Lamia Scale

KAT – Essay English

20 November 2020

Find your voice:

Transforming silence into language and action

Many of us are afraid to speak for themselves. We're afraid of being judged for expressing our feelings.
We can't live in fear, though. Everyone is inviolable, in this existence, we can all be hurt and damaged. If
we're in a situation where we have to prove something why can't we talk about it? On the other hand,
when we're alone, we blame ourselves for not even speaking up. What if this is the only way we can
escape from our uncomfortable life. On the contrast, the reluctance of language is vital to the
effectiveness of self-definition. In these respects, silence is like an unknown disease that is a betrayal of
an individual. Its use of specific questions persuade audience participation in an open-minded way.
Lorde has said that “What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the
tyrannies you swallow day by day and at, tempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them,
still in silence? Perhaps for some of you here today, I am the face of one of your fears.” (Lorde 41) The
tyrannies that are swallowed is the cause of disease that rises in silence completely unnoticed within
oneself.

She wants everyone to speak up while reflecting upon the mortality. By remaining silent, none of us
could understand the struggle at hand. Lorde demands that we, people should express and not just
remain silent all the time. The idea of speaking even at the risk of being scarred has always been a
dominant tool in our nation, especially for African-Americans trying to be noticed. Occasionally we might
think that what we're going to say might irritate those people. But these are the same people who
offend you every day, hence you're not supposed to hide your words. And yet never fear what others
are going to think regarding oneself, fear the silence that keeps destroying you inside. No one can deny
that silence has become part of our lives and everyone was used to it. Perhaps the truth that we're all
going to die sooner or later and nothing can stop it makes you think about what you'd like to say, what
you'd like to leave behind when you go. Silence is making you survive, but not live, so is it good enough
to justify?

Reasons why some of them are silenced because there have been biases in the world, appearance-
based prejudice, and gender inequalities. The same with Audre Lorde's experience of being judged and
criticized by many people. Both LGBTQ communities and Black or African-American suffers from
discrimination. Its perception might have a severe impact on Black and African-American LGBTQ youth's
psychological state and general well-being. They do not speak for the specific purpose that they'll be
judged even more. Sometimes, the elected politicians have negative publicity portrayals that hinder the
ability of Black people and LGBTQ youth to truly express their racial and LGBTQ personalities
(Foundation) . African-Americans suffer discrimination which leads to anxiety and bad effects on their
mental health.

The mirage of idealism and redundancy is the basis of any nation driven by economic oppression. Black
women have always been beaten in most every situation because of racism and sexism. Their struggles
have always been ignored because they are not considered human. The wealth of that nation built upon
what tends to work to oppress others, the silence of others was constructed into that silence. The seven
principles of Kwanzaa, the African-American Festival thus, encourage people to be themselves unity,
self-determination, collective work and responsibility are essential to finding oneself. (Lorde 42-23). It
reflect the views of family, community and culture for Africans and people of African descent to live
with. In predominant reliance, this speech reveals perceptually through these three principles, the only
one she mentions, even though they were interlinked without strong classifications between them
without eloquent adjustments. It includes and applies these principles to foster forms of identification
and variance among women from its listener.

Her work has become an open eye for everyone who suffers the same as hers. Along with that by taking
action, we can connect with and work with others who have a similar vision for the nation, regardless of
the differences that we may have. Speaking up will gain our own justice, though we may fear pain,
visibility, and judgment, we also endure them by remaining silent. Raise the voices of oppressed groups
of people, and strive for a connection among these stories. The insight of someone who feared they had
nothing left to lose. In some parts of our lives, I think we all live in fear. Fear that we may be offended in
a quest to overcome. Fear that if we recognize the injustice we're going to have to do anything about it.
Fear of the light that might shine from our own lives if we look closely at it. Fear of doing the wrong
thing when you're trying to do the proper thing. Lorde's metaphorical confrontation through her self-
mortality gives the foreground in the speech to a series of metaphors about the nature of silence in
terms of life and death. She amplifies the imagery that silence is death as if she were implying. “Death,
on the other hand, is the final silence. And that might be coming quickly, now, without regard for
whether I had ever spoken what needed to be said, or had only betrayed myself into small silences,
while I planned someday to speak, or waited for someone else's words.” (Lorde 41). Such statements
validate that there is a need to speak for them self as an act of intellectual honesty, courage, self-
respect, and not to avoid an obligation to others. Her speech succinctly argues that it was the greater
fear of her eventual death that led her to reconsider her moments of silence, and her doubts about the
visibilities that accompanied her speech, the recognition that she altered. “We can learn to work 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 for language and definition, and while
we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us” (Lorde 44)

Lorde, a black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet, invites all people to engage themselves to know each
other well because one can only define oneself through the language of the community. Lorde based it
on her life represents a perspective on the economic class or health of gender racial groups. Silence has
several significances. Sometimes it's a product of oppression and survival in the fight against violence
and domination. Let be an inspiration not only for yourself but for everyone who has the same thing
that they have come across. Another one that helps people to find the opportunity to tell out against
ignorance and oppression. “Silence is the residue of fear. It is feeling your flaws gut-wrench guillotine
your tongue. It is the air retreating from your chest because it doesn't feel safe in your lungs.” Says Clint
Smith, a teacher, scholar, poet, writer, and activist. (Smith). Being an audience in a situation that could
change someone's life for the worse and remain silent about it is not acceptable. If opinions are not
expressed, then they are not heard. Keep in mind that your silence may be incorrectly labeled as
approval. To everyone who has been oppressed. Lorde based it on her life represents a perspective on
the economic class or health of gender racial groups. Silence has several significances. Sometimes it's a
product of oppression and survival in the fight against violence and domination. Furthermore, it is not
necessarily an act of liberation to speak and take action. Speech implies a progression of ideas that one
at a time is expressed in a limited time and space.

Works Cited

Foundation, Human Rights Campaign. "2019 Black and African American LGBTQ Youth Report." 2019.
HRC resources. Web. 19 November 2020. <https://www.mhanational.org/>.

Lorde, Audre. silenceintoaction. December 2017. Web. 19 November 2020.

<https://electricliterature.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/silenceintoaction.pdf>.

—. silenceintoaction. December 2017. Web. 19 November 2020.

—. silencetoaction. December 2017. Web. 17 November 2020.

—. silencetoaction. December 2017. Web. 19 November 2020.

Smith, Clint. 15 August 2014. Youtube. 19 November 2020.