In “Coal,” Audre Lorde discusses the empowerment of African Americans through the metaphor of the physical earth. Lorde specifically uses the comparison between coal and diamonds to represent how something as seemingly worthless as coal can be just as valuable as diamond (Dhairyam); the coal also symbolizes the darkness of Lorde’s skin, something she takes pride of in her writing (Dhairyam). Lorde discusses two categories of words: those that are “open like a diamond on glass windows,” and others that “live in my throat breeding like adders.” The quote above summarizes Lorde’s use of the earth metaphor. While only the diamond is allowed apotheosis, Lorde makes note that she too as someone looked down upon can accomplish the same objectives
