Gender101@Bowdoin

Queen Sheba, "We are the Women"

As I read “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” by Lorde, I was drawn by the small quote that mentioned the American magazine that decided to print only prose because poetry was less “rigorous” and “serious”. Lorde then described that oftentimes, poetry is the major voice of the poor and of Black women, who were in this case left out of this magazine and thus were unable to have their voices heard. Certainly there are many Black feminists with messages to share that are very close to Lorde’s message, but not in prose. An excellent example of this that I found was Queen Sheba’s slam-poetry performance of “We are the Women” (link provided). Queen Sheba is a slam poet from Atlanta, Georgia who has been named one of the top poets in the world by the National Poetry Slam Team. She, as Lorde alludes to, was a lower-class Black woman who was given a journal when she was young. This journal was essentially all she kept with her as she moved between foster homes and all over the country. She used this journal to write poems expressing her frustration and emotions.

It is quite easy to tie Sheba’s poem into Lorde’s reading. Sheba tells a story through her spoken word poetry of the problems her and her girlfriend face as being Black lesbian women in society. She says, “I cried to Brokeback mountain Because she and I are neither white nor privileged; and if two white men in America don’t feel free and safe well… then we aren’t covered either. Not by doctrine… or by healthcare,… I don’t allow her to carry my books or open my doors—me eyes on shoelaces as we pass each other in the breezeway, this was supposed to be easier,”  illustrating what Lorde talks about on p. 457-458. Lorde describes the fear of Black women becoming independent of men that leads to a fear or prejudice against Black lesbians, and many people in the Black community believing “that Black lesbians are a threat to Black nationhood.”

Lorde is certain to bring up, however, that Black lesbians are not the ones assaulting and raping women and children—another point that Queen Sheba talks about. Lorde says that “as long as male domination exists, rape will exist.” The apparent truth is that rape and assault are rapidly increasing, whether it is reported to kept silent, and causes unimaginable emotional turmoil. This point can only be enforced by Queen Sheba’s story in which she says… “A date night; we roleplay strangers at the bar. Tonight the light above the ATM was out. This alley familiar with graffiti and condoms from high school scholars still pumped from illegal steroids and wrestling practice, it took eight of them to pin me down. I was a virgin….. He must be numbed to fire like I was numbed to hope…. You just need a man to help you change your mind… well, thank you for helping me…” In this description, the man who raped Sheba seemed to believe he was dominant, that he was a better choice for Sheba as opposed to her female partner, and thought that his sexualized aggression would teach her some sort of lesson. What it taught Sheba, however, was to have hope, despite the trauma she experienced and the negative effects this trauma had on her relationship.

Sheba concludes on a hopeful note, stressing all that women are—“Nat Turner’s last sane thought, Thurgood Marshall’s test scores, the lower class drowning in the bottom of the Titanic, the blue thing on x-men that can change to whatever the fuck she wants to.” This illustrates all that Black women have been through, but all they have achieved despite the structural racism that stood in their way. Sheba uses her anger and frustration with not only her past, but also the past of all Black and lesbian women, to instill a motivation to work for equality and a better future for all women (although she is directly addressing Black women).  Similarly, Lorde says that the future of women depends on the “ability of all women to identify and develop new patterns of relating across difference” and to “condemn …guilt, hatred, recrimination, lamentation, and suspicion.” Both women end on a hopeful note looking towards a positive future for women that they will undoubtedly have to work to achieve. 

In “A Black Feminist Statement” by the Combahee River Collective, their politics are defined as “actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression” (p210). Again, this article discusses the ways in which Black women have always been seen as adversaries to White men and the abuse, both sexual and emotional, they faced from such men. The article seems to agree with Queen Sheba in many ways; while the article more blatantly asks for equality, Queen Sheba implies the equality of Black women and the progress they have made. Both Queen Sheba and this article (as well as the Lorde article) either directly discuss or allude to the connection between sexual oppression and racial oppression, and that someone who is a Black woman is not going to just experience racial oppression or sexual oppression, but rather both, leading to a new form of oppression that is more severe yet often overlooked. What the “Black Feminist Statement” fails to do that Queen Sheba does, however, is look at the additional factor of being a lesbian, and how this creates an even further, deeper type of oppression. They do mention, however, their stance against “lesbian separatism,” believing it is not a “viable political strategy,” ignoring factors of oppression other than that of sexual oppression. Similarly, this article ends wit ha statement suggesting that the future of women depends upon sisterhood; for white women to “understand and combat their racism” so the feminist movement may carry on stronger and united, ready for the work that lies ahead.

Discussion Questions:

Which comments does Queen Sheba make or allude to that that “traditional” black feminists such as those in Combahee River Collective would agree with? Disagree with?

How does what Queen Sheba says about being a black lesbian “feminist” (assuming she identifies as a feminist) agree with what we read about Black lesbian women (and their differences from White women) in Lorde’s “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”?

What do you think Queen Sheba would propose to end this violence and prejudice against lesbian Black women? How do the comparable readings suggest that we end it?