Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

The Black mother represents the ancient inner resource of feeling that, while Western society has denied and denigrated it, must nonetheless be accessed to truly pursue liberation. Lorde first refers to the Black mother in “Poetry is Not a Luxury,” where she juxtaposes Western rationality with the human reservoir of feeling: “The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The Black mother within each of us—the poet—whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free” (38). However, the juxtaposition between thought and feeling is not a dichotomy or hierarchy, as is prevalent in Western society. Instead, Lorde suggests only that the human capacity to feel is a necessary source of power.

To fully access feeling, one must meet life without the harsh judgment or shame that would cause emotional repression. Feelings are there to be felt and examined, as this yields knowledge. In “Poetry is Not a Luxury,” Lorde again contrasts Western rationality with the Black mother:

[A]s we come more into touch with our own ancient, noneuropean consciousness of living as a situation to be experienced and interacted with [rather than logically solved], we learn more and more to cherish our feelings, and to respect those hidden sources of our power from where true knowledge and, therefore, lasting action comes (37).

This is especially significant to Black women who have the task of re-mothering themselves. Because of the constant onslaught of hatred towards Black women, Black mothers pass down self-loathing and buried anger as a survival mechanism to their children, especially to their daughters. By encouraging Black women to re-mother themselves, Lorde encourages them to access the Black mother to reclaim power. She offers several definitions of mothering, including but not limited to loving and defining what one has given birth to, nurturing the creative parts of oneself, claiming power over oneself, and approaching oneself and one’s feelings with tenderness and care (172-74).

The Black mother is an important motif in Sister Outsider because the path to liberation requires that people, especially oppressed people, embrace the feelings that arise because of the conditions of their living. Denial of these feelings—feelings that must be expressed but are often misdirected when they surface—is denial of one’s humanity, inner power, and capacity to effect change.