Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches was published in 1984, and it is Audre Lorde’s second published collection of prose. Sister Outsider reflects Lorde’s commitment to the struggle against racism, sexism, patriarchy, anti-gay bias (what Lorde calls “homophobia”), heterosexism, and classism. She emphasizes women’s role in these struggles against oppression, particularly noting the need for solidarity between Black women and white women, as well as between Black women and Black men. However, solidarity for Lorde means neither homogeneity nor de-emphasizing differences nor intra-communal violence. In fact, for Lorde, building connection and coalition among oppressed peoples means openly and carefully acknowledging those differences and using them as a source of connection, creativity, and power.

Summary

The prose works included in Sister Outsider span between 1976 and 1983. The collection begins and ends with Lorde’s reflections on recent travel experiences, the first a trip to Russia and the last a trip to Grenada. Bookending Sister Outsider with her reflections on these travel experiences underlines Lorde’s emphasis on the shortcomings of American society and institutionalized racism, sexism, classism, and anti-gay bias by placing them in a global context. The essays in between, some derived from papers presented at academic conferences and others published in journals and magazines, fill out the consideration of what must be done to battle the oppression so deeply entrenched in American society.