Audre Lorde: Zami: A New Spelling of my Name
Word Count: 416
From Zami: A New Spelling of my Name by Audre Lorde
“Since my parents shared all making of policy and decision, in my child’s eye, my mother must have been other than woman. Again, she was certainly not man” (497).
“I realize now, to hide from us as children the many instances of her powerlessness. Being Black and foreign and female in New York City in the twenties and thirties was not simple, particularly when she was quite light enough to pass for white, but her children weren’t” (498).
“It was so often her approach to the world; to change reality. If you can’t change reality, change your perceptions of it” (498).
“It was charity, which was bad and demeaning, and besides the milk was warm and might make you sick” (501).
Audre evidently saw her mother as a very strong woman and she also recognized that she was different from other women of her time. She found that she both enjoyed it and resented that fact at different points of her life. However, one of the big things that was different about her mother was the fact that both she and her father made decisions together. Because of this her child’s eye saw her as other than a woman but also not a man. She was simply different from the people she had encountered outside of her home. Her mother successfully shielded her from many of the problems of the world. For example, there were many instances that people would spit on Audre when she was a child and her mother instead of explaining the real reason why, changed the reason and blamed it on poor people spitting into the wind. When Audre finally figured this out she understood the reason her mother did this but only then recognized that this was often her approach to the world. To change her perception of reality to fit into her worldview, but mostly to make the world kinder. Her mother is also very strong willed and had very strong opinions on things. Even in the documentary her sister mentioned that she considered her mother to be very strict but also very loving. However, her opinions would often prevent Audre from doing things that she wanted to do. One example of this is when Audre wanted the milk that a group of white women gave black families for free, but her mother refused to let her because it was charity which was demeaning to her and her family. Her family's reputation was very important to her in this way.
I agree with what you said about the relationship between her and her mother. I think that her mother had a very strong influence on her life and impacted a lot of the decisions that she made. She was also there to protect her during this time when her race was being discriminated against. I could see this as both positive and a negative thing because she was protecting her from the world but also she wasn't able to learn anything from these experiences.
ReplyDeleteThe color of their skin was a big deciding factor as to if they received equal treatment or not. The fact that Audre wasn't targeted but her children were just because of the amount of melanin in their system. Finding your way is hard enough in your 20s and 30s, but when you also include the discrimination of skin color, it can make things a lot more difficult.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job resembling the excerpt in this blog post. I, too, found it very interesting and honestly almost condescending that her mother was trying to explain the world to her in nicer terms, to protect her feelings. As we all know it, the world can sometimes be a cruel and unusual place so it was interesting to me that her mother was always looking out for her and protecting other peoples rudeness by covering it up and saying stuff would happen on accident, even when it was intentional. You did a great job including the documentary in this post and I feel like everything you said I agree with and value reading.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the quotes you picked, they were all great examples to represent what this chapter meant. I think Audre's mother did a very good job at not only educating, but explaining to her daughter why certain things must be that way. As you said, when Audre wanted milk, her mother explained how this is charity work and how she shouldn't give in to that. This will allow Audre to understand things better rather than just brushing them off in hopes it is never talked about again.
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