One of Audre Lorde's essays in Sister Outsider, "Uses of Anger" dives into how women respond to racism, critical of angry, harsh, loud, subversive stereotypes attached to Black women, subsequently. Since it was written in 1981, it has become a seminal piece in discourse on intersectionality, tone-policing, and racial capitalism.
"Uses of Anger" provides Plot Twisters with a lens to evaluate the feelings of anger, fear, guilt, hatred, and suffering, as well as the power that relates to each:
<aside> 🔍 I highlighted "perceived" phenomena in purple, and intended or actualized phenomena in red. Does this make sense?
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Lorde's analysis of these feelings as a Black Lesbian woman illuminates the imbalance of powers held against "all women, people of Color, Lesbians and gay men, [and] poor people." Oppressed people tend to be socially disallowed from mobilizing through their anger without it being confused for "moral authority" from suffering, or hatred. Further, those who are powerful with "unaddressed privilege" are more sensitive to perceived differences and destruction, which only uphold the intolerances that maintain oppression in the first place.
At Plot Twisters, we want our storyteller to reflect on their identity and understand its role in the greater community context. To critically think about one's personal narrative is to perceive it as a story with its own merit as well as a powerful part of the social narrative around them. We encourage our storyteller to discern their own feelings toward the systems they live in. By facilitating both of these reflections simultaneously, we teach both that "this is about you, and at the same time, it's not just about you."
This pluralist ethic centers human interdependence, which supports our premise to encourage our storyteller to critically examine their personal narrative and its social role. With this ownership we imbue a responsibility to mobilize, which clarifies our premise about taking action toward challenges in their community. This also supports our premise to encourage good health: our storyteller cannot be healthy without a solid understanding of their own feelings.
"Women responding to racism means women responding to anger, the anger of exclusion, of unquestioned privilege, of racial distortions, of silence, ill-use, stereotyping, defensiveness, misnaming, betrayal, and coopting."
"Guilt and defensiveness are bricks in a wall against which we will all perish, for they serve none of our futures"
"Mainstream communication does not want women, particularly white women, responding to racism. It wants racism to be accepted as an immutable given in the fabric of existence, like evening time or the common cold."