My post is just food for thought I guess; I missed my original presentation on Audre Lorde's "Transformation of Silence into Language and Action." This post is that presentation to provide my insights into her work; like I said it's late but it's food for thought. The critical article I chose was not a book review of Audre Lorde's work; however, I do feel that it is very useful in understanding what Audre Lorde stood for as well as what her message is in her piece, "Transformation of Silence into Language and Action". The article is entitled, "Breaking the Silence A Black Feminist Response to the Thomas/Hill Hearings." It deals with a Supreme Court case of sexual harassment of a black woman by the name of Anita Hill. Judge Thomas had allegedly sexually harassed Anita when he was her boss. The issue, besides the obvious one of sexism and possible racism, is the fact that Orlando Patterson, a Harvard professor and supporter of Thomas claimed that Thomas was justified by publicly denying the allegations even if he committed them. This suggests that Anita, black women in general, should remain silent about such sexual encounters; as if to elude that the primary distinction of this case is its sexual nature rather than the violation of Anita's rights. The author of this article, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, makes a valid observation; she suggests that if the trial had not been aired via television than perhaps the negative connotation of "dirty laundry" would have ceased to be relevant and the real issues could have shown through rather than the media generated propaganda.

"Transformation of Silence into Language and action" is primarily about Lorde's struggle to break her, self-proclaimed, lifetime of silence to conform to white society and male domination. She has this change of heart after hearing she has a tumor with a 60-80% chance of being malignant. For three weeks she is faced with the trial of living with the devastating notion that she is running out of time. This frightens and aggravates her because she feels her silence has held her back.

My discussion question is: How many of us can honestly say were not constrained by the same notion of silence? Furthermore, who thinks they would have the courage to speak out for what they believe in even if the odds are mounted against you as they were for black, feminist, lesbian, warrior, and poet; Audre Lorde.