Audre Lorde's Power

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Police officers were once referred as law enforcers who brought peace to our communities in times of disarray. But as time goes on, police have obtained exorbitant amount of power that is evidently abused, resulting in their use of unnecessary and redundant force against civilians. Due to police brutality, police are seen less as peacekeepers and more as discriminatory tyrants who for decades tormented minorities, especially African Americans. Audre Lorde’s poem “Power” portrays the ongoing battle African Americans face caused by the law enforcement’s abuse of power. This poem recorded Lorde’s emotions and response to the murder of a ten-year old African American boy named Clifford Glover by a Caucasian officer and shares Lorde’s outrage and …show more content…

Lorde incorporated the words ‘dead’, ‘blood’, and ‘shattered’ with the keyword ‘black’ in order to give the audience the tone of sorrow and empathy for African Americans for the purpose of justifying her point. She states, “one black woman who said, ‘they convinced me’ meaning/ they dragged her 4’10” black woman frame/ over the hot coals of four centuries of white male approval…” (33-36) and this quote is based on the fact that the white officer was wrongfully declared not guilty due to the partial jury being made of mostly white men and only one black woman. The white males deprived the only power that the Afro-American woman “…let go the first real power she ever had” (35) and depicted the unfair white privileges they …show more content…

Lorde narrates “…thirsting for the wetness of his blood/ as it sinks into the whiteness/ of the desert...” (14-16) and uses white to describe the dry, barren desert that invigorates a person’s power and strength. The white desert figuratively represents America and its abhorrent norm of white supremacy, and the sinking of the child’s blood into the desert depicts the continuous oppression and torment that endowed the blacks’ deprivation of power. The quote, “… over the hot coals of four centuries of white male approval,” (34) portrays the prolonged influence that whites had and their expectation that minorities should always be compliant for their

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