Unless one lives and loves in the trenches, it is difficult to remember that the war against dehumanization is ceaseless.
Interpretation
To truly understand the fight against dehumanization, one must engage deeply and personally in the struggle.
Audre Lorde emphasizes the importance of personal experience and emotional investment in the fight against dehumanization. She suggests that without living through the realities of oppression and connecting with those affected, it is easy to forget the ongoing nature of this struggle, which requires both courage and compassion.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a panel on social justice to emphasize the importance of empathy.
The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.
There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.
I call on men and boys everywhere to join us. Violence against women and girls will not be eradicated until all of us - men and boys - refuse to tolerate it.
Now that I know the dangers? Yes, I still would do it again. Why? 'Cause look at me. Look at my family. They're able to eat, they're able to have food and shelter over their head. Would I play football again? Yes.
I want to die with my high heels on, still in action.
Speak, speak, speak, & remember that whenever anyone's liberty to speak is denied, your liberty is denied also, & your place is where the attack is.
Women have always been the primary victims of war. Women lose their husbands, their fathers, their sons in combat. Women often have to flee from the only homes they have ever known. Women are often the refugees from conflict and sometimes, more frequently in today's warfare, victims. Women are often left with the responsibility, alone, of raising the children.
Child slavery is a crime against humanity. Humanity itself is at stake here. A lot of work still remains, but I will see the end of child labor in my lifetime.
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