I am so tired of taking to others translating my life for the deaf, the blind, the “I really want to know what your life is like without giving up any of my privileges to live it” white women the “I want to live my white life with Third World women’s style and keep my skin class privileges” dykes
ATTRIBUTION:
Lorraine Bethel, African American lesbian feminist poet. “What Chou Mean We, White Girl?” Lines 49-54 (1979).
“Dykes” was a slang term for lesbians; although considered an insult when used by non- lesbians, it was often used by lesbians themselves—sometimes humorously, sometimes insultingly, sometimes defiantly, and sometimes as simply an alternative term.
