There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.
Audre LordeI am not just a lesbian. I am not just a poet. I am not just a mother. Honor the complexity of your vision and yourselves.
Audre LordeIf I cannot air this pain and alter it, I will surely die of it. That's the beginning of social protest.
Audre LordeThere is a timbre of voice that comes from not being heard and knowing / you are not being heard / noticed only by others / not heard for the same reason.
Audre LordeIt is learning how to stand alone, unpopular and sometimes reviled, and how to make common cause with those other identified as outside the structures, in order to define and seek a world in which we can all flourish. It is learning how to take our differences and make the strengths. For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.
Audre Lorde