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Audre Lorde's Poem Power

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Audre Lorde, In the poem “Power,” tackles racism through visual, tone, and kinesthesia. Exploring the audience is able to see how African Americans are being treated. As well as violence is being used as justice. Also with the harsh slurs of racism that is not humane. Touches the topic of children safety. Shows no love and affection only hatred towards with African American with no remorse. Lorde uses visual imagery to show how African Americans are being awfully treated. Many police officers shoot down young innocent African Americans just for heck of it. In line 21 the poem, is telling that a policeman shot someone. “A policeman who shot down a ten year old in Queens” (21). The writer shows this visual imagery that as a policeman they practically
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This contrast highlights their differing views on the methods necessary to fight oppression, with Lorde conveying the need for reciprocal violence and Woodson advocating for nonviolent protest. However, both poems use the metaphor of protest as a war to convey the profound injustice of racism and the immense sacrifices required to overcome it. Through their shared metaphorical theme of protest as a war, Audre Lorde's "Power" and Jacqueline Woodson's "South Carolina at War" highlight the violence of racism in America and the ongoing struggle for racial justice and equality. While they differ in their views on the methods necessary for change, both poems stand as a powerful call to action against oppression and

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“One who would really understand this racial tension which has broken out into actual conflict in riots as in Harlem, Detroit, and Los Angeles, must look to the roots and not be confused by the branches and the leaves” (Painter 376). We will see how Tensions in society past and present create social racism and social class. “In a society where the good is defined in terms of profit rather in terms of human need, there must always be some group of people who, through systematized oppression, can be made to feel surplus, to occupy the place of the dehumanized inferior” (Lorde 114). Lorde defines racism as “a belief in the inherent superiority of one race over all others and there the right to dominance” (Lorde 115).

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“Poetry Is Not a Luxury” (1982) intertwines feminism and poetry together. Author Audre Lorde says that for women, “poetry is not a luxury, but a necessity of our existence” (Lorde, 1982, pg. 281). In today’s society, women’s opinions aren’t really expressed, because it’s not widely accepted in this man-built world. Lorde’s quote “poetry is not a luxury, but a necessity of our existence” means that women should use their voices and channel their energy into poetry. Since poetry is accepted, women aren’t being deviant.

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A Question of Power is a novel written by Bessy Head in 1973.The novel explores the idea of the strong patriarchal society exploiting the other submissive groups and people. Head has very clearly shown examples of women being exploited by the hands of men to the extent of being driven to madness. By taking the protagonist Elizabeth example,Bessy Head shows how Sello and Dan, who used to have intercourse with her were the ones who were sexually deviant and they used to take out all the frustrations of their life on her, so her experiences with Sello and Dan left her physically and mentally abused and traumatised. The novel, being written from a women’s point of view very clearly shows the oppression of white males (Americans).Her experiences of being sexually abused left her with a very fickle state of mind and at one point she also points out that she has become a “highly collapsible material”. Also, Elizabeth, the young African girl, becomes a symbol of the country South Africa and how it was being stripped of its power because of racism and slavery.

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