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Making Arguments / Explicating Evidence (using Lorde's work) ("…
Making Arguments / Explicating Evidence (using Lorde's work)
Thesis statements
summarizes/frontloads main argument;
makes the purpose clear--i.e. why you're writing the thing.
What do we "close read" for?
word choice, tone, form, structure, organization, syntax (how a sentence is constructed)
"Women of today are still being called upon to stretch across the gap of male ignorance and to educate men as to our existence and our need. This is an old and primary tool of all oppressors to keep the oppressed occupied with the master's concerns" (113)
there is a societal framework in place (i.e.systematic oppression). Women owe an explanation to people (men?), and by prioritizing others' education, it further's their agenda.
ok, but who is the oppressor. Explain how I'm oppressing you. What if this is about whitenees (white women).
"master" as a LOADED term--connotes the gravity and weight of oppression; invokes slavery and its legacies
"stretch across the gap" implies the largeness, it's a very physical image
"primary tool" suggests the 1) loooong history of oppression and 2) it's futures; also it's about work/labor
"I agreed to take part in a New York University Institute for the Humanities conference a year ago, with the understanding that I would be commenting upon papers dealing with the role of difference within the lives of american women: difference of race, sexuality, class, and age. The absence of these considerations weakens any feminist discussion of the personal and the political" (110)
2 women of Color; calls out lack of representation.
it narrows the terms and it narrows the knowledge produced
if we don't capitalize America/america, it's about not giving it the weight/idealization. She's not proud of it.
Grammar as tool developed by old dead white dudes; form and content are wedded
"Because the machine will try to grind you into dust anyway, whether or not we speak" (Transformation", 42)
encouraging women to speak up, cause either way, we're going to die
thesis: Lorde is arguing for...[as long as we continue to work within the framework [ whiteness and pedagogy/education,] of the oppressor, we can't do the work and accomplish the things], and does it with tool imagery and grammar
"What does it mean when the tools of a racist patriarchy are used to examine the fruits of that same patriarchy? (111)
"We can learn to wrok and speak when we are afraid in the same way we have learned to work and speak when we are tired. For we have been socialized to respect fear more than our own needs to language and definition, and while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us" (44)
women are afraid to speak, esp about upsetting topics (which are necessary for life)
is this kinda sexy? the visceral imagery
"Tell them about how you're a whole person if you remain silent because there is always the one little piece inside of you that wants to speak out" (42)
the use of her daughter to show generational knowledge and a child's wisdom
tone: the anger of keeping it in. Fire, heat, punch in the mouth
a call for folks to use their voice, because silence will not help us
"For those of us who write, it is necessary to to scrutinize not only the truth of what we speak, but the truth of that language by which we speak" (43)
"In a patriarchal power system where whiteskin privilege is a major prop, the entrapment used to neutralize Black women and white women are not the same" (118)
looking at the system(s) as a monolithic ways isn't recognizing the specific, multiple ways racism, homophobia, etc work. We need to be attentive to the specific methods of oppressions
"You fear your children will grow uip to join the patriarchy and testify against you, we fear our children will be dragged from a car and shot down in the street , and you will turn your backs upon the reasons they are dying" (119)
"you will turn your backs" some women have the power to turn off when they care
"co-exist with patriarchy in relative peace" (119)