Within the lesbian community I am Black, and within the Black community I am a lesbian. Any attack against Black people is a lesbian and gay issue, because I and thousands of other Black women are part of the lesbian community. Any attack against lesbians and gays is a Black issue, because thousands of lesbians and gay men are Black. There is no hierarchy of oppression.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the interconnectedness of identity and oppression among marginalized communities.
Audre Lorde's quote speaks to the intersectionality of race and sexual orientation, highlighting that experiences of oppression are not isolated to one aspect of identity. She argues that attacks on any marginalized group resonate with other groups facing similar struggles, underscoring the idea that solidarity is crucial in the fight against discrimination, and that understanding the complexity of identity is essential in addressing social justice issues.
In practice
During a pride event, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of intersectionality in LGBTQ+ advocacy.
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.
That’s always the hardest thing when someone completely has you fooled so much, that you think they’re just never going to hurt you, then they do. That’s when you get the worst heartbreak.
If you're black, you got to look at America a little bit different. You got to look at America like the uncle who paid for you to go to college, but who molested you.
The white actresses I have known have been allowed to do 10 times more than I shall ever do.
The trouble is, I can't find a part of myself where you're not important. I write in order to be worth your while and to finance the way I want to live with you. Not the way you want to live. The way I want to live with you. Without you I wouldn't care. I'd eat tinned spaghetti and put on yesterday's clothes. But as it is I change my socks, and make money, and tart up Brodie's unspeakable drivel into speakable drivel so he can be an author too, like me.
The more I know people, the more I love my dog.
Maybe times are never strange to women: it is just one continuous monotonous thing full of the repeated follies of their menfolks.
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