We have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit because what was native has been stolen from us, the love of Black women for each other.
Interpretation
We must actively learn to nurture kindness and love towards each other, as it is not instinctive due to past cultural losses.
In this quote, Audre Lorde emphasizes the importance of intentionally practicing tenderness and care in our relationships, particularly among Black women. She acknowledges that societal challenges have eroded the natural expressions of love and support that should exist within these communities, and advocates for a conscious effort to restore and cultivate those bonds through habitual actions of kindness and understanding.
In practice
This quote would be great for a workshop on building supportive communities.
The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.
There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
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.
I declare I would rather be a kitten and cry, 'Mew!' than live as I see many of my female acquaintances do, tearing each other's characters to pieces, and wearing out their lives in vanity and vexation of spirit.
Marriage is but slavery made to appear civilized.
We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are - whether it's here in the United States or, as Hillary (Clinton) mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.
Caring comes from being able to put yourself in the position of the other person.
Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
There are different ways that kids who are gay take on the rejection and alienation they feel. The way I dealt with it was to say, 'You know what? You're imposing judgments on me and condemnations, but I don't accept them. I'm going to instead turn the light on you and see what your flaws are and impose the same judgmental standards on you.'
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