Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Robert Staples (1942-2020) was a researcher and leading authority on Black family life. Having a Master’s degree in Sociology from San Jose State University and a doctorate in Family Sociology from the University of Minnesota, Staples went on to teach at several universities including Howard, Fisk, and California State at Hayward. In 1973, he began teaching in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, where he became professor emeritus of Sociology. He also served as visiting professor at universities in the United States, Australia, and England during his academic career.

Staples penned over 200 articles in scholarly publications, and he wrote and edited numerous books on Black families. Some of his most popular works are Black Masculinity (1982), The Urban Population (1987), The Black Family: Essays and Studies (1991), and Black Families at the Crossroads (1993). He is a key figure in Sister Outsider because “Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface” is a response to Staples’s article “The Myth of Black Macho: A Response to Angry Black Feminists.” Staples’ original essay and Lorde’s response were published in subsequent issues of The Black Scholar in 1979. In response to Staples’s claim that Black Feminism is a threat to Black men’s masculinity and divisive to the Black community, Lorde argues that beginning a dialogue between Black men and women must involve acknowledging the oppressive nature of male privilege and its manifestations of violence against Black women.

Mary Daly (1928-2010) was a radical feminist, philosopher, and theologian. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from the College of Saint Rose, a Master of Arts in English from the Catholic University of America, a doctorate in Religion from Saint Mary’s College, and two doctorates in Sacred Theology and Philosophy from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Daly’s most popular work, Beyond God the Father (1973), is a foundational text in feminist theology for its attempt to deconstruct and move beyond androcentrism in Western religion.

Another popular work, Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism (1978) is what makes Daly a key figure in Sister Outsider. In this work, Daly argues that men throughout history have sought to oppress women and that it is therefore essential for women to recognize the female energy linked to the life-creating condition of the female spirit and body, which Daly explores through Western, Judeo-Christian goddess myths and archetypes. In “An Open Letter to Mary Daly,” Lorde addresses Daly’s exclusion of Black and Brown goddess myths and symbols. Lorde argues that the exclusion exemplifies the racism of white feminists in the movement for women’s liberation, a movement that is incomplete without the voices and histories of women of color.

Although Lorde made the letter public after receiving no reply from Daly within three months, Daly did respond in the fourth month. She and Lorde met in person for Daly to explain that her book was limited to goddesses that were sources of Christian myth, rather than the exclusion of non-white goddesses being a deliberate attempt at ignoring women of color. Lorde’s response to Daly’s explanation is unknown.

Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) was a poet, essayist, and feminist. She is credited with bringing the oppression of women and lesbians into poetry discourse, and she is known for the feminist elements of her poetry, as well as several pieces openly expressing outrage with patriarchy. She also wrote in-depth about the shortcomings of white feminism, particularly the need for intersectionality within the feminist movement.

Rich has many published poetry collections and nonfiction works, including ones published posthumously. Two of her most recognized books are Blood, Bread, and Poetry and her first poetry collection, A Change of World, for which she received the Yale Younger Poets Award. In addition to this award, she has received other awards and honors for her work, including honorary doctorates from Smith College and Harvard University, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a MacArthur Fellowship.

She is a key figure in Sister Outsider since she conducted the 1979 interview with Lorde that was originally published in Signs in 1981. In this interview, Lorde and Rich’s commitment to women’s racial solidarity in the feminist movement becomes evident as they thoughtfully and honestly address a previous conversation that led to a disagreement. In addition, Lorde and Rich co-presented the keynote address at the National Women’s Studies Association’s 1981 conference in Storrs, Connecticut. Lorde’s presentation, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism” is included in the Sister Outsider collection.

Paulo Freire (1921-1997) was a Brazilian educator and philosopher. As a leading advocate of critical pedagogy, he argued that education should not only allow oppressed peoples to regain their sense of humanity but also help them overcome the conditions of their oppression. In this respect, education is inherently a political act, and oppressed peoples play a role in their own liberation. His most famous work is The Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968).

He is a key figure in Sister Outsider because Lorde cites Freire with a quote from Pedagogy of the Oppressed in “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Differences.” The quote conveys Freire’s point that revolutionary change requires oppressed people’s awareness of their own internalized oppression, i.e., the role that the oppressed must play in their own liberation. Lorde repeats this point throughout Sister Outsider, emphasizing that the battle against oppression must be directed not only externally at the forces of oppression, but also inward at what has become self-imposed and results in oppressed people testifying against themselves.