Empowerment of women is another major theme of the poem. Explain the role of black women in civil rights movement

The oppression faced by the speaker is linked to the history of racism. The fact that the speaker calls herself a "black ocean" is significant because this is an overt reference to race, showing that the binary between "you" and "I" in the poem is linked to a racial distinction. She condemns racism and speaks about a universal idea—overcoming prejudice of any kind—that transcends geographical boundaries or the color of one’s skin.

Stanza 7 addresses the speaker’s gender, providing the strongest evidence that she is indeed female. The provocative tone illustrates the speaker as a sensual creature, offering a deeply sexual connotation for the first time in the poem. The image of wealth is portrayed again, depicting a free, powerful female who dances as if she had “diamonds” between her thighs.