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Anger Is An Appropriate Reaction To Racist Attitudes, As Is Fury When The Actions Arising From Those Attitudes Do Not Change.
-Audre Lorde
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Anger Is An Appropriate

Audre Lorde
...
Anger Is An Appropriate Reaction To Racist Attitudes, As Is Fury When The Actions Arising From Those Attitudes Do Not Change.

Understanding the Quote: "anger is an appropriate reaction to racist attitudes, as is fury when..."

This quote by Audre Lorde reflects deeply on the theme of attitude. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Attitude, Anger, Racism, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Audre Lorde interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde is celebrated for insightful thoughts on attitude and anger. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Attitude
Anger
Racism
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It Is Learning How To Stand Alone, Unpopular And Sometimes Reviled, And How To Make Common Cause With Those Other Identified As Outside The Structures, In Order To Define And Seek A World In Which We Can All Flourish. It Is Learning How To Take Our Differences And Make The Strengths. For The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master's House.
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My Fear Of Anger Taught Me Nothing.
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Every Black Woman In America Lives Her Life Somewhere Along A Wide Curve Of Ancient And Unexpressed Angers.
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I Want To Live The Rest Of My Life, However Long Or Short, With As Much Sweetness As I Can Decently Manage, Loving All The People I Love, And Doing As Much As I Can Of The Work I Still Have To Do.
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The Quality Of Light By Which We Scrutinize Our Lives Has Direct Bearing Upon The Product Which We Live, And Upon The Changes Which We Hope To Bring About Through Those Lives.
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The Transformation Of Silence Into Language And Action Is An Act Of Self-revelation .
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There Are Many Lesbians And Gay Men Trapped By Their Fear Into Silence And Invisibility, And They Exist In A Dim Valley Of Terror Wearing Nooses Of Conformity.
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Say What You Have To Say Now! Don't Wait Until You're Sending Blips From The Other Side.
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. . . It Is Through Poetry That We Give Name To Those Ideas Which Are-until The Poem-nameless And Formless, About To Be Birthed, But Already Felt.
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I Find I Am Constantly Being Encouraged To Pluck Out Some One Aspect Of Myself And Present This As The Meaningful Whole, Eclipsing Or Denying The Other Parts Of Self.
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Black Writers, Of Whatever Quality, Who Step Outside The Pale Of What Black Writers Are Supposed To Write About, Or Who Black Writers Are Supposed To Be, Are Condemned To Silences In Black Literary Circles That Are As Total And As Destructive As Any Imposed By Racism.
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... It Is Not Difference Which Immobilizes Us, But Silence.
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If What We Need To Dream, To Move Our Spirits Most Deeply And Directly Toward And Through Promise, Is Discounted As A Luxury, Then We Give Up The Core -- The Fountain -- Of Our Power, Our Womanness; We Give Up The Future Of Our Worlds. (from "poetry Is Not A Luxury")
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Sometimes We Are Blessed With Being Able To Choose The Time, And The Arena, And The Manner Of Our Revolution, But More Usually We Must Do Battle Where We Are Standing.
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I Have Come To Believe Over And Over Again That What Is Most Important To Me Must Be Spoken, Made Verbal And Shared, Even At The Risk Of Having It Bruised Or Misunderstood. That The Speaking Profits Me, Beyond Any Other Effect....what I Most Regretted Were My Silences. Of What Had I Ever Been Afraid? ...death On The Other Hand, Is The Final Silence...my Silences Had Not Protected Me. Your Silences Will Not Protect You.
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The Fear That We Cannot Grow Beyond Whatever Distortions We May Find Within Ourselves Keeps Us Docile And Loyal And Obedient, Externally Defined, And Leads Us To Accept Many Facets Of Our Own Oppression As Women.
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[speaking] Is Never Without Fear; Of Visibility, Of The Harsh Light Of Scrutiny And Perhaps Judgment, Of Pain, Of Death. But We Have Lived Through All Of Those Already, In Silence, Except Death. And I Remind Myself All The Time Now, That If I Were To Have Been Born Mute, And Had Maintained An Oath Of Silence My Whole Life For Safety, I Would Still Have Suffered, And I Would Still Die.
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Bridges
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What Are The Words You Do Not Yet Have? What Do You Need To Say? What Are The Tyrannies You Swallow Day By Day And Attempt To Make Your Own, Until You Will Sicken And Die Of Them, Still In Silence.
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Mean
Feminist
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Poetry
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To That Piece In Each Of Us That Refuses To Be Silent.
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Silent
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Keys
It's Possible To Take That As A Personal Metaphor And Then Multiply It To A People, A Race, A Sex, A Time. If We Can Keep This Thing Going Long Enough, If We Can Survive And Teach What We Know, We'll Make It.
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Race
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Giving
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Because The Machine Will Try To Grind You Into Dust Anyway, Whether Or Not We Speak.
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Trying
Machines
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Deals
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Struggle
Issues
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Why Not
Literature
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Mean
Differences
Community
We Are Powerful Because We Have Survived
Powerful
Survived
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Cancer
Racism
Justice
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Faces
Oppression
Print
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Keys
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Thinking
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Order
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Bed
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I Would Like To Do Another Piece Of Fiction Dealing With A Number Of Issues: Lesbian Parenting, The 1960's, And Interracial Relationships In The Lesbian And Gay Community.
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Numbers
Issues
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Caring
Compassion
Self
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Inspirational
Vision
Desire
… Our Sons Must Become Men – Such Men As We Hope Our Daughters, Born And Unborn, Will Be Pleased To Live Among. Our Sons Will Not Grow Into Women. Their Way Is More Difficult Than That Of Our Daughters, For They Must Move Away From Us, Without Us. Hopefully Ours Have What They Have Learned From Us, And A Howness To Forge Into Their Own Image.
Daughter
Moving
Son
Every Woman I Have Ever Loved Has Left Her Print Upon Me, Where I Loved Some Invaluable Piece Of Myself Apart From Me-so Different That I Had To Stretch And Grow In Order To Recognize Her. And In That Growing, We Came To Separation, That Place Where Work Begins.
Order
Different
Pieces
When We Create Out Of Our Experiences, As Feminists Of Color, Women Of Color, We Have To Develop Those Structures That Will Present And Circulate Our Culture.
Color
Feminist
Culture
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Children
Suicidal
Dragons
Pain Is An Event ... Suffering, On The Other Hand, Is The Nightmare Reliving Of Unscrutinized And Unmetabolized Pain.
Pain
Hands
Suffering
Every Woman I Have Ever Known Has Made A Lasting Impression On My Soul.
Soul
Lasting Impressions
Made
Who I Am Is What Fulfills Me And Fulfills The Vision I Have Of The World.
Self Esteem
Who I Am
Vision
The Oppression Of Women Knows No Ethnic Nor Racial Boundaries, True, But That Does Not Mean It Is Identical Within Those Boundaries.
Mean
Doe
Oppression
It's A Struggle But That's Why We Exist, So That Another Generation Of Lesbians Of Color Will Not Have To Invent Themselves, Or Their History, All Over Again.
Struggle
Color
Generations
Tell Them About How You're Never Really A Whole Person If You Remain Silent, Because There's Always That One Little Piece Inside You That Wants To Be Spoken Out, And If You Keep Ignoring It, It Gets Madder And Madder And Hotter And Hotter, And If You Don't Speak It Out One Day It Will Just Up And Punch You In The Mouth From The Inside.
One Day
Pieces
Mouths
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Writing
Needs
The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master's House.
Peace
Power
House
It Does Not Pay To Cherish Symbols When The Substance Lies So Close At Hand.
Lying
Hands
Doe
I Have Always Wanted To Be Both Man And Woman, To Incorporate The Strongest And Richest Parts Of My Mother And Father Within/into Me - To Share Valleys And Mountains Upon My Body The Way The Earth Does In Hills And Peaks.
Mother
Father
Men
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Accepting
Used
Diminish
If I Cannot Air This Pain And Alter It, I Will Surely Die Of It. That's The Beginning Of Social Protest.
Pain
Air
Justice
There Are No New Ideas. There Are Only New Ways Of Making Them Felt.
Ideas
Black History
Way
I Write For Those Women Who Do Not Speak, For Those Who Do Not Have A Voice Because They Were So Terrified, Because We Are Taught To Respect Fear More Than Ourselves. We've Been Taught That Silence Would Save Us, But It Won't.
Fear
Women
Writing
Some Words Live In My Throat Breeding Like Adders. Others Know Sun Seeking Like Gypsies Over My Tongue To Explode Through My Lips
Tongue
Sun
Lips
Those Of Us Who Stand Outside The Circle Of This Society's Definition Of Acceptable Women; Those Of Us Who Have Been Forged In The Crucibles Of Difference - Those Of Us Who Are Poor, Who Are Lesbians, Who Are Black, Who Are Older - Know That Survival Is Not An Academic Skill...for The Master's Tools Will Not Dismantle The Master's House. They Will Never Allow Us To Bring About Genuine Change.
Skills
Circles
Differences
I Learned To Read From Mrs. Augusta Baker, The Children's Librarian. ... If That Was The Only Good Deed That Lady Ever Did In Her Life, May She Rest In Peace. Because That Deed Saved My Life, If Not Sooner, Then Later, When Sometimes The Only Thing I Had To Hold On To Was Knowing I Could Read.
Rest In Peace
Children
Reading
For Those Of Us Who Write, It Is Necessary To Scrutinize Not Only The Truth Of What We Speak, But The Truth Of That Language By Which We Speak It.
Truth
Writing
Language
Advocating The Mere Tolerance Of Difference Between Women Is The Grossest Reformism. It Is A Total Denial Of The Creative Function Of Difference In Our Lives. Difference Must Be Not Merely Toleration, But Seen As A Fund Of Necessary Polarities Between Which Our Creativity Can Spark Like A Dialectic. Only Then Does The Necessity For Interdependency Become Unthreatening. Only Within The Interdependency Of Different Strengths, Acknowledged And Equal, Can The Power To Seek New Ways Of Being In The World Generate, As Well As The Courage And Sustenance To Act Where There Are No Charters
Creativity
Differences
Creative
‎once We Recognize What It Is We Are Feeling, Once We Recognize We Can Feel Deeply, Love Deeply, Can Feel Joy, Then We Will Demand That All Parts Of Our Lives Produce That Kind Of Joy.
Love
Inspiring
Happiness
Hopefully, We Can Learn From The 60s That We Cannot Afford To Do Our Enemies Work By Destroying Each Other.
Enemy
Destroying
Hopefully
You Loved People And You Came To Depend On Their Being There. But People Died Or Changed Or Went Away And It Hurt Too Much. The Only Way To Avoid That Poin Was Not To Love Anyone, And Not To Let Anyone Get Too Close Or Too Important. The Secret Of Not Being Hurt Like This Again, I Decided, Was Never Depending On Anyone, Never Needing, Never Loving.it Is The Last Dream Of Children, To Be Forever Untouched.
Dream
Hurt
Children
Wherever The Bird With No Feet Flew, She Found Trees With No Limbs.
Feet
Bird
Tree
Sometimes We Drug Ourselves With Dreams Of New Ideasl The Head Will Save Us. The Brain Alone Will Set Us Free. But There Are No New Ideas Waiting In The Wings To Save Us As Women, As Human. There Are Only Old And Forgotten Ones, New Combinations, Extrapolations And Recognitions From Within Ourselves--along With The Renewed Courage To Try Them Out.
Dream
Wings
Ideas
Next Time, Ask: What's The Worst That Will Happen? Then Push Yourself A Little Further Than You Dare.
Women Empowerment
Littles
Next
For Within Livin Structures Defined By Profit, By Linear Power, By Institutional Dehumanization, Our Feelings Were Not Meant To Survive. Kept Around As Unavoidable Adjuncts Or Pleasant Pastimes, Our Feelings Were Expected To Kneel To Thought As Women Were Expected To Kneel To Men. But Women Have Survived. As Poets.
Men
Feelings
Poet
Life Is Very Short And What We Have To Do Must Be Done In The Now.
Life
Reality
Done
Revolution Is Not A One Time Event.
Revolution
Events
One Time
I Have Come To Believe That Caring For Myself Is Not Self-indulgent. Caring For Myself Is An Act Of Survival.
Believe
Caring
Self
I Soon Discovered That If You Keep Your Mouth Shut, People Are Apt To Believe You Know Everything, And They Begin To Feel Freer And Freer To Tell You Anything, Anxious To Show That They Know Something, Too.
Believe
People
Mouths
We Must Constantly Encourage Ourselves And Each Other To Attempt The Heretical Actions That Our Dreams Imply And So Many Of Our Old Ideas Disparage.
Dream
Ideas
Action
From My Membership In All Of These Groups I Have Learned That Oppression And The Intolerance Of Difference Come In All Shapes And Sizes And Colors And Sexualities; And That Among Those Of Us Who Share The Goals Of Liberation And A Workable Future For Our Children, There Can Be No Hierarchies Of Oppression.
Children
Color
Differences
Differences Must Be Not Merely Tolerated, But Seen As A Fund Of Necessary Polarities Between Which Our Creativity Can Spark Like A Dialectic.
Creativity
Differences
Sparks
Tomorrow Belongs To Those Of Us Who Conceive Of It As Belonging To Everyone; Who Lend The Best Of Ourselves To It, And With Joy.
Future
Joy
Tomorrow
The Erotic Is A Resource Within Each Of Us That Lies In A Deeply Female And Spiritual Plane, Firmly Rooted In The Power Of Our Unexpressed Or Unrecognized Feeling. . . .
Spiritual
Lying
Erotic
And Where The Words Of Women Are Crying To Be Heard, We Must Each Of Us Recognize Our Responsibility To Seek Those Words Out, To Read Them And Share Them And Examine Them In Their Pertinence To Our Lives.
Responsibility
Cry
Share
Without Community, There Is No Liberation.
Change
Community
Collaboration
We Are All In The Process Of Becoming.
Graduation
Becoming
Process
Out Of My Flesh That Hungers And My Mouth That Knows Comes The Shape I Am Seeking For Reason.
Mouths
Shapes
Flesh
I Am Deliberate And Afraid Of Nothing.
Inspirational
Life
Inspiring
For We Have Been Socialized To Respect Fear More Than Our Own Needs For Language And Definition, And While We Wait In Silence For That Final Luxury Of Fearlessness, The Weight Of That Silence Will Choke Us.
Luxury
Silence
Waiting
Black Women Sharing Close Ties With Each Other, Politically Or Emotionally, Are Not The Enemies Of Black Men.
Men
Ties
Black
It Is Axiomatic That If We Do Not Define Ourselves For Ourselves, We Will Be Defined By Others-for Their Use And To Our Detriment.
Use
Defined
Ifs
I Cannot Afford To Believe That Freedom From Intolerance Is The Right Of Only One Particular Group. And I Cannot Afford To Choose Between The Fronts Upon Which I Must Battle These Forces Of Discrimination, Wherever They Appear To Destroy Me. And When They Appear To Destroy Me, It Will Not Be Long Before They Appear To Destroy You.
Believe
Long
Battle
But, On The Other Hand, I Get Bored With Racism Too And Recognize That There Are Still Many Things To Be Said About A Black Person And A White Person Loving Each Other In A Racist Society.
Hands
White
Racism
I Stand Here As A Black Lesbian Feminist, Having Been Invited To Comment Within The Only Panel At This Conference Where The Input Of Black Feminists And Lesbians Is Represented. What This Says About The Vision Of This Conference Is Sad, In A Country Where Racism, Sexism And Homophobia Are Inseparable. . . .
Country
Heterosexuality Is
Racism
I Am Not Free While Any Woman Is Unfree, Even When Her Shackles Are Very Different From My Own.
Feminist
Fearless
Different
Raising Black Children — Female And Male — In The Mouth Of A Racist, Sexist, Suicidal Dragon Is Perilous And Chancy. If They Cannot Love And Resist At The Same Time, They Will Probably Not Survive. And In Order To Survive They Must Let Go. This Is What Mothers Teach — Love, Survival — That Is, Self-definition And Letting Go.
Ifs
Pornography Is A Direct Denial Of The Power Of The Erotic, For It Represents The Suppression Of True Feeling. Pornography Emphasizes Sensation Without Feeling.
Erotic
Feelings
Denial
If White American Feminist Theory Need Not Deal With The Differences Between Us, And The Resulting Difference In Our Oppressions, Then How Do You Deal With The Fact That The Women Who Clean Your Houses And Tend Your Children While You Attend Conferences On Feminist Theory Are, For The Most Part, Poor Women And Women Of Color? What Is The Theory Behind Racist Feminism?
Children
Color
White
As A Black Lesbian Feminist Comfortable With The Many Different Ingredients Of My Identity, And A Woman Committed To Racial And Sexual Freedom From Oppression, I Find I Am Constantly Being Encouraged To Pluck Out Some One Aspect Of Myself And Present This As The Meaningful Whole, Eclipsing Or Denying The Other Parts Of Self. But This Is A Destructive And Fragmenting Way To Live.
Meaningful
Acceptance
Self
Stoicism And Silence Does Not Serve Us Nor Our Communities, Only The Forces Of Things As They Are.
Silence
Community
Doe
In Our Work And In Our Living, We Must Recognize That Difference Is A Reason For Celebration And Growth, Rather Than A Reason For Destruction.
Differences
Growth
Progress
Oppression Is As American As Apple Pie.
Apples
Pie
Apple Pie
I Agreed To Take Part In A New York University Institute For Humanities Conference A Year Ago. . . .
New York
Heterosexuality Is
Years
Difference Is That Raw And Powerful Connection From Which Our Personal Power Is Forged... We Have Been Taught To Either Ignore Our Differences Or To View Them As Causes For Separation And Suspicion Rather Than As Forces For Change. Without Community, There Is No Liberation, Only The Most Vulnerable And Temporary Armistice Between An Individual And Her Oppression... Survival Is Learning To Take Our Difference And Make Them Strengths.
Powerful
Views
Differences
For The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House. They May Allow Us To Temporarily Beat Him At His Own Game, But They Will Never Enable Us To Bring About Genuine Change. Racism And Homophobia Are Real Conditions Of All Our Lives In This Place And Time. I Urge Each One Of Us Here To Reach Down Into That Deep Place Of Knowledge Inside Herself And Touch That Terror And Loathing Of Any Difference That Lives Here. See Whose Face It Wears. Then The Personal As The Political Can Begin To Illuminate All Our Choices.
Real
Games
Differences
Guilt Is Not A Response To Anger; It Is A Response To One's Own Actions Or Lack Of Action.
Guilt
Action
Response
Even The Smallest Victory Is Never To Be Taken For Granted. Each Victory Must Be Applauded.
Gratitude
Taken
Victory
Institutionalized Rejection Of Difference Is An Absolute Necessity In A Profit Economy Which Needs Outsiders As Surplus People.
Differences
People
Rejection
Hatred Is A Death Wish For The Hated, Not A Life Wish For Anything Else.
Forgiveness
Hatred
Wish
The Erotic Has Often Been Misnamed By Men And Used Against Women. It Has Been Made Into The Confused, The Trivial, The Psychotic, The Plasticized Sensation.
Confused
Men
Erotic
The Absence Of Any Consideration Of Lesbian Consciousness Or The Consciousness Of Third World Women Leaves A Serious Gap Within This Conference. . . .
Heterosexuality Is
World
Gaps
Anger, Used, Does Not Destroy. Hatred Does.
Hatred
Black History
Doe
Art Is Not Living. It Is The Use Of Living.
Life
Art
Inspire
Some Women Wait For Themselves Around The Next Corner And Call The Empty Spot Peace But The Opposite Of Living Is Only Not Living And The Stars Do Not Care.
Stars
Opposites
Waiting
And This Is A Grave Responsibility, Projected From Within Each Of Us, Not To Settle For The Convenient, The Shoddy, The Conventionally Expected, Nor The Merely Safe.
Responsibility
Safe
Settling
So It Is Better To Speak, Remembering We Were Never Meant To Survive.
Remember
Speak
I Am Still Learning - How To Take Joy In All The People I Am, How To Use All My Selves In The Service Of What I Believe, How To Accept When I Fail And Rejoice When I Succeed.
Perseverance
Believe
Self
...my Experience With People Who Tried To Label Me Was That They Usually Did It To Either Dismiss Me Or Use Me.
People
Labels
Use
In Order To Perpetuate Itself, Every Oppression Must Corrupt Or Distort Those Various Sources Of Power Within The Culture Of The Oppressed That Can Provide Energy For Change.
Order
Energy
Culture
When You Reach Out And Touch Other Human Beings, It Doesn't Matter Whether You Call It Therapy Or Teaching Or Poetry.
Teaching
Matter
Reach Out
Poetry Is The Way We Help Give Name To The Nameless So It Can Be Thought.
Names
Giving
Way
Each Time You Love, Love As Deeply As If It Were Forever.
I Love You
Inspiring
Valentines Day
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