Who Said It Was Simple By Audre Lorde Summary

Audre Lorde “Who said it was simple.”
Quote:
An almost white counterman passes a waiting brother to serve them first and the ladies neither notice nor reject the slighter pleasures of their slavery- (8-11) While Feminism remained a predominant issue in the 70’s, each ethnicity didn’t always agree on why they’re protesting. In Audre Lorde’s poem “Who said it was simple”, the theme was how two different ethnicities approached protesting for Feminist rights. The third person narrator of the poem, hints to the audience a “privilege” difference between ethnicities. The first instance of this in the poem is when an “almost white counterman passes a waiting brother to serve them first” (8-9). This specifically demonstrates the social norm of how priority is decided by social class and ethnicity. Which ties into Lorde’s specific use of ladies, the word choice and context that Lorde uses implies these are women of higher social status (10). Showing how the narrator and the “waiting brother” differentiated from the women not only by …show more content…
As an example, when the brother serves the ladies first, it’s implied the counterman is following social norms for serving either the privileged or ethnicities other than white. Perpetuating Lorde’s concept of ethnic allegiance. Specifically, due to the counterman being closer to white than the “waiting brother” in pigmentation. The ladies also “neither notice nor reject” this, enabling the counterman’s unconscious or conscious display of prejudice (10). Shown in the “slighter privileges” quote, which inherently states that white women have more(slighter) privileges than other ethnicities (11). Therefore, it’s socially acceptable that the counterman serves the ladies first. This directly addresses what the quote “their slavery” and what “their slavery” is