Week Six Blog
In the essay "Where I Come From Is Like This," she states that an American Indian woman is mostly defined by her tribal identity but that in western culture, some see her as "devalued" while others see her as quite powerful. In their culture, women are not seen as oppressed because they are women. In fact she says the negative connotations that she knows of about Indians are more often about males. But because she was also exposed to white culture she had notions about women being "weak." She states, "my 'weak sister' emotional and intellectual ploys get the better of my tribal woman's good sense." She describes it well as a "bicultural bind" between being strong as an American Indian and "hopelessly insecure" as a white woman. These consciousnesses were produced by her raising and seeing the women in her culture do all the things that a white woman would ask for a mans help for. This essay really shows how power is formulated through what the society has taught us to believe power should be.
In Lorde's essay the consciousness that was produced from being oppressed was that she had to define herself as one thing, such as black, lesbian, etc. She felt she had to deny part of herself for others to understand even a part of her. She exists within a culture where being lesbian is a "white woman's problem." When she's with black people she sort of has to deny the lesbian part of her being. Also when she's with a feminist group she has to be feminist and maybe reduce her blackness. In this case power works through identity by displaying the part which will allow you to have the most power or say in the situation.
These two essays both relate in a strong way with being one thing around one group of people and another with another group. In the first example, being strong and independent with the American Indians and a helpless woman in the white society. In the other being black when around other blacks, and lesbian and feminist around other feminists. In Lorde's essay she brings up the point of having to deny parts of herself, whereas the other essay doesn't address denying being American Indian.