We are born into Patriarchy. There is no choice. It is the sociocultural default, but it is not just “human nature”. Allan Johnson’s “Patriarchy, the System” emphasizes that Patriarchy is greater than the individual; It is a systemic issue. Johnson highlights some of the very basic things of society that are “normal” to us, but in reality are incredibly harmful to all. An example is the belief that a mother is the one who should stay at home and take care of the children. This defaults to placing the care and parenting on the woman out of biological “maternal instinct”. This is why in single-parent families, it is often a single mother, because the father was able to walk away “baggage-free”, no concern for the children, and no consequences for him. This default to “maternal care/instinct” is why it is often difficult or not allowed for fathers to take a leave from work after his baby is born. Paternity leave is a faint concept. 

In the excerpt from Audre Lorde, she talks about her varying identities (i.e. lesbian, black, woman, feminist, member of interracial relationship) and how they are all intertwined in furthering oppression. As a black lesbian herself, Lorde says that  “an attack on black people is an attack on [queer people], and an attack on [queer people] is an attack on black people.” Someone can be a member of multiple groups that face different types of oppression, and that one mode of oppression can feed off the other like fire.
Lorde says, “I simply do not believe that one aspect of myself can possibly profit from the oppression of any other part of my identity. I know that my people cannot possibly profit from the oppression of any other group which seeks the right to peaceful existence.”