Feminist scholar Audre Lorde has thoroughly documented this phenomenon, having been on the receiving end of white feminist scapegoating more than once. In her speech "The Uses of Anger," which she delivered at a 1981 National Women's Studies Association Conference, Lorde recounts the the times she's been dismissed as "angry" for bringing critiques of racism into predominantly white feminist spaces.
Instead of using prejudice or stereotypes, where negative thoughts and attitudes are created and shared, she extends it to the level of discrimination and racism. Although instead of calling it racism, she uses “eyeism”, as she is discriminating on the basis of eye color rather than skin color. She calls all white men “boy”, she interrupts them when they are talking and she talks to them like she is superior. She uses the racism, prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination black individuals have experienced for hundreds of years and turns it around on the white
Charles Kuralt once said, “ The love of family and the admirations of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.” This quote shows how jealousy and popularity aren’t as important as relationships in your life. In the book, A Separate Peace, Gene has different priorities than relationships. Gene, a young boy who attends Devon boarding school, goes through many different trials along his grade school journey. He faces problems with friends and school life during the time of World War two and the draft being in full swing.
Envy and Jealousy The narrator the husband in the story Cathedral uses emotion as judgment before getting to know Robert’s wife’s close friend she hasn’t seen him in a while. That was because he didn’t known about the visit she arranged it and planned it. To him it is a blind man a stranger who knows only his wife is coming over for the night. Not the recipe for the good night that is since there are those who aren’t pleased with strangers coming over.
Once upon a time, there were a set of twins born into a corrupt household. One of the twins was secretly jealous of the other, which resulted him taking his own brother’s life. This tragedy occurs in the novel, East of Eden, written by John Steinbeck. East of Eden is about several families being brought together and having love-hate relationships. The characters in the novel are separated into two different name groups, C and A.
As black women always conform under patriarchal principles, women are generally silenced and deprived of rights because men are entitled to control everything. Women are silenced in a way that they lose their confidence and hesitate to speak up due to the norms present in the society they live in. Hence, even if women have the confidence to try to speak, men wouldn’t bother to listen since men ought to believe that they are superior to women. In addition to that, women often live in a life cycle of repetitions due to patriarchal principles since women are established to fulfill the roles the society had given them. It is evidenced by Celie as she struggles to survive and to define oneself apart from the controlling, manipulative, and abusive men in her life.
The scene that occurred after Civil War, in a hospital, according to Lorde, it is a clear example of how Black women were and, are still, neglected from the American society. Although one may argue that the anecdote of when Lorde was a child, which took place on a subway train in New York, a white woman jerked her coat away from Lorde. The reason to why the woman acted in such way is because she was disgusted by Lorde being Black. Lorde’s subway anecdote is a similar experience to being racially profiled, because just as Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested and perceived as a criminal for being Black, Lorde as a child, felt the same way. The woman considered her a criminal by communicating her horror and demonstrating her disapproval,
In the 1980’s black women are faced with a lot pressure in society, Because women of color are both women and racial minorities, they face more pressure in which lower economic opportunities due to their race and their gender. This pressure is reflected both in the jobs available to them and in their lower pay. Also because they are women of color they are likely to be the giver of the house and also within the families. Through the use of anecdotes,rhetorical questions, anaphora, ethos and metaphors, "In The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism, Audre Lorde argues that women of color need to respond to racism with anger spurred from their fear and that not a bad thing depends on how anger is portrayed.
This is shown when it’s explained “Her three daytime black boys she acquires after more years of testing and ejecting thousands. They come at her in a long black row of sulky, big-nosed masks, hating her and her chalk doll whiteness from the first look they get. She appraises them and their hate for a month or so, then lets them go because they don't hate enough. When she finally gets the three she wants—gets them one at a time over a number of years, weaving them into her plan and her network—she's damn positive they hate enough to be capable” (Page 29).
Not one person has lived a life without experiencing jealousy. The quote,”You can be the moon and still be jealous of the stars”, by Gary Allan, accurately describes many people’s situations. The moon might represent someone with more of something, while the stars depict someone with less. Everyone has a different amount of many things; including money, happiness, love, confidence, fame, and family. Contrary to popular belief someone that is wealthy can just as easily be jealous of someone who has less materialistic items, as it is for someone on a lower economic level to be jealous of someone with more money.
In the Imitation of Life, Sarah Jane dates a “White” teenage guy who later becomes physically and verbally aggressive towards her when he discovers she’s Black. I believe this scene was intended to dehumanize Sarah’s racial identity. While reinforcing the stereotype, Black women are “Inferior”.
In the case African American women, they confront backlash from not assimilating into the ideal “white
Beyonce’s 2016 visual album, Lemonade, carries her audience through different emotional chapters of her life, presumably following the infidelity of her husband, Jay Z. Although Lemonade touches upon sensitive racial issues and the oppression of African-Americans, I decided to focus more on the sentimental aspect of the film. It is a consensus that women of all kinds are stereotyped as ‘frail’ or ‘hysterical,’ especially when their emotions are transparent, but why is it that the black woman is perceived as ‘angry’ when she does so? Beyonce’s third track on Lemonade, “Don’t Hurt Yourself,” features an excerpt of a speech given by Malcolm X that reads: “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman.” To dismiss and undermine the emotional traumas Beyonce discloses in Lemonade confirms the veracity of Malcolm X’s statement.
Growing up, we were taught to look at the world in juxtaposition. This outlook forces us to order things such as race, sex, and socioeconomic status in categorical or hierarchical terms. In order to be on top, someone has to be beneath you, so those who are oppressors focus on maintaining their positions while still keeping the oppressed under their thumb. In the reading, Lorde speaking more on feminism but I feel like this is inclusive of men as well, but to me, this passage gives a sense of connectivity between various issues and how none of them can truly be addressed without acknowledging the others. This quote shows how oppression is largely universal while demonstrating how uncomfortable topics should not be avoided for fear of said discomfort.
Through repetition and a conversational tone, Audre Lorde conveys the isolation and anxiety of a young girl who is trying to bridge the gap between childhood and adulthood. “Hanging Fire” goes through a young girl’s thoughts. These thoughts illustrate her isolation, anxiety, and lack of guidance. This poem shows what happens when children are growing up alone, and hints and the horrible things that can happen.
