Analysis Of The Fourth Of July By Audre Lorde

In the short story “The Fourth of July” written by Audre Lorde conveys the message that one should not contradict the majority of people and if they do as result their will be certain consequences, and that you have to wait it out in order to be somewhat rewarded specifically in the story, The story is roughly about the racism within the United States’ capital and other parts of the U.S., and how her family experienced these horrid practices on their fourth of July vacation. The copious use of the term white within the short story clearly conveys the fact that there is a strong amount of racism present in the story, as well as the fact that the fourth of July was only a "white man's celebration” The use of white to describe Washington D.C. represents Lorde's anger at how our nation's capital should be symbol of freedom for all american citizens and however the country is

full of prejudice as well as racism.

In the story the family is faced with an adverse situation commonly known as racism. The family who were all of African American descent decided to take a family vacation to Washington D.C. in order to celebrate the graduation of two of there children one who graduated from eighth grade to high school that person was Audre Lorde and her older sister just graduated from high school. They thought it would be a leisurely vacation however it was the opposite. They were limited to what types of trains they could take, where they could stay as in hotel wise, or even where or what they could eat. “I wanted to eat in the dining car because I had read all about them, but my mother reminded me… that black people were not allowed into railroad dining cars…”(Lorde 240) Simply due to this discrimination

these human beings were not allowed to eat in a specific train car, how sad is that. This story took place in 1947 which was just after the Holocaust and World War II, shouldn’t they have learned not to treat people harshly because as they saw millions of specifically Jewish people were harmed or killed, and now people still have the nerve to segregate African American people. The same thing occurred while in Washington D.C. which is the nation's capital which really portray freedom and liberty but instead conveyed that segregation was still alive and was thriving basically everywhere around the country, and their family could simply do nothing about it they just had to go with the flow and not complain about the cards they were dealt in life. Correspondingly they weren’t allowed to eat out at specific places while in the downtown area of D.C. “The waitress moved along the line of us closer to my father and spoke again. “I said I kin give you to take out, but you can’t eat here. Sorry.” Then she dropped her eyes looking very embarrassed…” (Lorde 242) This waitress who has kindness in her heart due to her embarrassment she had to just follow orders possibly given by the owner who is possibly racist, or is taking into consideration the racist customers might not want to eat around african american people. However they still had to leave the premise however it was how they left which is what made it very significant.

The family has most likely accustomed to the fact that they are not liked amongst a large group of people in the united states, everywhere they go there is prejudice, even places where they should feel safe they aren’t, so directly as a result they have adapted and acclimated to their surroundings. Most likely whenever they are in a situation where they are being criticized for something they can’t even control. Such as in the story “Straight-backed and indignant, one by one, my family and I got down from the counter stools and turned around and marched out of the store,quiet… “(Lorde 242) Basically they must choose exit in order for them to be safe because a majority of American Citizens are racists and discriminate African American people