Within Lordes narrative, Fourth of July, a family trip to D.C.

, Lorde shifts from

being a child to losing trust in what she thought she knew, to those who are
blind to the harsh judgemental society, to portray the crushing reality...of
American racism(7) through the telling of how her childhood innocence was
stripped away.
Even though the brightness of D.C. depicts the exposure of racism, she also
utilizes her concept of her parents avoidance of reality to emphasize the
damage done to her childhood. Lordes parents handled [racism]... as a private
woe(7), as in isolating Lorde from their discussions. Lorde easily shows her
irritation through her caustic declarative sentence. Lorde obviously wants to
settle this dispute with her parents but they just leave her out of their thoughts
and discussions. Her straightforward diction of woe(7) connotes that Lordes
parents see the current situation as a burden, or worry. Her parents saw racism
just as a problem that can easily be fixed by pretending that it isnt there, and
trying to hide Lorde, and her siblings, from every racial discrimination they
encounter. Racism is everywhere but her parents treat their situation as if it was
only for mature minds. Lorde shows a sense of outrage through her transparent
syntax. Her short, simple sentence makes Lorde sound as if she is irritated or
annoyed. The sentence adds to the indignant tone as Lorde starts to distance
herself from her parents in distrust. Lorde should be able to come to her
parents with her input of their daily complication. Lorde declares the irony in
her parents treating it privately, avoiding the fact that its a public matter. Lorde

is isolated from her parents thoughts and ways of dealing with the public matter
of racism.
Conclusion: Racial discrimination is almost anywhere the eye can see. Its just
whether the individual has their eyes open. Its people like Audre Lorde, who
share their stories and experiences, that open the public to the daily obstacle. If
they werent here to share their experiences, we, most-likely, would not have
seen their everyday struggle even if it were to happen right in front of us and
people suffering from this problem will still be living with it knowing that
everyone else is living with ignorance for it.