Looking a poet that I haven’t learned about prior was a challenge. While I was searching on google, I came across Audre Lorde and as I read who she was and what she used her writing for I was immediately certain I wanted to write about her. This was the first time I have learned about a poet that openly express that she “self-described as “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet”. She’s continues to express her confidence and her voice as she fights for social and racial reform. For my literary criticism essay, I decided use two of Lorde’s poems called “Power” and “Afterimages” that projected a powerful insight of our society such as the racial injustices, the police brutality that occurs and racism with it our society

            In the poem “Power” Lorde speaks on the killing of a 10-year-old named Clifford Glover to address the injustice of police brutality. In this case police justify their killing by saying that Clifford had a gun on him but after killing him they realized that he didn’t have a weapon. I used this poem because racism is clearly being presented especially when the “policemen who shot down ten-year-old in queens stood over the boy” and said “die you little motherfucker” while being recorded. He was then able to claim at trial that he “didn’t notice the size nor nothing else only the color” of the little boy. He was also recorded saying this in court as well which shows how easy it was for him to kill Clifford because of who he was and his skin color. “That 37-year-old white man with 13 years of police forcing was set free… By eleven white men who said they were satisfied”. This shows the corruption within our justice system that Lorde is trying to get people to recognize. A white male decides to kill a black child and he is able to walk away with no jail time because a predominantly white system said it was okay. 

            In the poem “Afterimages” Lorde speaks of Emmett Till’s brutal killing by two white men. Emmett was accused of grabbing Carolyn Bryant making advances towards her and wolf whistling at her. Two white males decided to beat him shot him and even gouge his eye out to reach him a lesson. The men that killed Emmett “were originally prosecuted on murder charges, but in a closely watched case, an all-white jury found them not guilty”. Similar to Clifford Glover the justice system was predominantly white making it difficult to gain justice.