{"id":591,"date":"2021-04-25T11:40:50","date_gmt":"2021-04-25T15:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/?p=591"},"modified":"2021-04-25T11:40:51","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T15:40:51","slug":"calling-in-radical-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/2021\/04\/25\/calling-in-radical-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Calling In & Radical Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In \u201cUses of Anger,\u201d Audre Lorde offers a really productive definition of anger: \u201cAnger is a grief of distortions between peers, and its object is change\u201d (p. 129 in my edition of Sister Outsider<\/em>). Lorde invites everyone into her project of transforming these distortions and instead recognizing the creative power of difference. She asserts that if she fails to recognize the oppressions faced by other queer women and Black women, \u201cthen I am contributing not only to each of their oppressions but also to my own\u201d (132).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love that Lorde foregrounds her belief that honoring differences is what will ultimately enable us to defeat racism, misogyny, homophobia, and other oppressions. She talks about this in the context of her identity as a Black lesbian in both \u201cUses of Anger\u201d and \u201cRevolutionary Hope.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her conversation with James Baldwin, Lorde calls Baldwin in. Throughout this semester, our class has noted Baldwin\u2019s failure to attend to Black women\u2019s lived experiences. Baldwin\u2019s writing is largely self-reflective, dwelling on his understanding of what it means to be a Black, queer man in the U.S. In this conversation, Lorde listens to Baldwin but also challenges him to gain a deeper understanding of her experience of moving through the world as Black, queer, and female. She does not let him get away with minimizing her experiences: when he says that \u201cin this republic the only real crime is to be a Black man,\u201d she replies, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t realize that\u2026. I realize the only crime is to be Black, and that includes me too.\u201d Lorde asks Baldwin to see her\u2014to really see Black women and queer women\u2014to more effectively dismantle racism, sexism, and heterosexism. (I would love to learn more about the relationship between Baldwin and Lorde and how they shaped each other\u2019s views and work.)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think this conversation is really powerful because even when Lorde expresses a disagreement with Baldwin, she does so in a way that moves both of them forward and helps them better understand each other. This aspect of their conversation makes the title \u201cRevolutionary Hope\u201d fitting. The power of centering hope is so profound. Elsewhere in\u00a0Sister Outsider<\/em>, Lorde talks about how she has learned to speak up even when she is afraid; progress can only be made when oppressive silences are shattered. Lorde\u2019s radically hopeful perspective, by focusing on accountability and reaching across difference, only strengthens Baldwin\u2019s work speaking out about civil rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In \u201cUses of Anger,\u201d Audre Lorde offers a really productive definition of anger: \u201cAnger is a grief of distortions between peers, and its object is change\u201d (p. 129 in my edition of Sister Outsider). Lorde invites everyone into her project of transforming these distortions and instead recognizing the creative power of difference. She asserts that if … Continue reading Calling In & Radical Hope<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3909,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[471414],"tags":[500676,120219,120191],"class_list":["post-591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-native-son","tag-audre-lorde","tag-civil-rights","tag-intersectionality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3909"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":592,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions\/592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}