February is Black History Month. I am sure, most people would think of Martin Luther King, Jr. to use as an emblem of commemoration. Or bring up Obama. Or Oprah Winfrey. Really, who do you think of when trying to connect a figure to Black History?
As for me, although MLK is one the three great leaders I like to turn to for inspiration (it is enough to quote his genially simple "The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind"), I would now remember another, less renown but inspirational figure, Audre Lorde. Not only to introduce someone you may not be familiar with, but also because February is also LGBT Month.
Audre Lorde. She was black, she was a woman, and she was a lesbian. Three dimensions of not fitting our white, chauvinistic, and heteronormative society. Three reasons for "us" to call her a freak. And she was called one, or rather, three-in-one.
And this made her angry. But what she realized was that anger is a tool. Anger is self-expression. Anger is not something to be ashamed of or swallow. If you do, like I wrote before, it eats you up. If, on the contrary, you stand up for yourself, admitting the harm and the anger it triggered, it sets you free and gives you hope.
It is Audre Lorde who said: "Your silence will not protect you," because, as she continues, "when we speak, we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed, but when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak remembering we were never meant to survive." At the end of the day, we are all going to die, so there is nothing to lose. Be yourself, today, this month, this year, and always.
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