Unless one lives and loves in the trenches, it is difficult to remember that the war against dehumanization is ceaseless.
Interpretation
To truly understand the fight against dehumanization, one must engage deeply and personally in the struggle.
Audre Lorde emphasizes the importance of personal experience and emotional investment in the fight against dehumanization. She suggests that without living through the realities of oppression and connecting with those affected, it is easy to forget the ongoing nature of this struggle, which requires both courage and compassion.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a panel on social justice to emphasize the importance of empathy.
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.
Vulnerability is the cornerstone of confidence.
I think I'm attracted to subjects that I'm afraid of. It's a way to approach things I am afraid of, things that bring fear in my heart, and try to understand them, try to deal with them. It's like demons. I try to approach it and understand it... I'm just visiting fears.
But only a brief moment is granted to the brave one breath or two, whose wage is the long nights of the grave.
It takes courage, of course, to step out of the fray, as it takes courage to do anything that's necessary, whether tending to a loved one on her deathbed or turning away from that sugarcoated doughnut.
Every wrong seems possible today, and is accepted. I don't accept it.
I don't play for job security.
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