism intersectionality

Quote
November 10, 2012
78 notes
"When I speak of change…I am speaking of a basic and radical alteration of those assumptions underlying our lives."

— Audre Lorde 

(Source: twitter.com)

Tags: Audre Lorde feminism radical women of color

Quote
October 26, 2012
257 notes
"

To the white women present who recognize these attitudes as familiar, but most of all, to all my sisters of Color who live and survive thousands of such encounters - to my sisters of Color who like me still tremble their rage under harness, or who sometimes question the expression of our rage as useless and disruptive (the two most popular accusations) - I want to speak about anger, my anger and what I have learned from my travels through its dominions.

Every woman has a well-stocked arsenal of anger potentially useful against those oppressions, personal and institutional, which brought that anger into being. Focused with precision it can be become a powerful source of energy serving serving progress and change. And when I speak of change, I do not mean a simple switch of positions or a temporary lessening of tensions, nor the ability to smile and feel good. I am speaking of a basic and radical alteration of those assumptions underlying our lives.

"

— Audre Lorde. “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism” Sister Outsider. Crossing Press Berkley. 1984. Originally published as the keynote presentation at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Storrs, Connecticut, June 1981 (via sproutedink)

(via becauseiamawoman)

Tags: Audre Lorde black feminism radical women of color anger

Quote
October 22, 2012
257 notes
"

To the white women present who recognize these attitudes as familiar, but most of all, to all my sisters of Color who live and survive thousands of such encounters - to my sisters of Color who like me still tremble their rage under harness, or who sometimes question the expression of our rage as useless and disruptive (the two most popular accusations) - I want to speak about anger, my anger and what I have learned from my travels through its dominions.

Every woman has a well-stocked arsenal of anger potentially useful against those oppressions, personal and institutional, which brought that anger into being. Focused with precision it can be become a powerful source of energy serving serving progress and change. And when I speak of change, I do not mean a simple switch of positions or a temporary lessening of tensions, nor the ability to smile and feel good. I am speaking of a basic and radical alteration of those assumptions underlying our lives.

"

— Audre Lorde. “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism” Sister Outsider. Crossing Press Berkley. 1984. Originally published as the keynote presentation at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Storrs, Connecticut, June 1981 (via sproutedink)

(via sisteroutsider)

Tags: Audre Lorde black feminism black women radical women of color feminism

Quote
September 19, 2012
1,638 notes
"Rape is on the increase, reported and unreported, and rape is not aggressive sexuality, it is sexualized aggression. As Kalamu ya Salaam, a Black male writer points out, “As long as male domination exists, rape will exist. Only women revolting and men made conscious of their responsibility to fight sexism can collectively stop rape."

— Audre Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”, Sister Outsider (via yukiesano)

(via rapeculturerealities)

Tags: Audre Lorde black feminism radical women of color rape rape culture feminism

Quote
September 10, 2012
432 notes
"The failure of academic feminists to recognize difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reach beyond the first patriarchal lesson. In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower."

—

Audre Lorde  (via julinkah)

Preach.

(via sisteroutsider)

(via thepersonalispolitic)

Tags: Audre Lorde black feminism intersectionality academic feminism

Quote
September 01, 2012
363 notes
"

I wish to raise a Black man who will not be destroyed by, nor settle for, those corruptions called power by the white fathers who mean his destruction as surely as they mean mine. I wish to raise a Black man who will recognize that the legitimate objets of his hostility are not women, but the particulars of a structure that programs him to fear and despise women as well as his own black self.

For me, this task begins with teaching my son that I do not exist to do his feeling for him.

"

— Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider, “Man Child”. The essay “Man Child” was originally published in 1979 in Conditions: Four (via sproutedink)

(via sonofbaldwin)

Tags: Audre Lorde black feminism masculinity feminism radical women of color

Photo
July 29, 2012
2,292 notes

(Source: onebrownwoman, via thenewwomensmovement)

Tags: Audre Lorde black feminism radical women of color feminism

Quote
July 21, 2012
5,209 notes
"Once you start to speak, people will yell at you. They will interrupt you, put you down and suggest it’s personal. And the world won’t end. And the speaking will get easier and easier. And you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And you will lose some friends and lovers, and realize you don’t miss them. And new ones will find you and cherish you. And you will still flirt and paint your nails, dress up and party, because, as I think Emma Goldman said, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” And at last you’ll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking."

—

Audre Lorde (via mcojdc)

This quote is everything.

(via tahlalaliaaa)

(via thepersonalispolitic)

Tags: Audre Lorde radical women of color black feminism

Quote
July 21, 2012
1,635 notes
"Rape is on the increase, reported and unreported, and rape is not aggressive sexuality, it is sexualized aggression. As Kalamu ya Salaam, a Black male writer, points out, as long as male domination exists, rape will exist. Only women revolting and men made conscious of their responsibility to fight sexism can collectively stop rape."

—

Audre Lorde

rape is not aggressive sexuality, it is sexualized aggression.

(via chubby-bunnies)

(Source: omnivincitamor, via thatneedstogo)

Tags: Audre Lorde rape culture patriarchy Violence against women radical women of color