 |
|
Dialogues@RU is published
annually
by the
Writing Program at
Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey
Volume Three
Spring 2004
Autobiography as Activism: Linking Oppression, Identity, and Feminism - Page 3
by
Laura King
A history of discrimination is a strong motivation for autobiographical writing with the purpose of activism. Friedman acknowledges this kind of purposeful writing for minorities, in this case the black community, in her belief that “the autobiographical form is one of the ways that black Americans have asserted their right to live and grow. It is a bid for freedom” (43). She recognizes the power of autobiography by stating that “writing the self shatters the cultural hall of mirrors” (41). It speaks to the world the value of a person beyond cultural roles and stereotypes. Lorde expands on the significance of these roles and stereotypes in relation to the personal affect that they have on individuals within minority groups. She writes, “many of us (Black lesbians) wound up dead or demented, and many of us were distorted by the many fronts we had to fight upon. But when we survived, we grew up strong” (225). Oppression can either kill the spirit or evoke enough rage to inspire activism, depending on the internal strength of the person on whom it is inflicted. Audre Lorde is an example of an autobiographer who was able to take the pain of her alienation and turn it into a powerful positive force to create change.
Lorde’s writing illustrates the idea presented by Friedman that “women can move beyond alienation through a collective solidarity with other women” (40). Her autobiography points toward the concept of collective empowerment that Friedman describes, in finding validity and greater acceptance of self. She gathered strength from solidarity with others who experienced the same types of oppression that were imposed on her. She writes of the importance of the solidarity that she felt with her friends as a teenager, explaining that “we learned that pain and rejection hurt, but they weren’t fatal and that they could be useful since they couldn’t be avoided…We became The Branded because we learned how to make a virtue out of it” (Lorde 82). Her connection with others who were considered different made the different-ness that she felt more acceptable to her. The alienation that she felt was transformed into pride in the fact that she was unique. She later writes that “every Black woman I ever met in the Village in those years had some part in my survival” (225). She attributes her survival to the strength that came from knowing she was not alone.
Though Lorde strives to promote solidarity among people within oppressed minority groups in order to instill power to fight, the fight is not against those individuals or groups responsible for the oppression as much as it is against the pervasive disunity caused by discrimination. She describes the origin of her activism, writing that “my revolutionary fervor that had begun with a white waitress refusing to serve my family ice cream in the nation’s capital was becoming a clearer and clearer position, a lens through which to view the world” (87). She never expresses negative feelings toward the waitress responsible for carrying out this act of discrimination; rather, she begins to understand an unfortunate problem with the world and decides that there is a necessity for people to step up and take a stand against these laws and attitudes. Lorde’s greater vision is not about combating societal groups that have not accepted people like her, which would add to the dissention that already exists. Rather, her fight is against injustice itself, and for exposing and celebrating the differences between all groups in society. Morris writes of Lorde that, “she convinces us that the Other is essential, not to constitute ourselves through exclusion but through the creative dynamics of difference” (183). Lorde expresses the need for acceptance of diversity. She explains in her autobiography, “I was in high school that I came to believe that I was different from my white classmates, not because I was Black, but because I was me” (82). This statement signifies that diversity is individual and transcends boundaries of societal groups, and it is a positive thing. There are certain things we will not learn about ourselves if we never see ourselves in contrast to those who are different. In But Enough About Me: Why We Read Other People’s Lives, theorist Nancy Miller expands on this idea stating that “reading the lives of other people with whom we do not identify has as much to tell us (if not more) about our lives as the ones with which we do,” (xv) and furthermore, that “everything that makes us different, that makes us say – no, not my story at all – is exactly what makes the memoir valuable to my own history” (19). Lorde’s writing persuades the reader to realize not only the power in finding solidarity with those who they can identify with, but also in understanding, accepting, and celebrating those qualities which set us apart from one another. The presentation that offers some solution by promoting appreciation of diversity rather than simply displaying distain for the problem allows for more personal value to the reader, even to one who may not share the same experiences of social opposition, and is more effective in advancing the cause of unity.
It is the prejudice against and mistreatment of marginalized groups in society that has given autobiographers like Audre Lorde a reason to write. Discrimination and alienation cause anger that leads to the passion in the author that makes the writing of autobiography both necessary and effective in working towards a vision of equality and appreciation of diversity. Patterson quotes the statement of her mission :
I took who I was and thought about who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do and did my best to bring those three things together. And that, perhaps, is the strongest thing I wanted to say to people. It’s not when you open and read something that I wrote . . .the power that you feel from it doesn’t come from me. That’s a power that you own. The function of the words is to tick you in to “Oh, I can feel like that” and then go out and do the things that make you feel like that more.
Writing is one of the ways that Lorde pursued this goal, however, her activism is not limited to the books that she published. She co-founded The Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, and formed the Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa. She also spoke at the first national march for gay and lesbian liberation in 1979 in Washington D.C. and helped to organize disaster relief efforts for St. Croix after Hurricane Hugo. Knowing firsthand the consequences of injustice and the beauty of diversity, she found ways to make her voice audible to the world. Though altering deeply ingrained cultural perceptions is a daunting task for an individual to undertake, Lorde dedicated much of her life to making as much of a difference as possible, and hoped that what she did would inspire others to continue the work that she started.
Works Cited
Friedman, Susan Stanford. “Women’s Autobiographical Selves: Theory and Practice.” The Private Self: Theory and Practice of Women’s Autobiographical Writings. Ed. Shari Benstock. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P., 1998.
Kirkpatrick, Katheryn. “Poetry Matters.” NWSA Journal 14(1): 185(11) March 2002.
Lorde, Audre. Zami. A New Spelling of My Name . Berkeley: Crossing Press, 1982.
Meekosha, Helen. “Virtual Activists? Women and the Making of Identities of
Disability.” Hypatia-A Journal of Feminist Philosophy 17(3): 67(24) June 2002.
Miller, Nancy K. But Enough About Me. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
Morris, Margaret Kissam. “Audre Lorde: Textual Authority and the Embodied Self.”
Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies 23.1 (2002): 168-188.
Paterson, Michelle, dir. A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde .
Videocassette. Third World Newsreel, 1998.