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Themes of White Supremacy in Power by Audre Lorde

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White Supremacy: An Act of Physical Violence Power by Audre Lorde is a five stanza poem depicting her emotions after hearing the news of a black ten year-old boy being shot to death by a white policeman. Lorde uses a prose poem to describe her anger and hatred towards the unjust system. Lorde is advocating awareness to the racial injustice to show society difficulties people face through race. Power uses Lorde’s work through a literal and nonliteral context to demonstrate white supremacy. In her poem, she uses a time frame between the shooting and the trial case. She uses that to her advantage to show her initial anger toward the oppressed. Each stanza details how much power a race can have and how they use it to be superior. In the first stanza, Lorde is making it a mission statement to adults. “The difference between poetry and rhetoric/is being ready to kill/ yourself/ instead of your children” (Lorde). She believes that if adults had the power to do anything, it would be protecting children. This is implied as adults needing to act as protectors to children, especially from violence. Lorde is a mother herself. She is expressing her anger to adults who do not have a desire to save children. The children become a possession of the adult with “your”. Children immediately become the adult’s responsibility and they need to be in their care. However, she speaks out against wrong actions caused by hatred. The hatred comes from racism, especially when it was strong in the

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